Anyone have some old Tradin' times laying around? chicago sales rag...
 

The second owner of my 68 z said the car was advertised in late 75 in a news paper we all read in Chicago to find cars and parts. It was called Tradin times. He said the car was loaded with added on Nickey parts and listed for $5000 back then which was alot, and none of folks in Joliet would ever buy, but the local Bill Jacobs dealer (different but still large like Nickey) bought the cross-ram off it, and likely some other parts to put on one of their cars. Only then was he able to afford it with no intake on the car for example.

He kept the paper for so long until his daughter did some house cleaning and threw it out not too long ago.

Would be cool to see how to get access to those old papers if anyone knew. It was super popular in Chicago. I can't find any archives for it. The original owner raced with Nickey sponsership, wrecked his first 68Z at road america, and then Nickey sold him this car with all the free goodies for the price he sold the cross-ram alone in 75. He just had one condition tied to the deal, to bring it to shows to promote Nickey.

thanks

-bob

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Not the Tradin’ Times or 1975 also no price but if any help, there was a 22,000 mile ‘68 advertised as a Nickey Z-28 in the Chicago Tribune 10/78 as below…
:beers:
~ Pete

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Love to hear more about the car, is it known when the OO got it from Nickey?
Note the 2’nd last vehicle of this 05/71 Nickey Ad is a ‘68 Z-28, executive driven?:hmmm:
:beers:
~ Pete

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Hemi Coronet looks like a good deal.

More great detective work, Pete, that October 78 Tribune ad for the Nickey 68Z has a phone number that would have been in the Joliet area back in the day. And indeed, the Tradin' Times was the go-to source for cars & parts in the late 70's and beyond in the Chicago area.

Tradin Times kept records like Chevrolet did for just as many vehicles.

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Thanks Bill, it’d be cool if it’s the car but if not, let’s hope the OP has more details to dig for.
No Nickey connections noted but here’s a few more Chicago area ads for ‘68 Z28’s.
:beers:
~ Pete

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Wow, all this info on this thread is very interesting. There were sure enough 68 z/28s around Chicago back then. And with some pretty cool setups and options. That one with the 815 area code is very interesting, the 22K mileage would have been spot on that year. Second owner was recently at MCACN with a 69 camaro drag car from back in the day, will ask him if I missed something in translation. That one ad where the guy was drafted was a bit of a bummer to read.

Sorry for the delay on a response earlier, we got my 68z running for the first time yesterday in 31 years!!!!. I still can not get the smile off my face from sitting in it with open factory headers while my friend did his magic breaking in the cam, keeping the rpm where it needed to be, tuning the rebulit 68 carb, moving the original distributor, and I got to just sit there and enjoy. It is one strong mouse and now I see why people love these 302/z cars.

In addition to all the ads that Pete posted from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times also had a specific classified ad section (T-6 maybe??) for "high performance and sports" vehicles that predated the Tradin' Times.

I would doubt that anyone kept all their Tradin' Times, I used to get them all the time. Maybe it's online?

I must have recycled 1,000 Tradin Times, Auto Trader Classics, and Hemmings during my last move 10 years ago. I was getting married at the time, and my bride-to-be just didn't get why I needed them.

If I hadn't gotten married, I'd probably still have every Hemmings printed in the last 30 years.

what is also interesting, the last owner of my car bought it out of the auto-trader back in 83, a local buy (45 minute ride). I bet tradin times was near the decline at that time. I just always thought auto-trader had picked over cars, that by the time it was ever printed with the pretty pictures, the good deals were gone out of it by someone that would see it before I did. With the tradin times, you felt like you got a time advantage as they printed them so often so you could not wait for the fresh releases to feel like you could be first. Craigslist is kinda like that in a sense.

The tribune always had some killer cars we all loved to see the ads for on the weekend. I miss those days. A bowl of some unhealthy cereal and the paper spread out on the kitchen table.

I just remembered I had a friend who worked for the Tradin' Times for a long time, I'll ask him.

Well well well....It turns out the second owner had a weak spell and was between houses and did not want to see the car sitting outside, so tested the waters on selling it, but that never came to be (as it he did get a garage for it).

So the Tribune ad is the car I have. That was a great bonus!! THANK YOU for posting that!

He said at that OCT 1978 time period it got a hurst super shifter 2 but before that it had a hurst super shifter 1. Clutch was a racing clutch that if you did not take the car out and run it hard, it would start to chatter and it wore out your leg if you drove it much in traffic. That ad brought out more of his memories of the car at that time I did not know about.

But to get the original tradin times ad in 75/76 timeframe will be super cool to have with the price the original owner was asking before the cross-ram got sold off to the owner of Bill Jacobs Chevrolet.

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Cool news the 10/78 Tribune Ad was Owner #2 advertising your car!
Best of luck finding the original owner Ad, if you happen to have his phone #, it could prove helpful searching.
Great O2 shared more info too, sure sounds like a serious car!
Love to hear more including original purchase also Nickey details plus anything of it today.
:beers:
~ Pete

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I asked my buddy who used to work for the Tradin' Times, he left in 1999. He doesn't think anything is digitized. Maybe try putting an marketplace ad on FB and see if anyone local here has a big ol' stash.

So it sounds like my friend Randy Ailing owned your car in the past, he posted this on FB:

Found an old add from my X brother in law
When He was Selling his car I bought in 78
Just out of high school