I owned and restored 69 H/O number 74 in the late 70s and sold it to a guy in Quebec in 1980. I've owned a lot of cars over the years but that was one I always regretted selling. I'd be interested to know what happened to the car and if anyone has any information about it.

 

Good luck in your search.

 

nice car, what part of Illinois were you from. Do we even want to know what you sold it for back then?

 

Have you tried contacting the H/O club ?

http://www.hurstolds.com/

 

I'll tell the whole sad story: I lived in Roselle, IL southwest of Chicago. Back in the late 70s used muscle cars were plentiful and pretty much worthless. I had just sold a 1970 Buick GS455 Stage 1 for $1750 and had made a $500 profit so I was feeling pretty good. I picked up #74 in 1978 and don't have any record of what I paid for it although I seldom paid more than $1000 for cars in those days. It was in bad shape with a 68 H/O style silver and black paint job, trashed interior, wrong rear end and wrong wheels but it was pretty solid, ran good, and had all the other major H/O parts. I knew it was a rare car so I joined OCA and got educated before I started working on it. You could still get most parts from the dealer then so I got new bumpers, diecast chrome, etc. Hurst was still in business and they supplied new emblems plus copies of original promotional stuff and paint code info. I wound up finding a lot of stuff from parts cars in the area and I bought two parts cars myself, one just to get a correct set of H/O chrome wheels. Back then I did everything myself in my Roselle 2-car garage including the paint job, a buddy in OCA with an original car gave me all the stripe measurements. I was real happy with it when it was done but it was too nice to drive much and I needed the money so I sold it for $5500 which was a fortune! I made a pretty good profit and moved on to the next car. Of course we all know what they are worth today! " If only I saved all those cars and put them in warehouse I would be rich today" - - how many times have we heard that. I do think about #74 often though as one of the top four musclecars I wish I still had, so I'm hoping someone can bring me up to date.

 

Definitely do this! If you know it was Demmer car #74 it should be in the registry and might have an owner's name. It might not have the latest owner's name but it will be a place to start. Keep us posted if you find out.

 

wow, actually 5500 was a ton of money, who would have known. I was looking for cars left and right around that time and any "real" muscle car in the Chicago area was either over-priced or just beat to heck. I settled on a 72 Supreme. Of course we all wish we still had those special cars back or that opportunity to spend what was $500 too much back then for GS455 or a W30. The extra 500 was sometimes 50% more than what we had available to us. That's cool that you got so many parts from the dealers, by 1985 it seemed impossible to find any parts I needed for the Cutlass at the dealer.

 

Thanks, I will check it out.

 

The four cars I wish I still had were the GS, the H/O, a 1967 Plymouth 440 GTX, and a 1970 Plymouth AAR Cuda with the 340 Six Pack. I went the "beat to heck" route with all of them and built three of them back with a buttload of hard work. I had a bunch of Oldsmobiles in the early 80s and bought so many parts from my local dealer they set me up with a jobber account! I wish I would have had some spare cash to stock up on NOS parts while they still existed...

 

I have contacted the Hurst OCA and have sent an e-mail to their 69 H/O advisor, I'll let you know what happens.

 

The advisor from the Hurst OCA, Kurt Karch, got back to me recently. He told me #74 was originally shipped to Rodman Oldsmobile in Highland Park, IL. He did not have recent ownership info but he had met the Canadian owner back in 2008 at a show. The car was still in Quebec, possibly with the same man I sold it to in 1980. Back in 2008 it had been disassembled for a restoration but apparently the owner loved chrome and he had chromed the entire undercarriage, rear end, etc. for show car use. That was all he had, I wonder if it was ever finished and what it looks like today?