Okay , Kind of a long story but I'll try to keep it moderately short .
In 1985 I bought my Chevelle from a young guy that had only owned it for about 6 weeks , he hadn't even changed car's title into his name . He decided that he couldn't afford to fix it up AND fix up his VW also , so he listed car for sale in the L.A. "Green Sheet" paper . It was listed as a 70SS 396 4 sp etc BUT with a smallblock installed for $2000 obo . I went over looked at it and we made a deal for $1800 , $100 now and $1700 in about 2 weeks . I asked him what he knew about the car and he said It belonged to a woman that bought it new , then married and eventually blew up the motor racing it and so her husband put in the small block . I found a few receipts and other papers in the glove box and console for parts/ repairs and just left them there to be soon forgotten . I used the car as my family car for many yrs , car seats in the back , 3 kids until we outgrew it with kid #4 . Car was last registered in 2003 ,then garaged from then on - no time , no money kind of thing . Retired and moved to Tennessee in Late 2020 . Tried to locate original owner , a woman last name of Rico ( I still have her old registration paper )in the SoCal area but to no avail . Then a few months or so later I discovered a receipt for a pair of tires ( dated not to long before I bought the car ) with a mans name but different from the womans name ( Rico ) that was on the registartion , although the Address was the same . Checking this online and I found names, phone #s and e-mails all linked to him and most importantly his wife's name and address where the same as the old Registration I had . After many phone calls - all went to " leave a message" or "no longer in service" and many E-mails to different addresses ( all explaining my search for the original owner and who i was etc . ) said to be associated with this person .about 1 month later I got a return call. A very nice woman on the other end told me she was the original owner , had bought the car new while attending college , LOVED the car and It's 396 4 speed . Told me its orignal color and features ( Cowl hood , Air Cond , Buckets , consloe etc.) and laughingly said it " wasn't very lady like to have to crawl under the car to unjamb the shift linkage when it would get jambed up while racing someone on the street " I mentioned I'd heard she was a" Hotrodder" and had blown up the original motor racing the Chevelle . She laughed and said " No that wasn't that motor , but a motor in a previous BFs Chevelle while racing" . She said the motor from your Chevelle is sitting out in my driveway in my husband's old truck . He swapped my motor into the truck against my wishes ( he used the truck to pull a trailer up to Mammoth ) and gave me that smallblock instead . I asked her if she would be interested in selling the truck as I wanted to reunite the motor with the car . She said they would be selling it in awhile ( her husband was VERY ill ) as it hadn't been driven in a LONG while .She took my info and said she would call me first when the time came . She had a neighbor take a pic of the Vin stampped on the block and it matched my car Vin !. Just about 9 months later she called and asked if i was still interested and I said YES !. She held onto it for me until I could fly out to Cal.and pay her for it in person . A wonderful ,sweet lady that loved her Chevelle and still loved hearing about and seeing pics of it ! MY brother , brother in Law , sister and I drove up to ventura county and brought the car back down to My sister and husband's house to await shipping back home to me here in Tn . Dang , sure a good thing I didn't give the long version , sorry !
