The story of HLS3022980

[AlexS13]

I'll start off by briefly describing the events which led up to this story. I purchased my 1971 240z in 2010 from a gentleman who bought the car in Ohio and drove it back to Ontario, Canada. He supplied me with the import papers which indicated the car had been imported to Canada in 2008. He had also briefly mentioned the car was originally white (now blue) and that it had spent some time in Texas. I was also told about a death in the previous owner's family. This was about all the information I had got from him when I bought the car. I had alot of question's I would have liked answered such as...the authentic milage on the car? how long was it in Texas? how many owner's? previous accident's? etc...

I came to the conclusion that finding these answer's was not going to happen, I just didn't have enough information to put anything together.

This is where it gets interesting, about 2 weeks ago the original rad that was in my 240z had sprung a leak from the core. This was when I found a name engraved on the tank of the radiator. It was quite hard to make out but I was able to spell out the first and last name...George Amlin.

I though to myself this could possibly be a previous owner of my car, so I went on facebook and was able to find George. I sent George a message describing the car and where I found his name and if he may have owned this car? Within a day of me sending the message I get a response....

Alex,

High probability. You may be interested in the following:

I bought the car in 1972 in Wilmington, NC when it was about 1 year old

with 15000 miles on it for $3450. It was originally a white car but Datsun paint quality did not hold up in the seaside atmosphere around Wilmington thus I had it painted blue around 1975. Some bolts on the fan mounting

broke thus the fan tore up the radiator core and I had to take the radiator

out and replace the core around 1975. The radiator shop stenciled my name

on the radiator at that time.

I was on the corporate transfer list thus moved the car to Charlotte, NC

with me in 1976 and then moved it to Richmond, VA in 1977. In 1981 I moved

it to Dallas, TX and then on to Houston, TX in 1982. I drove the car

almost every day until I moved to Wilmington, DE in 1986. It had a little

over 100k miles at that time. I kept the car in my garage driving it 2 or

3 times a month around the neighborhood but did not title the car in PA (

where I lived ). When I moved to Tokyo in 1989, I had it moved to my mother's garage around Tiffin, OH.

My plan was to wait until I retired to "really fix it up" but the plan

changed around 1998 when my mother died. I then gave the car to my brother

in law ( Bob Seifert ) who also lived around Tiffin. He is the type of

person who can do almost anything mechanically thus he repainted the car

again & did some other mechanical work but I don't think he did much to the engine.

I am actually in OH this weekend and will attend a family reunion in Tiffin

on Saturday . Bob will probably be at the reunion.

Have a great time with the car. I loved it but just decided it wasn't the

right car to drive long distances around the country with my wife after I retired. It has moved around the country and had 4 state titles but only 3owners up to a few years ago.

George Amlin

When I read that message I started to get goose bumps. I felt so lucky being able to talk to George and back track the history of my car dating back to 1972. George and I have exchanged some more email's and he has informed me of some more detail's. I bought the car with 105,000 miles on the odo. George said the car had been sitting in his mothers garage for over 10 years without being driven or started. He also said his brother in law Bob had driven the car very little until 2008 when he sold it. This just answered my question about the milage on the car, it is original. The car had been driven a total of about 5,000 miles from 1986 to 2010 when I bought it. As far as accidents go, George said he was involved in 1 minor accident in 1976 while stopped at a red light he was rear ended.

I have sent George some pictures of the car to bring back some memories for him. I find myself very lucky to be able to contact the person who bought my car 40 years ago!

Hope you guys enjoyed this story

Alex

Edited August 11, 2012 by AlexS13

[SteveJ]

Nice story, Alex.

[psdenno]

Great '71Z story! Tracing a car back to its early owners can be an adventure. I've done that with a '70 Porsche and got car loan documents from the wife of the original owner. Enjoy the Z!

Dennis

[d240zx2]

:-) Nice.

[Gary in NJ]

Great story. I wish I had that type of background information for my car...or any used car that I have owned and loved over the years. When you can attach a personal story to a car, it transforms the car beyond metal and rubber.

[EhlersRS]

Alex,

Thanks for sharing the story of your Z! Learning the history of your car is a great experience. It seems to connect you to the past and the great memories that were created with the car. I understand the goose bumps you experienced after finding the previous owner. My car came with the maintainence records up to 1988, so it took less effort to track down the previous owners. Thanks to the internet, I was able to locate a few phone numbers and I started calling. I couldn't reach anyone the first time, so a few weeks later I tried again. I have spoken with all 4 of the previous owners, but the best conversation I had was with the original owner. He bought the car new in 1971 when he was 40 years old and is now 81. It's interesting your car was repainted 4 years after it was produced. The original owner of my car had it repainted about 6 years after he bought it. Also, our cars were both produced in February 1971. Thanks again for sharing the good news!

Robert S.

VIN