Old Cars in barns

I've heard lots of stories about people finding mint old cars hidden away but it always seems to be a friend of a friend etc., etc., and if you start checking it out it usually is only another"urban legend". At least that is what I thought until the other day. My job ( driver examiner) includes a fair amount of travel to rural areas and small towns so I'm always looking behind barns and in backyards to see what I can spot. Pickings are getting pretty slim for old cars even up here in Canada and with the Canadian dollar only worth about 62 cents US lots of our old stuff is going south of the border.
So the other day I'm working a small town and in walks this nice little 90 year old man who turns out to have an appointment for a test later in the afternoon. Turns out he rode his bike about a mile to get to our office and has no way of getting his car there for the test. ( he lost his licence a couple of years ago and wants to give it one more try). Nice guy that I am I tell him to go home and I'll go over to his house and test him from there. I get to his house and he just pulled his Grand Marquis out of the garage and is closing the door as I come up the driveway, but not fast enough that I spot what looks like a 60"s Caddy rag in the corner( covered with boxes and junk). So off we go for a drive ( not too far I'm afraid) and while trying to avoid getting myself or somebody else hurt I asked him about the Caddy. He perked right up and said he's got 9 old cars at home! Do I want to see them? Ooooh Yeah! Get back to the house and he opens the door on the attached garage and shows me the 64 Caddy ragtop. Fairly rough ( painted with house paint) , but not too bad. Then starts moving boxes and junk around and shows me a Model A roadster and a Model T , then against the back wall of the garage I spot another one. Couldn't get closer than 10 feet but underneath the junk and dust its a 58 Impala Ragtop, black with a red interior and white top- and its REAL nice!. By this time I'm already late getting back and should have been on the road and then he asks if i want to look in his other garage! Yes, Yes! Behind his house he's got another detached garage but we can only get the walk in door open about 18 inches ( pistons, crankshafts, boxes 0f parts everywhere) . So I'm looking over his shoulder and there's a couple more Model A's and T's, A 1924 Ford truck and the back end of what he tells me is a "41 Buick with a straight 8". He tells me all the cars run and he's even got a 7 cylinder Jacobs aircraft engine of some sort in there! He seems to have a good enough idea about what the stuff might be worth and doesn't sound like he is really talking about selling but I'm already trying to figure out where to find money, where to park another one, and how to break the news to my wife :af: :af: . Now comes the hard part, I can't do a damn thing! Now I have to tell him he failed the road test and won't be getting his licence back, and now if I ask him about selling I can see I'll be looking for another job real soon! I can't even tell anyone any details about them because every detail of who, what happened etc. is CONFIDENTIAL information and if I release it to anyone I lose my job. ou: Sorry about the length of the post but anybody else out there ever run into a situation like this? I'd really like to know I'm not the only one in a moral quandry, and they do say misery loves company!

 

Yeah I hear you man. I have this friend that I work with, I was over to his place to look at some of the cars that are setting in a pasture that his parents own. Which I was sad to see cause there sat a 69' Skylark. I regret to say was beyond repair, but I could be striped for parts. But any way we had to go back and pick his car up and he asked me if I wanted to see his uncles car. So we drive over to some of their other property and in a run down little shed there sat a 66' mustang. Now I am not a mustang guy but this car was in awesome shape. It had about and inch of dust on it. I looked at the interior and it was in great shape. The only rust I could see was some surface rust on the passenger side quarter. He popped the hood and it looked real good under there. He said his uncle had bought it when his kids were going to school then after they were done driving it he had it taken to a shop to get it restored. The he left it in a shed for 7 years. After that he drove it into town and washed it then drove it back to the farm and parked it where it was setting at when I saw it. I not sure how long it has been setting there, but it was long enough that it is covered in dust.

Another story. This other guy I worked with buys a 72' goat. 2 weeks after he gets it he blows the engine. From what I hear from the other guys that worked with him longer they said that the car is in excellent condition. Just needs a motor. And this car has set in the guys garage for 7 years that I know of. Of course he wants out of it what he put into it. LOL... So he will never part with that car.

Now that crazy..........

 

Here is one I swear is true! My wife and I were at Spring Carlisle 2000 and a guy had a board in front of his stand with some pictures of car he had for sale. They was a picture of a 71 Skylark looked pretty ruff. He told us that this old friend of his was selling the car for $500.00. We talked to him a while and he told us that the cars was orininally a GS but the old guy turned it in to a regular Skylark!! He was not sure if the old man had any of the GS parts left or not. We figured that this was too good to be true but made the decision that we just had to meet the guy that would do this!! After a few phone calls and a tough time finding this place we pull up to this house, I guess you could call it that, old rusted farm machinery sitting everywhere and out in the field sits the Skylark, AKA GS. The old guy answered the door and told us the story was true and he had changed the hood, emblems, grille. The motor was a 350 but had been changed. The body was shot, rusted fenders too far gone to save! Nothing left! We asked the old guy if he had any of the parts that he had taken off and he said that they were somewhere in one of his barns but could not rember which one. There were 3 large barns. We left our number and told him if he ever came across them to give us a call. To this day I still do not know if it was a real GS but do not think that this old guy made it up! So I figure it must be true!

Paul Gawel

 

Some people

 

Well this is second hand story, but what I was told at one of the local bone yards. the late owners son had a 65 GTO that had been stored since the 60s? suppose to only had less that 1000( yeah1000) miles on it. the kid was kill in vietnam. once the old man passed away. his wife started to close down the yard. someone asks her about the gto and gives her a mer pittance of what is worth. the Guy whom told me the story was at the yard and casually asks a son of the owner about the car. He states in a POed additude that yeah it's gone now. Sad to here the old lady got took for the car.
I was told that they also have 60's sport wagon there in good shape. just needs a motor and glass.

Tim