Hi!

I’ve been trying to work out something of my car’s history beyond its phs docs. I tried to get in touch with the previous owner, but unfortunately couldn’t make contact.

So I thought I’d try you guys. For privacy reasons I won’t name the previous owner on this forum. However, I can say the car was last registered to someone in Carlsbad, California. I’ve had the car now for about four years.

The car is a 69 350 H.O. vert. It’s been very nicely restored, and appears to be all original body, undercarriage and matching numbers.

Inside, it’s a t400 floor shift auto, with black standard trim.

Maybe someone knows the car from a car show, or remembers a previous owner? If anyone recognises this car and can maybe help with its history, I’d be grateful for your private emails please.

Please see photos below.

I'm in Cali. Nowhere near Carlsbad and I don't know any history of your car but I was curious what you were trying to puzzle out on it? Have you ordered the PHS report?
Good looking car anyways.

No I haven’t got the phs yet, but I will soon. I’ve got the original window sticker. And I also believe the car was a dealer delivery, so I don’t have any details of the first owner. Other information I’m interested in is just the normal things; how many owners, if the car has a particularly interesting history, has it always been in California etc,....

Ah. Other than speaking with the last owner and running down the person he bought it from and so on, I'm not sure there is any way to find out the kind of details you seek. When I bought my car it came with a pile of past registrations so I could figure there were a bunch of previous owners but it never seemed important to me until I discovered that the trans I thought was original had been replaced in the 10 years between when it was first sold and when it came into my possession. I would've like to know why that had been done. Also it would be fun to ask the original owner why it was ordered the way it was. My guess is it was just bought off a lot the way it was and probably not specifically ordered like that. It's hard for me to imagine someone spec ing out the car like it was.

LOL Um..yeah, well no plan to run down the previous owner. they’re safe from me, but I guess I just like the history of my cars. Unfortunately, I lucked out with all my collection. Don’t know the history of any of them😕

At least with the Firebird I can get the PHS. For my 1950 MG TD all the records in Abingdon were destroyed.

I'm 30min from Carlsbad, CA but don't recognize this car. I attend many car shows in Southern California and don't recall seeing this one at a show or advertised anywhere. There is a form on the CA DMV site that you can fill out requesting information of previous owners due to research purposes, as you cannot retrieve this info yourself through Carfax because of the age of the vehicle. I did that once, and believe it's this form: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/online/vrr. Good luck!

Hey thanks. That's a great lead. I just checked it out, and the on-line application requires details that I don't have, like a SSN, and the DL/ID for CA, but I'll give them a call and see what they say. May be they can process an international application over the phone.

Thanks again for your help!

Cheers

You could hire a private detective that specializes in such things. I did this for my 1956 Corvette and managed to get info on and speak personally to every single owner. Took the guy about 8-9 months to trace all of them (there were 4 I think). I found out so much info from the previous owners it was absolutely worth double what he charged. So much history on the car it was awesome, plus I made one owner really happy being able to see it again.

Wow. That’s extreme. Interesting idea though. Is it too impolite to ask for a rough cost for a service like that? Are we talking $100’s or $1000’s?

I don't think it rude in this case. It came to about $800. But keep in mind, the retainer was $350 and his services usually don't go over that. Mine was an extreme case because it took so many months and he had to hire a couple of other people I remember to do some local research in person.

One more thing you can try: Contact the dealer you bought it from, most likely he will not share owner's information, but worth a try. Also, try to "google" your VIN number, that's how I found where my car was original sold....like this one I found, not your's but close http://www.vintagemotorslyons.com/?p=1972

I didn’t get anywhere googling my VIN, but I contacted the DMV on your advice and found they might be able to help. So good advice. Thanks.