I'm trying to find out who owned my car long ago....would love to get a pic of it as a family car 'back in the day'. I think it lived in Davenport, WA in the mid 60's (last licensed) because there was a oil change sticker on the door for Wayne Badgley's Chevron service. The plates were "TAD 425". Does anyone have a way to track down the owners by the plate? I have contacted a Badgley in Davenport on Facebook to no avail. I know I probably can't do this on my own and will have to pay someone. I'm okay with that as long as I get the info I need. Thanks, Gary O
Facebook worked for me, up to a point. The original name on the title, with her address, helped me track down some family on FB. Sent a few messages to different people with the same last name and got 1 response from a lady who said the original owner was her husband's grandmother. Then, she stopped responding so i haven't bothered them since.
BMV has a complete record. With out any hassle, you can get a copy of the titel before it transferred into your name, it will have the name of who he bought it from. Anything before that....May cost a few bucks
Cool, thanks! Haven't heard from my Facebook contact. I'll be passing through Davenport in late July..... it's a small town, might just post flyers everywhere!
if your going thru the town might a lot some time to park on main street and see who wanders buy it and says "hey my XXX had one of those back in the day , cant be to many of those from that po dunk lil town lol
Okatoma cruiser has the right idea. I know a guy that tracked down the original owner of his 1913 Ford Model T he restored. He had tracked down some previous owners, which led him to actually go out east to a small town. He went to a couple of the local businesses and asked, "Who is the oldest business owner here?" Talked to that guy, who helped him find the daughter of the original owner, and got his phone number. The guy was in his 90s. Quite a story. He called the gentleman and began explaining the reason for the call. But the old guy didn't quite understand at first. The conversation went something like this. "What? Who are you? Get off the phone!" "But sir, I've got your Model T." "I don't have any use for........what did you say?.........speak up!" "I said I've got your old Model T. I restored your 1913 Model T." "My old Model T? You have my Model T? Is the serial number XXXXXXX?" (the man still remembered the number!) "Yes...that's the one!" The old fella immediately started crying and saying... "Don't hang up! Don't hang up! I wanna talk with you!"...etc. They finally got together and the elderly guy ended up giving the present owner some old photos and stuff from way back when. I hope you have as good luck with your search as he did.
If the town has it's own newspaper, could be a great human interest story, someone might recognize it and get back to you...
what kind of paperwork do you have still for the car ....??? or try the DMV to pull old records .... me, at when i sale a car .... i make two Bill of Sale(s) ... one for them and one for me ( for records and kicking myself for sale ing it ) and would have all the info on it ...
At one time here in South Carolina it wasn't very hard to do but with all the privacy acts now it's almost impossible. HRP
this could be a double edge sword, i'll tell you why. i restored a fury convertable for a guy up the street from me, just as i finished the car, the guy got cancer, died a year later. the car sat for years in the daughters garage til she contacted me, wanting to know if i was or any body for that matter was interested in buying the car cause she couldn't look at the car anymore without crying about her dad. i bought the car. owned it for a couple of years and sold it to some numbskull in pa. gave him all the paperwork for the car. this asshole called the daughter constantley for more info on the car, to the point where she called me and asked me why i sold the car??!! she thought that since i was a friend, i would keep the car forever??!! haven't talked to her or her husband for 8 years now, and they were good friends. moral is, sometimes when the car is gone people don't want to bring up the past. i know that 99% of the time cars bring back great memories of the past, but i guess that last 1% can stir up bad memories too.
I'm in the same boat trying to find the original owner of my '56 Olds. Not much luck so far. Can't wait to see how this turns out for you!
Years ago a friend bought a Corvette, found an old owner's name address in the car, wrote to him for info on its history... Soon the cops showed up and took the Corvette, turns out it had been stolen some time back..... Be careful what you wish for.
Wow, lots of great ideas and a couple good stories.....one terrifying. Hadn't even considered that possibility! I'm gonna try them all, hoping that one strikes gold. I love Ab Jenkins woodie.... have you seen the 'Boys of Bonneville'? It's his story of finding records on the salt.
Yes he does....Corvettes have always been a theft target, but woodies, up until 20 years ago, were just old cars. I hope.
I've never understood the need to know who used to own a car. To a lot of people they were just transportation. I know if you came to me and said you restored my parents '84 Buick that I drove a lot in high school I'd tell you that's great, enjoy it, and not want to know any more about it. My dad thought enough about it to sell it for junk -
I would just like to have a photo of it when it was a 'real' car. I don't have any need to meet anyone. If they want to see it I'm glad to show them. I could find a photo of any old '51 with a family loading it up... would you like to own THE Ed Iskendarian roadster or a clone? I would prefer the real thing...... Gary O
Yes. That is a great film. There is a thread or two here on the movie. I found it very interesting, beucase it overlapped with the history research I have been doing on my Bonneville Diamond T. I have been fortunte enough to talk to that truck's second owner who worked for the tire company who operated the truck from '47-'65. I just checked in again, because I found a woody photo from my very own family. My dad is the youngster on the left.
Thanks Jeff....we love our old heap! Update..... while on a road trip we drove through the town that was on an oil change sticker. I made up a flyer with a pic of a blue '51 Ford Woodie to distribute. A National Woodie Club member called me with a contact in Davenport so I started there....he wasn't around but his wife was.... she didn't recognize the car so we went across the street to the bank where another long time resident worked. No luck but she sent us to the Chevy dealer who had a few contacts that he said he would show the flyer to. He called one while we were there who knew that the "TA" in the plate number meant that the car was originally registered in Lincoln county (where Davenport is) and there was only one Ford dealer in the county back then, in Davenport, so we had found it's home. Today the dealer called me with the original owners name! He showed my flyer to an old timer who recognized the car and then he gave me the owner's grand-daughters phone number!!!! Can't wait to give her a call and see what she has!
I'm having a similar problem trying to trace a bit of history on mine. Word of mouth through previous owners says it was built in a shop in Ohio, but that's as far as I got. I don't care much about the original owner, but I'd love to talk to the guy who chopped it. He did the most incredible job I've ever seen.
In 1996 I came home from the NSRA nats wanting to build a coupe. The next day I find an ad in the local paper. 1930 Ford coupe for sale $3,000 firm. I rush to see the car and bought it from the woman who was the second owner and bought it for $75 when she was 17 years old. It sat in her garage for 50 years and she asked me not to cut it up. So I gave her my word and took this rust free complete coupe home. I built a rod with A/C, pro street full fender but not chopped. Finished in 2003 I drove it back to her house to show her the car completely done. She cried in joy and loved her ride in her old car and thanked me for not cutting it up.
I don't know about Washington, but Oregon DMV wont give out information concerning owner's names and addresses. What they will do is forward a letter to a previous owner's address for a fee. You have to contact a local DMV office, and they will look up the info on a previous owner. Then you make up a letter and leave it unaddressed. You pay DMV to send that letter to the previously known address, or if they have a newer address for that owner. I had a guy contact me this way about a car I sold 40 years ago, and although I had changed addresses several times they sent the letter to my present address.
Dang!!! Number's disconnected....but I have her name and she appears to still be in the area. I also have her kid's names so as a last resort I'll contact them
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