My wife decided to do some Sandy-like detective work and found the phone number of the original owner of the Vista and contacted him today. Must of been a slow day at work.
She talked to his wife but he was right by the phone, older couple, it was his car and he didn't let her or the kids drive it and made sure to let it be known.
She asked them how many times the odometer turned over and they were 100% sure it never did, so the car only has 51,700 miles on it.
Explains some things, I just thought he took realy good care of some parts. It was still a tired car when I got it, rode hard and put away wet... a lot.

He drove it to work sometimes and used it for family vacations, He sold the car in 1990 to the guy's son I got it from and bought a truck, still driving that truck.
The short daily trips are what sludged out the engine for sure.
They were very happy to hear the car is in good hands and amazed that it's actually in car shows.
They don't have any old pics , said they're kids may have some with it in the background and would check into it.

 

That is so cool!!! How did your wife track them down? Are they local, or at least in the same part of the world?
John

 

That is really cool

 

That's pretty cool , you should send him some photos of the car now that you have had some work done to it.They might be suprised at how well it's being cared for now.

 

I have the original paperwork and protecto-plate. I guess my wife did a web search and found the phone number, same number since 1958.
The car was sold new at Burch Oldsmobile in Alhambra and they live in Los Angeles, same address.
I bought the car from the guy's father that found it parked on the street for sale out there, bought it then had it shipped to his father's house in Wisconsin as a father-son project to re-create the same blue on blue Vista their family had in the 70's. His dad told me he found some year W30 and forgot about the Vista, so it sat in the heated garage for 15 years. He got tired of waiting and was selling the house to retire to AZ so he sold the car without telling the "kid" who is probably my age/old. I found it listed on the local Olds club web site, he had it listed by a buddy with a computer machine here in Ohio.
The son got my number from his mom somehow and called me about a week after the car was dropped off by the transporter, he was a little upset to say the least and really wanted the car back.
Tough luck, he should have been nicer to dad.

 

See... I'm good for something, lol!! That's great! I hope you luck out like I did, and get lots of info and stuff to show with the car!

 

Cool Blue

I actually know the original owner of my 69 442 drop top.