The fire myth refuses to die. In addition to IBM cards, Chrysler Historical also has (or had) access to thousands of shipping invoices stored in a vast seat of four drawer file cabinets. The shipping invoices are stored by the SO number and NOT the car's VIN. I could go on and on about what it takes to find a specific shipping invoice but suffice to say it's time consuming. Probably someone who is good at finding them would need ten minutes. Otherwise it would be much longer.
Back to the missing invoices. An absolute moron supervisor who had responsbility for Historical amongst his list of duties, decided on his own without checking with anyone that invoice more than seven years old didn't need to be kept. He threw out invoices from 1967 part way through 1972, hence why they're not available. Sadly, Chrysler COULD have recreated these invoices as the master computer tapes still existed at least through the later 1970s. However, no one within Chrysler wanted to pay for having them recreated (there is no free anything within Chrysler), so they were never done. Whether or not the master computer tapes still exist, I don't know.
What I do know is that the history of moronic supervisors having responsibility for Historical (prior to Ralph Gilles taking it under his wing) continued after moron #1 was stopped. In 1979 moron #2 almost gave away Chrysler's tool box.
So, the "lost" records weren't burned up, they weren't lost in a flood. They were thrown away. Chrysler Corporation has a long and storied history of making all the wrong decisions for what at the time seemed to be the right reasons. That still continues to this day.
I recently learned that Historical has finally moved out completely, from Highland Park and is now homed at what Chrysler calls the Connor Center (where Viper and Prowler were built). I believe Historical to be woefully understaffed which leads a lot of inquiries to receive a response that says "Sorry, we don't have that information". I would be willing to bet serious money that they do have "that information" but don't have the staff or the time to find it.