Found where my car was sold

[b_hill_86]

Not a numbers question per se, so feel free to move to a more appropriate spot if necessary. A few months ago I ordered PHS for my car for fun essentially. My car is nothing special and hardly original but I thought it might be cool to see/confirm some options my car came with, when it was built and where it was sold. Unfortunately the invoice I received was a poor copy and hardly legible in some spots. I did confirm some options which was what I wanted. Also discovered it was a W72 car which I hadn’t known before. Original engine is long gone.

Between the build sheet and observations it was originally sterling silver with decals and came with A/C, cruise, rear defroster, tinted glass, Y92? lamp group (which I assume is the courtesy lights), illuminated visor mirror (which it doesn’t have and I didn’t know existed even), power windows, power locks, AM/FM stereo, tilt wheel, custom trim group and as mentioned, W72. I wish it listed what wheels it had originally but it doesn’t. Also has deluxe Lombardy interior but that’s not on the invoice. Overall a fairly well optioned car I guess.

Anyway, the dealer info area on the PHS looked awful but on a whim on another forum someone suggested posting the invoice and actually was able to make out the dealer info which, after comparing that with the invoice, looks completely feasible.

Car was shipped on 11/08/1976 to Belcastro Pontiac in Ferndale, MI. Not much info out there in the google about it other than it used to be Higgins Pontiac till ‘72 but the building still stands. I know it’s probably not real exciting or relevant to most of you but being younger, it’s cool for me to imagine maybe my car was sitting behind the glass in that showroom back in late 1976 or early 1977. And being only about 1 hour and 15 min south in Toledo, the car hasn’t wandered too far in 46 years.

[roadking77]

Thats really cool that you found the dealer. I have a buddy in Missouri that bought a car from my area (MD). He was able to trace it back to the original owner and the dealer that sold it new. Its about an hour south of me, in a town I am very familiar with. The building is still there and I took some pictures for him.

I know my 77 was originally sold by a dealer in Corpus Christi TX. I know the dealer name and did some searching but came up empty on all accounts.

[b_hill_86]

It would be cool to have info on the original owner or to even know how many there have been. The guy I bought it from didn’t have it long and he had receipts from the owner before him. I called him with some questions once 8-10 years ago but he hadn’t had the car all that long either and I don’t recall him having much info on owners prior to him.

[Wallington]

I remember contacting the place where mine was sold, still operating but obviously selling other makes now but same name. I asked if they had any company logo, window stickers, merchandise, license plate dealer frames, anything really, something trivial to go with a restored vehicle sold by them roughly 40 years ago at the time. The reply was simply "No, we don't." and not a word more. Of course I didn't believe any of that, but lost interest as fast as they had, minus their indifferent manner for responding to inquiries regarding their company.

[5th T/A]

I personally love hearing the history and stories about the cars. Mine or anyone else’s. Thanks for sharing the dealership photos. It is not unusual to find an old dealership building still standing, but no longer active. About twenty years ago my wife and I were on a cross country motorcycle ride, going through Wyoming came across an old De Soto dealership. The building was vacated, but it still had a neon sign in decent shape. Looking back I wished I snapped a picture of it.

[Wallington]

As for the D64 illuminated visor mirror, here's a previous link. Note that there seemed to be a minor design change around '76-77 when first introduced, the lighting dials either side changed to a single switch and the patterned molding along the base disappeared. You can see these in the 77TA pic. But the parts manuals call out the same part number for either, for replacement, #994951. The wiring also ran through the chrome visor bracket and drilled through the bend, may or may not be possible with reproductions, visors or brackets.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6092021

[FormTA]

That is really cool! I actually bought my car from the original owner who lived in Perrysburg and I have the original yellow title which shows it was purchased from Cherry auto, again in Pburg. So mine didn't travel far either.

[b_hill_86]

I remember contacting the place where mine was sold, still operating but obviously selling other makes now but same name. I asked if they had any company logo, window stickers, merchandise, license plate dealer frames, anything really, something trivial to go with a restored vehicle sold by them roughly 40 years ago at the time. The reply was simply "No, we don't." and not a word more. Of course I didn't believe any of that, but lost interest as fast as they had, minus their indifferent manner for responding to inquiries regarding their company.

That doesn’t surprise me unfortunately. I also can’t see many people reminiscing about buying a car at a dealership 40+ years from now in the same way I guys do when thinking about doing it 40 years ago.

[b_hill_86]

As for the D64 illuminated visor mirror, here's a previous link. Note that there seemed to be a minor design change around '76-77 when first introduced, the lighting dials either side changed to a single switch and the patterned molding along the base disappeared. You can see these in the 77TA pic. But the parts manuals call out the same part number for either, for replacement, #994951. The wiring also ran through the chrome visor bracket and drilled through the bend, may or may not be possible with reproductions, visors or brackets.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6092021

Thanks for the info man. Learn something new about these cars every day. Too bad mine is gone now. In fact, I was missing the passenger side visor when I bought the car. Maybe someone swiped it for some reason. I’ll have to look tomorrow but I don’t recall seeing any wiring nearby though. Though my headliner had been replaced so maybe someone pulled it out.

That is really cool! I actually bought my car from the original owner who lived in Perrysburg and I have the original yellow title which shows it was purchased from Cherry auto, again in Pburg. So mine didn't travel far either.

Yea yours really didn’t make it far at all did it? 

[kentucky yeti]

I think it is pretty cool anytime you can find information on your car's history.  Congrats on that!

[firebirdparts]

I think it's exciting.  that's an interesting building, too.  As to the wheels, Rally II's were standard, and so the invoice would have to show optional wheels and the price if you had aluminum wheels.

[b_hill_86]

I think it is pretty cool anytime you can find information on your car's history.  Congrats on that!

Thanks! I agree. Gives it some character I feel. I owe it to that member for helping me decipher the dealer address. I don’t know how he did but I’m grateful.

I think it's exciting.  that's an interesting building, too.  As to the wheels, Rally II's were standard, and so the invoice would have to show optional wheels and the price if you had aluminum wheels.

Seems like kind of a small building to be a dealership. There’s a lot out back but I question it’s use.

Thanks for the info on the rally’s too. That makes sense. Good to know though. It had rally’s on it when I bought it though 3 of the 4 were gold before I repainted them grey  so who knows if they were original. I’d like to get a set of tires for them to put those back on though.

[roadking77]

There was a good thread on the aaca forum about dealerships. Keep in mind back in the day there were no mega dealers. Those are relatively new. Most dealers probably had no more than a dozen cars at a time. I live in very small town, we just got our second redlight about 10 yrs ago. When I was a kid, ca. 1970, there was an AMC dealer, right beside the Ford dealer down the street a bit was a dodge dealer. Outside of town 5 or 6 miles was the Chrysler dealer.

[Warren Seale]

The dealers prior to approx. the 90s were mostly small privately owned businesses and there didn't seem to be any regulations from the manufacturers about how the facility was set up.  It was most likely dependent on the business owner.  In the 90s more large corporations were buying up dealers and creating chains and the manufacturers began implementing standards so that each facility had a similar theme and appearance.

[b_hill_86]

Ah that all makes sense