Art & Inspiration History lessons-learning where your car used to live

I just got a car back from my brother after 32 years. I had it for a few years back when...and as I seem to keep everything paper, I still have a folder for it with the old registrations. And it turns out there were some other older registrations with it at that time, from the late 70s. The best one was the application for title for the fellow who bought it in 1981, and sold it to the fellow I bought it from in 1988.



That application shows the previous title as being from 1966, which is probably about the time that the lady who ran the liquor store moved to Sierra Vista from San Antonio (there's a dealer tag from Smith's, San Antonio, on the tailgate). Or maybe she was already here, and she bought it from a soldier who had moved to Ft Huachuca? that's something that will be hard to trace.



Pete ran a repair shop for a long time, but I think he's retired now. I saw him last year at the tire store, and we chatted for a bit. Here is the wagon (today) in front of his shop.

And a registration from when Blanche owned it.



This is the address where the car was registered, and where the liquor store used to be


I also talked with the fellow who owns the oldest business in town (founded by his father in 1956). Greg remembers the liquor store, and the wagon, and knows Pete.


It's neat driving around in a car that used to drive this same neighborhood over 50 years ago.

Have you been able to track down where your car was back when?

 

This is a great thread. My 1950 Chevy 3100 was owned by my Dad’s childhood friend when we bought it in 1986. His name was Dean. My Grandpa called him Destructive Dean. Dean’s wife’s father bought the truck brand new in 1950. It had been a farm truck in rural Iowa its entire life until Dean bought it. Unfortunately, I don’t have any cool paperwork like Jim has.

 

Digging the Batman front plate.

 

Yo, man, is that a Yeoman? That's a good color scheme for that area.

 

yo, that's a Brookwood

 

Wow, $1500 for title and registration back in 1981! On a 13 year old car at that!
That wouldn’t be over $50 here. Amazing the difference states charge for registration.

Digging the long roof!

 

uh...that's $15.00.

 

Was it a straight trade?

 

was what a straight trade?

 

For the Nova, with your brother.

 

I still have Plan II, he has no use for it....

 

I was told that my car was bought out of California early mid 2000's. (56 Pontiac). I bought it wrecked in 2007 in Kentucky. I had one person tell me they remember the car being in Bakersfield at some point before that.

The car was built in California and there is a oil change sticker (partial) in the door jamb from New Mexico.

That's the best I've been able to determine.

 

Never had titles to track much of anything down
Got some info from the tag lady at the courthouse.
My sons truck was Airforce support. Then the City of Birmingham had it.
Was last tagged in 74. We drug it out of a field 40+ years later.
I think the wife’s 56 was on the road in the late 70s then parked. Has a high school parking sticker and tag from the same year on it.
My merc has a 1971 NC inspection sticker. Last time it was driven regularly. Worrd was it was damaged and parked.
My bus was a local church bus. I’ve had people tell me they rode on it years ago.
Last tagged in the early 80s before hitting the scrapyard.
My 57 step van had an accident report from the early 60s from Floridia. Former US Mail van. Ended up in Al for an electrical service then parked in the early 80s then scrapped.

 

My story is made up from 2nd hand information .... so I get to tell it like I think it is.

My truck came from Brownwood TX, about 1.5 hour drive from here.
I bought it from the guy who bought it at a estate sale. The older gentleman swears he remembers seeing the truck drive around town just 10 years ago .... Funny how time flies in our imagination .... I guarantee the truck sat for 20 years at least.

The previous owner was a guard at a concrete construction plant Meaning it was a gated entry and the guy sat in the guard house monitoring traffic into the gated construction plant ... so my old Dodge sat in front by the guards shack and was just known as the guards truck.
I believe this much, no reason not to.

From there I'm only guessing. I believe the truck was bought new by the concrete construction company.
It was used for some specific purpose of transporting equipment to and from the job.


Look at the cab corner .... how did it get hit that hard, and not damage the running board?
What about the rear fender ripped in 1/2 and the rear section flattened?
The top of the cab has a series of dents running across the top as if it was carrying some sort of equipment on a daily basis .... Maybe scaffolding? Leaned up against the cab?
I think or feel, the majority of body damage on this truck was done by heavy equipment on a construction site.

Same time the truck mechanically was taken very good care of. I figure a company had a mechanics shop that did regular maintenance. The king pins are near perfect, top right side has 1/32 play but had a bad zirk fitting.
Has new brake drums/shoes all around, except 1 drum that is perfectly good and does not need replacing. .... The engine has great compression and most likely rebuilt .... is numbers matching to the truck & title.

So I know it did belong to the guard at the construction company. .... I'm only guessing that the truck was bought new and maintained by the company and body brutally abused .... then the employee bought it used from employer for a good deal ..... Thats my version of the story, someday I want to drive to the construction company and get pics of the truck in front of the guard shack .... I doubt anyone will remember it. .... But it will be a fun day.


The body will never be perfect on this one, I call it a beater with a heater .... others call it a firewood hauler .... I'm fine with either one

 

That would have been $1500.00 here .

 

I have been fortunate enough to know the history of most of mine. I bought my ‘53 Dodge panel from Walter Rose, who picked it up from the factory. The ‘64 Comet was traded into the original selling dealer 20 years later when I purchased it. My ‘51 Plymouth was purchased from the original owner’s brother. My others I was only able to track back to the mid-‘60s. Once a friend said to me he didn’t care for kit or fiberglass cars because they have no history. I know many don’t care where it came from or where it goes. To me the story can be as good as the car.

 

I went to a swap meet once, and came back to my '37 Chevy, and there was the old fella, with his foot on the front bumper, and his hat pushed back. He said that he learnt to drive in this car- his father had bought it new. Turns out it was from a country town close to where I live, and his dad worked in the bank, so this car was always parked out front during the week (unlocked of course). He showed me the spot on the guard where he hit the fence, (the car had all it's original paint and no body rust or repairs done.) . He also mentioned that they had put cord (cored?) rings in number 5 pot. Guess which cylinder I could see daylight past the piston when I tore it down?

 

Since the 56 in the avatar was built in South Gate Ca. and I found it just west of the LA Convention Center and now it’s garaged one city over from it’s place, maybe I seen it running around when I was as younger.

 

Not sure anymore, but in the early 80's, Oregon DMV would, for $ 11.00, furnish you
with copies of all titles of a registered vehicle.
I spent my 11 bucks and got copies of my 1934 pickup dating back to 1959. The clerk told me that
the Salem DMV had burned in 1958 so all previous records were destroyed.
I bought the pickup from a used car lot and had NO history on it.
Anyway long story short, I was able to find the previous owner that had drug the PU out of a farmers field in Prineville, OR 1959 and built it with 283, PG, and '57 rear end. One of his title copies 1964 had
a different address and town, so 1984 I stopped by to chance that he may still be there.
Pulled up to the curb at that address and a guy mowing the yard, shuts off the mower and walks over
to say, "Looks like when I built it but was green, not red". Rest was history.....
Still got it.

 

My 48 Plymouth business coupe started life out as a Police car for the City of Hinkley IL I saw a picture of it in the line up of 4 or 5 new for 48 village Police cars.
From there the story is hand me down, but sounds about right.
When it finished its Police carrier, it was apparently sold to a junk yard.
Then someone bought it out of the junk yard, drug it home, and parked it outside as a future project that never happened.
Someone bought it from that guy and took it to his place where it spend an estimated time of about 10 years, sitting along his garage.
Someone got it from him and parked it in a field for around 10 years.
Then it moved again to another outdoor storage place.
Then the guy I bought it from bought it and actually started doing something with it, until he determined it was in too bad of shape for him to do. It sat along his back fence line for 10-15 years until I came along.
I paid the going $200 scrap rate at the time, and I drug it home.
I moves what was left of the body onto a frame without rust holes in it and built a street version of and old dirt track car. It was on the road within 9 months of it arriving at my place. That was in 2012. Its still here and still on the road.

I had the history on a few of the cars and trucks I've built, but with most of them, the story starts with the fool the made them street cars again.
Coupe pictures: from its start with me until just recently.

 

Yeah, I guess it could be $15. That sounds close to what it would have cost here back then, it goes up every so often. Tag for my 25 year old pickup was $25 this year. Unusual that there’s no decimal and no cents, not used to seeing that.


As to the history on my car, I don’t know anything but what the guy I got it from told me, and he was a big bullshitter, so who knows. He said he got it from an old man that had it redone then it sat under a carport for 20 years. I can sorta believe that, because it had sat, but I think it was outside by the way water got into the trunk and rotted the carpet and wood panels.

 

I've heard a few times that the Arizona records burned in a fire in the 1970s

 

In regards to records on my 56. I bought with no title in the mid 80’s. My boss at the time (a Snap-on dealer) turned me onto a guy that did title work (I wish I could remember his exact title). He had a registration for me and a title coming by mail within hours of meeting with him. Oh yes, I remember now, he was a lien officer. Any ways. When I asked who owned it prior he told me the list was too long to get into but many started transfers that were never completed is what he found. Now this thing had a low rider look to it when I got. Complete with scares and bullet casings.

 

My 64 Fairlane was easy. The owner's manual and service cards were still with it, showing all the details of the original owner. It came from a rather mountainous area (Revelstoke, B.C.) which is no doubt why it had a heavy duty clutch with lower rear gears.

 

My 51 came out to CA with a Wisconsin title. It also has an Arkansas inspection sticker on the driver rear window. I found old registration paperwork for an owner in Wisconsin and wrote them a letter asking for more info on the car’s history but I never heard back from them.

 

I think my car lived all its life in the same state. I bought it from Kansas City.

The first owner was Doll, he had it until at least ‘69 judging by the paper work.



I had a search for him on google and found his grave which was a bit sad.

Didn’t find anything after that, until the previous to me owner got it about 10 years ago.

 

Mine is originally from Bend, Oregon, where it spent all its life until it got imported by a dealer to Germany in 2018 from whom I bought it. I am the 3rd recorded owner. I know the names of the previous two but never attempted to contact them, me being in Austria 5500 miles away and not having any immediate plans to travel to the US...

 

I’m not sure what’s more impressive, getting the car back after 32 years, or still having the paperwork that goes with it.
My dad bought the ‘57 Chevy PU new. Not much tracing to do on it.
I do have the original pink slip. When I put it in my name I applied for “lost title” which my dad signed off on.
Thought it was best to do that, than surrender it.

 

Another interesting thread from you Jim . . . quick aside: happy to see your old Chevy II avatar again. Makes everything feel normal around here.

 

In our jurisdiction they currently require you to have a sellers package for 20 bucks. It lists all the previous owners of the vehicle, not sure how far back it goes, as I haven’t registered anything lately. When I was in highschool and bought my avatar at a farm sale, I brought the mouse nest that was the ownership to the registration office. They said I needed an affidavit from a lawyer and a sworn statement which included the vin and any other information I knew about the vehicle, and something about that I had purchased it legitimately. I went to the lawyer on main street in our town and made an appointment to see him. He did the job for 2 bucks and a promise that if I got into any kind of trouble I would come and see him. That was a lot of process for a teenager.