Help To Find Old 1988 Ford F150

RMarra

I'm looking for any type of help or lead someone can give me.
I'm trying to locate my husband-to-be deceased fathers 1988 black Ford F150. Here is the back story.. my husband's father passed away in March 1988 just 5 months before my husband was born. So to find a tangible piece of his dad would be life changing for him. So I'm trying my hardest on the sly to see if I can find it. My husband's Uncle did try to keep making the payments on the truck but he was a young father himself and eventually had to return to truck back to the dealership. This would of happened around the end of 1988. I have the VIN and the registration but no copy of the title. I searched the VIN and all I can find is that the truck was titled back to the dealership. That's the end of the trail. The dealership has long since been closed. Is there any way to find out what happened to it? I'm assuming I would of been able to see if it was resold. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

tjc78

Since you have the VIN maybe try running a CarFax report on it to see what turns up? It can tell you a lot about the truck. If you see any recent activity you’ll at least know it’s still running.

At this point there is a good chance it’s not on the road any longer.

oldfarmer50

tjc78 said:

Since you have the VIN maybe try running a CarFax report on it to see what turns up? It can tell you a lot about the truck. If you see any recent activity you’ll at least know it’s still running.

At this point there is a good chance it’s not on the road any longer.

That would be my suggestion but I think CarFax only goes back to the mid 90s. Could give some more recent transactions though.

I’m sure there are other vin look up systems out there too. How about Hemmings, it’s an antique now.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/tracing-vehicle-ownership-history/

RMarra

Thank you! I have already tried CarFax.. that's how I saw that the dealership had posession of but that was as far as it went. There was no other transactions after that.

kyfdx

It's cool that you are trying to find this truck.

But, in reality, the chances of it still being on the road are less than 1%.

RMarra

I know. 😕 I thought maybe finding the truck would be easier than finding the motorcycle. I dont have any expectations I would find it but I figured I would give it my best shot to see if I could turn up anything or maybe get so lucky that I do find it. I was just seeing if there was anything else I could search to try to figure it out.