1967 Corvette 427; Lost Documentation/Paperwork

Do you want the missing paperwork/documentation for your collector car?

Way back when I had a 1967 Corvette 427, 4-speed, side exhaust, radio delete car that was unbelievably fast. At the time is was just a two year old car. I loved the car. I drove it on long trips, I drove it every day. I raced it, I showed it. It nearly killed me a couple of times but it was just too much fun. It was like an amusement ride, strangers would ask for rides.

Mine was green with a white stinger and was in Des Moines, Iowa. Anyone know where it is today? The last time I saw it was at a car show in Vet’s Auditorium where it had been slightly customized and repainted in a candy green if I remember correctly.

As all good things come to an end, I traded it in on a new 1970 Z28 Camaro, another car I truly loved, but that’s a story for another day.

When I took the Vette to the dealer to trade it in the owner’s manual and plastic Protecto Plate (warrantee plate) stayed on a shelf in my garage. That stuff was just stupid worthless junk by that time. It had no real use or purpose. Since then I have moved a bunch of times. I moved from Iowa to California and then to Tennessee. It always made the move until the last one. What was I thinking?

I kept thinking someday the owner of that car will want these and I will give them to him. Oh, like that is really going to happen. Did I really think someday I will be sitting at home watching reruns of Green Acres and some Corvette fanatic in Idaho will call and say I hear you have my owner’s manual and Protecto Plate? During the last move, I was cleaning my garage shelves and seeing box after box of car stuff and those items looked like the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. I tossed them!

I would have gladly given these, now valuable, documents to the current owner but how? This is a real problem. Since the televising the Barrett Jackson Auctions and other on TV everyone is aware of the importance of paperwork and prominence. How many of you ever heard of “prominence” in relationship to a car until you heard it on TV. I thought it was that white cheese you put on your salad.

I am sure most of you other gear heads have similar weird stuff that has no use to you, but would be treasured by only one other person in the world. I know the guy who now owns my old 1967 Corvette would love to have those two items, but how would I find him even if I did still have them? I would gladly just put them in the mail and send them to the person, but who is he?

Do you have any ideas or suggestion on how to find the current owner of a car you once owned? How about if you own a car and want to find the previous owners and ask if they have any old documentation? Today’s privacy laws make it nearly impossible, or is it? Speak up if you have any proven suggestions. Send your ideas to rfleener@comcast.net.