Trying to track down my old 1970 C/10

[chevpwr350]

Hello everyone, I got on this website years ago when I got my 1970 C/10 as a gift from my dad when I was 16. He had it sitting in the backyard for years, got it for free for helping clean up a friend's property that it was sitting in. It was a pretty big project, but we worked on it for a couple of years on weekends until my senior year of high school. That's when I got to drive it to school every day. I loved that truck, but with it being 2010 gas was on everyone's mind and my dad didn't want to send me to college in truck that got 7mpg on a good day. I was spending half my paychecks on gas just getting around town. A week after I graduated he started bugging me to sell it and he'd help me get a vehicle that didn't waste as much gas.

He finally convinced me to sell it one day, and I posted it on Craigslist that night. Not 30 minutes after I posted it my phone was ringing and an hour later we made a deal. The guy was honest and said he was taking it to Southern California to flip it at a car show that weekend.

I miss that truck all the time. I think about it at least once a week. I've dreamed of finding that truck for years. Now that I'm older and have a decent job, I've started going down the route of tracking this thing down. I have the VIN and plate number on an old registration receipt that I kept for future reference. I've tried a few websites, but with it being a 10 digit VIN a lot of services are saying it's invalid, or I can only search cars made after 1980 with a 17 digit VIN. I tried the CA DMV website as well, but I can't seem to locate a form to fill out.

Does anyone know of a way that I can start tracking down this truck? I live in California and I'm 90% sure the truck hasn't left, but I may be wrong. I'd be willing to pay for this information if necessary. Thank you guys!

[Lee H]

Welcome to the forum. Post up a looking for my old truck thread to get started. Post as much info and specifics as you can including pictures. The current owner may be a member here. Good luck, Lee.

[jumpsoffrock]

My mom sold a cool car in 1978 and we spent about 10 years trying to find it using several methods and came up with nothing.

Probably the only "slick" idea I had the whole time was: How bout I call CA DMV, and ask them if my registration is due because I lost the slip they sent out. When I tell them I have the VIN and they run it, maybe they will tell me: "It's up soon", or "no you owe nothing"

This will tell me if it is currently in the CA system.

The CA DMV has gotten much tighter since those days though, and they may ask for your name and address before they even talk to you. And when they find you don't have the matching info they want, they may simply say "sorry we can't give you any info"


You probably don't need me to tell you this, but you are trying to find a truck that was potentially sold years ago in a metropolis with about 20-30 million people. And many of those people love transforming these trucks into works of art--very expensive art.
Best of luck.

[mr48chev]

It isn't legal for any dmv to give the ownership info out to the general public. Read up on the Privacy act.

Thing is, would you want some clown showing up on your door step wanting to see his old truck?

if you have the vin you may be able to run the vin with some of the vin search apps such as Carfax or Vin history USA that might give a read out of when and where it was registered or sold. It won't give names of individuals and you can test the system on a car or truck you own now to see how it works. That may tell you if the truck is still in the system or not.

[KQQL IT]

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCal...renewalForm.do



Put your info in here. At least will tell you if it's in the dmv system yet

[57taskforce]

I’ve had luck in the past with a law enforcement friend. They can run the vin and see what the status of it is and all the other info that goes along with it; but it’s only as accurate as the last time it was registered. It’ll have to be a good friend, as they aren’t supposed to give that info out.