[Teej]

Originally Posted by HaloMedic

WHY ?

I mean if you got the money to hire a PI for this Im willing to humble myself to accept donations for a paint job. Im sorry just cant undrestand this Please give that money to a worthy charity and call it a day.

I go to a local car show near where i live 3000 people there looking at cars Its at the Villages a Retirement community of over 50,000 residents. No doubt from all the guys and gals ive talked to someone may have been the owner of my car as well as yours.

Why? For the same reason we buy the info from PHS. (And consider ourselves lucky to do so..) I didn't think I was talking about forking over enough money for you to paint a car....But honestly, I don't know and that's why I've asked. I've never hired a PI and I thought that if they have access to data that the public can't get, I'd be willing to give the guy $50-$100 for a half hour of his time at his computer.

And the fact that the car was built in TX, delivered to El Paso, and spent the past 40+ years in Tucson make the odd of running into the original owner in FL pretty slim. It's also another reason I'm running into dead ends. I can't walk into the DMV in AZ, they don't want to give me info on the phone, and the FL DMV says I should talk to the AZ DMV.

If I had a friend in law enforcement, I might ask, but I wouldn't want anyone doing anything to jeopardize their job over something just for my curiosity.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by Teej

If I had a friend in law enforcement, I might ask, but I wouldn't want anyone doing anything to jeopardize their job over something just for my curiosity.

This is also a valid point. A police officer could lose their job over obtaining private personal information for non-work related issues. Some people are always talking about slipping a friendly cop some bucks, but in reality nowadays it's a serious career jeopardizer to do such a thing (same with the guys who insist you can give a smog tech a c-note and get an insta-pass).

As I say and was said before, if the records do not exist on microfiche or in some dusty box in a warehouse somewhere, the chances of getting anything official are practically non-existent. I did a search on a '79 I had back in the very early 2000s when California still gave the info out for $35 and they said it wasn't found despite them looking in the official archives.

[PonchoV8]

Originally Posted by Teej

I've never hired a PI and I thought that if they have access to data that the public can't get, I'd be willing to give the guy $50-$100 for a half hour of his time at his computer.

just for my curiosity.

He'd probably ask you do come back when you can triple the amount==at least here. I looked into doing that work once and they charge something around $150 to $175 hourly with a several hr minimum.

[Bill Morgan]

You're most unlikely to find any state retaining 40+ year old, pre-computer-era records in any form of easy-access system.

Texas, for example, two years ago destroyed all title records for vehicles not registered after 1992. Those records can be reconstructed only by presentation of an original paper title or a pre-1993 registration receipt.

[Teej]

Originally Posted by PonchoV8

He'd probably ask you do come back when you can triple the amount==at least here. I looked into doing that work once and they charge something around $150 to $175 hourly with a several hr minimum.

I really had no idea, so my guess was just a shot in the dark with a hint of optimism. Truth is, I'd just like to KNOW what it would cost so I could make that decision. If it's $500, I'd have to think long and hard about how bad I wanted to know. It would just suck to pay for those expensive hours and not actually get any useful info.. Which is a real possibility as I'm guessing they don't have a money-back-guarantee.

Maybe I'll make some calls next week and see what their 'free consultations' will tell me. If so, I'll obviously post it up.

[PonchoV8]

I wonder, if you have $500 and the records exist, you might be able to get it done by going thru a friend of a friend that has a friend in the DMV.

[HaloMedic]

Originally Posted by Teej

Why? For the same reason we buy the info from PHS. (And consider ourselves lucky to do so..) I didn't think I was talking about forking over enough money for you to paint a car....But honestly, I don't know and that's why I've asked. I've never hired a PI and I thought that if they have access to data that the public can't get, I'd be willing to give the guy $50-$100 for a half hour of his time at his computer.

And the fact that the car was built in TX, delivered to El Paso, and spent the past 40+ years in Tucson make the odd of running into the original owner in FL pretty slim. It's also another reason I'm running into dead ends. I can't walk into the DMV in AZ, they don't want to give me info on the phone, and the FL DMV says I should talk to the AZ DMV.

If I had a friend in law enforcement, I might ask, but I wouldn't want anyone doing anything to jeopardize their job over something just for my curiosity.

Well Teej I do have to admit I wish I knew where my first GTO ended and if it is still on the road, So posting my comment was a bit premature in thought, So I do understand