Six Degrees of a Spider

[velozi]

To me, the history of a car is as important as its mechanical specs. A few years ago I bought an old 1976 124 and began the interesting search for all its previous owners.

I was lucky that the car came with repair documents all the way back to 1992. For 13 years, it was a student's car while in California. This meant that a lot of different names were listed in the repair bills but they all knew each other. I also found that even well documented cars have a lot of history holes.

My search took me to different countries and meeting a lot of interesting previous owners. Previous owners now live in Georgia USA, California USA, Philadelphia USA, Paris France, and Sofia Bulgaria. A lot of strangers at first and now all just a click away.

The car was originaly purchased in Philadelphia and then moved to Califonia 10 years later. Moved to Georgia 10 years after that.
All 7 owners are men but 1 girlfriend drove it for a year.
5 of 7 work in the graphic design/animation industry. 1 engineer and 1 fireman.
It has been sold to friends, via eBay, Craigslist and AutoTrader.

So go ahead and research the history of your 124. You might find some surprising things about it and meet some good people along the way.

[mbouse]

that is interesting. as i sat and read this, my thoughts went back and forth about what i would feel if i were contacted by some zealous car owner.

would i cooperate? would i brush him off? because i enjoy cars as a hobby, i know that i'd cooperate; in fact, i made sure that the buyer of FrankenStein received as much documentation as i was able to dig up myself on that car.

however, i do remember a time when all the cars i owned were nothing to me other than transportation. if i were in that mode personally, i'd not have responded to your inquiries.

i think you are very fortuntate, and obviously passionate, about your Spider research. it made for a good read here.

[mdrburchette]

My car's history was very easy to follow. I bought my 1972 Spider from the second owner who bought it from a friend of his that was in the armed forces. The car was originally bought in California. The young owner drove it home to Mt. Airy, NC because he was being deployed overseas. His friend, Mr. Pyle (Gomer's cousin?), bought it in 1974 and took care of it through four marriages. When he was forced to move because of work, he put it up for sale and I bought it in 1995.

[ga.spyder]

I think that was his cousin,Goober!I had a lot of documentation with mine,also.The best was a letter from the court that the husband got to keep the Spider in the divorce settlement.He only had to give her $3800 !!!.She got the kids and the house(true story!).He still got the better part of the bargain.
Craig

[spiderrey]

this would be to easy. i bought the 70 spider from its original owener. he told me about his top tearing right after he bought the car, then replaced it. tore again right away and never went back up. when i brought the car home, my son and i raised the top, . it crumbled off the frame into small parts and dust. we just laughed. i think it was always garaged, considering the condition it was in.

[sptcoupe]

I bought our '72 coupe from the original owner in 1987. It had 140K miles on it and had never had the engine apart. I put in a highly modified 1800, completely re-did the driveline, suspension, interior and painted it. All the bright work/chrome trim/bumpers and headliner are original. I has about 300K on it now and was my daily driver for the first 15 years we owned it.

Our '73 sedan was bought on Ebay from the second owner, who never registered it, as he had intended to make a rally car out of it unitl he found a real Abarth spider and needed money to restore that car. So I am the second registered owner, and I actually had the chance to talk to the original owner several times, in Pheonix, where the car was originally purchased and lived until trucked to St Louis, where it was never put on the road except for trips around the block to keep everything healthy. He loved the car and realty took great care of it. Not a spot of rust. It had 89K original miles when I got it, and the only parts replaced under the hood so far have been a fuel pump and the thermostat. All else is original, including starter, alternator, stickers, etc. Even the spare tire is the original tire! Never has had a valve job, and runs like a top with 94K on it today.

We are also the second owners of our '81 spider, which lived its entire life in SoCal. The original owner had just completed about 90% of a really well done restoration (completely disaasembled the car) that was done by a shop in LA. I just lowered it, put a header and a K&N intake on it, steel brake lines and a rear bar. All else was rebuilt (and remains) as stock. The owner had a financial emergency and I happened to be hanging out at the shop when he brought it in and put it up for sale. I bought it on the spot with 117K on the clock.

[sonosml]

How do you begin the journey looking for P.O's. Start at the DOT?

IA-Mike

[mbouse]

hey, IA-Mike... yours is easy.

Also, many car owners hate to throw away ANY paperwork in the glove box; including p.o. registrations and service station receipts. you have some surprises waiting for you when you stop by Lee's place ... some of those kind of things are in that stack of stuff set aside.

[sonosml]

Cool, I would also like to trace the history of the Punken. Since I've had it for 20+ years, I'd like to find out previous owners and see if they would like to attend the funeral.

[mbouse]

LOL. Giver a Viking funeral !!

[kmac33]

Easy tracking the previous owner history on my Spider - it's been in the family it's whole life, was my dad's and now she's mine - hopefully she'll still be here 30 years from now and I'll pass her on to my son.
Sadly my dad is not completely obsessed with cars like I am, so his memory of repairs and maintainence are spotty at best. During my restoration, I have found some interesting things that my dad has no memory of...lack of reverse switch (he doesn't remember ever having it removed for any reason), big bump hood instead of correct little bump hood (he did not remember ever having the hood replaced, but did remember my older brother wrecking the front end about 25 years ago) and of course some interesting wiring modifications that I have been removing. He actually does remember that the current spare tire is one of the orignal tires the car came with - not sure how comfortable I'd be using a 34 year old spare tire!