You point out good points that I was aware of before PHS was created, or before it became what it has become.

I've been around and/or attracted to f/g/f cars ever since they were still under factory warranty: At age 10, I was bit by the 9-bird-bug back in 1968 when a hippy in a brand new 9 pulled his car over, and got got out to look at my home-buit chopper bicycle. Next, he showed me his brand new 9, 350 4 spd, and I thought. "I gotta have one of those things."

I finally got a 9 in 77. (The doors, deck lid, and complete interior of the one I bought in 77 are on the one I own now. No! I didn't wreck the other one. Someone stole the front clip off the car, and I used that car as a donor car for my 400 car.)

Anway, as time progressed through the 80's, I had been a loyal reader of "Pontiac" magazine for many years. They claimed that Pontiac kept lousy records; in fact, they didn't keep records, meaning that Pontiac didn't know what had been built or what cars were supposed to have what.

Side note: One reason why that many f/g/f cars are missing build sheets isn't always that the factory didn't bother to put them in the car. One reason is that if new-car make-ready alters items listed on the build sheet, the build sheet was removed and returned in the plethora of paper work exchange between the factory and the dealership.

To further show the history of inacurate Pontiac documentation, I don't know if it's still around at my parent's house, but I had a 1980, I belive, Kovel's collector car pricing book. That book claimed that the total production numbers for 69's was 42k. (I think its sister was listed as 500k total production numbers.) I don't know what today's production numbers show, but I think that the 9's production numbers are higher than 42k.)

When I heard that PHS uses dealer invoice as the source, I mentioned that dealer invoice and products off the line were 2 different things.

I realise and respect the fine, hard work done by PHS. And I'm not critisizing their attempt to document Pontiacs because--just like us--they have to work with what they have. The thing is that I don't think that it has accurate on which to draw information; as a reslut, it can only do its best to give the most accurate information it can find.

Your opening comment seems to document the point that I have made before.

Let's take this one step further, and I'll just stay on the speaker issue: Accroding to PHS, your car is missing the rear speaker.

I don't know what a rear speaker is supposed to look like. Do they cut out the area(s) that are partially cut out, or install the speaker with the area uncut? I know that they have areas stamped for 6x9's, rear defroster. And I think that they have an area stamped for a bastard-type single speaker. (Okay, folks with option knowledge: does the factory rear speaker go in a 6x9 area or in that other area that I think would be for a single speaker.)

Would the mounting hardware have scarred the paint? Or would the speaker have left an impression/stain somewhere? Also, there would be a speaker wire, and you would think that the wire would run through wrieng gutter. If someone had removed the speaker, would they have gutted the wire from beneath wherever it ran?

If it were a bet for money, I'd bet against PHS on this one because it's your car, and you know it better than anyone else. If the speaker had been removed, there would be some telltail signal. Something tells me that you are a good enough grease monkey to be able to figure out it a component has been removed, espcailly in an unrestored area.

From the way it stands, technically, PHS has devalued your car, saying it has something that it doesn't have, and probally never did.

As we all do, I wish that I had saved the Pontiac Mag's because it clearly stated that Pontiac had no clue as to what it built, after it rolled out of the door.

I know that they were selling magazines--well PHS is selling too--so I don't know how credible all the information was. The point is that it was a respectd as a credible source and their information came from Pontiac.

Even though your probally wizzin in the wind, I'd contact them about the differences. Keep us updated with the resluts because I'm most interested in hearing how they choose to handle this.