do you know the history of your car?

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7demon2

7demon2

Registered User #1824
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i was just wondering if anybody here has tried to look up the history of their car? i have done so and found out alot of cool and sad information. i was able to actually speak to some of the owners on the telephone. my car has been in 6 states! now i have the whole history of my car with documentation. one of the previouse owners just sent me an old picture of the car to show what it looked like when he had it. so what about it anybody else here done this? share some of what you have found if you did.



here is mine from back around 1990....

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well i got lucky when i got mine. i found a coulpe of clues in the car as to some of it's history. i found 2 NC. inspection stickers in the glove box from 1994. they had a persons name on them with an address. i thought maybe they are still around. i called the operator and asked if they had a listing for them at this address. she said yes and gave me the number. this turned out to be the third owners brother! i later contacted NC dmv and did a complete title history search ($10.00). i got back a folder with a photocopy of every title the cat had ever had while in the state of north carolina.

this is the only current picture i have of the car now. as you can see some changes have been made to it before i got it. white top is now dyed black as you can see. wing is also been painted black. i found out the wing is a dealer install from 74...

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you could start with the state you are in now and try to do a title history on it there. see how far it goes back. you may find that it has never been in another state....
 
Have been lucky with the present Duster. All the way back to the second owner. He is not on good terms with the orignal owner to get more info.
He repainted it the green. The orignal didn't like that. He liked the orignal
B5 blue. I'm glad he painted it Sassy Grass Green. Was able to talk with him
this past weekend at a show near by. Gave me a lot of info.
History of a car adds that much more to the value. Not price wise.
 
i agree with you on the history adding value. sometimes it can lead to some cool findings. i had a button on the bottom of the drivers side that went to nothing. i often wondered what it was for. i found out the other day it was for a genral lee horn! it was taken off somewhere down the line before i got it but a cool fact none the less.

briankaplan have you been able to talk to the original owner at all?
 
I bought my GTS convertible from the second owner in 1983. He bought it in 1970. This gave me most of the history, but one day I was looking through the original owner's manual. It listed the original owner's name (who I have never been able to locate) and when/where it was first sold. That's where the story gets interesting. The car had a SPD of 8/28/67, but was first sold in May 1969 from Northwestern Dodge in Detroit. Bruce, the second owner, bought it in Feb 1970 from Van Ness Dodge in San Francisco.

My 89 Turbo GTC convertible (one of 906 built) has an interesting history, too. I don't know how many owners between the first and me (based on the story I was given there were probably two, maybe three), but the first owner lived about a mile south of me on the same street, but you can't get there straight (there's railroad tracks in the way).
 
I have a 1969 Dart Swinger 340 and I got it from the original owner,I tried to buy it many years ago but he would not sell me the car.I was on the internet one day last year and there it was for sale.I immediately made the purchase and now she resides in MY garage.

Bobby
 
the third owner of my car died from cancer while he still owned it. it was willed to his dad (oddly enough, as he had an older brother) to be kept in the family. he kept it for 7 years shut away from sight. the older brother cleaned it and took care of it. then one day the father decided to sell it to the fourth owner. he got it and got alot of grief from buying it. (older brother never had a chance to buy it ) this is because it was being looked at by a friend of the family who sold another car, and a boat to try to buy it. he was too late getting back with the money though. the fourth owner then hid it away for another 5 years. he then sold it after putting about 7 thousand miles on it in 7 years. oddly enough the forth owner told me that in 1977 he had seen the car for sale in town on a car lot. he said he would have bought it then, but he didn't have the money for it as he had just gotten married. price at the time was $1800.00. 15 years later he owned it....
 
so what about it.... anyone else know their car's history or something about it?
 
When I bought my 69 383-S fastback in 1987, I found the original owners name in the back of the warranty card. I called information and he lived about 45 minutes from me. Turns out he had a super 8 video of the car when it was brand new. He sent me a VHS tape of it. I also have the window sticker, broadcast sheet, and fender tag for the car.
Rod
 
sure have some history of my car :)
it was sold new here in sweden in 1973 with some strange options that is obvius from looking at the broadcastsheet i have
it have been streetraced since 74 when the first 318 blew up i have been told, so its a mirracle that the car has not been cut up and built into a racecar..
the car whas put away in a barn in 1987 and came out on the street again in 2001
every time the car have changed owners it has had a 318 but it seems like almost every owner has put a 340 in it actualy the same 340 has been in it with alot of diferent ( i know where that 340 is and i have spoken to the owner of it and i am working on getting a good price on it)
car has been timed by a policeoficer at one point doing over 270 km/h (about 168 mph) with a 340 and that owner said the car had more in it when he was stopped...
i am the 22th owner of the car
car have only been repainted once from the original ralley red with black stripe package to the white paint with blue stripes it has now and that repaint was done in 1981
looking for more info but i have not been able to locate anyone that has owned the car before 81 but i have spoken with alot of people that remembers the car from the 80´s
 
rklein383 said:
Turns out he had a super 8 video of the car when it was brand new. He sent me a VHS tape of it. I also have the window sticker, broadcast sheet, and fender tag for the car.
Rod
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man how cool is that!
 
duster340 said:
i am the 22th owner of the car
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man that is a hot potato car.....

duster340 said:
car has been timed by a policeoficer at one point doing over 270 km/h (about 168 mph) with a 340 and that owner said the car had more in it when he was stopped...
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ahh now i see..... it is not a hot potato.. it is just too fast to hold onto for very long j/k! :thumbup:

duster340 said:
but i have spoken with alot of people that remembers the car from the 80´s
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man with it moving around so much it is no wonder! very interesting indeed!
 
duster340 said:
car has been timed by a policeoficer at one point doing over 270 km/h (about 168 mph) with a 340 and that owner said the car had more in it when he was stopped...
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I've heard this story more than once before about different cars. All I can say is that it is VERY UNLIKELY. I'd have to see the ticket personally.........
 
sounds like somebody is jealous jim... anyways my girlfriends scamp was my first car. I inherited it from my brother when he bought a truck. He rescued this car from his highschool autoshop. We have no idea how long it was at his school for, but he bought it for like 150 in 97?? It had a 225, but will soon have a 360 crate!
 
the history of my car is that it is a one owner car that my dads friend bought it brand new in 1969 and special ordered it.he said that the dealership said that it was the only cuda like that to go through them. he then used it for 1/8 mile drags and the dealership wanted to sponsor him but he turned it down and then he drove it to 77' becuase of having open heart surgery and then my dad boguht it off of him after someone started to vandilize at his aparment in staten island. we have all paper work for the car and old regis and documents and the fender tag,except for the buildsheet that got robbed
 
i am the third owner of my car. first owner my great grandmother, second owner my mother. Been parked for the last 19-20 years.
 
Realest said:
i am the third owner of my car. first owner my great grandmother, second owner my mother. Been parked for the last 19-20 years.
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sounds like some real sentimental value there. it would be hard to part with a car like that.....
 
Well... some very very cool stories. I might as well tell mine.

One day me and my mom was coming home from the dentist and I saw this old green car sitting in this persons yard. I told mom to stop and turn around. She said... oh no you saw another Chevelle... because I have been searching for a Chevelle for over 7 years... sorry guys but Chevelles have a special meaning to me. Anyways... we turned around and I said to mom that I thought it might be a Scamp... we pulled into the guys drive way and I took a quick look at the car then knocked on the guys door a few times. He answered and after a few words I asked was the green car in the back forsale and what was it. He said well... it isnt offical but I will take 200 for it after telling me some details about it. I was in shock and asked him to repeat it hahaha. I told my mom and she said lets go home and think about it. It was 2 weeks before Christmas. I went home and got on the internet and started looking up parts for it. I didnt even own the car and I was already looking up parts for it.

On Christmas morning there was a letter... with a 100 dollar money order in it and it was to me. Mom had gotten the car as a Christmas/Brithday present. I was turning 16 on January 8th... and that is the day we went there and got it. I was wearing shorts both times I talked to the owner and I think he sold it to me because he thought I was crazy. We loaded the car up and took it home on my Birthday and the whole time home I was having mild heart attacks because I thought the car would fall off or something terrible would happen.

The owner told me a few stories as the tower was loading the car up... first off he was the 2nd owner of it and bought it in the mid 70s. He worked for a newspaper company and he would have to travel for 3 hours one way and 3 hours back a day when he worked. But as most guys... his passion was going fast. He installed a 273 camshaft, some timing work, tunning of the carb, dual exhaust with glasspacks and installed a 727 transmission with a shift kit. He said that one night he took it at the top of the mountain of the road in front of his house and let her go... he claimed that it was in 2nd gear pushing 7000 rpms and the needle was ticking up and down on the 120mph on the speedo. He said it must have been going 150mph but it was running lean and so he did a lil more carb work and never ran since... shame... he also said he thinks he spun a main bearing when he did that.

Pretty wild story but it is a good one. Mom also said she would never buy a dodge product again... but she did get me this Dart so she is tops in my books all the time.
 
fantom said:
sounds like somebody is jealous jim...
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Nope. No jealousy at all. I've just heard the same story too many times and when you realize what it takes to get one of these cars up to that speed and STILL be stable you'll know what I'm talking about.
 
Jim Lusk said:
Nope. No jealousy at all. I've just heard the same story too many times and when you realize what it takes to get one of these cars up to that speed and STILL be stable you'll know what I'm talking about.
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well i partialy know what your talking about, when i just put the 340 in the car that it has know i only had 3.21:1 gears and 26" tall tires out back and one early summer morning on my way home after vissiting a girl who lives far away from mee i was driving the duster down the highway absolutely out in nowhere and with clear sight and absolutely no other cars as long as i could see came to one of these realy long straigth sections of the road when i just had to try the car..
from about 60 Mph i slam the pedal and the newly built 904 automatic kicksdown into first gear i can hear the 340 start roaring and that roar turns into screaming at 7200rpm when it upshifts i can feel the tires just sligtly loosing traction and now it realy starts accelerating it didnt take long befor i hit 7200rpm again and 3rd gear kicks in and i start to understand the mening of power because the 340 just keeps on accelerating but not as quick at this speed but i can still feel that there is lots of power in that 340 anyone that has tried this knows the feeling and all the sounds how a real highperformance V8 sounds when all that power has to bee there to still be able to accelerate a car at that speed i didnt let of until 7500rpm in top gear...

sure ther is some converter slipage so i cant tell exactly how fast i was moving that morning but it was moving very fast and the car was reasonably stable with fresh suspension parts and good tires i remember being all shaky after that experience there is alot of things going on and everything moves extermely fast at that speed... with no converterslip at all it would have been 290.96 Km/H wish is 180.80 MPH

Edit : dont try this at home
 
No way 180Mph, I am very skeptical. I would need to see a print out of that speed from a radar to beleive that. I think the fastest speed a street tire can do is only 220Km/h after that they tend to disinigrate.

It sounds like a guy a worked with who told me is uncle's 69 Camaro with a 454 went 400Km/H he said the needle went around three times, Ok there Champ!!
 
I have most of the history on my 68 340 S. Special ordered out of California by a guy in Oregon. At the time of its first resale in 1975 it had 28,000 miles and one repaint in the factory color. From 75 to 83 it was owned by a family in my town and used as a second car, by this time it had, had mopar rallies installed and had lost its AC compressor, along with the stock intake and AVS. Purchased by my friends dad in 83 it lost its 340 exhaust manifolds in trade for some head work. Resold in 86 from father to son for $3,500 the car had 56,000 and was stock minus the above items. Son decided he wanted to Drag race the car this is where the mods came in. Bolt in sub-frame connectors, roller rebuild, balance, polished stock rods, heavily ported and flowed original heads, removal of the rest of the AC (replaced by standard heater), hurst to replace the Inland shifter, scatter shield, BBP conversion, and after several failures of the 8 3/4 a Dana 60 was slid in. From 86 to 05 the car had seen under 1000 road miles and was now running just under 12 to 1 compression and high 11s in the 1/4 (on slicks). Car was retired from track duty when a safety cage became an issue. At the time of my purchase in 05 the car still looked very stock except for the wheels and the Hurst shifter. The 75 repaint was very nice and still presents well. Along with the car I got all the parts that were removed from 83 to 05 (including the SBP KH disk brakes, 8 3/4, 3.23 rear, all AC parts minus the compressor, Inland shifter and one stock wheel with firestone redline. Thanks to Hubcaps.com, Ebay, and coker tire the car now looks like a very nice 59,000 original car. To get the look I just needed tires, wheels and hub caps, the interior was never modified except for the shifter so I only had to reattach the Inland. Im up in the air on where Im going now. I have all the correct parts now (4424s AVS, intake, exhaust manifolds with correct date codes) but have only installed the exhaust. Now the best time for the car on E70 14 tires is a 13.2 @ 105 and I should get it into the 12s when I learn to get it off the line (I only have 8 passes in the car).
 
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