Searching 63 Conv history 30867S109048. Acme Chev, Robinson, IL

[Thomas B.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

Received my Shipping Data Report today. Thanks Bob Demmel. It shows Dealer Code 11, Zone 3, ACME Chevrolet, Robinson Illinois. I'm thinking ACME Chevrolet sounds like a phony name. I googled ACME Chevrolet and found a 1948 poster of the dealership on gmphotostore.com. Looks for real. I then googled Chevrolet Dealers in Robinson, Ill and found Silverstone Chevrolet Buick GMC and got a google street view of the dealership. Check it out. Is that the same building or what? Looks like it has the same store front and glass block windows from 1948. Wonder if there's some original paperwork stashed away in that old building.

Shipping Report turned out to be a great source of information in my case. Now just have to try to fill in about 32 years.

[Bob D.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

Looks like it could be the same building. Good luck on your next steps. Glad we could help

Bob

[Paul C.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

Feb 25, 1967 ad:

[Thomas B.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

So the dealer was still in business in 1967. Did you search old newspapers? Can you forward the website you used?

[Paul C.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

newspapers.com

[Paul C.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

May 22, 1980

[Thomas B.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

Still in business in 1980. Thanks Paul.

[Thomas B.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

I talked to someone at Silverthorne Chevy which is at the former ACME Chevy location and they kindly sent me some great photos of newspaper clippings from the Robinson Daily News of the former ACME dealership. Apparently was Prehn Chevrolet before ACME.

[Thomas B.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

Just found Ickes Chevy operated there between ACME and Silverthorne.
So the timeline for this location is:

Prehn Chevrolet from ? to 1935
ACME Chevrolet from 1935 to 1981
Nick Ickes Chevrolet from 1981 to 2010
Silverstone Chevrolet from 2010 to present

[Thomas B.]

ACME Chevrolet Robinson Illinois

Is there a NCRS member that is familiar with this dealer and maybe found an archive of the old dealer documents? Thet were in business in Robinson until 1981. Maybe other members have found this dealer name and location on their Shipping Data Report as I did. Thanks

[Thomas B.]

Re: Searching 63 Convertible ownership history

Found this taped to the side of my radio Saturday. Is Richard White a previous owner? Got excited when I found a member by that name living in Illinois which is where my original selling dealer was located. PM'd him and he doesn't know my car. Using the area code for the dealer location I called the phone number shown on the tape and a nice lady answered but knew nothing about the car. She wished me luck in my search. Worth a try but no luck. Based on info I've gotten the car was somewhere between Robinson, Illinois where it was originally sold new and Richmond, Indiana where it was titled in 1985. Remained with the same owner until 2021 when I bought it.

[Thomas B.]

Re: ACME Chevrolet Robinson Illinois

Took a lot of time and persistence but I now have owner names back to at least 1980. I have gotten in touch with the previous owner to me who owned my car back to 1984 and spoken with him. Turns out the name "Richard White" on the piece of tape found on the radio is likely the person that he bought the car from. He is believed to be deceased and it's unknown how long he owned it. I will soon be meeting up with the previous owner and receiving pictures taken during restoration as well as a picture taken in 1984 of the two previous owners together with the car prior to restoration.

The name "Jerry" on that piece of tape is likely Jerry Davis, the restorer of the car. He may also be deceased. The two previous owners and the restorer all lived in Richmond Indiana in the 80's. The car was restored between 1984 and 1988.

In an earlier post I had gotten a lead on Richard Foster who lives in the Richmond area and has a lot of nice cars. I sent him e-mail and private messages but he never responded. I read yesterday that Dr Richard Foster of New Castle Indiana (near Richmond) is putting his pace car collection up for auction later this month. I don't know if this the same Richard Foster that is a NCRS member that I tried to contact. I thought that maybe being a big vette collector he may have knowledge of my car or maybe give me a lead. Maybe he knew Richard White or Jerry Davis back in the day. It would be great if anyone who knows Dr Richard Foster would be able to put me in touch with him.

So, I have gap in the car's history from Feb 16, 1963 when the car was sold new at ACME Chevrolet in Robinson Illinois to August 7, 1980 in Richmond Indiana which may never be filled in unless I can find surviving relatives of Jerry Davis or Richard (Dick) White who lived in Richmond in the 80's. Any further clues by someone who may have known them would be appreciated. I did speak with Don Davis of Vincennes Indiana area who worked at ACME in 1977 but have lost touch with him. Don't know if he is by chance related to Jerry Davis. Don is a big corvette guy.

Thank you.

[Thomas B.]

Re: ACME Chevrolet Robinson Illinois

I contacted a local car club in Robinson Illinois. Their web/info person was kind enough to post my information on his personal facebook page and on the club's private page. There was much interest on his facebook page which resulted in the son of the owner of ACME Chevrolet, Bob Jones Jr. reaching out to me. Totally unexpected.

Bob contacted a salesman who worked for ACME for many years including the time frame in which my car would have been delivered there. The salesman did not remember a black corvette (as mine was out of the factory) or any other corvette in that time frame. Between the two of them they were able to recall one 67 big block corvette and one other corvette in the later 60's being sold there. And they remembered the names of the people that bought both of them. Makes sense for a dealership located in such a rural area. Corvettes were never cheap cars and that dealer would probably not have sold a lot of them.


I see three possibilities. Bob Jones and the salesman's memories are incorrect and they did sell my 1963 corvette. GM shipping data was recorded incorrectly and the car was shipped to another dealer. Bob Jones offered the explanation that the car may have been ordered through ACME and then drop shipped to another dealer. For some reason this other dealer was not able to order the car directly.

In any case, the early history of my car remains a mystery.

[Thomas B.]

Re: ACME Chevrolet Robinson Illinois

I received some photos from the previous owner today. Pics were taken around the time of Loren Williams' purchase from Dick White, both living in Richmond Indiana in 1984.

My car went from Tuxedo Black to Blue at some point prior to Dick White's purchase from an unknown previous owner prior to 1980. I wonder how many Tuxedo Black cars were re-painted other colors in that time frame.

Hurst shifter added. Interior still black. According to my research the car has about 90000 miles on it at this point. Interior looks good for that mileage so it must have been worked on also.

He also included a pic of the rolling frame and of the body after paint was stripped as well several others taken during the mid-80's restoration.

[Thomas B.]

Re: ACME Chevrolet Robinson Illinois

The search is still ongoing. Facebook has turned up some good info. I've posted my info on a couple of Facebook pages in Illinois and Indiana. These have generated quite a few comments from various members of these private local pages. Many car guys or people that knew car guys. I found you can usually get permission to access these pages. If you click on the Media tab you can see all of the photos that were posted there as well as comments made by various people. Found a couple of interesting leads on local old car clubs that way.

From these I've finally tracked down the guy that restored my car in the 80's. The previous owner before me thought he was probably deceased. Gotten some good memories from him on the work done on it. He couldn't provide any leads on previous owners. Also found a long sought after guy from Robinson who owned a 65 and a 67 purchased thru ACME. Both big blocks. The nephew of the person that owned my car prior to me reached out on Facebook to tell me his uncle passed away recently. I had lost touch with him after having many conversations with him over the past year or so.

Found another classified ad from 1980 on newspapers.com which had a good phone number. The guy that posted the ad answered the phone. Encouraging but a dead end. He also knew some of the people I had already reached out to in that small town.

Still no evidence of any new 1963 corvettes sold by ACME Chevrolet in Robinson Ill. Maybe the dealership's owner and salesman remembered correctly. Or did they..... I will continue searching in both Illinois and Indiana. I believe I did find the obit for the previous Indiana owner from 1980 - 1984. Will try to reach out to any surviving family members to see if there are any memories of the car.