Have you ever met original owner of your classic?

tc20

Was just daydreaming and thinking wouldnt it be good fun to meet up with the
original or previous owners of your classic? How would they react to seeing their one-time wheels in its current state (of glory, hopefully;) )
I guess with a lot of classics in ireland being brought in from abroad it could become part of an interesting roadtrip. Ok, if you have a non-irish classic, it might take a bit of detective work, but sure that would make it all the more enjoyable. Its something i'd like to do, my merc having being purchased through Paul K CCI, who informed me my merc was originally Swedish. I have some pics from Paul with the car on swedish plates, so i guess that could be a starting point, along with checking thru MBs classic centre for original point of sale.
Anyone done this kinda thing?

MercMad

Well I did meet the previous owner of 280SE Coupe.................when I bought it from him !!

No seriously it would be cool !

I have a huge history file for my 230SL Pagoda, which started off life in London in 1964 was sold after two years to a family member, same again two year later, then its owner emmigrated to the USA where the car remained for 17 years gaining 3 more owners but moving from Texas to Florida.

Then it was imported/exported to the UK where a Classic dealer did a stripdown and respray for its new owner, parts rechromed and some interior work !

I have various pictures and invoices of all of this, it was funny to see my car in the USA parked next to a few yank tanks !!

Its travelled around the world more than I have !!

8~)

I've a 79 car with the old logbook giving the original owner's name and address. I looked up the first owner's address and number and called it just a couple of weeks ago. He was home and was delighted to hear his car is now being restored. Have promised to meet with him when I have the car in decent shape.

That Pagoda is well travelled - I love old car history.

3ps

nice one 8~)!

I think my current 220D started out as a 200 so I'm not sure of the value in doing this exercise. I'm pretty sure had a few bits and pieces chucked into it over the years anyway.

tc20

Cool 8~).. and good stuff Ben.
does anyone know if scandanavian reg plates 'stay' with the owner, rather than the car, as is the case in Germany? It would make an interesting case to follow up.. I guess any classic with 'celeb' ownership is going to be documented, but i think you might find out along the way if your car has had,
erm lets say characterful owners or an interesting past (getaway car :eek: )

franksm

Back in 2004/2005 I had a lovely red Stag which I brought in from England.

http://mx5ireland.com/stag

Came with a history folder, MOT certs, loads of names and addresses, etc, but I never thought about following up with them. But a quick search on the UK Triumph forums turned up the original number plate, FVH 375L

http://www.club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/blah/Blah.pl?b=stag,v=display,m=1119779429

As the previous owner was saying "Searching for my old Reindeers... FVH 375L. This one brings back mixed memories of hospitals and warped heads."

Kinda ominous. So, I got in touch with him thinking that it had been in a bad accident or something gruesome. Turns out this guy was the owner of a garage who serviced the car (which actually was mollycoddled - its owner loved it, and lavished it with new chrome and parts whenever it was needed).

http://www.club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/blah/Blah.pl?b=stag,v=display,m=1119779429

The full story of blood and warped heads came out - thankfully nothing too bad: when changing out the heads on the V8 after they had warped (happens to all Stags *once* in their lifetime and only once), they garage owner and his partner were also putting a fresh front bumper on the car - this slipped and squashed the partner's fingers on the ground, making him leak copius amounts of blood resulting in a hasty trip to accident & emergency.

The guy who owned the car at that time (before it was bought over by the garage owner) was some big business owner type dude - so the car was just lavished with whatever it wanted - including a nice new interior, and whatever chrome was going.

When I picked up the car, it was a cracker. I sold it on to Adam in Roscommon a while later (I ran out of room to keep the thing, plus my MX5 was getting broken into outside the house regularly, so I was really worried about having the Stag sat there).

Adam says the car is now in Cyprus - hopefully going strong. I'll come back to Stags at some stage, they're really great cars if you're into "GT"s. If I win the lotto I'll be on a plane to Cyprus to beg for that red Stag back.

andreas_220D

tc20 wrote:

along with checking thru MBs classic centre for original point of sale.
Anyone done this kinda thing?

MB refuses to answer questions regarding original or previous owner. I tried to track the owner of my white one by writing letters to MB and calling the Classic Centers in Germany and the U.S., no way. Fortunately the guy who imported the car from the U.S. found the old american license plates and with the help of a friend in Boston i could find the original owner in California. Well, when i asked him for pictures from when he bought the car, he asked me for US$ 500 :mad:

I'm not really interested in meeting him

3ps

These are great stories! Keep them coming!

dubtom

I got a lot of info with my mustang, including original sales reciepts, which,I'm ashamed to say, faded when I was laminating all the paperwork. Truely sick about that, it had all the original prices and extra's that were ordered with the car:o
Must have been written in pencil or something because nothing else faded. I know the original owner's name in Florida and have some service receipts which list the car as a 71' even though it's 72. Also have a nicely hand written history from when the car was imported into the UK from it's owner about all the stuff that was done to it. There is an original sticker on the windscreen from a garage offering $3 off the next service too.

Blue850

The original owner of the Fiat 850 passed away 2 years ago. The same family name was listed in the phone book at same address until 2004 and I got talking to her sister last year . She remembered her sister sold the car in 1982 when she got the free bus pass!
I must see if I can track down the 2nd owner.

corelon

Heres a website i came across which seems to try and help people track down their old classic.. thought it would be interesting for this thread!!
http://www.wheresmyclassic.com/

MercMad

t least with the Mercedes Cars you can get a copy of the original data sheet which will tell you date of first registration, Country etc., even the brand of tyres first fitted as well as whatever option the car had !

3ps

MercMad,

Please post me a link to where I can get this info. I presume I just need the chassis number?