So what happened to Galen Govier

[Drache]

link or it didn't happen.

Do a search, don't be lazy. Happened a year or two ago. I'm not going to go searching for it. 

[Ponch ®]

link or it didn't happen.

Do a search, don't be lazy. Happened a year or two ago. I'm not going to go searching for it. 

I am lazy. Its not my credibility on the line here. You said it, its your burden to provide documentation. 

[68X426]

I had no opinion of GG until he showed up over on the Moparts board and announced he was there to set everybody straight on all matters Mopar. He didn't last long there.

It also helped when someone accused him of touching their car without permission (he popped the hood of someone's car to take a picture of the fender tag) and flat out said he's allowed to touch anyone's mopar to get the documentation he needs (to sell of course).

link or it didn't happen.

Ponch, I vouch for it, happened in '13, I read it all as it played out.  Drache is credible.

GG used a different name, someone out-ed him, and he went off.  Then with a new I.D. he launched incendiary posts.  Entertaining doesn't begin to describe the grenade contest.  Yeah, they are mean and tough over there.  GG certainly added to his legend. 

[John_Kunkel]

I doubt if a Moparts search will retrieve the thread, too old.

[Drache]

Ponch, I vouch for it, happened in '13, I read it all as it played out.  Drache is credible.

Danke Sir 

[myk]

That sort of behavior doesn't surprise me at all.  I see people molesting and touching cars at shows all the time.  Take into fact a self indulgent, self proclaimed authority on the subject and quite frankly I'm surprised he didnt perform prostate exams on the owners in addition to popping the hoods on their cars...

[ws23rt]

That sort of behavior doesn't surprise me at all.  I see people molesting and touching cars at shows all the time.  Take into fact a self indulgent, self proclaimed authority on the subject and quite frankly I'm surprised he didnt perform prostate exams on the owners in addition to popping the hoods on their cars...

I've seen this too. (not from Galen)---I've heard comments like---I know what I'm doing--or-- you are showing the car aren't you?.
And when someone says something like --Do you know who I am?  It tells me more about them than they want me to know.

[1974dodgecharger]

I'm sure GG is just doing this to make more money....cant blame the old man he lost out early in his life....and is now making up for it by demanding 5k, hotel, plane tickets, etc...to see and document yo car and hand u a piece of paper of his self authority 


If i ever see him he better molest my car and touch it all he wants......cant wait ill be famous.

[myk]

I'm sure GG is just doing this to make more money....cant blame the old man he lost out early in his life....and is now making up for it by demanding 5k, hotel, plane tickets, etc...to see and document yo car and hand u a piece of paper of his self authority 


If i ever see him he better molest my car and touch it all he wants......cant wait ill be famous.

What had happened to him, earlier in his life?

[Ghoste]

Yeah, he had a job before he became a guru.

[500Jon]

Oh dear, oh dear!

I feel uncool about dissing GG now, he was Ok, but money makes you BAD!!!
He was just a good guy in the Mopar Hobby trying to collate a big heap of stuff that Mother Mopar trashed.
He felt that it needed to be guided and controlled in some organised fashion.
As the Hobby got bigger it became BIG-BUSINESS and that's when it gets fuzzy!

As we know with NK, a dictator is a strange set-up???
What GG needed was a committee of Mopaness and he could oversee it!

Oh well, the worms are outta the can now, hope he can pick them all back up quick, as the barracuda's are BITING!!!

OR IS GOVAIR A CHEVY GURU???

[odcics2]

Ahhh, I remember leading him around at Chrysler Engineering in 1985, back when this was all strictly a HOBBY!!!!
His eyes were BIG as I showed him the HUGE warehouse FILLED with documents going back through the ages!
That's all been torn down for decades. Wonder where it all went??     
 

[hemi-hampton]

Ahhh, I remember leading him around at Chrysler Engineering in 1985, back when this was all strictly a HOBBY!!!!
His eyes were BIG as I showed him the HUGE warehouse FILLED with documents going back through the ages!
That's all been torn down for decades. Wonder where it all went??     
 

I heard it all went into the dumpster. The new cover story is it got lost in a fire.  LEON.

[TUFCAT]

Remember this, if it wasn't for Galen any particular Mopar wouldn't be so valuable.....

How you ask?  

Without someone compiling all of this data you wouldn't be able to say

"my car is "one of XX"  or "one of XXX".

It would be more like, "my car was one of 75,000 or so" built...

Its hard to dispute the extra value this data provides our hobby.

[Ghoste]

There were several of us doing that when Govier was starting too.  He just happened to get the promotion part going.

[TUFCAT]

That's basically what I meant, somebody had to do it. 

[hemi-hampton]

Not everybody was going around buying up closed, abandoned, defunt, obsolete Dealership invoices & paper work. Back then in early 80's who wanted that useless worthless stuff LEON.

[Ghoste]

No, but even back then there were a group of us comparing notes on option codes and production numbers and how things wre ordered.  I sometimes wonder if when one of the group became the guru if maybe it hurt more than help?  Did other historians close ranks or get lazy?  It's a question I ask purely out of conjecture and there is no real way of knowing anyway so I'm certainly not picking a side on the question.  In the beginning when GG was sharing some of his information in Magazine articles it was greatly appreciated by those of us who were into that thing.  When the price bubble began to grow and he got into the decoder for hire gig it wasn't to his advantage to share info  any longer.

[John_Kunkel]

His eyes were BIG as I showed him the HUGE warehouse FILLED with documents going back through the ages!
That's all been torn down for decades. Wonder where it all went??

In the current issue of Mopar Action magazine Rick Ehrenberg describes how the documents were unceremoniously dumped when the Highland Park facility was closed. Some engineers saved documents they considered valuable and they surface from time to time.

[1974dodgecharger]

and where do you think he got his information, from the masses that's it.  He just popularized himself to the point of being the person to go to.  Nothing wrong with that, but I can see what he did and most don't. 

Remember this, if it wasn't for Galen any particular Mopar wouldn't be so valuable.....

How you ask?  

Without someone compiling all of this data you wouldn't be able to say

"my car is "one of XX"  or "one of XXX".

It would be more like, "my car was one of 75,000 or so" built...

Its hard to dispute the extra value this data provides our hobby.

[Homerr]

Back in 1992-3 I used his decoder books on my Charger and was happy that someone was helping the hobby out.  I hear all this stuff about GG now and think it's sad how it all turned out.

I think these documentation letters now with his "This is the only 1972 Dodge Dart in Baby Poop Brown with an 8-track player AND rear window defogger that are in my particular registry, which is a very small sample of Mopars worldwide, so therefore I deem you to have a 1 of 1 car!" stuff is BS.

If he really just wanted to be a curator of a Mopar registry it would have been fine and a lot of people would have helped him out I think, at least up to a certain era.  But the monetizing and attitude ruined any chance.

[Mike DC]

But the monetizing and attitude ruined any chance.

The bad rep is from the attitude.  

This info took a lot of time & effort to compile & understand.  It does so much to set the values of 5-7 figure collector's items.  IMO most people don't think a hypothetical person in GG's position should have to give it away.  

What everyone minds is dealing with GG.  The grumblings about GG's entitlement to money start coming after they have a bad experience dealing with him.  
 

[elanmars]

I remember looking for cars back in 2006/07 and lots of sell ads seemed to make a big deal about how that dude looked at the car, farted near it....

[1974dodgecharger]

don't forget that piece of paper that notorizes that your car is 1 of something just think that piece of paper costs nearly 5k 

I guess it helps resale value to the next guy so you tack on extra 5k due to GG 

[Ghoste]

Seems to if its being sold at an auction.