I recently joined the C3 Registry in an attempt to try and track down my fathers 74 Vette.

My father passed away from a heart attack 7 years ago from today,  long story made short,  I was born in '74 and the intent was the car was to always be mine.  My parents like so many after years of trying to make a marriage work, realized that parting ways was the best thing.  Of course the Vette was sold.  My dad later remarried, and began another chapter to his life, ...and one of the things couples do is create a will, it was written when I was 12 and he never changed it, he passed when I was 27.  I got his Air Force medals and not much more than that, his wife took literally everything else.  Like all sons at some point, you lock horns with your dad, and later in life we had pretty much ironed out our differences and had a good relationship.  I was his only child and I'm certain that the way things played out were not his wishes.  -I now feel the need to try and relocate the car.

I know that I am looking for "the needle in the haystack", but what I do remember my dad telling me about the car was

1) It was built in the first day of production, my mom has told me that the car's serial number was certainly below #50, maybe in the 30's or 20's.

2) It was loaded, L82, manual trans, Silver Mist with black interior and had the factory luggage rack.

What I know about the car was that it was purchased from Davis-Moore Chevrolet in Wichita KS, it was originally registered in Doniphan County Kansas.  Being in the Air Force we were eventually relocated from Wichita KS, to Omaha NE, and then to the Washington DC area (Reston VA), he later sold the car in 1980 or 1981.

My best guess is that there were roughly 150 Vettes made in that first day.  The number of cars with Silver~L82~Manual cant be to many.

There was a member of this forum, who appeared to have a similar car, but his email address bounced.
 
If anyone has any ideas or avenues for me to try, I would certainly like the input.

Thanks,

Matt Johnson

If that states DMV can get you some info or the VIN, you may be able to then trace the current owner.

Maybe someone has had to do the same here they will reply.

 

You ususally have to provide them with the VIN to get a copy of yours, but sometimes ya run into a good person out there. Ya never know...If they can get you that, you could technically trace the VIN to the current owner if the car is still out there somewhere.

 

I wish I had a better suggestion, but I wish you the best of luck with your search either way.

 

Paul

 

My dad was meticulous with keeping records and manuals.  He had the original window stickers from all of his Vette's , a 1970, a 1972, and the 1974.  Years back I asked my dads wife for those, she claimed that she never found them. highly unlikely.

 

I do have a few carousel's of 35mm slides with a few of the Vette pics.  There is one slide in particular (if I could get my slide scanner to work with Vista I'd post it).  Its a red Kansas lisence plate, it has a small DP vertically on the left hand side (which would have stood for Doniphan County) a large J in the middle a space and then 80.  The text is in white.

 

Doniphan County Kansas is a small county and I still have family in that area, come Monday I'm going to try and get in contact with the tax assesor.  Maybe this will lead to a VIN.

 

Also with regards to the GM Archive, I assume this is the website you were mentioning?

 

Thanks for all of your help.

 

It certainly would be one heck of a story if I can get reunited with the car!

 

Matt

Dan

C3VR member "Movie Collector" (Jeremy) has a silver mist '74. It can't hurt to send him a PM.

Best of luck to you on your search and welcome to C3VR!

Kevin

 

I see in the registry a 74 with serial # 25, I'm assuming that's the one you tried to e-mail?  I believe that Jeremy's (Movie Colletctor) interior is burgundy, but that doesn't mean it always was.  His car didn't come up when I queried the database, so I'll assume his is an automatic.

 

Good luck in your search.  One of the things I have suggested to people in the past is to setup a Google Alert.  This would work better if you get the actual VIN, but assuming you believe it was production # 50 or less, 50 different searches wouldn't be too bad.  A Google alert allows you to define something you're looking for, and any time it comes up on the web, you get an e-mail.

 

Good luck, and welcome to C3VR!!

I have talked with several Chevrolet Corvette sates people in my area.  They all agree that in order for yu to get much information from the DMV is that you need to have the VIN numbers.  I would check with the National Corvette Muesum in Bowling Green Kentucky as well as that web site that is mentioned in one of the above messages.  It is truly NOT the kill but the thrill of the chase !!

 

 

The guy I have attempted to get in contact with was Hurlyrlm.  Me being me... most people keep email address prefixes.  So I Googled hurleyrlm, and it came up with a eBay account.  What is the chance?  So I have email that person within eBay if they have a 74 Vette, and I have not heard anything back.

 

The more I hear and find out I will certainly keep this community in the loop.

 

Thanks for all of your efforts!!

 

Matt

 

...and to quote dskopp, its NOT the kill, but the thrill of the chase.

 

I feel that because the car was built in the first day of production, that mathematically, finding a silver, coupe, L82, manual trans, shouldnt be impossible.

 

...Im going to find this car.

I know it!