I am looking for some advice, I am restoring a 1969 Camaro and would like to trace it's origins back to the either the selling dealer or the original owner in an effort to obtain as much original documentation that may still exist. I have the title dating back to 1976 from the family I purchased the car from. Common sense would say ask them however, the husband of the family who was the true owner and enthusiast has passed therefore, any info he would have had is gone. I contacted GM historical services but their Chevrolet records do not date back to 1969. Next, this is an Illinois car so I contacted the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles to ask if a title search could be done for the Camaro's VIN. I was disappointed to hear the state no longer gives out personal information so the answer was "NO". I could use a little help here, keep in mind any build sheet data that may have been on-top of the fuel tank or under a seat is long gone. This car has been sitting outside for 20+ years not only has the fuel tank rotted but mice have invaded the interior. There are no dealer insignia emblems or stickers that may ID the selling dealer. I do have the VIN and build tag ID info and that's about it. Any one encountered a similar situation?
Thanks
Dan

 

yeah i had the same situation on my 68, and i'm afraid to say that your outta luck unless you can find anything that can point you in a direction. the guy i got my 68 from had the car willed to him and he didnt car for it. i also didnt have anything hiding because ive had my car torn apart. and even if your local dmv would give out info the wouldnt be able to because there records probabl dont go that far back. (they dont in oregon).

 

Camaroboy,
Thanks for sharing your experiences, I feel your pain. There seems to be no better method of tracking the down the history other than doing a lot of home work which means following up on word of mouth stories from people who may have been around the car back in the day. I am sure many other enthusiasts not only Camaro guys have encountered similar situations. I do have one thing going for me that is the car lived most of its early life in a small mid-western town in central Illinois where everyone knew everyone else's business. The prior owner was quite the hot rodder in his day so there is word of mouth history which is what I am trying to accumulate. If I can find the original selling dealer/owner there may be a small chance they retained some documentation. This car is a real 1969 RS/SS 375hp 396 4speed which condisering it's condition, amazingly enough I have the original drive train for. The original 396 was in another Camaro the original M22 was out of the car but I got it all back. I figured I went through the effort to do all that why not get try to obtain some documentation. By the way, nice cars...I have the twin to your 68 in my garage right down to the grotto blue and white nose paint scheme.

Thanks
Dan

 

very nice yeah i was trying to track down any documentation because i am 95% sure that my camaro is a L30/M20 camaro because i still have the orginal 327/275hp and m20 along with the factory 12 bolt, multi-leaf rear springs and also the little brake porpotioning valve that was only on the L30/M20 cars. but my problem is the only way to verify the car is to have documentation because there is no different marking that prove it. but good luck with your 69 i think its awsome you went and found all the original motor nd tranny. i just got lucky with mine and it still all there.

 

Have you checked for a buildsheet? I'm a 67 guy, perhaps somebody else knows if they are under the back seat bench or where they are located on a 69.

 

Shevrolet,
I did check for the build sheet however, it is gone. If it happen to be there that'd been the crown jewel to a great start start of documnet collection. It's a shame better records were not maintained throughout the years by GM guys like us would go crazy to have it on hand.

 

ive heard rumor that they put them on the inside of the headliner . but i dont know how true that is.
also a lot of the recoreds were burned in a fire and then thrown out.

 

The head liner is still intact perhaps it is up there that would really be something. Regarding the fire, I want to say I've read similar stories stating there was a fire which destroyed many of GM's build records.