Writing a letter to a car's previous owner.

I may get flamed for this, being a simple open ended question but here goes. I want to write a letter to a previous owner of a car I own & ask for any history he might have on it. It would be cool if he had pictures stories, whatever or simply the name of the guy he bought it from or the dealership where he bought it. Anyone ever write a letter like this? Thanks in advance.

 

It is an honorable thing to do, all you lose is the time writing the letter. 50/50 on what you get back.

 

Yea, maybe send him some pics and tell him what I am going to do with it, as well as ask him what he knew about the car? I would get a kick out of getting a letter like that. Like you said Tman, a little time and postage.

 

I see no problem with this, I've always wondered where my cars have been and things like that..it'd be cool if you find things out

best of luck

 

letter? what's that? phone calls are free,quick and to the point. email,tweet,i m..but a letter??

 

dude...its Traditional,you forgetting where you're at?

 

I'm guessing if this is an old traditional car the original owner is old and doesnt have twitter haha hell I'm 21 and dont have it I perfer facebook

 

Quite a few years ago a friend bought an old corvette. He somehow contacted a previous owner to ask about it.

Cops showed up soon after and confiscated the car... it had been stolen some years earlier...

But I'm sure you will have no problems......

 

What he said !!

I have done similar, went to DMV and got a title history a couple of times and contacted as many of the owners as I could find. Some of them were really pleased to find their old wheels were still going or would be again....but i did use the phone, and the doorbell.

I dont do letters, just ask my Sis.

 

Letters are a very traditional way of communicating I would do a telegraph, but western union only does money now.
That guy with the coupe - Hope the cops don't show up for me, did he have a title with the same VIN# from the state?
No Clue - Yea, I like the phone or door bell approach, I don't have his number and he is
650 miles away.

 

I kind of like communicating on this new HAMB board

I sure am glad that all these other Traditional Hot Rodders like it too!

 

You know, I still have the name and number of the guy I bought my first car from, still own it too. That was 20 years ago. He was pushing 40 and had too many kids for an El Camino. Now I'm in the same boat. I contacted him after I had it about 3-4 years, not a big deal then. Might do it if I ever get near there again with my car, now I'm 800 miles away.

Devin

ps, sold a few cars over the years, too. Wouldn't mind hearing where they are now.

 

I like the idea of a letter, because...

I found in my father's estate a log book for a '47 Cessna 120 he had owned. I read through it, saw reports for all the flights, even some where I had been on board. But I knew the log book belonged to the airplane.

It is surprisingly easy to track an airplane by the tail number. Soon I was calling the present owner. It took about 10 minutes of conversation for him to relax and realize that I was not some loony calling him out of the blue. I sent him the log book, along with a vintage photo of the plane.

Given a choice now, I think I would write a letter and include my phone number.

 

i have had cars that communicate with other cars through smoke signals.

-danny

 

I hope that some day someone contacts me about one of my old cars, so I do it whenever possible. It is good for karma too! I just contacted a previous owner of a truck I bought. He said it was his dad's since 1960 and they sold it as a junk truck in 1992. He had no idea it was still around. It is the one my son was driving at age 8 last year. 1948 Ford F1. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=413824

 

A letter is a great way to spark his interest,,it would also be a good idea to include a photo of the car.

In the letter offer to pay any cost involved in making copies of documents or photos and include a self address and stamped envelope where all the guy has to do is drop it in the mail. HRP

 

I think its a great idea. My car was bought new by a local guy, so I tried to contact him hoping for some vintage photos. I found his daughter and talked to her about it. She was very open to the idea but has yet to find anything. Good luck on your letter.

 

All I had was an old photo of the car taken at a car show in the 1980's.
The car had an Iowa front license plate. A friend who is a detective "ran" the plate numbers for me from the Iowa DMV and he got the owners name, but nothing else. The man's last was just uncommon enough that my friend started calling the people in Iowas with that last name and inquiring if they had any knowledge of the '34 Ford. By the way, my friend was doing this over a period of a couple of months and I didn't know about it.
My buddy finally reached a women on the phone who said, "that was my dad's car".
After about 3 or 4 months after I gave my bud the plate number to "run", I get a phone call out of the blue. This guys says, "Hey are you Doug"? and I say, "yes". He says,..."I'm the guy who found the sedan you own in South Dakota years ago on a farm.
We had a long talk. He mailed me over 100 photos of him getting the car and trailering it back to his house in Iowa. I made several sets of copies and returned them along with an album that I made of a second set of the photos. And I returnd them FedEx within days...after all, this guy didn't know me from the man on the moon.

1985


1986


2010


You have nothing to lose by trying. It shows that you respect the car and the prior owner. It's all about "the Journey", and that can be said about many different things that touch our lives.
Now, I have a new friend AND a photo album that I keep in the sedan of the story of the car.

 

Hey Mazooma, was that car from Slater, Iowa? I think I recognize that guy. At one time the town of Slater, population 1,300 had about a dozen hot rods. Pretty high people/hotrod ratio, and that guy had a LOT to do with it. He specialized in 33 Fords, but is known to do a 34 or 32 now and then.

 

Sure is...that's him and his son...yup, Gary....super nice guy...
the car was featured on a car show event t-shirt about four years ago, so I mailed him a couple of the shirts as an additional "thank you" for his kindness...he now has a '34 coupe

 

Mazooma1, that's a really neat story. The camaraderie among people with hotrods, or old cars in general, is exceptional. Your story shows that perfectly.

 

I'd like to know where I can get info about prior owners on my car as well. I'm in Florida - where do I start? I was looking for my old High School ride a year or so ago. It's shown as being in the state system, but the state refused to tell me who currently owned it. Anyone got any ideas?

 

yea ive done it, i wrote to the owner of my first gto conv, i addressed it like the title said and nothing. about 5 yrs later i get a letter in the mail, yes i just opened your letter and blah blah blah.... basically knew nothing of its history. 5 YEARS ? what the hell were you doing for 5 years?? i had completley forgotten the letter and had sold thecar after finishing it, dude 5 years ???? sad

 

I recently got in touch with the daughter of the man I bought my 57 from about 8 years ago. Ronny was in a hard way at the time and was liquidating any possessions he had of value to help his wife and daughters. The 57 was one of them, even though he really liked the car and didn't want to sell it. I was hoping to catch up with him this summer and maybe take him for a ride in it, but at least his daughter can show him pics on Facebook and he can see that the car did wind up in good hands and that it wasn't rusting away somewhere or worse.

 

Here's the same idea, but in reverse:

I have knowledge and paperwork on a car that was sold long ago, BUT I'll bet that the current owner would like to here from ME.
Mt dad sold his 1967 Shelby GT500 in 1975. He bought the Shelby new, in 1967. The car surfaced a couple of years ago, after having a total restoration, at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, It sold for $229,000 (Dad sold it for $2400).
I have the original paperwork, the cancelled check for the original purchase ($4900), the salesman's business card, a postcard from Mel Burns Ford in Long Beach where it was bought, all maintenance records and receipts, photos of when it was new, all original Shelby and Cobra brochures, and all the car magazines from 1967 which featured the "new" GT500 in it's articles, etc., etc.
I have photos when I took the car to my senior high school prom in 1968 and then my date and I went to the Coconut Grove to see the "Righteous Brothers"...and much more.
All of that stuff and the personal stories of the car, I would think would be a treasure for the current owner.

So..........I contacted Barrett-Jackson and told them about all the items and that I wanted to give it all to the owner. I asked if they would contact the person who bought the car from their auction and give him my name and contact information.
"NOPE!" was the response. "You'll have to pack up all the items and mail them to us here at Barrett-Jackson...we don't give out our clients personal information".
I said, "I don't want anyone's phone number or address. I was just asking if you would give the owner MY number and address, so he can contact me and I can ship these items to him".
"NOPE!, You're going to have to mail them to US".

I have left my contact info with the Shelby Owners club, so if the car every gets registered with them, my info will come up.

So, today the items are still with me.

 

I did a title history and wrote a letter a few years ago. The owner called me and told me some neat stories and mailed me some pics! I'd do it again.

 

I redid a '65 Biscayne into a Drag Pack optioned Biscayne and sent the previous owner pictures. Never heard back from him though.

 

He was probably thinkin' "That young whippersnapper ruined my car"

Jim

 

Definitely worth a try. I found the guy who owned my '51 Merc in the '60's. He not only came to a car show to see it, but brought photos of he and his wife taking it to Niagara Falls on their honeymoon in the 1960's. I tried to prepare him for how the car looks now (chopped, nosed, decked, etc.), but I think it was still a shock.

 

Sometimes old farts don't appreciate being cold-called out of the blue by a stranger. A letter takes care of that.