Hello finding my chesterfield brown 1978 Trans am Ohio Car T tops automatic without a vin

I have been on a search to find my lost love. I had this car for 3 years. I would like to know how to find it. I have a plate number no vin.
1978 Brown trans am t -top auto 400.
Thanks I appreciate any kind of positive feedback. I have attached a old photo.
Thank You
Philip

Without a VIN you’re facing a near impossible task as the car could have been crushed, parted out, or may be sitting behind someone’s house or rotting away in a field somewhere.

About all I can suggest is try to find out any information on the VIN from the dealer who sold the car if they’re still around. A private seller makes it much tougher. Another possibility would be if the state where the car was registered will cough up any info. They may seeing as how you’re requesting info on yourself and no one else.

I think Pontiac was the one branch of GM that maintained a lot of records on ownership and so on.
Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the organization that oversees those records. It may be “Pontiac Registry” or something to that effect.
With a VIN and the registry possibility there’s always hope.

It is not a good idea to put your name and email on an open website. Someone who might have information can post it here. The chances are almost zero.

Very hard to do. I’d join all the Firebird and Trans Am forums/clubs on the internet, and ask around. Maybe somebody there has seen it.

yeah, I think most of those cars were wrecked long ago…

If you find my canyon copper 59 Pontiac on the way, let me know. I’ll pay a finders fee.

Reminds me those jokers on Gas Monkey Garage just make me sick what they do to cars. They had a 59 Pontiac the other night they bought cheap and sold for $25K. Instead of refurbishing it with paint and polish, they put decal crap all over it and even mounted a cattle horn on the hood. Just a disgrace. They did the same thing to a 65 Thunderbird that looked and ran great before they got ahold of it. Paid $6,000 for it and just had to tear it apart and lower it and make a hot rod out of it. Sheesh. Just leave them alone if you can’t restore them.

Without a VIN, how would you even know your car if you saw it in a field of other brown 1978 Trans Am t-tops with auto 400s? Just asking…

If it were mine, I’d know it by the dent in the bumper and the carriage bolts that were used to fill the holes in the rear antennas. (Not my work) Plus I’d know the repainted dash. Can’t imagine what a mess it would be to restore. As I remember, I was pretty happy to get rid of it at the time.

yeah, not hard to recognize old cars, people change more…

If you know where and when you last saw it, a detective can probably track it down via the paper trail, but it’ll cost you.

The founder of Papa John’s Pizza had his first car tracked down and repurchased (and restored) it… but it wasn’t cheap. Private eyes do things that border on illegal, but they don’t do them cheaply. They know how to access records that most people don’t know how to access.

heck, it was 200/day plus expenses for jim Rockford in the 70 s…