Finding the history on your vehicle, what did you do?

[DeltaV]

Fortuitously, around the same time I purchased my '70 Charger in December 1985, one of the car magazines recommended contacting the DMV to get copies of their records. I did so and the Texas DMV sent me a ton of stuff. I still have it all.

I am owner #3, but owner #2 only had the car a very short time. I called owner #1 and had a nice telephone chat with him.

Years later I thought about contacting the prior owners, but found they had passed away: #1 at age 65 yo and #2 at age 52 yo.
R.I.P.

Edit: If still living,
Owner #1 would be 75
Owner #2 would be 71

R.I.P.

 

[patrick66]

The sad thing is that most of the original owners of our '62 - '74 cars are all over 70, or dead. I know a guy here locally that has a 1970 Road Runner he bought new and still owns. He is 76. Another friend in the City has a '71 'Cuda with 440 and 4-speed that belonged to a local Sheriff deputy, who bought the car new at the same dealer as the aformentioned RR. The Deputy is still alive and kicking, at 73.

 

[68BabyBlue]

The original owner of mine would be 103.

 

[PlymCrazy]

The original owner of mine would be 103.

!!!!!

 

[68BabyBlue]

!!!!!

GTXs were marketed as an upscale car for older buyers. My former brother in law, who had a '69 Hemi Road Runner as his company car, is only 77.

 

[Dennis H]

Gave up.

 

[PlymCrazy]

GTXs were marketed as an upscale car for older buyers.

103 is older alright lol

 

[67 WS23]

The original owner of mine would be 103.

I have a similar story. I bought my 67 R/T from its original owner in 1984. He must've been at least 65 yo and had owned and operated a service station. He had saved the original window sticker and the certicard was still in the plastic pocket on the radiator support. The spare tire has never been streeted. At the time I was only 23 and lacked the wisdom to spend more time with the man to talk about his experiences with the car. I do remember telling him I would try to take as good of care of the car as he did when he owned it. The car has always been garaged and I'm just now waking it up from a coma since 1997 when the tags expired. Marriage, kids, work, life had put it in mothballs for all that time. Even after all that time, except for some age related mobility issues, wrenching on that R/T and I'm in my 20's again.

 

[kiwigtx]

Tracking down history on my ex-70 GTX took a couple of years, but I managed to do it.....all on magazines, a telephone and dial-up modem with reliability issues.

Back in 1998 I decided to start trying to track previous owners. I personally knew 3 of them and used my local phone book to track a 4th - ended up calling the mother of the guy who imported the car to NZ from Las Vegas. Amazingly she lived on her own about 3 miles from where I lived. She loaned me 3 polaroid photos which I had copied and enlarged. I had a great talk with her, and eventually made contact with her son in Las Vegas - where he still lives after returning there some 45+ years ago. I also bumped into the owner's brother who still lived here while at a car meeting many years ago. He had many stories and told me about an abundance of photos....all of which were taken by another family member after a messy divorce.

It was around this time that I heard about a fella called Galen Govier. I sent him an email requesting any information he could find for me. I paid a fee (forget how much now) and some 13 months later I got a reply. Galen gave me the original dealer information and wished me luck. He also sent me a package with copies of the car decoded as it would have been from new. His information was most useful, and well presented.

I chose to write a letter to the Dealer in Iowa asking for information on the car, along with a couple of photos. Luckily for me, the dealership was still in the family as it were.....and I got a reply from the grandson of the original salesman. In that envelope were some more photos, plus photocopies of the original sales documentation - Invoice and most importantly the purchaser's name. I was told that they had tried tracking down the original owner locally without success, but they wished me luck in the search.

After some hard thinking and taking with a fellow restorer over here who helped out with the first part of my restoration, he suggested I look in the White Pages in Las Vegas. I narrowed things down to 5 names with the same name and approx age. I hit the jackpot on the second call. The guy answered and thought it was a prank call. Took a few minutes for it to sink in for him......he couldn't believe that the GTX he traded in for a Pontiac T/A was still on the road after all those years.
We chatted for a while, and I tried to get any information I could.....but to this guy the car was just a car....and his memory didn't hold much. Weird I thought, as he traded a '69 Coronet for the GTX, and had his father co-sign for it. The GTX ended up in Las Vegas when the guy from Iowa decided to move there - he loaded the car and just drove out west.

The Kiwi guy Des who imported the car was working (and still does) for an Insurance Company, and did weekend drag racing. He also helped out Gene Snow with his Insurance and Race prep.....lots of stories there. One weekend when Des was racing the GTX, he needed some extra help having progressed through the rounds. Gene's car was out of contention in his class, so the whole team jumped in and worked on the GTX to help Des have some success that day. Pretty cool of the guys to do that. Around mid 1974 Des decided to move back to New Zealand with his new bride and start life over here. That lasted about 2 years ...if that, and he moved back to Las Vegas. I have had a few exchanges by email and telephone with Des over the years and was lucky enough to have a great friend of mine on this site pay him a visit on my behalf - Mark aka @super-bee_ski .
Mark presented Des with a 1:24 scale model of the GTX that Mark had arranged to be flown on an F-22 especially for the occasion.

***Special thanks also to @Bart K for helping in this transaction

I was contacted about 15 years ago and asked if I still had the GTX....and if I would drive it as a wedding car for the son of a former owner. I did that for them all. My father went to school with the owner No.3, and my grandmother knew his mother. Owner No.4 was easy to find....he had already helped out with the engine rebuild and finding some parts for me. Owner No.5 was living in USA at the time, but I had already bought 2 other cars from him in previous years.

Over the years I have managed to find pictures and a couple of old HotRod magazines - one of them featured my car back in 1975. I contacted the same magazine in 2005 to see if they would be interested in running a "30 years later" article - they did, but it came out a month early.....lol

The new owner is a real car guy and has already started a body and engine re-fresh.....looking forward to getting some updated pictures and some seat time in the near future.



GTX back in Las Vegas 1973....

Magazine article by Galen Govier mentioning my contact with him....

Owner No.3 campaigning the car in 1976...

Mark aka @super-bee_ski ready to have the model flown....

Owner No.3 with his son . . . .

The same groom with his Dad's car some 30 years earlier - a different '70 GTX.....

 

[71dodgechargerrt]

Very cool story.

 

[Ron H]

Few years ago, my elder cousin's daughter asked me if I could try to locate her dad's car. He passed away in '06. He purchased new a '64 Polara 426/4sp at 18 years old and raced it in the tri-state area IL/IN/WI. Somehow my cousin talked his dad into co-signing for it against his best-wishes despite having purchased a '64 Sport Fury 383 auto just a few months earlier. His dad ended up taking over the Fury and remember a few rides in it when I was 10-11 years old. Reason she had the interest was handing over all the trophies and photos of the car to the current owner. She gave me a copy of the window sticker and a few time slips. I had no luck here. Heck, after a few decades who knows what became of it, crashed, rusted to chit, scraped...maybe the motor and drive train were salvaged used in another ride.
Would have been nice to find it and give the owner its glorious history...

 

[68BabyBlue]

Few years ago, my elder cousin's daughter asked me if I could try to locate her dad's car. He passed away in '06. He purchased new a '64 Polara 426/4sp at 18 years old and raced it in the tri-state area IL/IN/WI. Somehow my cousin talked his dad into co-signing for it against his best-wishes despite having purchased a '64 Sport Fury 383 auto just a few months earlier. His dad ended up taking over the Fury and remember a few rides in it when I was 10-11 years old. Reason she had the interest was handing over all the trophies and photos of the car to the current owner. She gave me a copy of the window sticker and a few time slips. I had no luck here. Heck, after a few decades who knows what became of it, crashed, rusted to chit, scraped...maybe the motor and drive train were salvaged used in another ride.
Would have been nice to find it and give the owner its glorious history...

I've been trying to do the same thing with my first GTX (Lemon Twist, 1970.) Have four years of maintenance records, plus original owners manual documenting warranty transfer between the original owner and the guy I bought it from. Car was sold by a dealer specializing in muscle Mopars in 1990. Dropped off the earth after that. Nothing has surfaced here, I put the VIN in Roger Wilson's registry a decade ago. I assume the current owner isn't curious about history. Car went to Toledo, Ohio area after I sold it in 1981.

 

[68BabyBlue]

Current car, I already had the original owner history. The hard part was finding the car. Amazing what can happen when you talk to people at the Chrysler Nationals at Carlisle.

 

[Bart K]

Tracking down history on my ex-70 GTX took a couple of years, but I managed to do it.....all on magazines, a telephone and dial-up modem with reliability issues.

Back in 1998 I decided to start trying to track previous owners. I personally knew 3 of them and used my local phone book to track a 4th - ended up calling the mother of the guy who imported the car to NZ from Las Vegas. Amazingly she lived on her own about 3 miles from where I lived. She loaned me 3 polaroid photos which I had copied and enlarged. I had a great talk with her, and eventually made contact with her son in Las Vegas - where he still lives after returning there some 45+ years ago. I also bumped into the owner's brother who still lived here while at a car meeting many years ago. He had many stories and told me about an abundance of photos....all of which were taken by another family member after a messy divorce.

It was around this time that I heard about a fella called Galen Govier. I sent him an email requesting any information he could find for me. I paid a fee (forget how much now) and some 13 months later I got a reply. Galen gave me the original dealer information and wished me luck. He also sent me a package with copies of the car decoded as it would have been from new. His information was most useful, and well presented.

I chose to write a letter to the Dealer in Iowa asking for information on the car, along with a couple of photos. Luckily for me, the dealership was still in the family as it were.....and I got a reply from the grandson of the original salesman. In that envelope were some more photos, plus photocopies of the original sales documentation - Invoice and most importantly the purchaser's name. I was told that they had tried tracking down the original owner locally without success, but they wished me luck in the search.

After some hard thinking and taking with a fellow restorer over here who helped out with the first part of my restoration, he suggested I look in the White Pages in Las Vegas. I narrowed things down to 5 names with the same name and approx age. I hit the jackpot on the second call. The guy answered and thought it was a prank call. Took a few minutes for it to sink in for him......he couldn't believe that the GTX he traded in for a Pontiac T/A was still on the road after all those years.
We chatted for a while, and I tried to get any information I could.....but to this guy the car was just a car....and his memory didn't hold much. Weird I thought, as he traded a '69 Coronet for the GTX, and had his father co-sign for it. The GTX ended up in Las Vegas when the guy from Iowa decided to move there - he loaded the car and just drove out west.

The Kiwi guy Des who imported the car was working (and still does) for an Insurance Company, and did weekend drag racing. He also helped out Gene Snow with his Insurance and Race prep.....lots of stories there. One weekend when Des was racing the GTX, he needed some extra help having progressed through the rounds. Gene's car was out of contention in his class, so the whole team jumped in and worked on the GTX to help Des have some success that day. Pretty cool of the guys to do that. Around mid 1974 Des decided to move back to New Zealand with his new bride and start life over here. That lasted about 2 years ...if that, and he moved back to Las Vegas. I have had a few exchanges by email and telephone with Des over the years and was lucky enough to have a great friend of mine on this site pay him a visit on my behalf - Mark aka @super-bee_ski .
Mark presented Des with a 1:24 scale model of the GTX that Mark had arranged to be flown on an F-22 especially for the occasion.

***Special thanks also to @Bart K for helping in this transaction

I was contacted about 15 years ago and asked if I still had the GTX....and if I would drive it as a wedding car for the son of a former owner. I did that for them all. My father went to school with the owner No.3, and my grandmother knew his mother. Owner No.4 was easy to find....he had already helped out with the engine rebuild and finding some parts for me. Owner No.5 was living in USA at the time, but I had already bought 2 other cars from him in previous years.

Over the years I have managed to find pictures and a couple of old HotRod magazines - one of them featured my car back in 1975. I contacted the same magazine in 2005 to see if they would be interested in running a "30 years later" article - they did, but it came out a month early.....lol

The new owner is a real car guy and has already started a body and engine re-fresh.....looking forward to getting some updated pictures and some seat time in the near future.



GTX back in Las Vegas 1973....
View attachment 1467352

Magazine article by Galen Govier mentioning my contact with him....
View attachment 1467353 View attachment 1467354

Owner No.3 campaigning the car in 1976...
View attachment 1467355

Mark aka @super-bee_ski ready to have the model flown....
View attachment 1467356

View attachment 1467357

Owner No.3 with his son . . . .
View attachment 1467358

The same groom with his Dad's car some 30 years earlier - a different '70 GTX.....
View attachment 1467359


View attachment 1467360

That was some good reading Kiwigtx! You are a real hound dog to dig up all that information!!!

 

[NoCar2023]

I googled my VIN and found this ad. I spoke to the listed seller, and he remembered the car.
Unfortunately, the engine and trans were long gone. He sold the car to Manheim Auto Auction in Fontana, CA, and they sold it to the dealer I bought it from. Funny coincidence - I used to work at that Manheim location.


VIN: WP29M2G14 - Dodge : Charger Charger 1972 Dodge charger
Home | Archive | Dodge | 4/25/2011 | Dodge : Charger Charger 1972 Dodge charger

Dodge : Charger Charger 1972 Dodge charger

End Time: 4/25/2011 16:20
Sold Price: $1,500
Listing Format:
Bids 13
Location: Laguna Niguel, California (92677)
Seller: americaauto
For Sale By: -

Specification

Year: 1972 VehicleTitle: Clear
Make: Dodge Standard Equipment:
Model: Charger Optional Equipment:
SubModel: Charger Exterior Color: Gold
Series: Interior Color:
VIN: WP29M2G14 Engine: 8 - Cyl.
Mileage: 60151 Fuel Type: Gasoline
Transmission: Automatic Body Type: Coupe
Condition:
Drive Train:

Description

This vehicle was being built into a race car, it has a fiberglass front end, and is disassembled as you can see. It has a clear title and can be seen in Laguna Niguel, California. You can reach me by phone or email, my number is 714-329-0305, or [email protected]. Motor is in pieces, and transmission is out of the car. Great parts car if you need anything for another project.

Related Items: 1972 Dodge Charger

 

[Fran Blacker]

Visited the original owner in 2015. I offered to buy the owners manual, original window sticker, his order form with financing, and a work order to make changes adding 3 spoke wood grain steering wheel, rear view mirror, gas pedal. {'m on the left.

 

[Detective D]

What a cool thread!
my current cars are much newer then 60's stuff so I don't have long tales of phone calls to offer.

My 78 Monaco original owner was a local County Highway Dept. garage. it was the County Detective's car, for official investigations and the occasional trip down to Madison.
The guy that bought it at auction used it to tow his pop-up camper in the summers, which spared it the WI salt. He stopped using it about 8 years ago when it quit starting easily.
Guy bought it from him to use the 400 in his brothers 74 Charger. Got it running(barely) found out it used so much oil the exhaust came out blue. Then he found a cracked head. he put a hot rebuilt 318 in and I went and bought it and drove it home.

My 1990 Ramcharger daily driver(summer) was bought off original owners Grandson. That's it. No real mystery there lol.

I had a 1970 Mustang when I was a young man. I never dug into the history, but the verbal history I got from the guy I bought it from went back 4 owners. he did mention all the 4 he could tell me about had it as the car was sitting, in a faded coat of dark jade metallic paint. He did point out the car was red by showing me a small chip with the red paint showing under. I decoded the VIN for him(it had Mach 1 stuff on it) and the car was originally a grabber blue 302/auto car. So somewhere in there, the car had a new roof welded on(just the very top, and it was a booger job) was painted red. Got painted that dark jade metallic, had an entire Mach 1 interior added, and all the exterior bits to go with it and gained aluminum slots.
i sold that car to a local guy when I got married and bought a house. Could have gotten more for it, but that car was just... well it was solid, but everything was tweaked, nothing lined up, the front of the car/hood/etc was not quite in line with the rear of the car(frame) and I didn;t have time for all that. Local guy spent 12 years fixing it, painted it grabber blue but left all the Mach 1 stuff and tried to sell it as a Mach. He had it for sale for 2 years. Don't know where it got to after that.

 

[Triplegreen500]

My '70 came with everything except a window sticker. I bought it from the second owner, he had it less than a year; he bought it from the estate of the original owner. I have the bill of sale; the finance paperwork; the original title; tons of service receipts; the build sheet (and an extra for a different VIN; I posted that a while back in the "lost cars" thread I think) - a bunch of stuff.

I bought it because it's a near dead-ringer for the one mom bought new (only difference, hers was dark green, mine's light green), that my cousin wrecked in '76. She bought it when she was teaching at UF in Gainesville FL. The original owner of my car? Bought it with a loan from the Alachua County teachers union (Gainesville). I have all the loan paperwork.

I can't ever have mom's car...but given the history, and selling location, of mine? I guess it doesn't get much closer than that!

 

[69 Charger]

Hard to find any history on mine. Bought my ‘71 RR from an old guy who bought it in not-running condition out of state. He hauled it back here and parked it in his vast shop building where it sat for many years after his health deteriorated. I know it came from Texas and it wasn’t on the road long based on the 1977 inspection sticker on the windshield, but that’s about it.

My '69 Charger came with no history at all, since I bought it new. It now has 54 years worth, and all of it is documented in detail -- maintenance, accidents, repairs, trips!

 

[PlymCrazy]

My '69 Charger came with no history at all, since I bought it new. It now has 54 years worth, and all of it is documented in detail -- maintenance, accidents, repairs, trips!

Provoking a little jealousy in me there

But seriously, what a statement that is for you to be able to make. In that you are the original owner of a 54yo Charger, or any 54yo car at all for that matter