backtothe80s

I know this is a long shot, but I've often wondered what happened to my dad's white 1986 Trans AM. He bought it new off the showroom floor of Quebedeaux Pontiac in Tucson, AZ in February of 1986. It was a 305 TPI automatic car, white with tan cloth interior. Gold 16s. It had just about every option available at the time, except for t-tops and overhead console. It even had the subwoofer. He sold it in 1996 with around 50k miles on the clock, looking nearly immaculate. I last saw the car in 2001 being driven around the UofA campus by a young lady. Sadly, it was in somewhat rough shape. Paint was peeled, the interior was dirty, and the bumper was sooty from running too rich. The attached picture was taken in May of 1996, just before he sold it.

I thought I had an old copy of the title with VIN somewhere, but I can't seem to find it to run a carfax.


My hopes are that someone on this forum has the car and has restored her to her former glory!

If anyone knows anything, I'd love to hear about it!

Veaceonee

iTrader: (1)

carfax would be a good place to start to see if it is even still on the road.

backtothe80s

I'm looking through old paperwork to see if I have the VIN. No luck so far.

jmd

iTrader: (4)

I wonder if the insurance agent would have record of a vehicle they covered in 1996. Good luck.

red rock

iTrader: (2)

An old license plate number or try to contact the dealer for the vin?

backtothe80s

I know the license plate number. I'll have to recheck the files for old paperwork. I thought I still had the original window sticker somewhere. The search goes on!

s10sbc350

You can back trace the cars vin number with the license plate #
I forget what site I saw this on.... Maybe carfax?

Phenom-1

Gimme the license plate and I'll look it up and see if it's still active

backtothe80s

Thank you!!!

AZ DEB 094

That was the license plate he got when he bought the car. When I last saw the car in 2001, it still had the same plate. That's how I knew it was his former car. He always hated that plate, too. Prior to 2002, the plate went with the car. Now in AZ, you own the plate, so it's anyone's guess if the plate is still in use.

Thanks again.

Phenom-1

I tried looking it up but didn't have much luck, I thought it was a 7 digit plate because that how I get a little info here in Cali but I kept running into these websites where for $1 they'll look up the plate and give you the info. It did register 1 record for that plate in AZ. Then it asks me to pay first thru paypal or credit card and then it will give me any juicy details Lol


http://www.licenseplateslookup.com/platelookup.php

http://vehicledataregistry.com/recor...late&id=ms1001


eVerify's preliminary results has returned a single plate in AZ matching DEB094 even though our (admittedly incomplete) database did not have matches. Please follow the link below to complete the search and receive access to the detailed information of the plate's owner including name, address, and telephone number.

(Click here to see a sample report of the data you'll receive in a new window.)

Proceed to DEB094's details on the eVerify site. It costs $1 today.

http://www.reverselicenseplateslooku...latelookup.php --^



HOWEVER.... I did look it up on Carfax they have a free little thing where you input the vin or license plate and state and it will just let you know if the plate is currently active and what car it is registered to. And it showed up as 1986 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Your vehicle has 3 history records. And if you actually want to see the records you can buy 1 or unlimited. Hope this helps


1 CARFAX Report
$39.99
1 Report

5 CARFAX Reports
$49.99
5 Reports

Unlimited CARFAX Reports - Best Deal for the money.
only $54.99
Unlimited Reports by U.S. License Plate

backtothe80s

wow! Thanks for looking into that. I'll have to buy one of the reports to see if she's still "alive".

s10sbc350

Yay I was actually rite... Phenom-1 actually took the time to make sure that's where to go for the plate check though.

When you get the report it will also give you the vin #, and current title holders address or name I forget which. So that's another plus

Phenom-1

Thanks They keep changing the carfax website though, I remember some time last year I checked a license plate for a relatives car on carfax (just to see what came up for free) and not only did it show me the year/make and model of the car registered to the plate but it also showed me the cars vin number, which matched my relatives car. So I got curious and refreshed the Carfax page and instead this time I input the same cars vin and looked it up and sure enough it showed me the vin and Year make/model but not the License plate.

So doing it the other way around, If i searched for the plate it would give me the year/make/model and also the vin number. But that was some time last year and now this year that I do it like today that I did it for his Fathers Trans Am, It wouldn't show me the vin on the license plate look up like I had been able to see last year when I was doing it just for fun on a relatives car... I guess they changed it? That sucks.

It's hell to try and figure out the vin too, the first few digits can be figured out but it's the serial number that is impossible to think of.

6 digit serial number so it could be one from 000000 to 999999 I hope you find it though, the report you buy will have the vin though, the plate is enough and seeing as it's still tied to the car it should be easy.

Lucky though, I have a similar case of trying to find an old 3rd Gen but compared to your case it's almost near impossible for me because I don't even have a License plate to go by, let alone a vin number. My Aunt had an '86 red IROC-Z hardtop she bought new in late '86 early '87 and only had it for a few months when she was tragically killed and the family had their own cars so they sold it to a friend of the family after a few months.

And no records or pictures were kept, the only thing that was kept as a reminder was just the spare set of keys from the dealership. Door/trunk key and the Ignition key. Though that's not much to go on and one hell of a long shot. Can you imagine looking up every single '86 Red Iroc in the state of California just to try the keys on and see if they open it/start it? And that's IF it hasn't been painted a different color or had the locks changed or moved to a different state... For all I know it could have ended up in the junkyard or crushed by now since it's been 27 years since 1987.


My only hope is to either go to an insurance guy and see if maybe they can somehow pull up records on my Aunt using her name or her address where she lived to check history and see if she had insurance on the car and what car it was, license plate, vin etc. And if not then maybe look her up on public records and hope the IROC appears on her history, and if that doesn't pan out maybe hire a Private Investigator and see if they can't find out

s10sbc350

Well good luck to the both of you on your car searches

backtothe80s

Well, here goes:

01/30/1999 73,000 Arizona
Inspection Station Passed emissions inspection 02/05/2000 84,000 Arizona
Inspection Station Passed emissions inspection 09/22/2000 88,841 Arizona
Motor Vehicle Dept.
Phoenix, AZ
Title #A55571C266133 SALVAGE TITLE/CERTIFICATE ISSUED
I last saw the car in the spring of 2001. I'm guessing the car was parked shortly after that. Who knows where it is now.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had no idea carfax could find a VIN with the license plate!

Phenom-1

Salvage?

s10sbc350

Dang that sucks. But im kinda curious as to why it had 2 state inspections within a year?

backtothe80s

The 2nd inspection in 2000 would have been to issue the salvage title. Either it was wrecked or stolen some time before the salvage title issue date of 9/22/2000.

Interestingly enough, the car was stolen and recovered on the same day in 1992. There was no damage to the car other than the steering column. I know the title was still clear after that.

Like I mentioned, when I saw the car in 2001, it looked pretty shabby. Peeled paint, dirty interior, blackened rear bumper, squeaky belt. I'm guessing it might have been stolen again. I didn't see any signs of an accident.

s10sbc350

well if that's the case then that means after it was considered salvaged that it was still drivable if it passed the inspection... That's good news