I have an oddball question/situation that perhaps you can help me with (or not which is OK too). I figured the worst that can happen is I continue to get nowhere on this project. But some of you are car nuts like me or might have a suggestion or a connection that could help me out so it can’t hurt to ask.
Background:
When my Dad was serving in the Army, stationed in Germany, he ordered and purchased A 1963 MG convertible (which is actually a British-made car). He was able to enjoy Germany with it and then when his tour was up he had it shipped back to the United States (Illinois) where he continued to own it until my parents got married in ~ 1970 when he sold it.
As you can guess by this post, I’m trying to track it down. Unfortunately, I’m at a loss as to how I can legally locate the car and, if anything, provide my contact info to the current owner (this assumes that it still exists of course). One of the bigger hurdles I’ve run into is that any of the Online search tools use a modern VIN format that cars made pre-1978-ish don’t use today so Uncle Google isn’t of much help to me.
I’m just not sure how I can go about locating the car or like I said getting the current owner my info .
If you have any suggestions/advice/connections/ ideas, I’m all ears.
Thanks in advance for your time !!!
Paul
Car Details
Green 1963 MGB 1800 Convertible
VIN: GHN 3 L 150 28
MOTOR NUMBER: GA UH 15176
There are a number of MG owners clubs, I’d become a member of each one and post this on their forums, they might be able to help. But I know of no way to find this out through registrations/license plates.
Paul, found your other post (http://www.mgexp.com/phorum/read.php?1,2747459). Seems like they had some good ideas, but I’m guessing none of those has panned out. Sorry, have nothing else to offer.
You may have to ask the European MG clubs also, as many of those cars are back in Europe.
Hope You’ll succeed in Your search.
It would be nice to know what You end up with.
I would check the junkyards within a 100 mile radius of where the car was sold. Chances are somebody sold it for scrap after purchasing it. Other than that it may be sitting in someones barn, maybe ask if he has the receipt for who he sold it to. The state you live in might be able to track sales that old.
Don’t get your hopes up too high! A car this age, unless preserved as a collector, will have rusted out completely by now. As advised, check where it was last sold and then look for junkyards. Even these regularly get rid of cars that nobody wants parts of anymore.
The first step is the phone up the Illinois DVM dept – or the state DMV where it was last registered before your family sold it – and see if they can offer any help or ideas. It may be possible to trace it through its subsequent registrations; but doing so may prove quite time consuming as you’d have to follow the path owner to owner every time the ownership changed. In theory anyway it seems like that should be possible. That’s one thing good about Britain’s license plate system, generally the first license plate number assigned to the new car stays with it indefinitely, through every ownership change. So as long as your prior car remains licensed, you can find out where it is.
Unless the car was in perfect condition and sold to a collector then stored inside a building it was probably turned into soup cans during the Vietnam war. Those cars were inexpensive toys and didn’t last long in the mid-west.
Visiting junkyards is a waste of time, nobody will remember a car that was in the yard 40 years ago and searching through the records will be a daunting task that no one will attempt.
Rather than spending the next twenty years looking for a car that no longer exists, why not replace the car. There are MGBs available in the southwest;
As others have suggested…Go onto the MGB enthusiast sites… They have all the info you need to help with this…if its possible…it will happen via one of the many MGB enthusiast sites. Those people are very helpful and also have the data that you need. These are but a few…you should have no trouble finding many more.