I read all the time about how people find the original owners to their cars but never really give too good of details about how they do it...

Can someone enlighten me please about how to go about this?

 

Any old, original paperwork or receipts in the glovebox, folders that you got with the car, etc.?

Did you ask the person you bought a car from who they bought it from? It's plain detective work to work backwards. Once you get a name and town, start Gooling like crazy. Send out some emails, letters, etc. Maybe you get an answer, maybe you don't.

I just found the first two owners of my W31 based on a 1973 warranty transfer slip that was in the folder of info that came with the car. I Googled the names associated with towns within 50 miles of where the dealership was, and fired out a couple letters. After 40+ years the guys could be dead, moved away, etc. but I got lucky.

I also had some names and towns on 40 year old receipts that came with my 1972 442 back in 2000. After no luck when I first bought the car, I recently went on Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites to search. One of the owners from mid-70s to mid-80s got back to me via LinkedIn and told me about the guys who owned it before him and after him. Like I said, it's simple, persistent detective work. ; )

Good luck!
Terry

 

It requires legwork and a lot of luck. Keep in mind that the documents for these cars were not computerized and were usually held at local or state DMV offices. Due to the cost of storage, they were usually purged after a specified number of years. If the number of owners is small and they were all in the same general area, your odds of success are much better. If you have a car with ownership gaps and multi-state history, good luck.

 

X2 on above. I love doing it. It literally took me 22 years to track down the original owner of my Rallye 350. My W-30, I located the original owner but can not locate the second owner. When I took my W-30 apart I saved every single piece of paper I could find in the car. I found a name tag with a business name in the W-30. After alot of research on the net i could not find anything. I tried the old fashioned 411 on the phone and BINGO! It turned out to be the original owners wife. I later found a registration in the owners manual with his name on it from 1971.

If no papers can be found you can only go by the previous owners word. For a fee some states have a process to look up previous owners that they have on record. It is a long process. They have to mail a letter to them to see if they are willing to talk to you. If they say no you are out the fee and don't get to find out there contact info.

 

As Joe said, if the car stayed local to an area and had few owners it is much easier. I was able to trace mine with registrations found in the glove box for the two owners previous to the man I bought from. If approximate sale dates are available you might get lucky searching local classified archives from the newspaper or "Trading Post" type publications.

 

I don't care to say how many hours I spent looking for the original owner of a 69 Ramrod. I talked to old mechanics from the dealership, parts guys from the dealership, salesmen from the dealership, the motor vehicle office and dozens of old street racers from back in 69. No luck but still haven't really given up. Springs coming...June I think and I'll hit the car shows and area cruise nights. A car from an area dealer that apparently just disappeared from our small town.

 

Here in Ontario, Canada for a $25 fee u can get a Vehicle Information Package(VIP) from the DMV. All u do is provide the VIN.
It lists all the owners of vehicle dating back to 1973.
It also states if there is any liens on the vehicle as well.
Great tool to find ex owners!

Derek(Dick)

 

Protec to plate had an address and name on it.....turned out the mother and son still lived at that address
Build sheet allowed me to trace the company who had ordered the car originally.....the owner of which was still alive...got his number by googling name of company that still existed...and his relative who works for it gave me the original owners home number.

I lucked out with both these car's tracing their history...

 

I had a title search done on my 73 442 about 15 years ago. My state pretty much won't do them for the public anymore so I'm glad I did it back then. I was able to contact the original owner (the car stayed in the region since new). I talked with him on the phone and got some information about the history of the car. He was a nice enough guy, but I got the feeling he didn't really care his old car was still around and all restored. Oh well.

For my 74 H/O W30, I got really lucky and got connected with the owner of the original selling dealership (Lubik Olds in Bordentown, NJ). He still had some handwritten sales records of my car and photocopied them and sent them to me! From there, I searched the name of the original owner. Two different people in the region where the car was sold new came up. One led me to a disconnected phone number, and the other was a party that couldn't help me. So far no luck in tracking down the original owner.

 

I got lucky and all I had to do was google the guys name on the warranty info I found in the glove box. His last name is german and only 1 in the registry and still had the same land line for the last 50 years lol. Gave him a call and he lived in the same town he purchased the car which was only 70 miles away so i drove up and had a 2 hour talk and he still save all the original parts from the resto 20 years ago.

 

The one thing I hope the OP is getting from all of these stories is, 1) there is no single way to go about finding the original or any previous owner, and 2) there's no guarantee of success. Doesn't mean it's not worth the try, though.


This is another aspect of this that people searching for prior owners need to keep in mind. Just because YOU want to find them doesn't mean that they want to be found. Be ready to respect their privacy if they seem reluctant or uncomfortable in making the contact. Especially when you consider that anyone who might have bought one of these cars new in the '60s or '70s might very well be quite elderly now.

 

Nope, i have high hopes of getting this done

JK but i will look into these things

 

I was fortunate to actually talk to the guy in 1984 when I purchased the car from him. He was a traveling salesman and he told me the car had a 350 in it. It was obvious it was a big block so I checked the numbers on the motor and they matched so it was obviously the original 400. He told me that gas had gotten so expensive that he had his daughter using it for school transportation for the past couple of years. He had just purchased a K-car for his daughter so the 442 had to go. They were eager to get rid of it. Little did he know that gas was coming down in price. I hope my little story isn't too far off topic, perhaps it would make a good thread. Why did the previous owner sell the car to you? Just a thought, I feel like I am too new to start a thread with something other than a technical question.
Cheers

 

I also got lucky and was gifted the original owner when I looked in the glove compartment of my delta. In the original vinyl wallet with all the original Olds' paraphernalia was the dealer new vehicle waranty card, duly filled out by the dealer who sold the car, and the first owner who ordered the car in '73. Also there was the registration card of the last registered owner who also lived in the same town.
The car was bought from there too, Powers, OR. in 2005 by the guy who imported it into Oz and then by me. I would like to think they still have fond memories of the car but I have no plans to contact them.

Sometimes you can get lucky.

I've just done a write up on the car here;
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...australia.html

 

If you have a name and address, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to send them a letter. Nothing wrong with that, and it's a much less intrusive way of contacting them than by phone or in person (which is not likely in your case, anyway). They can either respond to the letter or ignore it.

I tried to find the original owner of a '75 Delta 88 I owned back in the '90s. After some searching and sleuthing, I had three names and addresses as possibilities. I sent them all letters. One responded quickly and in a very friendly way to tell me he wasn't the guy, and he wished me luck. The other two never replied. All the addresses were in Florida, and I was in Ohio, so I wasn't likely to go knocking on their doors, anyway.

I never did track down the original owner.