An update:
After a bit of searching, I was able to track down an address of the guy who I suspected was the original owner. It was difficult because he has a very common name in his state. Anyway, after some internet sleuthing, I found a PO Box and wrote to the guy. Today I got a phone call. It was him! I was so excited I nearly jumped out of my skin! The car had changed hands quite a few times and I didn't have the full story about it's history.
He told me that he bought the car right after he got out of the service and returned home from Vietnam. He bought it to go drag racing and told me he would have bought a Belvedere I but he didn't like the cloth interior, so he ordered this car. The only luxury item he ordered was the sport steering wheel. Everything else he ordered was to just go fast. He did get the 3 inch brakes as well so he could stop it (sort of).
He took it to Carlon Hine of Hine Motors (of Honkin Hemi fame) and Hine put a '68 roadrunner cam & springs in it and also installed the '68 intake & carb. He also had 4.10s put in the rear. Said it ran good. I have a timeslip with 14.33 @ 98 mph on it that came with the documentation. He was running Hooker Headers back then, so somewhere along the line, manifolds got put back on it, which is fine with me.
During the conversation, he mentioned that he tossed the build sheet. He put the rear seatbelts under the seat for some reason and he found the build sheet and tossed it because nobody cared about them back then.
After a while (I think he said in the 80's) he gave the car to his son with the stipulation that if he got tired of it, he would give it back. That didn't happen. The son sold it and it was clear that there was no love lost between them. I told him that if I ever decide to sell it, I'll give him first crack at it.
All in all, it was neat to talk with the guy and I would have kept talking longer, but I was on the clock working from home, so I had to cut it short at a half hour. He was really nice and told me to call him if other questions come up.
