Good day - found a long ago past owner! (kind of long)
07-19-2011, 06:46 PM
#1
Race Director
Thread Starter
Good day - found a long ago past owner! (kind of long)
Or, it's more correct to say that he found me. I bought my car in 1988 and it came with receipts back to 1977, most of which were from an owner in Canada who appeared to own the car for about 10 years and had done a lot of work on it. It appeared that he sold the car about 2 or 3 years before I bought it and it went through at least 3 other owners before I bought it. However, he had moved to TX and sold the car down there where I eventually bought it a couple years later. I searched seveal times for him but wasn't sure what country he was now living in. I did a title search in Canada without turning up any leads. In 2005 I posted his name here in a thread in the off-chance anyone might still know him in the Corvette world - but no luck.
Then, out of the blue he contacted me by email and PM last week after an employee of his had Googled his name and turned up my old 2005 Corvette Forum post. He is back in Canada and I got ahold of him today by phone and we had a great, hour-long talk about the car and the times he had with it. A really nice guy to talk with. Unfortunately he didn't know much about it's history before he bought it in the middle 70s, or what became of the original motor and transmission but he filled me in on some interesting history. He was real glad to hear from me as he had been wondering what had become of his old car for years. He said he still has a framed picture of it hanging in his office. Some interesting and some peculiar bits of info he filled me in on:
- He wasn't sure, but when he bought the car from a Canadian dealer he thought the car had always been in Canada.
- The car was painted British Racing Green when he bought it and he had it stripped and returned to Nassau Blue. They apparently did a good job of stripping the car because I didn't find any trace of green when I stripped and painted the car.
- He didn't remember their having to do any major body work on the car when it was painted and he never damaged it. So the replacement front clip and driver rear quarter damage must have been early in it's life.
- I have engine build papers on two engine builds (NOM) he had done. The first lists a .060 overbore in the 70s with 12.9:1 TRW pistons and the second lists a .030 overbore in the 80s (finish bore 4.280 shown) with 12:1 Ross pistons, so I always assumed he had replaced the block on the second rebuild. But he said they didn't replace the block and just rebuilt it. So that is still a puzzle to me unless the 70s rebuild was really just a .006 honing for new pistons. Except for different distributor, carb, oil pan, valve covers and a few gaskets, this is still the engine in the car. Not being the original motor I guess it doesn't matter, but I can't help being curious about such things.
- I assumed the engine still had the pretty wild Cam Dynamics #22870 solid cam that was installed in the 70s but he remembered replacing the cam in the 80s rebuild with a wilder cam and that it idled a lot lumpier afterwards. So now I don't know what cam is in the motor. He said he remembered turning it to 7500 rpm once after the later rebuild and that it was a really hot motor.
- When I bought the car it had tall springs in the front that caused the a-arm to ride on the rubber stops and an extra sping in the rear - all to clear the big tires installed all the way around. However, he said it always sat low with the fenders down over the tires while he owned it. So apparently this was done after he sold the car and before I bought the car.
He gave me an interesting story to track down on another owner. He remebers contacting the guy he sold the car to a few years later and he believes he said he sold it to an owner or someone associated with South Fork ranch of Dallas fame. I'll have to check that out.
He said he still has a few pictures of the car from the 70s that he is going to try to find and send me copies of. He also said he would help see if he could trace it's ownership prior to when he owned the car. All in all, a great day.
Then, out of the blue he contacted me by email and PM last week after an employee of his had Googled his name and turned up my old 2005 Corvette Forum post. He is back in Canada and I got ahold of him today by phone and we had a great, hour-long talk about the car and the times he had with it. A really nice guy to talk with. Unfortunately he didn't know much about it's history before he bought it in the middle 70s, or what became of the original motor and transmission but he filled me in on some interesting history. He was real glad to hear from me as he had been wondering what had become of his old car for years. He said he still has a framed picture of it hanging in his office. Some interesting and some peculiar bits of info he filled me in on:
- He wasn't sure, but when he bought the car from a Canadian dealer he thought the car had always been in Canada.
- The car was painted British Racing Green when he bought it and he had it stripped and returned to Nassau Blue. They apparently did a good job of stripping the car because I didn't find any trace of green when I stripped and painted the car.
- He didn't remember their having to do any major body work on the car when it was painted and he never damaged it. So the replacement front clip and driver rear quarter damage must have been early in it's life.
- I have engine build papers on two engine builds (NOM) he had done. The first lists a .060 overbore in the 70s with 12.9:1 TRW pistons and the second lists a .030 overbore in the 80s (finish bore 4.280 shown) with 12:1 Ross pistons, so I always assumed he had replaced the block on the second rebuild. But he said they didn't replace the block and just rebuilt it. So that is still a puzzle to me unless the 70s rebuild was really just a .006 honing for new pistons. Except for different distributor, carb, oil pan, valve covers and a few gaskets, this is still the engine in the car. Not being the original motor I guess it doesn't matter, but I can't help being curious about such things.
- I assumed the engine still had the pretty wild Cam Dynamics #22870 solid cam that was installed in the 70s but he remembered replacing the cam in the 80s rebuild with a wilder cam and that it idled a lot lumpier afterwards. So now I don't know what cam is in the motor. He said he remembered turning it to 7500 rpm once after the later rebuild and that it was a really hot motor.
- When I bought the car it had tall springs in the front that caused the a-arm to ride on the rubber stops and an extra sping in the rear - all to clear the big tires installed all the way around. However, he said it always sat low with the fenders down over the tires while he owned it. So apparently this was done after he sold the car and before I bought the car.
He gave me an interesting story to track down on another owner. He remebers contacting the guy he sold the car to a few years later and he believes he said he sold it to an owner or someone associated with South Fork ranch of Dallas fame. I'll have to check that out.
He said he still has a few pictures of the car from the 70s that he is going to try to find and send me copies of. He also said he would help see if he could trace it's ownership prior to when he owned the car. All in all, a great day.
07-19-2011, 06:59 PM
#2
Safety Car
Member Since: Nov 2000
Location: Clinton Township MI
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Cruise-In III Veteran
That is a 
story. Your conversation with a previous owner going way back has got to be interesting. All those small details coming to light just gives you a little more appreciation for what you have now. Also goes to show you most of these cars were driven hard and put away "wet." 
:
Jim
In God We Trust!
story. Your conversation with a previous owner going way back has got to be interesting. All those small details coming to light just gives you a little more appreciation for what you have now. Also goes to show you most of these cars were driven hard and put away "wet." :Jim
In God We Trust!
07-20-2011, 11:47 AM
#4
Safety Car
Great story! I had almost the same thing happen on my 64, I looked for years and then I got a phone call........
07-20-2011, 01:38 PM
#5
Race Director
Thread Starter
I forwarded him several pictures of the car last night and a couple video clips of it do it's rump-rump-rump idle. He seemed pretty impressed with it now and even complimented my change of the color to yellow years ago. He said he has already used one as his screen saver. 
