Looking For My Long Lost '68 Coronet R/T

mr. hemi · January 15, 2019, 08:30:53 PM

Thought I would give this a shot. Everyone on this forum seems very willing to help and there seems to be quite a few Canadians on here as well. If anyone can put me in touch with the owner of my old car, or shed some light on what became of it, I would much appreciate it. I sold the car in the London Ontario area in 1984. I saw it once after in about 1987 at St. Thomas Dragway, probably on Mopar day. I tried to speak with the owner (not the same person I sold it to), but he seemed uninterested in the history of the car or did not believe me.

The car has a rather unusual competition history, albeit brief, that I would like to communicate to the current owner if the R/T is still around. That would be my first goal, second would be to possibly purchase the car back.

The vehicle: 1968 Coronet R/T, 440 4spd., 3:54 Dana, dark green (don't remember the paint code), green interior, buckets, no console or buddy seat. Not numbers matching.

VIN: WS23L8G148986

Photo is circa 1983.

If I cannot get in touch with the current owner in a reasonable time, I will share the history of the car and some additional photos on the forum. But i would like to talk to the owner first if possible.

PM me any info.

Cheers,

mrhemi.

73rallye440magnum · January 15, 2019, 11:52:01 PM

Beautiful car. My second favorite! Good luck!

TiMopar · January 16, 2019, 08:19:11 AM

I think I have some pictures of that car that I took back in the 80's at the Canadian Nats. 4-speed with aftermarket gauges in the dash? I will dig them out and post. I remember hearing a story about it, but will let you tell that Mr.Hemi. Loved the car btw... I also seem to remember your Hemi Charger and have some pictures of it also ( Red interior? ).

mr. hemi · January 16, 2019, 09:52:05 AM

Quote from: TiMopar on January 16, 2019, 08:19:11 AM
I think I have some pictures of that car that I took back in the 80's at the Canadian Nats. 4-speed with aftermarket gauges in the dash? I will dig them out and post. I remember hearing a story about it, but will let you tell that Mr.Hemi. Loved the car btw... I also seem to remember your Hemi Charger and have some pictures of it also ( Red interior? ).

Right on both counts. I still have my Charger R/T, red on red. Post any pictures you can dig up for sure.

Cheers

nvrbdn · January 16, 2019, 01:22:47 PM

tan top · January 16, 2019, 01:49:10 PM

Definitely an Old Timer · January 16, 2019, 02:56:16 PM

Mike:

I think you might be able to go to the MTO and do a VIN search. Have you tried that

mr. hemi · January 16, 2019, 07:25:13 PM

In this day and age of "identity theft" and "privacy laws" the MTO get right snarly about doing that. The last time I requested a "$20 sales kit" I had to sign a bunch of papers and lie to them. Now, if I had a cop buddy, he could CPIC the VIN.

TiMopar · January 18, 2019, 06:05:49 AM

Mike, I have found four photos of your old Coronet and two of your Charger from the 91 Nats. I'm sorry, I thought they were from the 80's because I was over a couple of times then. I will get them scanned and posted as soon as possible...

mr. hemi · January 18, 2019, 07:01:16 AM

Thanks, looking forward to seeing them.

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:20:14 PM

First one

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:21:05 PM

second one

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:21:49 PM

3

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:24:11 PM

As you can tell, this was my favourite car at this meet. I had bought a 69 R/T F8 4-Speed car at the '84 Nats in Indianapolis, which I still own today...

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:24:46 PM

5

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:25:38 PM

6

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:26:57 PM

A few bonus shots of other cars that I liked.... never seen a silver AAR before...

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:27:35 PM

8

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:29:11 PM

9

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:29:56 PM

11

TiMopar · January 22, 2019, 01:30:22 PM

Last one...

mr. hemi · January 22, 2019, 06:00:45 PM

Great seeing those old photos, thanks for posting. They are at two different venues though. The shots where the cars are on grass, which include my Charger R/T are at St. Thomas Dragway, which was the last and only time I saw my '68 R/T since I sold it. The other set of photos on pavement, I do not recognize the location, do you recall where that was? Funny, I still have that grey wash bucket in the shop. Glad you like the R/T and I see you got a good photo of the dash. The amount of work that went into it was substantial! I would like to see some photos of yours if possible. If I have no luck locating the current owner of my old R/T I will post the history of the car while in my care. Stay tuned.

TiMopar · January 23, 2019, 06:16:00 AM

Pleased you like them Mike. Dave S is convinced he can track the car from the VIN, so we'll see! I look forward to hearing the full story of your old R/T. I resized your original picture with less scenery... best regards, Tim.

mr. hemi · January 23, 2019, 09:16:44 AM

I have to visit the MTO office in the next couple of weeks to part with a not so small amount of my coin for yearly license plate stickers. I will see if they will demonstrate pity "while they have me bent over the counter" and run the VIN for me. Stay tuned.

mr. hemi · January 24, 2019, 03:45:01 PM

Update: Had some success at the MTO office today. My old R/T VIN is still on the Ontario registry and I was able to get a "Sales Kit" which shows the owner trail. It seemed to help with the MTO office that I am actually the first registered owner in Ontario and provided the 1983 import papers when I brought the car into Canada.

The search begins!

TiMopar · January 25, 2019, 02:15:49 PM

Excellent! Good luck...

70 sublime · January 25, 2019, 06:24:15 PM

mr. hemi · January 26, 2019, 10:04:08 AM

I was able to make contact with the current owner. We will chat next week.

70 sublime · January 26, 2019, 10:12:40 AM

How many registered owners since it was in your name ?

mr. hemi · January 26, 2019, 05:27:28 PM

Seven, in addition to myself. Even a used car dealer!

TiMopar · January 28, 2019, 11:24:16 AM

Great news, looking forward to hearing the outcome!

Definitely an Old Timer · January 28, 2019, 12:12:43 PM

See Mike - the "old timer" does actually know something (ie. suggesting that you run the VIN at the MTO).

I remember providing you some parts for the car when you were rebuilding it, but that was 35 years ago. Might have been an oil pan?

I wouldn't mind buying my old '66 Hemi Satellite back, but that went in 1981. Sold it and my Superbird to finance going to school in England as you may recall. Some good did come out of that trip though. I still see Tim Fennell (Ti Mopar on this site) in the UK every time I am there. Saw him twice in the last couple weeks.

I doubt I could find the VIN for the Satellite now. And the Hemi is probably long gone. I still remember the VIN for the Superbird in my head, but I wouldn't want another. Once was enough.

Good luck with the discussions with the current owner of your old Coronet.

mr. hemi · January 28, 2019, 10:08:45 PM

Yes Mr. Dave I knew how to do it, just the last time I tried, the MTO office was less than helpful. A product of this day and age of privacy laws and stolen identities I guess. The fact that I have known the woman for years that runs the local MTO office made it a little easier as well.

Where are you at and what are you up too?

Definitely an Old Timer · January 29, 2019, 12:24:02 PM

Still in London, Mike, since 1983.

I don't have a muscle car these days but do have three 1973 Imperials. You may remember my fixation with "boats". My Dad had a triple black 1972 Imperial "back in the day" and I loved that car. Despite my looking, the best I could do was a 1973. No difference really, except for the bumper "tits" that Chrysler came up with for 1973.

I have a seriously bad back so working on cars is mostly out for me now. I've been tempted though, by the new Dodge muscle cars - I was on the list for the Demon (a friend owns a Chrysler dealership) but no cigar. I seem also to always be looking for a Chrysler 300 SRT8 (see the boat fixation above). I've not yet found the perfect one of those.

I'm still in the real estate business, but I have enough dough: I'd like to pack it in. Her Ladyship though (my wife) plans to continue to work so she'd probably not be pleased to have me sitting around all day. As a result I expect I'll continue until I'm 65 as well!

Nice to hear from you. I plan to go to Mopar Day out at St. Thomas Dragway (London Motorsports Park) this year. Perhaps I'll see you there. And Tim from England and I are considering going to the Mopar Nats. Tim turns 60 this year, so it would be a road trip to celebrate that.

mr. hemi · February 18, 2019, 10:48:41 AM

Spoke with the current owner a couple of week's ago. The car is still in Ontario and driven. Current owner is looking at freshening it up a bit. He had no knowledge of the previous history of the car. Not many people do actually. Sent him some early photos, although I did not really have many from that far back. He sent me a few recent photos in return.

Cheers

TiMopar · February 18, 2019, 01:08:21 PM

Are you going to go and visit it, Mike?

mr. hemi · February 18, 2019, 05:11:27 PM

No plans at the moment, although if I make it to Moparfest in New Hamburg this year I may cross paths with him. Depends if I am away from home for work at the time. Included a recent photo he sent me.

70 sublime · February 18, 2019, 08:17:01 PM

Looks like it is in good hands

TiMopar · February 19, 2019, 06:13:57 AM

Quote from: 70 sublime on February 18, 2019, 08:17:01 PM
Looks like it is in good hands

Agreed! That looks great!

Dave Kanofsky · February 19, 2019, 12:30:13 PM

Cool!

I went to Moparfest last year and had a great time, I recommend it!

tan top · February 19, 2019, 12:41:47 PM

Quote from: mr. hemi on February 18, 2019, 05:11:27 PM
No plans at the moment, although if I make it to Moparfest in New Hamburg this year I may cross paths with him. Depends if I am away from home for work at the time. Included a recent photo he sent me.

Mytur Binsdirti · February 20, 2019, 11:39:45 AM

Quote from: mr. hemi on February 18, 2019, 05:11:27 PM

Nice looking car. So nice, it's worth a second look.

odcics2 · February 20, 2019, 01:28:00 PM

It's a clean machine.

Mytur Binsdirti · February 20, 2019, 04:19:18 PM

Quote from: odcics2 on February 20, 2019, 01:28:00 PM

He likes to keep his Coronet clean.
It's a clean machine.

Fixed.

Stevetona · February 20, 2019, 07:13:09 PM

Glad you were able to get help from the MTO. Its hit and miss with them I find.

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Looking For My Long Lost '68 Coronet R/T