Writing a letter to a car's previous owner.

Good luck to you.

I tried contacting the previous owner of my Edsel, and even some of his relatives, but it seems that the previous owner died a few years ago, and none of the relatives I contacted still live at the addresses listed under the internet search I did.

 

Mazooma1 - that pictoral history of your car is very cool, I like the father son chop 1985/1986 pre and post chop pics. Very nice looking ride in 2010, I might add. Sucks that Barrett-Jackson was not very cool to you and the current owner of the car by leaving him in the dark. Letting the Shelby registry know about your stuff was a good idea. I would be floored if I could get old pics and such, not that I have a quarter of a million dollar car Thanks to everyone for all the ideas, I called and got the form to do a title search today.

 

I did the letter because I figured it would give them more time to respond at thier leisure and with more detail than if I just called them. It worked, they wrote me a long letter back with pics and a phone conversation followed.

I would use email too but it's easier to find an address than an email address. Especially when you have a copy of an old title with an address on it!

 

I wish the guys that bought my last two hotrods would contact me. I have pictures,parts,etc that I would pass on to them,but the cars have changed hands three or four times now and I've lost track of who has them.

 

In 1988, I bought a restored 1969 Dodge Dart GTS 440 hartop, one of 635 built and (then) one of about 30 known to exist. The car had EIGHT previous owners in that 20 years. At that time, it was incredibly simple to do title searches and research ownership history. In no time, I had the names and addresses of all eight, including the original buyer. This was in 1988, when NO one had a PC, no Internet, just good old fashioned sluething on my part.

Today, researching vehicle history is next to impossible, because of the laws passed in the aftermath of 9/11. This, WITH the Internet and such.

As far as your original question goes, go for it! When I contacted the PO's of the Dart, all were interested as to why I was so interested in the past history of the GTS. All answered my questions without a problem. Had a lot of fun doing that, too.

 

Hope it works out....I'd love to find out a bit of history on my daily driver: a 1966 Mustang that came out of San Pedro. The guy I bought it off over here died (he imported it for resale) and didn't really give a rats about the history (even though he was one of the founders of the mustang car club in Australia!).

 

Do it. I've done it several times and have run into everything from Divorce stories to Suicide. When ya ask for history you sometimes get it!

 

spobanz, i got no cool story to add, just wanted to say.....

 

Danny thats funny! I've owned some of those cars.
Ran a Texas title history on Cindy's Nomad, forget which state, Maybe indiana title surrendered when car was titled in Texas. Went online ran owners name & address, like 20 years later he is still @ same address. Called him, left a message, he called back left me a message all about the car when he owned it, he was a pastor, bought it while living in Oklahoma, guy he bought it from bought it in Louisiana. He was glad to her the car was still around.

 

Never wrote a letter, but i did track down and call the old owner of my 57.
He owned it around 1965. He remembered it well, but could have cared less it was still around and had no info on who he got it from.
Kinda bummed me out. Last time i ever did that.
Tony

 

In the summer of 1986 I was in the Denver City park by the zoo with my 56 T-Bird. Several guys and I were standing around gabbing when this old guy walked up and asked who owned the Bird. As we walked over to the car he said he'd owned a 56 and had sold it to a kid from Lowry AFB in 67 or 68. I looked at him and said "Ray, I'm the kid and this is the same T-Bird".Asked if he wanted to go for a ride, his answer, HELL YES. We spent the next two hours cruising around Denver. After I took him back to his car he said "take care of OUR car". I didn't get his phone or address and have never seen him again.

 

I think its a good idea! I've had 4 people contact me about cars that I've owned & enjoyed talking to them. Also had Jr who built my current A contact me & really appreciated talking to him. Hell of a nice guy!

 

Keep in mind that in '65 a '57 was just likely an 8-year old used car. Do you think you'll care much about that 2002 Chevy Malibu (or whatever you own) in 45 years? Gotta have some perspective.

 

had some problems with the paper on my 71 pontiac ragtop ...didnt want to spend a ton and find a problem .. got in touch with the orignal owner who lived 3 towns away and asked if he would get some papers notaryed.....he said yes but give him a few days... i go over and find out hes a car guy,,i offer him a few bucks he declines...i told him i would bring the car around when it hit the streets. two months later i show up he loves the car so i let him take his wife and daugther around the block , she was one when they had it ....short story longer he is a nash collecter , we start talking about a nash sleeping car which was not a big seller ,,and that he bought one from a man in bellmore(( my town))years back that got itfrom an older man that could,nt drive anymore.... the man that couldnt drive anymore was my grandfather,, small world, i got to sit in a car that the last time i did i was about 8

 

You should have mailed them a box with your name and telephone number on a piece of paper.

 

i would just kidnap him until he tells you what you want to know... true or not, youll be satisfied.... until the cops show back up

 

Iv'e sent letters like this a few times in the past with mostly great results.

 

I called a former owner once to ask about something the dealer I bought it from couldn't tell me, he got all bent out of shape about it. I'd do the letter instead, that way he can read it at his convenience rather than getting a call from some stranger when he's in the middle of something.

 

I've utilized all forms of communication (snail mail letters, phone calls, e-mail messages, social networking sites, message boards, forums, etc.) to make contact with the previous or the current owners of our vehicles.

The two most recent examples of this involved ME contacting the current owners of some of my father's old cars:

1) Thanks to the H.A.M.B. (and HAMBrs Z.Diddy, Tri-Deuce-Dicky, & nwbhotrod) I was able to confirm the current whereabouts of the Deuce Roadster I had sold back in the early '90s ... it had changed hands only once and ended up in Washington state ... I utilized to contact the current owner ... and now the two of us exchange info & pics via e-mail:



2) I posted the VIN of one of the '57 Chrysler 300s my father had sold (in the 1980's) on the ForwardLook forum ... I knew that the car had supposedly ended up somewhere in Scandinavia ... but was really curious what had become of the car ... In less than an hour, I had the (Swedish) owner's contact info ... dozens of pics and videos of the restored car (culled from the Internet) ... and now the two of us exchange info & pics via e-mail:

 

I like history on my old junk if I can get it. The oldest thing I own with history since new is 99 years old. Most vehicles don't have much if any, it is awesome to have it in my book.

 

I have great perspective. My feeling was not based on how he felt about it then, but more so just to know it was still around, knowing how the 57 had become a sort of icon in the last few decades.
The car in 65 was slightly modified at the time as well with a 62 Vette 4 speed, some speed equipment, and under30K miles on it so i felt it was more than just a used car but that is only my speculation.
I didn't lose much sleep over it though.