Finding Car History

[JimNolan]

Guys,
   You may be interested in this. If not, forgive me for taking up space. I wanted to know the history of my car so I found a web site that actually helps you. WWW. LOST-CAR-REGISTRY.TRIPOD.COM. Go to the RESORCES section and they have every state DMV address and form needed for your inquiry. The fee's for the search are different with each state.
   I bought my car out of Montana so I filled out their form and sent the twenty five dollars required, also I had to supply them with a copy of my drivers license and a statement of what the information was going to be used for. I told them it was for car show documentation and would only be for personal use.
   They sent me a packet of information that included every title, lein, transfer of ownership, every name and address of the owners that my car was ever associated with. It went back to 1971 with a copy of a North Dakota title when it was first registered in Montana.
  My car was originally sent to Seattle Washington for sale, so I've written to the Washington DMV for thier information. Now I'll send for the North Dakota information.
  I found out my car was owned by six people from 1971 to 2004.
  Hope this will help someone if they want to know the history of their car. Jim

[wolfpupsdad]

 cool jim, good to know type info. could be used for clearing up info, one gets from previous owners.
i know my car came out of southern california and west to arizona , before making it;s way east to georgia.

[JimNolan]

Wolfspupsdad,
   Just got off the phone with the man that owned my car from 1987 to 1988. He still lives in Libby, Mt. and told me that he found the car in a wrecking yard and traded a Jeep for it. The car hadn't been wrecked but had a tired 352 in it at that time. He installed the 390 that I got it with. He also painted it red and white. It had been Black when he got it from the wrecking yard. He is sending me photos of it when he got it home from the wrecking yard and photos of it after he repaired the rocker panels and painted it. He told me the transmission was stock and the posi-traction was already in it when he got it. He got rid of it because his wife hated the black and yellow interior and didn't like riding in it. He told me the car had been in Libby,Mt since the late 70's and who owned it and what they had done to it. I'm going to keep searching. This guy had always liked the car and wondered for years what ever happened to it. He was really appreciative of me finding him and looked forward to seeing pictures of it again.
   For $25 bucks to the Montana DMV, I got a treasure of information. Still digging though.

[JimNolan]

More,
   The man that owned it from 1977 to 1978 told me that the car had originally left the factory with a 312 and 3 speed automatic. He was the one that converted it to a 390 and 3 speed manual transmission. He said he used all factory parts and you couldn't tell it had ever been an automatic. He was right. He also is sending me pictures of the car when he owned it. Jim

[wolfpupsdad]

cool stuff and info jim, a guy can have some fun play'n detective when it's about a car. i did a simular trace on a 56 plymouth i got from a wrecking yard years ago. traced it back to the original dealer, rose city chrysler / plymonth  in portland oregon. the car was in great shape only had a bad engine and transmission. fixed it up and did't have more then a couple of hundred bucks in it. paid $50.00 for the car.
like i said fun stuff

[Marc]

Good work Jim. It's always neat to find out some of the history behind these old cars. I lucked out when I bought mine back in '86. The seller gave me an envelope full of registration cards going back to the original owners. Turns out I'm the 4th owner. The original owners were pleasantly surprised to know the old girl's still on the road. 

[JimNolan]

Thanks Marc,
    The really neat thing about talking to these people is finding out that they really thought a lot of the car when they owned it. The last guy I talked to had owned it from 1978-1987. He had done most of the alternations to the car and his best memory's of the car was drag racing it. He talked to me for about an hour remembering things he did with and to the car. He told me he's owned about 500 cars and has 17 various hot rods now. But, the 57 Ford he owned had his fondest memories.
   I think I'm about to the end of my trail though. He said the previous owners before him had the car in their family since new. I'm waiting on a call from a member of that family now. Hopefully it'll put an end to the hunt. Jim

[Marc]

I'm sure the original owners will have plenty of stories to tell. They must have enjoyed the car to hold onto it for that long.

[JimNolan]

Update,
   The guy that owned my car in 1974 took the original owners manual out of the car before he sold it. Guess who's having the original owners manual sent to him. You guessed it. Jim