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I thought I would add the history that my research found when I first purchased the car in 2012. I thought some here might enjoy the story even though not interested in purchasing the car.
Owner #3 whom I purchased the car from said he was the 2nd owner and that he bought it from the original owner. Little did he know there was another owner who actually purchased it new
This is the cars history and story from owner #1.
Right after purchasing the car, I did some checking and found out that like Kansas, North Carolina DMV offered a complete title history back to new. I filled out the form and I think it cost $20 and after a few weeks it came. I could see from the copy of the Virginia title that the car was still titled in the original owner's name and also showed the original selling dealership when it came to NC in 1971 through a used car dealership. I could see on the title the original owner was stationed on a ship called the USS Muliphen (LKA-61). My wife (she might be reading this) is very smart! She did some checking online for information of this ship. She found that it had been taken out of commission in August of 1971 and eventually was sunk in 1989 off the coast of Florida as an artificial reef. She noticed in her research that there was a USS Muliphen reunion site online. She posted to the site asking if anyone that had been stationed on the ship in 1969 and 1970 might remember and know the original owner Joe and hopefully remember his new 1969 Hugger Orange Z/28. Lo and behold she got a response from Don, he said that it was his buddy that owned the car and that he got to drive it on occasion as they went back and forth to Philly to firefighting school after getting home from Vietnam. He said they definitely did some street racing, but that he had lost track of Joe through the years. He told us the city and state that his buddy Joe was from originally. It is a very large city and state, and we thought finding him with such a common name was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. My wife looked up the online directory in this city and there were many! She decided to call the first name and number that she came across and again lo and behold it was him. She left him a message saying if you were stationed on the USS Muliphen and owned a HO 69 Z/28 to please call. He called right back, and he confirmed that he was the original owner. He said that he had just returned from a tour in Vietnam and the first thing he did was go buy a Z/28. He said that he was under 21 and had to have a cosigner. He got married shortly thereafter and said that the car was in his wedding and that they drove off in it and that there are many pictures of the car from the wedding but unfortunately, he later went through a very bitter divorce, and she kept all the pictures. He said he only had the one and contacting her for anymore was impossible. He was kind enough to send us the one and only Polaroid that he still had from shortly after purchasing the car brand new, which I posted here. He said that while he was on a cruise for his honeymoon, he let his buddy keep and drive his Z while he was gone. He came back to the bad news that his buddy had wrecked it. That is the damage that Jerry found in his report. It was hit on the passenger side and the door and fender were replaced. He sold it to a used car dealership in Virginia called Modern Motors, they re-assigned the title to Johnsons Used cars in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Joe said he purchased the car new for $3200. After selling his Z/28 he went to the other dealership in Norfolk VA which was a super car dealership and is still well known today and purchased a brand new 1970 Yenko Hugger Orange Deuce. He purchased his Yenko from Colonial Chevrolet in Norfolk. The only other picture he had from back in the day he also sent us showing him standing by his new Yenko. I found out through more research that it was totaled in the late 70's and parted out. I talked to the last owner of the Yenko Deuce and he said that he hit a tree and was lucky to be alive and the car was wrecked beyond repair and scrapped. Boy ole Joe sure had a great taste for muscle cars once getting home from Vietnam! That is where the Virginia story ends, and the North Carolina history and owner #2 story begins.