Little detective work, great surprise

[hebodrive]

I purchased my 56 in Oct, off ebay from a seller in N Carolina. That person had purchased the car a few months earlier from a classic car auction. They were told that the milage (89k) was original but other than that no history of the car was known. When i picked up the car, it had Kansas vanity plates on it that read RUBYHIL. I went on line and contacted the Kansas dmv. I downloaded a form, and for a small fee ,they sent me the history of the car while in Kansas. Turns out the car at one time was registered to a Ruby hill mining co. signed by the president of the company.There was a phone#, so i called. Contacted this guy and couldn't believe what he told me. Turns out he was the president of a company that owned a bunch of silver mines out west. One was the Ruby hill silver mine in Eureka Nevada. This mine was shut down sometime in the late 60's or early 70's. In 1992 this guy was doing some sort of inspection on the property . They opened up a long sealed storage bldg,and found this 56 and a 52 chevy pickup just sitting there , long forgotten. He took possesion of the vehicles. on the 56 , he said it was in great shape , but he had it repainted. The seats had some wear, so he had those redone, and had the top half of the motor rebuilt. Between then and now, there has only been an additional 800 miles put on the car . This guy has retired and last year the car was donated to charity as a write off. From there it found its way to the auction in NC. So bascally this car has been in storage for the past 35 years. I'm glad i did my homework. I knew the car was in amazing shape, but now i know why.

[Grumpy1957]

THATS AWESOME!!! did he have any pics of when they found it? those would be great to have too

[Monkey55]

That is a COOL story. It's amazing the phone number was still assigned to him..

Pics would be cool...


E

[hebodrive]

Actually when i called the company in Kansas , the lady i talked to told me he had retired and moved to Arizona. After talking with her for a few minutes ,she agreed to give me his home number. He took my address, email, and phone number, said he would contact me if he could find any old photos or paperwork.

[chevman57]

Amazing what you can turn up with a little bit of detective work isn`t it ? I`ll bet you are glad you went ahead and dug into this.
Terry

[hebodrive]

I dont think the person i bought this car from had any idea what they had here. I bought it from a woman whose father went to this auction to buy a model T. He bought that car, the 56 chevy, and two other cars on a whim. Shortly after that he went on an extended vacation overseas. This lady was upset because she ran a business from the house and these cars were all parked on her lot. Dad said to go ahead and sell a couple. She put this car on ebay with a buy it now of $7500. I just happened to run across the auction. Showed it to the wife. She said go for it. So i did.

[ETriggs]

You got that for $7500??? Now I officially hate you! Just kidding

[Jedi_CGB]

There really is deals to be had if you do your research. I got my '57 for a song! I felt bad for the guy selling it. He had no idea what he had. Those feelings subsided as soon as I got behind the wheel though.

[hebodrive]

Just want to mention that auto veicle info are public records, which the dmv is obligated to hand over to anyone who requests them. Kansas charged me $10.00, and i was really surprised at the amount of info they sent me.

[Chevynut]

Originally Posted by Jedi_CGB

I got my '57 for a song!

I hope it wasn't rap.

So bascally this car has been in storage for the past 35 years.

My Nomad was too (33 years)....in my own garage(s)!! :eek:

I bought my 56 sedan a year ago from a guy who owned it for 9 years. He said that the guy who owned it before him had it for over 20 years....all in inside storage.

Cool story about your car. I found some registration papers from 1983 in my 4-door sedan the other day. They were under the front seat cover along with a 1983 copy of Oui. :eek: