General Motors Information Packages

Updated August, 2019
Previously GM charged for these 'kits' but are now available online in Adobe .PDF format at no charge. Check them out at https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/gm-heritage-archive/vehicle-information-kits.html

Updated April 27, 2009

It is my understanding from site visitors that as of March 1, 2009 Chevrolet is now charging $50.00 for the 'restoration package' that used to be free for the asking. Be sure to ask...

Posted April 12, 2007

You can get a "restoration package" for a U.S-built Chevelle at no cost from GM/Chevrolet. Simply call the Chevy/Geo customer assistance hotline at (800) 222-1020 or 810-696-4800. Have your VIN handy, they may or may not ask for it. I've called for several kits for Chevelles as well as a 1974 Corvette I've owned and sometimes they want a VIN, sometimes they just want to verify the year. The contents of this package varies by year but usually contains photocopied information from various dealer brochures, specs on engines, interior/exterior colors, options available, etc. It is a handy piece of information to have and it's free. Delivery is 2- to 4-weeks but I've received some in 10 days.

If your car was originally registered or built in Canada, you will have to call GM of Canada at (800) 263-3777. There is a fee for this service but they'll send you, what I refer to as a 'confirmation sheet' showing when/where the car was built along with all the options it came with. Latest information I have of the cost is $58.85 CDN; for U.S dollars, whatever the current exchange rate is. See here for more details.

Chevrolet produced more vehicles than all the other GM divisions combined, and therefore generated a much higher volume of records which were a storage problem.

After final year production, the build records have very little business value to Chevrolet and therefore were not considered to be high priority for retention. GM record retention policy required the assembly plants to retain said documents for only about six months. Some records (including build sheets) were retained longer at the Corvette assembly plants, St. Louis and Flint. However, when Corvette production ceased at these locations, the records were pitched. It should be noted that the current Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, KY, retained the 1981 - present vehicle manifests that are available now through the NCM. This was against all odds, as there were many movements over the years within GM to destroy them because they had no business value to GM.

Meanwhile, back at the Tech Center in Warren, Michigan, the Chevrolet Engineering Records Retention Policy called for periodic destruction of non-essential records, of which the build documents were one, and this was carried out on a routine basis. The other GM divisions, Cadillac, Pontiac, etc., had much smaller production volumes and interpreted the GM Records Retention Policy differently and therefore retained said documents.