Hey guys, I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction. Back in 93 at the age of 19, I bought a 1969. I spend every penny on it and enjoyed every bloody knuckle minute of it. Anyways, around 1998 life got in the way and I sold it. Same old story... I just checked my local RMV website and my VIN was still listed there. Do any of you guys have an idea of how to do a search to see if I could find what ever happened to the car? I started with Google but no joy. All I remember is the guy who bought it was from Iowa. He drove out to MA and rented a Ryder truck and car trailer and towed it home. Then a few years later, I get a call from a guy in NC or SC (I think...). He wanted to know if I ever owned a 69. We got to talking and he bought it from a dealer in FL who got it from my buyer. Apparently, he never registered it so the title was still in my name... and that's how the new guy found me. That said, he told me he bought it to fix up and paint silver for his 16 year old son who just got his license. That was quite the leap of faith in my opinion as I had the car built to run. It had a SBC 400 that was on the edge of extreme (for back then) and a 140 shot of nitrous. It ran high 11's in the quarter. Anyways, that's my story. I see where folks find long lost cars based on a VIN search but I have no idea where to start...


The VIN is 124379N690479. Here are the only pics I have left...

 

Here we go again,we get these pretty often and few ever find their old car
It's a daunting if not impossible task even if the car still exists which given it's age and years gone by is a big if.
The Papa Johns story,he spent years looking and even had a $250,000 reward.
https://www.courier-journal.com/stor...-28/799514002/
Best advice given here is usually build a tribute car but if you must find it I'd suggest contacting car clubs especially Camaro clubs and put feelers out on Camaro webpages especially on the likes of Facebook pages in your area.
Good luck to you,I had a '69 I'd love to have back as well but life is short and I don't have the time or resources for it.

 

Yep, I didn't think it would likely happen and like you, I probably couldn't afford it even if I found it. I was more curious about where it ended up. I considered doing a similar build but at today's pricing, that likely won't happen either. I've got a 1970 GTO in the garage that I'm currently playing with instead. Anyways, that's for the well wishes. If I decide to build another at some point, I'm sure I'll be around here looking for advice there too.....

 

Just a little follow up in case anyone is in my situation in the future and finds this thread. There are some great lost car groups on FB and within 24 hours of joining a couple and searching my VIN, I found a decent VIN search site that for $3.50 found my car.... sort of. I at least have its current location. It went from me to Iowa in 98. Then to IL in 09. Then to WI in 17 and just got a new owner in WI again April of 23. I don't have a name yet but I'm still searching with a bit of hope...

 

Wow that's amazing,good luck to ya!

 

Links? would be nice to have that in a sticky.

I have seen those sites before, I assumed they where scams since the privacy act. I guess they get away with it by not posting name? I assume you do not get an address either?

 

The site is Check That VIN They use national NMVTIS info but doesn't go back forever. I was able to see the last 4 title events but could not see the 5th one back in MA which would have been mine. You are correct that you don't get a name or address. Just a title history by state and it would also show if the car was ever totaled, flooded, shipped out of country etc. If you go to the website, click the "What's in a report" and it will show all the details of what potentially will come up.

As to the main FB group for finding lost cars, it's called the Lost Muscle Cars group. Lots of stories there...