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Topic: Help on finding lost car.

in Forum: C3 General Discussion

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Help on finding lost car. (1/9)
1/21/13 9:34am

tig57
Former Member
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panama city, FL - USA

Vette(s):
82

Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 3

I am looking for my uncle's corvette that he sold in the late 80's early 90's. It has taken me years to get the Vin number to have something to work with. My question is does anyone have any idea's where the best place to start hunting this down. I have Googled the vin and searched several websites looking for an answer. I don't mind paying for a service to locate as long as they can come up with something. Being an 1980 model can't carfax or auto check it. I'm pretty sure the DMV will not help due to confidentiality reasons. If anyone can help point me in the right direction that would be great. I'm going to list it on the-lost-car-regitry but would love to have something quicker. Here is all I know about it. 1980 corvette black ext. tan interior, L48, 4 speed, was traded at a car lot (no longer there) in Panama city, florida around 87-90ish. Vin 1Z878AS434730. Also I have checked a couple of the registry forums and did not see it. Thank you, Kyle

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (2/9)
1/21/13 1:27pm

Adams' Apple

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Duncanville, TX - USA

Vette(s):
#1-1974 L-48 4spd Cp Med Red Metallic/Black deluxe int w/AC/tilt/tele./p/w-p/b/ Am-Fm/map light National/Regional/Chapter NCRS "Top Flight" #2-1985 Bright Red/Carmine Cp.L-98/auto Member: NCRS, NCRS Texas, Corvette Legends of Texas

Joined: 11/8/2003
Posts: 20128

If it has ever been registered here,it will show in the "C3 Registry Data", under the "Research" button at the top/left-ish of the page. Plug in the info you have, and it will pull up all cars registered here that fit your year requirement. From there, you can go thru the list and look for the specific VIN, assuming it was entered when the car was registered here.
Other than that, the only way I know of is to have the DMV do a search...which, as you say, they prolly won't do.
Good Luck finding it, anyway. Thumbs Up

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"Money can't buy happiness -- but somehow it's more comforting to cry in a CORVETTE than in a Kia"

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (3/9)
1/21/13 1:35pm

F4Gary

Gold Member
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Grapevine, TX - USA

Vette(s):
1972 LT-1 convertible with factory air.

Joined: 8/26/2006
Posts: 1409

An 80 with a 4 speed was kinda rare I think. Especially with that color combo.

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (4/9)
1/22/13 1:32pm

tig57
Former Member
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panama city, FL - USA

Vette(s):
82

Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 3

It will be a challenge. I did check the registry but no luck. That would have been too easy. I have done ton's of research and found out today it is still registered in Florida. I won't give up on this. Thanks for the post.

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (5/9)
1/22/13 1:35pm

tig57
Former Member
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panama city, FL - USA

Vette(s):
82

Joined: 1/20/2013
Posts: 3

With the 4 speed for sure. Not sure about the color combo but probably more black on black than black on tan. I'm going to find this car!

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (6/9)
1/22/13 4:33pm

tb2k82ce

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Lemon Grove, CA - USA

Vette(s):
1982 C3 Collectors Edition 44000 miles, sat in the sun most of its life, My wife purchased it for me for Father's Day in 2007 from her girlfriend that had it for 19 years. It is on the road again. I'm retired but it is now my daily driver.

Joined: 10/17/2007
Posts: 2041

I assume that you have check Florida laws and found that DMV records are considered private and sealed. Even if they are it is most likely the personal data that is considered sealed all other information should not be sealed. You need a reason other than you are looking for a specific car. The reason could be school research project on use of cars from a specific time period are they still on the road and what part of the state has the highest density.

Tell them it is for your Black Belt Project in statistical analysis. Look up "six sigma" on the internet if you want to know what is meant by Black Belt.

You have a better chance of getting the information if you ask for more than one year. I would ask for five or even ten years. Along with the Vin number I would ask for year, make, model, and color is available it really does not make any difference as most of what you ask for is smoke screen stuff anyway.

Running the material into an Excel spreadsheet or other database would sort the information out. I would also ask for city, county, Zip code, street (most likely will not get the street number) considering the freedom of information laws that apply.

Now if you want to get phone numbers ask for voter registration data for that ZIP code and you will get address and phone numbers as well as the standard voter registration information. Can you say cross reference the data. Now you may be able to man the phone and call around.

If you need some help with working the data let me know I'm better at that than I'm with cars. It is what I did for a living before I retired.

Again even with what may be considered private information for statistical analysis they strip out the private info and provide the rest. I would guess that most of the information tied to a cars registration is actually available with the exception of the owners personal information.

Just approach it as if it were a school project to ascertain number and types of old cars that seem to be in use. Make it like an environmental study it makes all of the Democrats happy and approach it as a Green friendly project.

Make sure to keep me posted on how things worked out who knows you may endup with the best list of current c3 owners and locations in Florida

|UPDATED|1/22/2013 1:33:40 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (7/9)
1/25/13 12:49pm

screamineagle96
Former Member
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St. Louis, MO - USA

Vette(s):
27 corvettes owned including the current 1969 conv. I have now. Most were C2s and C3s with a few C1s and a couple of C4s

Joined: 12/13/2012
Posts: 2

Hi, A couple of years ago I was looking for 2 69's that I owned in the past. I had a friend that was a Police officer. He ran the vin.s for me and gave me the info. One I found and the other I had the vin wrong and never found it. The big problem he faced, was if the car was stolen or something illegal was going on with it, he was only supposed to run a vin on a car that he was in sight of in case there was a problem, he was supposed to seize it on the spot. In other words, a cop can do it easily, but you would be asking him to stick his neck out a little.

Good luck finding it though.

John

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (8/9)
1/27/13 12:44am

lukesvette

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HOWELL, NJ - USA

Vette(s):
1979, Targa Blue (72 Color), Pace Car rear spoiler, L88 hood, Dark blue factory interior, 525HP 406, HD 700R4, 370 gears,Steeroids, composite rear spring, TT IIs wrapped in T/A Radials.

Joined: 5/18/2004
Posts: 6812

I plugged your VIN into Google and a VIN search vendor came up and shows the car in Marianna Fl for several years up to 2012.

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Re: Help on finding lost car. (9/9)
1/27/13 10:41am

manget1

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Indianapolis, IN - USA

Vette(s):
Silver 1974 Convertible - L82 4 speed Low miles (was only 8,900 when I bought it in March 2006) - Now 54K miles. Original owner bought it as an investment for son's college expenses. 2008 Jetstream Blue Convertible

Joined: 9/3/2006
Posts: 2418

What's the link to that search company? That's intriguing!

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