Re: We found and spoke to a prior owner

Posted by Craig the Clipper Man On 2016/3/28 10:59:11

Hi Ernie:

Not long after I bought my Bumblebee Clipper from a delightful couple near Richmond, VA, I attempted to track down the history of my car, without much luck. Unless you have a one- or two-owner car or a rare, documented car, tracking your car back to wherever it was sold and to whom seems almost impossible. Packard dealerships have long disappeared along with most of the company's sales records.

I was lucky to find out a few facts about the car through the meticulous details of its 1980s restoration. My car was originally sold in Albuquerque, NM, where it lived until 1982 when it was loaded onto a trailed and hauled to Minnesota. The oldest record for the car is a fragile April 1962 customer copy of a service appointment at a shop in Albuquerque. Suffice to say that shop no longer exists.

Like you, I called and talked with the gentleman who restored the Clipper, but he was unable to give me any more information than I already had. I sent a letter to the New Mexico Department of Motor Vehicles to see if they had any history of the car via registration, but learned that they only keep records back about 20 years.

Finally, on a hunch, I contacted the Studebaker Club of Albuquerque. A member got back with me and while he was sympathetic, no one in the club had any knowledge of the Clipper.

I wish you the best of luck finding the history of your car. It don't think it will be time searching that will pose your biggest problem, but rather the reality of trying to find out owners who are probably dead and records that are long lost.