Who was the first owner and pre-owners?

[TV-collector]

Hi, maybe you know, I`m from Germany.
I bought me in 1991 a 1950 Cadillac convertible from Dayton/OH.

The car was partly restored, came with the title and adress of the
pre-owner.
My seller told me, that my car came originally from California, just
because of a rare exhaust-circle system from crankcase to intake.

A 1950 Cadillac convertible was never an everyones car, so for that
I really like to know the names/adresses of the pre-owners.

Yesterday in the german television it was told, that there is a way
by paying about 25 bucks to find out the pre-owners of cars from
the US.

Any advice?
Thanks in advance!

TV-Collector

[SpaceAge]

I don't think so. I'm guessing they were talking about Carfax, which will show you maintenance history and whether it was wrecked or damaged, but not previous owners' names. And Carfax would surely be unavailable for a 1950 model.

[old_tv_nut]

Did any cars have EGR in 1950? Would this be a factory version for California, or a retro-fit?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhaust_gas_recirculation

Edit: sorry, you said "crankcase" and I jumped to EGR.
https://www.doityourself.com/stry/ho...breather-works

[WISCOJIM]

https://www.add123.com/title-check

[Ed in Tx]

doityourself.com..."The crankcase breather is in place to route these gasses back to the carburetor." wrong-o! It should route the gasses into the intake manifold past the carburetor, otherwise you'd have a badly gunked up carburetor very quickly. There may be an intake air tube to supply filtered air from the air cleaner into the engine but it shouldn't be pulling crankcase gasses backwards into the carb. It might do that if the PCV valve is clogged.

[MadMan]

I believe if you have the US title, the state's DMV should be able to give you the history of the previous owners. How that works depends entirely on which state it is from. That title check thing Wiscojim posted may give you what you want, but I'm not 100% sure they will give you previous title holders' names.

[zeno]

A few ways you may be able to find out.
1) Contact cadillac. I bet they have an archives & a historian that
could help. Probably can give you the dealer they sold it to & maybe
the first owner & build sheet.
2) contact the Calf DMV since it was sold there.
3) contact the DMV that the title was issued by & try to work back.
Start with Caddy. The states will charge you a title search fee !

Story.........
My late brother in law collected Hudson, Essex & Terraplane cars.
He bought an Essex ( I forgot the year ) to restore. He researched the car
& found that its was the same model / year & color as the car they sold or
gave to Amelia Earhart through the same dealer ! Never could prove it
beyond doubt. I may have ridden in her car......

BTW every state has its own rules for titles & registrations. Often
different names like in Ma its RMV ( registry of motor vehicles ) here
in N.H. its DPS ( department of public safety ).

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[Chip Chester]

In Ohio, title transfer work is currently done at the county level. Dayton is largely Montgomery County. I don't know, however, how long it's been that way -- it certainly may have started at the state level, Ohio BMV.

[bgadow]

My thought is that the California DMV is more likely to have the information you seek than Cadillac (in most cases old information like that was long ago destroyed by the manufacturers) but it would also likely be much easier to connect with a helpful soul at General Motors than the DMV! I'm not sure that the state would necessarily have a paper trail all the way back to the first owner as I'm not sure there would be any need for it. Now, years ago I had a '52 Ford that had been abandoned on our property. I contacted the state DMV and for $5 (this was a long time ago) they sent me a photocopy of the title they had on file. It was still titled to the original owner in the mid-90's and I never did manage to locate them.