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[David Graves]

from the San Francisco Chronicle


After 30 years, stolen Chevy returned — fully restored

Posted on February 20, 2014 | By kwilliams@sfchronicle.com (Kale Williams)

Good things come to those who wait, and sometimes the best things come to those who wait the longest.

Enter Skip Wilson. The 65-year-old resident of Clearlake Oaks (Lake County) was recently reunited with his 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air, which was stolen in 1984.

Wilson bought the sought-after hot rod in 1975 from his nephew in Pennsylvania for a whopping $375 and used it as his daily wheels for years before it was ripped off from his front yard.

Wilson, who is retired and battling cancer, never thought he’d see the car again.

“I assumed somebody chopped it up and was using parts of it at the racetrack,” he said.

That assumption evaporated when Wilson got a call from a California Highway Patrol investigator in Southern California asking him if he had any documentation that could prove he was the owner of the long-missing ride. The CHP and U.S. Customs had found the car in a shipping container just days before it was to set sail, bound for a buyer in Australia.

Given the three decades that had passed since the car went missing, Wilson didn’t have the police report handy, but after some digging, he was able to produce the necessary documents that proved the car was his.

A few weeks and a $900 transportation fee later, Wilson was reunited with a car he hardly recognized. When the car was stolen it had no motor or transmission — both had been removed when the vehicle was stolen previously. What came back to him was a completely restored vintage classic.

“It’s got a new motor, upholstery, brakes, rims and tires, and the gauges — those are new, too — only say 9 miles,” he said.

Wilson said the state Department of Motor Vehicles told him that the car had been through four owners, but the serial number had never caught attention because a single digit had been left off. He said he feels bad for the previous owner, who likely poured a significant amount of money into the restoration, and for the buyer in Australia, but that he’s tickled to have his car back.

“Every time I saw one of them on the road, I thought it was her,” he said. “It’s just unbelievable.”


http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/02/20/after-30-years-stolen-chevy-returned-fully-restored/


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