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jazzed
Samba Member
Joined: August 03, 2002
Posts: 628
Location: Eugene, OR
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 Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:10 pm Post subject: Tracking Down A Bus With VIN# |
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As I get older, I wistfully wish I could find the first new car I ever owned, a bus. I'm wondering if I could find the VIN#, if there's some sort of national tracking agency that might inform me where it is, or at least where it last was?
I last owned the bus in around 1975 and it was registered in CA, so that would be the first place I'd start, but I'm wondering if the DMV would release such info. |
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Erik G
Samba Member
Joined: October 16, 2002
Posts: 13271
Location: Tejas!
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:36 pm Post subject: Re: Tracking Down A Bus With VIN# |
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| jazzed wrote: |
As I get older, I wistfully wish I could find the first new car I ever owned, a bus. I'm wondering if I could find the VIN#, if there's some sort of national tracking agency that might inform me where it is, or at least where it last was?
I last owned the bus in around 1975 and it was registered in CA, so that would be the first place I'd start, but I'm wondering if the DMV would release such info. |
nope - privacy laws
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jazzed
Samba Member
Joined: August 03, 2002
Posts: 628
Location: Eugene, OR
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:56 pm Post subject: |
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Might have to ask a favor of an uncle who's a cop in Ohio 
I've got a call into the DMV and I'm wondering if they will help me with a registration that was mine. Of course, it's so old, I'm not sure if they can (or will) access such records. Unfortunately, I have no records (or even pictures) of the bus so it's a bit of a wild goose chase. |
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sharpstick
Samba Member
Joined: July 27, 2005
Posts: 447
Location: Amarillo, TX
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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| jazzed wrote: |
Might have to ask a favor of an uncle who's a cop in Ohio
I've got a call into the DMV and I'm wondering if they will help me with a registration that was mine. Of course, it's so old, I'm not sure if they can (or will) access such records. Unfortunately, I have no records (or even pictures) of the bus so it's a bit of a wild goose chase. |
Your uncle would have to know what state the bus was last registered in. I'm betting in that many years it has moved around quite a bit. |
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jazzed
Samba Member
Joined: August 03, 2002
Posts: 628
Location: Eugene, OR
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, it's a longshot, but I got lucky today and found what might be the only picture ever taken of the bus. I didn't even know I had it. And it has the license plate number on it! Next step is to call CT, where it was originally licensed and see if they can scrape up a VIN#. CA was very co-operative and if I can give them a VIN, they'll at least tell me if the bus is still actively registered. I had purchased and installed a nice Westy interior from a junkyard
($200/complete! Those were the days), so I'm hoping whoever owned it might have had more incentive to keep it running and if it stayed in SoCal, shouldn't be major rust issues (unless it wound up at the beach). |
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Dunebubby
Samba Thread Killer
Joined: October 12, 2006
Posts: 882
Location: In my den,throwing darts at a picture of my ex-boss
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:10 pm Post subject: |
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Who and how did you contact the Ca. DMV? I'm with Erik as far as the privacy laws go. I know they won't give owner info,I'd just like to know if my 65 bug is still out there. Incidently when that law went into effect after the chick in LA was stalked and killed you were SUPPOSED to be able to still get owner information IF you supplied all your own information but I guess that was short lived.
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"We buy things we don't need,..with money we don't have,...to impress people we don't even like". |
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WM971252
Samba Member
Joined: September 10, 2004
Posts: 1781
Location: Franklin CT
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 4:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Good luck with CT. The DMV takes way too long to give dealers last registered owner info that we have to notify in 48 hours after we get an abandoned MV. Oh and if you are not a dealer in CT forget about getting any info. |
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jazzed
Samba Member
Joined: August 03, 2002
Posts: 628
Location: Eugene, OR
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 7:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Dunebubby wrote: |
| Who and how did you contact the Ca. DMV? I'm with Erik as far as the privacy laws go. I know they won't give owner info,I'd just like to know if my 65 bug is still out there. Incidently when that law went into effect after the chick in LA was stalked and killed you were SUPPOSED to be able to still get owner information IF you supplied all your own information but I guess that was short lived. |
I just called the number on the website. The guy asked my name and where I lived when I had it registered, then attempted to "find" me and the vehicle. At that point, all I wanted was a VIN#. I knew better than to ask him who owned the bus now, but because of the age of the registration (almost 40 years!) he wasn't successful, but he must have tried for 15 minutes. Sorry to hear that CT won't be co-operative. I might have reached a dead end, but I'll at least give it a shot tomorrow. |
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sharpstick
Samba Member
Joined: July 27, 2005
Posts: 447
Location: Amarillo, TX
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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I know in Texas, if a vehicle has not been registered in so many years it drops out of the system completely.
The VIN number itself can also be a problem sometimes. The old system wouldn't recognize the smaller VIN numbers so they sometimes added zeros to the beginning or the end to get the required number of digits. |
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jazzed
Samba Member
Joined: August 03, 2002
Posts: 628
Location: Eugene, OR
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| Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 11:04 am Post subject: |
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| WM971252 wrote: |
| Good luck with CT. The DMV takes way too long to give dealers last registered owner info that we have to notify in 48 hours after we get an abandoned MV. Oh and if you are not a dealer in CT forget about getting any info. |
Almost an hour on hold with CT and they came back with "we purge that info every 5 years", so I only missed by about 35 years. My hopes are fading since I can't imagine finding an old insurance policy or registration when all I've got is a single photo of the vehicle. Both the dealership I bought the bus from and the dealership I sold to are long gone, so if anyone sees a 1971 bus with a Westy interior (but no louvered windows nor pop-top/strictly a conversion from a junked Westy interior--but correct in every other way since I installed every piece), let me know. Originally Chianti Red, oversprayed by a dealer to a horrible yellow, imported into Hartford, CT (E Coast M code) and last seen in South Gate, CA (LA suburb) in the mid-70's. |
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galexander
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Joined: April 17, 2003
Posts: 524
Location: Round Rock, TX
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