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General Discussion / Re: My story and why to not give up looking.
« on: January 29, 2024, 06:36:42 PM »
That's a much-needed cool story and very similar to mine although mine hasn't had the happy ending yet. Back when I bought my 68Z in 1985, you could run a "body file" thru the DMV and even at my young high school age I knew to do this. I had the original owner's name but could never get a current address or ph#. I knew the car was originally from Mac Mulkin Chevy, I knew who the 3rd owner was (more on the original owner later). I was able to track down the 3rd owner, but he would never answer the phone or even the door when I made the trip to his house. I later found out he was very sick and had passed away during the time frame I was attempting to contact him one day when his son answered the phone. The son had many memories of the car when he was very young and told me his dad towed it down from NY with a blown engine (the original which I received with the car). As a child he would sit in the car and pretend to drive it behind his house. He only had memories to share. I learned the 2nd owner drag raced it in the early to mid 70's till it dropped a valve and parked it. Unfortunately, the 2nd owner's name and address on the body file paperwork was not definitive due to bad microfiche copies thru out the years and left me many possible variations of both. As of today, I still have not had any luck with him. The worse part of my journey is with the original owner, I know his name and have a his facebook profile although it's not used, I've attempted to contact him countless times with every way imaginable except either myself or someone else knocking on his door. He absolutely has not responded. I've reached out to numerous relatives and had no luck until one day his son reached out to me. I was thrilled after a couple conversations with him. I learned he was actually driven home from the hospital in the car, what his dad did for a living, that his mom at the same time drove a 67 Chevelle SS (sounds like an awesome car family) and that the mother and father had divorced, he spoke with his mother, and she still had several pictures from when it was new and many stories she would share. He also agreed to try and get his father to reach out to me. I told him how appreciative I was and that I would love to speak to either or both of them thru any way they felt comfortable with including with me flying to the Northeast to do so in person over dinner. We left off with him saying he would be in touch but since that conversation he has not responded back to me. I get it that some people are just not "people persons" per say but at the same time I don't get that they wouldn't like to help preserve the part of history they were involved in. I believe anyone who bought a 67 or very early 68 Z28 did so because they knew how special the program was and would definitely be a big gearhead. I really like the idea of using craigslist that you mentioned, I think I'm going to try that and hope for a car guy friend of this obvious car guy owner would help in my quest. It is frustrating to be so close but just not being able to get there and I have really slowed in my persistence, but your story has made me want to (and I will) keep up the fight, thanks for sharing