I hired a car detective.
 

I wanted to get more info on the 69 Z/28 so for $250, I hired a car detective. Bill Gould whose website is: http://www.autoancestry.com/

"As founder and owner of Auto Ancestry Bill Gould has a background as an Air Force cryptolinguist flying 160 combat missions over Vietnam and Laos, is an accomplished genealogist and mechanical engineer, as well as a successful thirty year business owner. Bill is also a life long Corvette owner with an appreciation and love for antique cars, especially early Corvettes."

It fits in nice because Bill is an Air Force guy and this car was kicked around between Air Force guys since 1969.

Alfred is the 2nd owner per the protect-o-plate (POP) I have. The POP only lists Alfreds initials, last name, address of Hamilton AFB, California, and the car VIN. The 2nd owner POP would entitle the new owner to the remainder of the 1 year warranty.

The normal 1st owner POP had a lot more information on the plate. It would include the:

Carburetor Source
Engine Production Code
Rear Axle Number
Vehicle Build Month
Transmission Number
Power Steering
Power Brakes
Radio Option
Disc Brake Option
Air Conditioning
Power Window Equipment

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Bill tracked Alfred down in CA.

He sent him a letter with "I am researching the history of a 1969 Z28 Camaro that you may have purchased new from Placke Chevrolet in St Louis while stationed at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. "

……………….and I just finished talking with Alfred for an hour on the phone. I have notes everywhere and have to organize them. It was great talking with him!

Cool stuff. Is that the '69 you just bought or the one under resto?

The 69 Z/28 I just bought. It was real cool talking with him. I just typed up some notes:
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Alfred bought the car from Placke Chevrolet in 1969.

It was a new/used car meaning that it was still within its first year warranty period. He paid $3,400 since it was not new, but new/used. Alfred thinks that the first owner didn’t make the payments on the car and it was repossessed. When he bought it, it had 3,000-4,000 miles on it. He had been looking at a metallic-brown 69Z with the cowl-induction hood, but did not like the automatic on the brown one. He wasn’t in love with the green color or the flat hood on it, but wanted the 4-speed so he bought the green one.

He was stationed at Scott AFB in Illinois when he came back from Vietnam in 1968, but just got reassigned to Hamilton AFB in CA. In 1972 he was reassigned to Wichita Falls, TX at Sheppard AFB. His son was born in 1973 and he wanted to get a more family oriented vehicle and bought a 74 Chevy pickup. He sold it either in 1973 or 1974 to Dave B for $1,650. He thinks it was most likely in 1974 so he had it for about 5 years. Dave B was also in the Air Force living in Wichita Falls, TX. Alfred was an airman 1st class and thinks that Dave might have been a fellow instructor.

For maintenance, he mentioned changing the clutch in 1971. Also he had a recurring problem with the valve springs and the same valve spring broke 3 or 4 times. He got real good at fixing it and used to carry the needed tools like the spring compressor and sockets with him. Once it broke at night going across the golden gate bridge when he started hearing a tapping. He pulled into the toll plaza parking lot and changed it right there. For the carburetor, he did not change the carb that was on it, but he repaired it once and reinstalled it. The wheels he changed. He put on aluminum 5 spoke mags. The front end of the car was real low, and the spoiler broke off. He had the front-end springs changed and then the front end was too high. He ended up putting 60 series Firestone tires on it. He also mentioned putting on a capacitive discharge system, which was a small box, and he screwed it on the firewall. This way he did not have to keep changing out the points on the distributor.

The only rust area he ever spotted was around the back window.

He said he still has the same girlfriend/now wife from when he had the car and the first thing she said to him is “ask him if he wants to sell it”. He said to let him know first if I ever want to sell it.

He will be 68 in a few months.

cool!

wow thats awesome!

Great stuff!

Very interesting David! Cool stuff!

Thanks guys!

Alfred said he has two huge boxes of pictures to look through to find some pictures of the car from when he had it.

Bill Gould:Car Detective is going to start looking for the next owner Dave B.

thats pretty sweet. I love hearing the history behind cars

unfortunate because most of our cars would probably go something like

Person A bought the car, 2 years later sold it to Peron B, who continuously beat the piss out of it before selling it to Person C who later sold it to Person D, who had it repo'd, when Person E bought it for a steal and totaled it but had it repaired and sold it to Person F who is a poor...poor shmuck

hahahaha^^^^^^^