rcorrigan5

I just found out a great thing that goes on in Oregon, regarding the history of a car if it was ever titled and licensed in Oregon. They have quite an archive of information and they will dig it up and send it to you for $22.50!

Here's the web site: http://www.odot.state.or.us/forms/dmv/49.pdf. Be sure to request to search the purged records for info. The mailing address is right on the form.

I knew the story on my '68 4-4-2 convertible from the time it was 11 months old to now. What I didn't know was what happened during its first 11 months. Now I know. The car was a Zone 25 (Portland, OR) "Brass Hat" for about 3 months. "Brass Hat" cars were driven by Zone managers before they were sent out to dealerships and usually sold at a pretty good price because they were considered "used" (previously owned by the Olds Division of General Motors). After 3 months as a "Brass Hat", the car then went to a dealership in my home town, where I know the dealer's wife drove it around town (small town!) for the next 8 months before my parents bought it. The fact that it was owned by the Olds Division of GM, and then the dealership, is documented in the paperwork I got, complete with dates and copies of the titles. When my parents bought it, though, their names and address were blotted out (privacy act stuff) but their birthdates were both left intact (as well as the purchase date and copy of the title) so I know that's when my parents bought the car.

The picture that appears to the side of this thread is me waxing my parents' car the day after they bought it!

Pretty neat stuff if you are interested in the history of your car and it existed at one time in Oregon!

Randy C.

jaunty75

Very cool. Not a bad price, either.

It's kind of interesting to see that they will actually tell you the names of the former owners. I sometimes wonder if that information would be withheld by some states because of privacy laws.


P.S. I like how your car is white if you look at it from the rear but yellow if you look at it from the front.

Lady72nRob71

Another nice reason to live in Oregon.
John, time to get the histories of your fleet!
Yes, I can see privacy laws attacking this soon....

My car does this too - mainly the angle and color of the sun.
In shade, Lady in white. In the sun she is yellower/golder/oranger.
She looks best basking in a warm golden sunset!

jaunty75

Having said what I said above, I still wonder sometimes. Lots of aspects of our lives are public. Births and deaths are public events. Anyone can go to the courthouse and find out who was born or who died on a certain day or when so-and-so was born or died.

Land ownership is certainly public as well. Anyone can go to the county recorder's office or whatever it's called in their area and find out who owns a particular piece of land and what they paid for it. Heck, my county's office has that info online. Just type in an address and find out who owns it and its appraised value.

When land is sold, the names of the buyer and seller and the price paid are published in the local newspaper under "land transactions." In my local paper, there is a weekly listing of these.

I would think that registration of a vehicle to be driven on a public highway would fall more towards the open record side of things. But I don't know.

jaunty75

In looking at his photos, I'm wondering if, in this case, we're not just looking at photos taken on two different days with perhaps different exposure settings or, as you say, different sky conditions.

rcorrigan5

Yes, two different photos, one taken in 2008 with the SSI wheels and one taken recently with the wire wheel covers so the car looks like what the window sticker said the car came with. I like the SSI look much better, but I also want the original look, too.

The only reason I got the actual name and address of the first owners is because the car was owned by a corporation and then a dealership (not private people), so their names (Olds Division of General Motors and then Murphy Motors) and addresses (zone office address in Portland OR and dealership address in Coos Bay OR) were not blotted out on the copies of the titles the Oregon DMV sent to me. When the car was sold to my parents, however, the copy of the title I got from Oregon had my parents' names and address blotted out. The only way I know that title belonged to my parents is that Oregon DMV did not blot out my parents' dates of birth.

So, if your previously Oregon-titled car had private owners, their names and addresses will be blotted out.

Randy C.

jaunty75

Interesting and not surprising. It's too bad because the point of doing these searches is often precisely TO find out the names of prior owners, especially the first owner, to try to get more info about the car. But I can see not wanting to have complete strangers calling you on the phone asking you about a car you haven't owned in 30 or 40 years.

madwagon56

i just posted on here about this very thing, you used to be able to get the title searches with all the names of previous owners, a good friend of who is a dealer just got my title search and it has the previous titles names ect clear back to day one, all of the people who owned it in oregon, lucky for me it never left the state. i have since talked to the original owner and the second ownerof my 66 tri power car.

73aussie455

Old thread I know, but Randy do you think this would work for my Delta88?
It is from Oregon and spent all its licensed life there.

rcorrigan5

I'm sure it will work. Fortunately for cars that originated in Oregon, their Dept. of Motor Vehicles has kept some pretty good records. If you mail in the info, they will surely have any info of the car being registered in Oregon. Just keep in mind, though, that the names and addresses of the private owners will be blotted out.

Best Regards,
Randy C.

PS: Pictures below are of my car at the Olds Nationals in Reno in July 2011 (white & green Washington State license plate now) and the other is when I had just washed my dad's car in March 1971 (blue &yellow original Oregon license plate then).

Centurion

Randy C., I'm curious which small town in Oregon was your home town.

I'm from Oregon originally, now living in Puyallup, WA. Both my collector cars are original Oregon cars, and, thankfully, I know the full history.

The GM dealership in my home town (Baker City, OR) has maintained records of all of its sales since 1936!

73aussie455

Thanks for the info, I've already printed and filled in the form!!!

I've been looking for a nice matching pair of '73 Oregon blue and yellow license plates to put on Delta when I take her out to car shows for that added bit of authenticity. Sure proving hard to locate. Do you know what years they used the same colours in the plates? Might have to look for some from a different year.

rcorrigan5

For Centuriun - I grew up in North Bend, OR, out on the coast next to Coos Bay. I was born in Salem but I don't remember any of that because my parents moved to North Bend in 1953 when I was only 2 years old. It's interesting that you are from Baker City! My brother (who lives in Toledo WA) and I follow our hometown high school football team and they've been real good these last few years. In early December 2012, North Bend played Baker City in Hillsboro for the state 4A championship and my brother and I went to the game. It was a real good game for 3 quarters but then Baker walked away with it in the 4th quarter, practically scoring at will. Final was Baker 52, North Bend 22.

For 73aussie455 - I see matching pairs of Oregon plates all the time at various swap meets. The good ones aren't cheap, though. I'm looking to move back to Oregon in the next year or so (Salem area) and I found a perfect pair for my car - pretty close to the original number of DCY 799 with an April renewal date that you see in the picture - but they were $100. I choked when I paid it but, with that close of number on the plates that I bought (DCX 217 with an April date on the plate) and I knew I most likely wouldn't find anything closer so I ponied up! For your car, the plate is the exact same design that you see in the picture on my car. But, with your car being sold in August, you would want a plate that starts with the letter H to be more authentic. I'm thinking the next letter would be around a G or so to make it even more authentic. If you are willing to wait awhile, I can look at future swap meets to see what I can find for you. Oregon plates of that era started with an A if they were issued in January, B for February, and so forth. They skipped I and went to J for September and finished with M for December, each year during that time.
So neat to meet you on this site!

Best Regards,
Randy C.

Centurion

Thanks, Randy. Salem's a great area; I'm a Willamette University grad, so have lots of affinity for the mid-Willamette Valley. Although I still have a couple of collector cars sold new in Oregon, I recently sold a third -- all original '59 Pontiac Star Chief that was sold new in Oregon City.

73aussie455

Thanks for that. I just had a look to see if the original plate number was on something with all the glovebox paperwork and wouldn't you know, turns out its HEJ 994 August renewal. Right there on the license paper of the last registered owner in Powers!
I'll take you up on that offer of looking for plates, if you dont mind Randy. As long as I cant find one first. Cheers mate.

rcorrigan5

I'll keep my eye out and let you know what I see. I'll look for something as close to HEJ 994 as I can get!

Randy C.