I need Help finding my Step Fathers GTO.

[Michaelb29205]

Hello everyone, I am taking over a search for my mother.  We are looking for a 1967 GTO that her and my step father were having restored outside of Columbus Ohio, between Columbus and Zanesville right off of I70.  She is currently trying to find the Car information  such as VIN and all that.  I just wanted suggestions as to where to start looking.  any info would be awesome, and if anyone knows the area please let me know.  i believe the company that was doing the work went out of business sometime after 2006. 

[alsancle]

If you could I would add a little more information to your question as it is ambiguous it would help in getting coherent responses.  I'm guessing that they were having the car restored,  got behind on the bills,  shop went out of business and they did not try to recover car?   Car was then sold with mechanics lien or crushed?   That is just my guess based on your question.

 

 

[Michaelb29205]

No they never fell behind, From what my mother told me They had paid the guy 25K and had all parts shipped there.  The guy stopped answering calls.  They tried to file police reports the mom said there was little done.  What you described is actually how my step-father got the car.  Unfortunately, he passed away last December, so i am trying to piece together the information as my mother remembers it.  

[John_S_in_Penna]

My understanding is that, due to privacy rights,

you can't obtain or search cars' serial numbers (VINs).

If there is a reason for police to be involved, police can do it,

probably within your state, but maybe not across state lines.

There probably isn't a national registry of VINs.

 

For a less common car, a person could contact clubs for

that particular make of car;  but since there are so many GTO's,

I don't know whether that would be fruitful.

 

Edited January 29, 2018 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[ejboyd5]

Go to the law enforcement agency involved and obtain a copy of the report(s).  Any information contained therein will obviously be more accurate that your collective memories and will provide a good starting point to decide if additional effort is warranted at this rather late date.

[lump]

I have conducted successful searches here in Ohio, years ago.

 

Step one, you MUST find that Vehicle Identification Number. Did your family ever have insurance on this car? if so, your agent might be a terrific resource. I have found some of my previously-owned cars this way, since my agent still had old files on the car, which included the VIN. 

 

Next, did you or your family ever have a title made in your name? Here in Ohio, for many years the state's policy was to shred titles for any vehicles which had not purchased license plates in the past 5 years. (I once sent a staff member to Columbus BMV headquarters for a magazine article we were doing, and my guy actually witnessed them shredding titles ruthlessly.) HOWEVER, many Ohio COUNTY registrars kept paper records on hand (but were not required to).

 

Working on that same magazine article, we randomly chose a 1968 Camaro I had sold years ago, and set out to see if we could find the car. First, my insurance agent found the old VIN record for us. With no title records at the state, I turned to my Greene County, Ohio license registrar, and it turned out they had my old Camaro still listed when I had sold it, and were able to tell me whom I had sold it to. Yes, we found my car. No, the owner didn't want to sell. 

 

In your case, get that VIN. Then police reports, title records, etc, will be easier to come by. The cops can trace that VIN, but only IF anyone has registered it, or tried to register it. 

 

Good luck.