Tracking down previous owners

[i_am_cool_fred]

how many people here have tracked down the previous owners of there car?? was the experience successful or did it get you into trouble??

I just recently found my previous owners brother on facebook, sent him a message asking about my car and if he could put me into contact with the previous owner and was curious if anyone else has done this before
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59 mignonette "Lola" see it's build thread:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=495899



Brian Denning, as seen on Gearz TV

[19super73]

I know where the previous owner of both my '73 and '75 are. What I really want to be able to do is contact the original owners.
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'73 Super Beetle w/ all the Sport Bug extras
'75 La Grande Beetle, 1st in Class, Das Volks 2011
'75 110 Standard Beetle
'71 Doublecab
'73 412 wagon "Nasenbär" 1st in Class, Das Volks 2012

[i_am_cool_fred]

The issue I'm having is the original owners name was on the title and signed on the back. However, it's changed hands a couple of times since that signature. Car is now fully in my name so no bonded/stolen records on the vin.
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59 mignonette "Lola" see it's build thread:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=495899



Brian Denning, as seen on Gearz TV

[Mr Mike]

I think it depends on how far back you have to go, meaning how old the
bus is ( I'm assuming your talkin' buses here.)
Also perhaps where It came from originaly. I was very lucky.

My '63 bus was shipped to Seattle from the factory in late Feb of '63.
The original owner got it about six weeks later. An instructor at a local college here, he kept the bus nearly twenty years here before he passed away. Bus eventualy went to a work associate of his from the original owners wife. That family kept the bus another ten years or so before I got it in 1995.

I live about 80 miles north of Seattle, so the bus has remained local all this time in Washington state. Never met the original owner, of course since he was deceased but did talk to his wife once. She's now passed away. She told me a few storys but unfortunately no photos or papers.

The 2nd family shared lots of history for which I'm gratefull.
Really glad to have what I got of its history. I'd advise anyone
if your able to locate original owners. Contact them. If they for some reason don't wish to speak with you, so be it. But if you can find them,
make the effort.

While on the subject of history, another thing I always attempt to do is
record what I've learned to pass along. My background is aviation
maintenance, 30 years in the Navy. In addition I was fortunate to own/operate a couple of Cessna light aircraft. The aircraft log books on
military and civilian aircraft provide a comprehensive background of
maintenance and operational history. Where the planes been, what its done. Its to bad our buses don't have log books.

My first Cessna was an old beater built in 1947. Over the years all the owners have writen their names and address in the log. I was number 16! The first owner was en ex-G.I. He was building time toward an airline job, but he also had a girl out in California that he flew to see from where he was based in Tennesee. In the log he mentions the long flights at night going out to see her. The small Cessna was a far cry from the
B-24 bomber he flew in the war.
Later the airplane was owned by an operater in Alaska. There is an entry
where he details flying his first son on his birthday. "First flight for him, over the mountains at ten thousand feet, spectacular!", he wrote.

We loose stuff like that with no records on our buses.
I've built up a three ring binder to pass along when its time, with my bus.
Its got photos, a brief history of the bus plus as much of the maintenance records and reciepts as possible. I also have the "birth certificate" from
Volkswagen tucked in there. Might not mean much to the next guy,
but then maybe it might, can't ever say.

[drscope]

I have just the opposite problem. The previous owner of my 55 tracked ME down and wants to buy it back.

Only he has no money and can't belive the car he sold for $25 is worth so much today.

And yes it's been a problem for me. He keeps bugging me.
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Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

[iowegian]

I bought my '66 directly from the second owner, so obviously I met her.
In the paperwork that she gave me was the bill of sale from the original owner (who picked it up at the factory on the Tourist Delivery program ) and sold it to her less than a year later.
I tracked down the guy that took delivery at Wolfsburg. He is now a crabby, rich, retired lawyer who lives in suburban New York. He didn't want to talk to me about his first new car that he bought as a young instructor in Athens, Greece, but wished me a good day.

[notchback]

[doc1369]

[vwracerdave]

Just because you want to contact the PO that does not mean they want to be contacted. If somebody came knocking on my door telling me they own my old VW they would get the middle finger and the door slammed in their face.
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2010 Sportsman ET Champion - Mid-America Dragway - Arkansas City, KS
1997 Sportsman ET Champion - Thunder Valley Raceway Park - Noble ,OK
Featured in Dec. 2001 HOT VW's Magazine page 63

Watch my racing video's http://www.youtube.com/user/okvwracer/videos

[iowegian]

[Matt K.]

Years ago i bought a bug that i found out that one of the previous owners lived in my town. Well i did track that person down. It was actually an older couple that had owned it in the 80's. They were actually excited to see it again and showed me a few pictures they still had of it. I kept in touch with them and gave them first shot and buying when i decided to sell.......they passed on the deal but it was a neat experience. I would love to come across some of the old cars that i have owned over the years!
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This is my 21st year in the Auto Body/Paint Game!
*Take a look at some of my custom paint: http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n119/mrpaint_2006/ .

[Tyler 5447]

A couple of weeks ago I found the guy I sold my first bus to 10 years ago on the member list here and sent him a PM. I haven't heard anything back yet. Every time I think about that bus I get mad at myself for letting it go. It was a '71 panel and I sold it when I was 17 or 18 because I bought a POS '74 westy that I thought was better.

I know the last two owners on my '67 Bus but that only covers about the last year or so. I think finding anymore owners will be a dead end because it spent some time in a junkyard after an engine fire.

[azbob]

I'm "supposedly" the third owner of my 63. Previous owner had it for 2 years. Original owner died and his son needed beer money and sold it to the last guy. Car is still pretty damned close to stock too!

I really don't plan to hunt down the original owner's family after hearing the reason for the sell. The guy would probably give me the finger... Or I just show up with a 6 pack... Like what was said earlier in the thread, the possible drama kind of outweighs the curiosity.

Still though, the history part would be really sweet.
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“Be nice to those you meet on the way up. They’re the same folks you’ll meet on the way down.” - Walter Winchell

Loving my 63.
Click to view image

[drpete]

Perhaps one of the most incredible (and successful) searches for the original owner is in an old thread here on TS.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=302775&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Scroll halfway down pg1 and read what qwerty did to start finding the original owner of his '46. He found the guy's widow and actually took the restored car to her to see it. It's a terrific story.
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Happy to be alive. Hey, Dad, wish you were here to see all this.

Pete Keesling
Driving a bus or bug every day.....the way life should be....

[bruce jones]

Last summer, I bought a 1965 Chevrolet from a dealership in Alabama. Since I live in Georgia, I was required to take the car to my County police office to have the car's VIN tag inspected.

During the inspection, the police department contacted the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the GBI furnished a printout showing the two original owners of the car (that is, the owners prior to the dealer from whom I bought the car). The police gave me a copy of the printout, which included names and addresses of the initial owners.

I did a phone number search using Switchboard.com, and was able to speak to the original owner (who had the car 39 years), and the second owner (the original owner's nephew), who had the car an additional five years. Both were very nice and willing to talk to me. Also, I was able to retrieve some original documentation from the first owner.

Actual mileage, and originality of the paint, interior and drive train were verified by both initial owners. I also heard a few interesting stories about the car.

Well worth doing, in my case.
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Driving in the slow lane since 1969.

[79SuperVert]

When I bought my Beetle in 2006 it came with a list of previous owners. I tracked down and called almost all of them, including the original owner.

This week, acting on a random impulse, I Googled the original owner's name and was shocked to find out she died almost exactly three years ago:


ELIZABETH HOLLOWAY SHEPPARD, 85, of Valdosta, passed away Monday, May 18, 2009, at her home.

She was born in Huntington, WV, a daughter of the late Charles and Olive Harper Holloway. Mrs. Sheppard had taught elementary school in the Savannah-Chatham County School System, later becoming a librarian. She retired from Volusia County School System, Daytona Beach, FL, as a librarian. She and her husband, Joseph Davis Sheppard, moved to Valdosta in 1985. Mr. Sheppard died in 1999.

Mrs. Sheppard had deep Christian faith within herself, was very religious and had attended several local churches. She enjoyed working in the yard and garden, reading and boating.


I left a condolence note on the funeral home's web site.
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