[Held for Ransom]

No old insurance papers? Unless someone on here has it or knows of it, it's going to be a real uphill battle.

[JamRSW6]

No insurance papers. No build sheet. Just a few Polaroid photos and memories. I was hoping the license plate could help. I don't think anyone at the DMV really cared about some old guy trying to dig up something from 40 years ago.

[3tas4me]

Sometimes, some DMV's can do a history search. In my state, they can search by VIN or license plate. May be worth asking if they can do a search by plate number since you have it.

[JamRSW6]

Yes sir, tried the DMV. No luck or no interest on their part.

[John V.]

I got lucky, I'm a pack rat. While digging thru a file about a dozen years ago, a slip of paper fell out. When I picked it up I saw it was the loan application my dad had to co-sign for the '73 TA I bought in '78 and sold off in '80 (not Red sorry). It had the VIN on it. My sister worked for an auto insurance co. at the time and was able to run the VIN for me and to my surprise, the car still existed and she was able to give me the Owner's address who I communicated with. The car was still in the same general area where I had sold it decades before. A year ago, I bought the car back from him.

Not so lucky with the '64 GTO convert I owned from '73-'79. That car was unceremoniously towed away and I decided not to recover it. Either all the paperwork (title, insurance papers, etc.) was in the car when it was towed away or my parents would have had that stuff in their files. Either way, years later when I thought to ask them about it, nothing was found (they were NOT pack rats!). I have another '64 convert today so wouldn't want that GTO back but for sure I would love to know if it still exists and pull a PHS on it. But no soap but aside from mentioning it on the forums here, haven't ever tried to track it down either.

POCI has a classified section in Smoke Signals, guys like you looking for cars. Most have VINs, but some don't.

As HFR says, without a VIN, will be a battle.

In your favor, fewer than 5000 were built. A lot fewer than the '64 GTO.

So if you cast the net wide enough, you could get lucky.

Put an ad in Smoke Signals, also contact the local chapters of POCI and check out some Trans Am specific forums.

Internet searches could also help.

Name of the dealer was Joe Pistocco Pontiac in Wichita Falls, TX. Knowing that helps narrow the search.

I doubt that dealer sold more than a handful of '73 TAs. If it exists, the owner likely knows it came from that dealership from the PHS record.

Do a search for '73 TAs for sale. Start contacting Sellers and ask questions that would help you determine if it could be the right one.

Good luck!

[John V.]

Pistocco, not Pistacco.

Not sure if it would help but the VIN will be:

2V87Y3N1*****.

Only need the last 5 digits!

Back when my sister could use the national insurance database, she could search based on the partial VIN as I remember it.