Rarely do we come across barn finds in perfect condition that aren’t too rusted, yet only need minimal work to get them running. Welcome to this extraordinary collection – 40 barn finds featuring various makes and models, each waiting to be discovered and find new homes.

The post Three SISTERS Inherit 40 Amazing Barn Finds From FATHER appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter heads to Maine and hits the streets in search of hidden gems. Follow along as he discovers a treasure trove of forgotten vacation cars hidden in 100-year-old barns!

The post Forgotten Vacation Cars hidden in Maine: BMW 1600, Alfa Romeos, and Triumph Stag | Barn Find Hunter appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Ever wonder what a pickled Chevy C10 looks like? In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom discovers a 1985 Chevy Silverado C10 short-bed pickup with only 148 miles on the odometer. This Chevy pickup is original down to the factory chalk marks, tires, and deal stickers. Tune in to find out how this car was purchased and how rare it is.

The post $$$,$$$ Chevy C10 Short bed Pickup with 148 miles, WHAT’S IT WORTH? | Barn Find Hunter appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom tries to find Cars within walking distance from his vacation home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Much to his surprise, he is able to find many different makes and models. Tune in to see what he finds.

The post Ultra RARE: Colin Chapman’s Lotus Eleven + 327 Corvette Stingray with 4-speed | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 135 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom visits four young gentlemen who are all best friends as well as neighbors. Anyone into cars can understand how this is car enthusiast heaven! If someone is missing a 10mm socket they can go next door and borrow one for a friend. If it’s late at night, and you have to fix your ride for a rally the next day, you’re never short a helping hand. Tune in and follow along as Tom tours you through their Volkswagen, Lotus, and Land Rover collection.

The post VW & Land Rover Heaven: 4 Friends living the dream | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 134 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom cotter has the pleasure of viewing the underground car collection at the world-renowned Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. From new cars to old, the collection is littered with amazing stories and visuals to WOW any car enthusiast. Which one is your favorite?

The post Underground VAULT at the Henry Ford Museum: Cars with amazing History | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 133 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom got a lead on some unusual automotive American icons, some are even hot-rodded. The most notable of them all is an early production 1967 Pontiac GTO bought originally by this owner with a tri-power 389ci V8 and a factory 4 speed. Come to find out, this rare optioned American muscle is worth quite a bit of money, how much? tune in and find out!

The post Pontiac GTO sitting for 40 years along with other American icons and hot rods | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 132 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom visits two gentlemen he met at the Green Field Village heritage festival in Dearborn, MI. One has an all-original 1967 Jaguar E-Type and a wide variety of MGs, the other has a 1927 Chrysler 60 that’s original down to the door knobs and electrical. Both gentlemen have equally impressive stories to pair with the cars. Tune in and find out!

The post Loyal Friendship = FREE Car: 1927 Chrysler 60 and a Jaguar E-Type | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 131 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In the previous episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom looked at Henry Ford II’s 1963 Prototype mustang. What you didn’t know is we left some meat on the bone, Art, the owner, still had a rare gem hidden inside his garage, a 1950 Mercury Monterey. It appears to be 1 of 500 made with such options and this particular car has only 15,000 miles on the odometer. The next stop is a guy who has a TON of odd-ball cars packed into his driveway and a 4 cars garage. Make sure to tune in and find out what lies within. 

The post 1 of 500 Mercury with a 4 car garage & suburban driveway full of 70’s Classics | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 130 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter has shifted gears for the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter, leaving dusty sheds and rusty sheetmetal in favor of a tour of Detroit landmarks and some noteworthy cars that were designed, engineered, and built in and around the Motor City. His first vehicular deep dive is a look into the history of a very special 1965 Mustang that was built for and owned by Henry Ford II.

The car in question has been owned by Art Cairo, a longtime Ford employee who bought the unique pony car 45 years ago for just $500. Cairo had the car restored and replaced any rotted sheetmetal with new-old stock that he went to great length and expense to track down, making sure that this piece of history is still all Ford.

Cairo shows Tom some of the unique details that set this coupe apart from the millions of other Mustangs built in the ’60s. Perhaps most apparent is the leather interior, which wasn’t offered on early Mustangs. The door jamb also reveals chrome door strikers and a nicely finished seam where the jamb meets the quarter panel rather than a clear overlap and spot welds.

There are also several less-obvious, telltale signs that this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill pony car. For example, the back of the instrument cluster has “Henry Ford’s car” hand-written in marker and there’s a scatter shield bolted to the transmission tunnel. Under the hood is a high-performance K-code 289-cubic-inch V-8 that was not available on early 1965 Mustangs.

This car is just the first of many that Tom will highlight on his special trip through Detroit, so make sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube channel so you don’t miss any of the hidden gems of Motor City history.

The post Prototype Mustang built for Henry Ford II: See what makes it so UNIQUE | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 129 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

How many barn finds can Tom find within walking distance of his house? In this episode of “Barn Find Hunter,” Tom practices what he preaches and is only looking for cars close to his house. Within walking distance to be specific. You wouldn’t believe the variety of cars stashed away in Maine. Take our advice and never bet against Tom when it comes to discovering barn finds.

The post American Muscle Treasure: Barn Finds Within Walking Distance Of Tom’s House | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 128 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter isn’t big on gawking at cars in museums, not because he doesn’t find them fascinating but because he’d rather look for automotive treasure in the wild. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, however, he makes an exception.

While in the Nashville, Tennessee, Tom and his crew meet Jeff Lane and get a behind-the-scenes tour of the unique collection of vehicles in the Lane Motor Museum.

“In the world of auto museums, there are generic museums, and they all seem to have a ’55 Thunderbird, and a Studebaker Avanti, and maybe a Model T,” Tom says. “… We’ve all seen those museums before.”

This is definitely not one of them. Instead, the Lane Museum is home to hundreds of the world’s most unusual cars, most of them on a smaller scale. These oddball vehicles have been a lifelong obsession for Jeff Lane.

“People often call me ‘The King of Weird,’” he says, “which I think is a good bad.”

Tom agrees. Venturing into the basement garage beneath the display area, Jeff explains, “Because we have 550 cars in the collection and we can only display about 125 at a time, we rotate about 60–70 cars per year.”

That means there’s a lot of treasured metal down there. After Jeff points out a 2/3-scale Mini Cooper, it’s time to check out some cars that were actually manufactured to fill a transportation need. First up is a 1928 Martin Aerodynamic, one of three built by Martin Aircraft Company of Garden City, New York. Made with a wood frame and covered in aluminum, it is powered by a rear-mounted, four-cylinder flathead engine and has a snub nose. Walking past a Panhard Formula 4 race car, Jeff shows Tom an all-original, Czech-built 1960 Skoda Octivia with fewer than 2500 miles; a 1938 Citroën Traction Avant Gazogene, which was converted from gasoline to coal power; and two more Martin cars—a chain-driven 1950 Statonette with an Austin four-cylinder engine, and a smaller 1930 Martinette with a windshield that rolls up and down.

The tour continues with a 1945 Erickson Streamliner, a front-wheel-drive one-off that looks like a smaller version of the Dymaxion; a French-built 1952 A. Morin Scootavia Tripousse, with a covered cockpit up front and a rear-mounted scooter that’s operated the driver; a German-built 1951 Hoffman with a motorcycle engine and three wheels; and a 1963 King Midget Roadster microcar with a 10-hp Briggs & Stratton lawnmower engine and a top speed of 40 mph.

Outside the museum is the largest vehicle in Lane’s collection, a huge 1959 LARC-LX amphibious U.S. Army vehicle that he bought off eBay. Designed to offload freighters, it is 62 feet long, weighs 200,000 pounds (empty), and has tires that are 9 feet tall. Each wheel is powered by its own diesel engine, which together propel the LARC-LX to a top speed of 28 mph.

As we said, this is no ordinary automotive museum.

“If you’re in Nashville,” Tom says, “you have to visit this place.”

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post World’s Most Unusual Cars ever made, found in one warehouse | Barn Find Hunter Ep. 127 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter’s North Carolina adventures continue—as does the friends and family theme—in this episode of Barn Find Hunter. After getting to know a family that’s heavily into Japanese hot rods, Tom takes a short drive to meet another fam that wrenches together. While Brian, Lisa, and their son, Gauge, love cars and each other, they don’t love the same marques.

“I’ve always been a car guy … an old-school Fox-body guy,” says Brian, the patriarch. “When my son turned 18, we planned to build a car together.”

Brian thought that car would be a Fox-body Mustang. He was wrong.

“[Gauge] said, ‘Dad, I want a [Toyota] Supra. I said, ‘The only way you’re going to make horsepower is with a V-8, so let’s go get a Fox-body and build that thing, and it’ll be a hot rod.’ And he said, ‘Nah. Nah.’”

Supra it would be. Turns out, Brian never should have doubted his son. Gauge bought a gorgeous, one-owner 1989 Supra from a man in Missouri about seven years ago for $6K. Not bad, when you consider this one cost about $28,000 new (or about $67,000 today), and the only thing wrong with it was some spiderwebbing on the hood’s paint. Gauge had it repainted in its original color, and it looks new. It is powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-liter VVTi straight-six that produces 600 horsepower.

That isn’t Gauge’s only Supra. He also owns a 1987 with a Ford 302 mated to a Borg-Warner T5 transmission, that he planned to utilize as a drift car. However, Gauge says: “It’s hard to drift carbureted motors because they bog down in the corners. Now it’s just kind of hanging out.”

A couple of Gauge’s friends stop by to show Tom their cars, too. Cameron owns a late-model Ford Mustang Mach 1 with a 4.6-liter V-8 from a Cobra that produces about 530 hp, while Zach drives a 2003 Mercedes-Benz CLK 55 AMG with a 5.5-liter V-8 that makes almost 400 horses.

Pushing on to Rock Hill, South Carolina, Tom meets Shea, who is into Datsuns and Nissans. He bought his first, a gold-painted 280Z, almost a decade ago. He hot-rodded it himself. “It’s been a slow learning process,” he says, “but I’ve rebuilt everything on it”—including welding the floor pans and frame rails, adding coilover suspension and bucket seats, and making mechanical changes to the straight-six engine.

Shea also owns a rare 1977 Datsun 810, a model which Tom says essentially took the Z’s engine and put it into a four-door sedan, as well as a 1989 240SX that now has an L-Series straight-six turbo that was swapped for the original four-cylinder mill.

“Wow, you’ve got it bad,” Tom says.

“Yeah … It’s a bug,” Shea admits. “I think Hot Wheels [toy cars] were first trap … [and] I remember seeing a Datsun at a car meet when I was like 12 years old. It was in rough shape. It wasn’t painted, it was dented, it was running on like four cylinders, but the shape of it just really caught my eye. That’s kind of what fueled it for finding one later on … It was just a rabbit hole from there.”

Before this episode closes, we go back to where we started—in North Carolina with Brian, Lisa, and Gauge—and take a peek at Lisa’s 2000 Lexus GS300, which will soon receive a 2JZ inline-six engine. Tom hears that it cranks out 600 horsepower, and just has to ask … “Do you need 600?”

“Hey,” Lisa says, “I’ve got to get to the grocery store, you know.”

Happy hunting.

The post Ford V8-powered Supra, Supercharged Hot Rod Mustang, and Turbo Datsuns | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 126 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter always says he’s more interested in the story than the car, and on this episode of Barn Find Hunter, while Tom searches for automotive treasure in near Nashville, he’s told a great story about a rare 1937 Riley Lynx. Yes, a Riley Lynx. OK, so maybe the car and the story are equally cool.

First things first. Tom rolls past a house in Columbia, Tennessee, and spots a Porsche 928 in the yard. He stops, of course, and meets Michael, who immediately recognizes him. Michael says the Porsche isn’t his, but he has a 1955 Cadillac Series 62 in his garage that he’s owned for 20 years. Later he explains that the Caddy was his daily driver in 1987 … 35 years ago. Hmmmm. You’re forgiven for the timeline snafu, Michael—probably just starstruck like the rest of us.

The Cadillac, which was originally blue with a white top, is powered by a 331-cubic-inch V-8 and has factory air-conditioning and power disc brakes. Stepping outside, Michael shows Tom his 1982 Mercedes-Benz 380SL, a 1963 Ford Econoline with a swapped 289 V-8, and a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 220D. “It’s rusty,” Michael says of the Benz, “but I like the rust in it.”

Down the road a bit, Tom spies a classic Chrysler but can’t find anyone home, so he moves on. Then he stops for a Chevrolet El Camino, but the owner isn’t interested in being interviewed. Coincidentally enough, another El Camino is across the street, and this time its owner, Brian, is happy to chat.

He explains that he purchased this top-of-the-line 1980s El Camino Conquistador with H.O. 305 engine six years ago, and he’s driven it many times. Although the “Elky” has been sitting for a couple of months, he says he’ll never sell it. Tom lights up when Brian explains that he does home repairs and sometimes receives cars in trade, since it aligns with some advice that he offered in his most recent book, Secrets of the Barn Find Hunter.

“One of the things I recommend is, make friends with somebody that can go on private property legally—like you can,” Tom says, referring to Brian. “You can go to some places that I can’t get to and look inside the garage and find stuff. So can UPS people, police officers, landscapers … You’ve got the ideal job, man.”

After cruising through the towns of Leiper’s Fork and Franklin, Tom follows up on a lead and meets Mike, who owns a garage full of classics, some with sentimental value and some that are extremely rare. Tom says he’s heard that Mike has some stories worth sharing.

“Anybody who’s got this crap has stories,” Mike jokes, gesturing to the cars inside. But not all stories are as fascinating as his.

Starting with a 1930 Ford Model A Deluxe Coupe, Mike says, “I bought this car 62 years ago when I was 13 years old. I paid $30 for it, and I drove it to high school and drove it to college. My dad and I restored this car, and I don’t know if I can bring myself to sell it. He’s dead now, and that car is my dad.”

Mike says he fell in love with MGTC sports cars back in the day and now owns one, but a friend said, “You’re a family man—you need a Riley Lynx.” If you’ve never heard of a Riley Lynx, you’re forgiven. They’re so rare that when Mike joined a Riley club and shared that he was looking for a Lynx, he bought the first one he was offered, a 1937 version, “sight unseen.”

“The lady who sold it raced it in the Singapore Vintage Grand Prix at the age of 17 in 1972,” Mike says. “So, suddenly I have a car with history.”

He also owns a ’37 Riley Kestrel Sprite sedan with art deco fastback styling. “It’s a delightful car,” he says. “It has amenities you wouldn’t believe for 1937,” including sunroof, semi-automatic transmission, magneto ignition, and a four-cylinder hemi engine.

Mike says there are five or fewer examples of both Riley cars known to be in the U.S. To learn more about these rare Rileys—and discover the identity of the car that Mike says “delivers as much fun as you can have in a car without having sex”—watch this episode of Barn Find Hunter.

“You never know where you’re going to find cars,” Tom says. “There might be a Mike in your town—get to know him.”

Happy hunting.

The post Man discovers his car raced 1972 Singapore Vintage Grand Prix | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 125 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter’s “comfort zone” is pretty broad. From legendary classics to rarely seen rides, the Barn Find Hunter has a wealth of automotive knowledge. Japanese hot rods? That’s a different story, but he’s intrigued and willing to learn.

In this episode, Tom meets a North Carolina family that’s “all in” when it comes to Japanese domestic market (JDM) vehicles. And none of their cars have remained stock.

“This a special morning for us because we’ve never spent any time on any episode of Barn Find Hunter around cars of this era,” Tom says. “… Before muscle cars were around, you had to build your own. You could take a low-performance car and make it high performance with cam shafts and headers and carburetors. Now, people are building hot rods by [altering their computer and] modifying them in ways I’ve never seen before. They don’t have to go inside the motor, they just have to plug something in. It’s pretty cool.”

First we meet 19-year-old Sergio, who is in the Honda PACT (Professional Automotive Career Training) Program at his college and plans to be “working for Honda very soon.” Sergio admits: “The car stuff is my life. When I wake up, the first thing I think about is my car, then breakfast.”

He owns a 2001 Honda Prelude Type SH. “There are only 241 left in the United States,” he says. “The rest have been crashed, bashed, and left to rust.” He plans to increase output of the Prelude’s DOHC VTEC engine from its 205–220 stock hp to 300 someday, but “I’ll stick to 250 until I’m out of college.”

Sergio’s love of cars starts at the top with his parents, Julio and Jennifer. Julio’s baby is his gorgeous Lexus IS 300, which he painted himself. Jennifer liked the car so much that she had to have one too. Hers is an automatic, however; she tried to learn how to drive a stick and grew tired of stalling.

Then there’s Julio Jr., who also owns an IS 300; Jonathon, who owns a 2010 Scion TC; and Jasmine, who owns a 1996 Honda Civic DX coupe, although she can’t legally drive it until she gets her license in October.

“I feel very fortunate to have been kind of brought into this family,” Tom says. “It’s such a great thing to have your family involved in the same interest that you have.”

You’ll have to watch to get the scope of their love of JDM. Perhaps you’ll learn something, like Tom did.

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Altezza, Lexus IS 300, Honda Prelude SH, and a Civic DX | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 124 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In the first 7 1/2 years of the Barn Find Hunter series, Tom Cotter discovered one Opel GT. In this episode, however, he finds more than a dozen—and learns a little about their history along the way.

Continuing his trip through Tennessee, Tom first meets Dave, who is retired from Nissan after 30 years as the manager of the Nissan Heritage Collection of about 60 cars. Dave now runs a vintage car parts business and also has a decent collection of classics, including a handful of Nissan Z cars. Although the Z cars—including a special edition Shiro Z—are front and center in Dave’s warehouse, he also has a mostly original 1966 Dodge Coronet 440, a ’67 Morris Minor 1000, a Jaguar E-Type with a V-12 and four-speed transmission, and an Austin Marina 1800.

“(It’s) one of about six in the country,” Dave says of the Marina. “I found this one in a warehouse in Ohio with no drivetrain and no fuel tank, but it was a rust-free car. (Now) it’s a very good driver.”

After thanking Dave for showing him around, Tom gets back into his 1939 Ford woody wagon and drives more than an hour to meet Harold, who Tom says “has an obsession with Opel.” He isn’t kidding.

“The official count stopped at 12,” he says of the Opels on his property. “It’s bad enough that I have that many. . . I really don’t want to know.”

Tom comments that the 1968–73 Opel GT looks a lot like a C3 Corvette, which explains why Europeans called the German-built GT the “Baby Corvette.” The question is, could the baby be the father? Harold says that when it comes to which came first, the C3 or the GT, it’s a “chicken or egg” thing. We know that the original Corvette was codenamed “Project Opel” (more than a decade before the Opel concept debuted at the 1965 Paris Auto Show), but perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that the C3 and the final iteration of the Opel GT share characteristics with the 1965 Mako Shark II concept. Since Opel was once GM’s main European brand, could their design teams have collaborated? We’ll leave that for others to debate. As for us, let’s get back to Tom in Tennessee …

Harold says he bought his first Opel GT in 1982. “I liked the styling … liked the handling. It’s good that I’m not into ‘go-fast’ (however) because they don’t. . . They’re slow.”

In addition to all of the GTs on Harold’s property, Tom spies an Opel 1900 sedan and a Kadett wagon. Glancing at a large pole barn, he asks Harold, “Why are so many outside?”

Harold offers some good advice to anyone who has ever regretted not buying something when they had the chance. “When you find a stash of Opel parts or something you need, you need to snatch it up then whether you have the room or not, because it may not come around again.”

That makes perfect sense to Tom, especially considering how scarce Opel GTs seem to be—or at least they seemed to be before he visited Harold in Tennessee.

Happy Hunting.

The post Tom discovers a dozen Opel GTs and asks, is the Baby Corvette actually the FATHER? | Barn Find Hunter – 123 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter is back in the Nashville area and he’s singing a familiar tune: where can I find some classic cars? Just outside the city, the Barn Find Hunter passes a partially covered car that catches his eye, and it proves to be the beginning of an eventful day in Tennessee.

The car that Tom spied, a black BMW, is owned by Bill, a longtime car guy who explains that he drove the car until the transmission began acting up. Nearby there’s also a couple of Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams. Tom asks if they’re for sale.

“Everything’s for sale,” Bill says, repeating an old adage. “There was a time (when) you’d come by and ask me that and I’d say ‘no.’”

The short stop, Tom says, proves that “if you’re driving down the road and you see one car, that may mean there are other cars hidden around the property.”

Soon it’s time to follow up on another car that caught Tom’s attention the day before, a yellow Henry J gasser that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We meet AJ, who shares ownership with his dad, who says there are about 80 cars on the property, and 62 or 63 are registered. His father drove the yellow Henry J in high school. Tom spots another Henry J, along with a dune buggy that AJ says has “maybe seen two miles since we got it 12 years ago. We can’t seem to get it running right.”

Oh, but there’s more. Lots and lots more. Among the dozens of cars parked on the property is a 1955 Chevy gasser with a 350-cubic-inch V-8 bored to 360. Tom asks the same question he asked Bill at the previous stop: Would they ever sell any of the cars? AJ chuckles before answering.

“No,” he admits. “We buy ’em, wash ’em, clean ’em, and drive ’em. We want to restore ’em, but we won’t ever do it.”

As Tom walks through the rows and rows of automobiles, he marvels at how eclectic the collection is. There’s a 1965 Chevrolet El Camino, a Plymouth Duster, a ’57 Chevy four-door, a ’64 Ford Comet, a ’65 Ford Mustang, a Dodge Dart, a ’57 Chevy Be Air wagon, a Range Rover, a Ford Torino, and more.

“We like ’em all,” AJ says. “Anything we can get our hands on, we’ll get it.”

Tom is impressed. “Places like this are rare,” he says. “If you’re lucky enough to meet the owners, maybe you’ll get a tour … It’s like a little museum.”

Of course, you’ll never know until you get out there and look.

As Tom says, “Happy hunting.”

— Jeff Peek

The post A slice of Heaven: Chevys, Mopars, and Fords in Tennessee | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 122 – Hagerty Media appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Nashville is a popular destination spot for music fans from around the world, but Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter isn’t visiting central Tennessee for its country music. He’s there in search of hidden automotive treasure, and there’s plenty to be found in Music City.

First stop is Anderson Auto Repair, which is closing down after decades in business. Lee Anderson and Stanley Jones opened the shop together, and the two specialized in hot rods. Anderson passed away in November 2021, so Tom meets Jones to check out the place. After inspecting some flood-damaged cars sitting outside, Tom goes inside and is fascinated with an old Frazer, built between 1946–51 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The car hasn’t moved in a while; the oil change sticker inside the door reads 11-8-64.

Just when it appears this stop will be a short one, Jones mentions that he recently purchased a couple of classics—a 1963 Chevrolet Corvette convertible and a ’39 Chevy hot rod—in case Tom wants to take a look. Of course he does. Jones explains that he originally bought Sting Ray in the mid-1970s for $1750. He added a 350-cubic-inch truck engine and a five-speed transmission, then sold the ’Vette to his brother-in-law. It’s been sitting for 35 years, Jones says, and when his brother-in-law passed away, he ended up with it again.

“Did you buy it back for $1700?” Tom asks.

“No. No,” Jones says with a grin. “It cost a bit more than that.”

Back on the road again, Tom stops outside a fenced-in area that contains several classics—a Crosley chassis, Studebaker wagon, Pontiac Bonneville, and Pontiac Star Chief—but there’s no sign of anyone on the property.

“This is the bane of my existence,” he says. “You drive past a place … and you find some cars … and there’s nobody here. It’s locked up. In barn-find hunting, (you) can’t win sometimes.”

He finds a sure thing, however, when he stops to visit motorcycle expert Somer Hooker, who starts things off by showing a trio of sweet Italian sports cars: a 1964 Alfa Romeo Sprint, a 1964 Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale, and a 1961 Giulietta Spider 1300 with 19,000 original miles. Then it’s on to the motorcycles.

Hooker is especially fond of Honda S90 bikes, of which he has several, and then uncovers a first-year 1969 Honda 750, which is all original and features a four-cylinder engines and disc brakes. “People still say it’s one of the most significant motorcycles,” he says. “It pivoted the whole world of motorcycling right there.”

And with that, Tom asks us to come back soon for another Barn Find Hunter episode from Nashville before he sings this familiar tune: Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Nashville barn finds: C2 Corvette, Alfa Romeo Sprint, and a Frazer | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 121 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Sometimes Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter has so much fun the first time around that he retraces his route. This time around, Tom visits some old friends who were included in his 2015 book Barn Find Road Trip: 3 Guys, 14 Days and 1000 Lost Collector Cars Discovered.

First up is C.T. IV, who lives in Virginia, just like his forefathers—also named C.T.—did. C.T. IV’s father, C.T. III, ran an auto repair and travel trailer sales/service business that is now home to a bunch of Buick Reattas and handful of other classics. Before taking a closer look at the nicest Reattas in the bunch, Tom wants to know about a 1947 Dodge truck parked nearby. Turns out C.T. IV’s grandfather, C.T. Jr. (technically C.T. II), bought it new.

“He would load corn in that, and I’d ride with him to a place in Winchester that processed the corn into feed for the cattle,” C.T. IV says.

The family farm is gone, but the truck remains. After a short walk to look at a dozen or so classics parked outside in a wooded area, Tom is ready to see the best Reattas, which are parked inside a semi trailer. C.T. IV explains that his dad liked Reattas so much that they’re going to have one engraved on his headstone when he dies.

The three low-mileage Reattas tucked safely away in the trailer are for sale, $10,000 each. As of the time that Tom pays him a visit, C.T. IV has not parted ways with any of the Buicks—though he has received some offers.

“As opposed to most Barn Find Hunter episodes,” Tom says, “when nothing is for sale (or you hear) ‘Maybe I’d sell that’ …”

C.T. IV adamantly finishes the sentence: “They’re for sale.”

Then it’s off to Paul Wilson’s place for a peek at a home-grown project. Technically, it’s the second iteration of what Paul envisions as the perfect body for a 1948 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500. “I put myself into the position of an Italian designer in 1948,” he says. “(This is) what they could have made in 1948 if only they had looked at it like I do.”

We’d love to describe what it looks like—or, more accurately, what they both look like—but you’ll have to see for yourself.

“Paul, it looks fantastic,” Tom says, to which Paul replies, “I have to admit it’s (turning) out pretty well.”

Paul has done almost all of the work himself. “Most of it is very satisfying,” he says, “because you work on a little thing and then at the end of the day you say, ‘Oh, man, isn’t that beautiful?’”

We definitely think so.

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post 3 Buick Reattas inside a semitrailer & a handmade Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 120 – Hagerty Media appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In the last episode of Barn Find Hunter, we left off with Tom Cotter discovering hidden gems in Virginia. In Episode 119, he’s still in Old Dominion, but this time his quest is a bit easier since he’s assisted by his friend Zach, who knows where plenty of vintage iron is hiding.

After a quick introduction, Zach leads the way in his gorgeous 1961 Ford Country Squire wagon as the pair heads to their first finds on a beautiful farm: an ’84 F-250 and a dusty 1969 AMC Javelin SST parked in a barn. While nearly intact, the Javelin shows some signs of rust and is in need of restoration. Another part of the barn reveals a 1975 Dino 308 GT4, a model that would eventually be marketed as a Ferrari once the Dino brand was discontinued. With just 18,000 miles on its odometer, the racy Italian looks like it could be a tuneup away from hitting the road. (Keep your eyes open and you’ll also spot a late C4 Corvette parked nearby.)

The next stop is a former turkey farm, where Zach informs Tom that just about everything is for sale. The owner of the vehicles, Bill, joins the car hunters via telephone to go over some of the more interesting parts of his collection. First to be revealed is a 1973 Plymouth Duster that was originally equipped with a 340 and a four-speed. Bill later admits that, although almost all of the cars he’s kept in storage are available for sale, he plans to hold onto the Duster. Next to that Plymouth is another Mopar coupe, this one a bit less muscular: a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda with a slant-six. Its neighbor is a third-gen Camaro IROC-Z for which Bill traded a deer rifle.

Tom asks about a ’64 GTO that’s nearby, but it is not one of Bill’s. However, he does have a ’66 GTO that Tom examines. This one’s powered by a 389 Tri-Power mill paired to a four-speed, and it looks like it has a solid body. It seems ready to become someone’s new project.

A 1970 Ford Galaxie is one of the most complete vehicles in the collection, with a full interior that looks to be in remarkable shape. A pair of 4x4s get just a brief stop as Bill tells Tom how the Willys flat-fender ended up without an engine. The Scout Terra parked next to it doesn’t get mentioned, so it appears like that vehicle is also on Bill’s list of keepers.

Tom wraps up the episode with a few more potential project cars and a big thanks to Zach for leading the way to such extraordinary finds—and, of course, he wishes you all happy hunting.

The post Ferrari Dino, AMC Javelin and more: rare and forgotten cars in Virginia | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 119 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Deep in the heart of Virginia, Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter comes across an eclectic collection of cars owned by Nick, who’s a Tri-Five Chevy enthusiast but isn’t limited those 1950s icons.

To confirm that, the first car Tom admires is an unrestored 1967 Chevrolet Caprice with a 396 Turbo Jet big-block engine and its factory eight-track player still in place. Attention quickly shifts to a nearby array of Tri-Fives, of course. Nick explains that he owns two 1955 Chevy convertibles, a ’56 two-door sedan, a ’56 convertible with an original six-cylinder engine (“I’d never seen one,” he says), and a ’57 convertible.

“They’re just what I grew up on. I’ve always like ’em,” Nick says. “My dad’s a ’55 guy, my brother’s a ’57 guy, and I’m a ’56 guy. It just kind of worked.”

In addition to his Tri-Fives—and Tom’s lesson on how to tell the 1955–57 Chevys apart just by looking at their taillights—Nick shows a dust-covered Nash Metropolitan that was intended for his daughter before she lost interest. There’s also a Corvair, a 1950s Chevrolet flower car, a variety of vintage Volkswagens, and a 1966 Lincoln owned by a friend. Then Tom and Nick come upon a classic firetruck. “The firetruck is mine,” Nick explains. “[But] it could be yours …” To which Tom replies, “Oh, no it can’t.”

Nick shows off a group of VWs owned by his 19-year-old daughter—three Beetles and a bus—which explains why she strayed from the Metropolitan. Nick tells us that there are 60 or more vehicles on the property.

“You’ve got it bad, I’ll tell ya that,” Tom says. “This is what our viewers love to see: somebody who’s as passionate about cars as they are.”

Then it’s on to Greg’s place—a return visit for Tom and the Barn Find Hunter crew—to take a closer look at Greg’s luxurious 1930s Dodge four-door sedan, which boasts every conceivable option. The Dodge has two spare tires, dual generators, overdrive, a straight-six engine, large headlights, driving lights, bumper guards, blinkers, a dash fan, heating in the floor, a sun visor above the windshield, and a luggage trunk.

“This is an amazing car. I’ve never imagined a Dodge being built like this …,” he says, then turns to the camera and speaks to his viewers. “Hopefully in your travels you can find a car as interesting as that.”

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Tri-Five Chevys, vintage Volkswagens, and a unique 1930s Dodge Sedan | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 118 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

When we last left Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter, he was visiting Dave Coleman, who was his driving partner on a cross-country adventure that Tom turned into a book, Ford Model T Coast to Coast. Dave owns a lot of treasured cars, and he was about to reveal a very special one when Episode 116 ended. Well, they’re baaaaaack. And that very special vehicle is …

A chopped 1950 Ford lead sled. “Back in the day (before fiberglass and plastic body filler) when cars were being modified … when you wanted to change the contours of something you would use lead,” Dave explains.

This lead sled has a four-inch chop, wide whitewall tires, red wheels, and its taillights have been frenched (smoothed). It also has its original flathead engine. Unfortunately, Tom and Dave can’t get it started.

The two move on to a 1968 Dodge Charger with a turbocharged 383. When Dave says he’d sell it, Tom replies, “This could be a gold mine for somebody.”

Tom turns his attention to a red 1993 Saab that’s covered with moss on the outside and spiderwebs on the inside. With a three-cylinder, two-stroke engine, Tom says “It’s like a Lawn Boy mower (that’s a) car.”

Up next is an unusual mid-1960s Formula Vee race car, the type of small racer that Tom says Emerson Fittipaldi started racing before eventually becoming a Formula One and Indianapolis 500 champion. It has Volkswagen front end, steering box, and transaxle, and its 40-horsepower spec engine was reversed and moved to the middle. “(Formula Vee) has very heavily policed rules. Twenty of these or 40 of these are on the track, and they’re virtually the same … It comes down to who’s the better driver.”

Also on the tour of Dave’s property is a 1976 Porsche 911 that was abandoned by its owner 20 years ago after Dave worked on the engine and transmission. “It’s shot by now,” he says.

In one of Dave’s garages we find an MGA race car that racked up over 50 Porsche Club of American wins. Oddly enough, it has a Crosley badge on the front because Dave says he tried to enter it in a race as a Crosley. Coincidentally, there’s an actual Crosley race car nearby.

Tom also checks out a 1974 Karmann Ghia that “looks like a solid car.” Then he quickly admits, “Solid and Karmann Ghia are two words you don’t use in the same sentence.”

We wrap up this episode of the Barn Find Hunter with a gorgeous 1965 Porsche 911 that Dave says he’s owned for 30 years and driven more than 100,000 miles. He’s even done the coast-to-coast Cannonball Run in it.

“I hope you’ve enjoyed meeting my friend Dave,” Tom says. “I think you’ll agree that there are probably few people in the world that have tastes as eclectic as his. He’s a hotrodder, he’s a road racer, he’s a restorer, and he does tours.

“You’ve got quite a place here, and a lot of neat cars,” he says, turning to Dave. “And I’m surprised to hear that some are for sale. You might be getting a call.”

Dave is philosophical. “When we leave here, we can’t take any of the toys or any of the money,” he says. “You’d better enjoy it while you’re here.”

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Cars upon cars: A lifetime collection leaves Tom speechless | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 117 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Wherever Tom Cotter hunts for barn finds, he’s also looking to visit old friends or guests that have been on previous episodes of the Barn Find Hunter. Aside from shooting the breeze, they may have a good lead on a local barn find. This time around Tom stops by to see his friend Dave Coleman, who has added a few cars to his collection since Tom last saw him.

Tom and Dave got to know each other at the racetrack—Tom races a Corvette, Dave a Porsche—and the day they met, Dave drove a Model T to the racing venue. That sparked a fateful conversation.

“I mentioned, ‘It’s always been my dream to drive a Model T across the United States,’” Tom says. “He said, ‘Mine too.’ Two weeks later, I called him … ‘Were you serious about that?’ He said, ‘Yes, I was.’ One year to the day we met, we were driving across the United States in a Model T.”

Tom turned their adventure into a book, Ford Model T Coast to Coast. “That car did not break down once,” he says. “We had one light bulb that went out, that was it.”

First up on Tom’s walk through Dave’s property is a 1951 Hudson Pacemaker, which Dave describes as “the cheapie of the Hudson lineup. The one that got all the press was the Hudson Hornet. The Hudsons were NASCAR champions (three) years in a row (1951, ’52, and ’53). They handled better than all the other stuff.”

Dave gave the Pacemaker a Rayjay supercharger, Jaguar carburetor, and a five-speed transmission. ““This is a Hudson like none on earth,” Tom says. “There’s nothing like it around.”

Up next is a 1960 Ford Starliner with a 360-horsepower, 352-cubic-inch V-8. “This is what you would have gone to the dealership to buy to begin a NASCAR race car,” Dave says. Although restoring this car would likely become a money pit, Dave has a beautiful 1960 model into which he can swap the engine.

After taking a quick look at a Porsche 914 with a 2.0-liter six-cylinder engine, Tom checks out a familiar-looking Model T race car. “This is what Dave was driving at the track the day we met. I said, ‘You’ve got some crazy cars, and he said, ‘Come over to my house, I’ll show you the rest.’”

Dave explains that this custom build “has a Ford frame, chassis, transmission, rear end, running gear, suspension, and a Model T engine from the head gasket down.” What about from the head gasket up? “There was a lot of speed equipment made for Model Ts back in the day to go racing. This is a Roof 16-valve OHV conversion [that] doubles the power from 20 to 40 horsepower. What can you buy today that’ll double the power output?” He says the car tops out at 80 mph … which means it’s time for Tom to take a ride in it.

Once back at Dave’s, Tom’s attention turns to a 1963.5 Ford Falcon Special with a 260-cubic-inch V-8 and a four-speed transmission and then a Merkur XR4Ti, one of three German Ford Merkurs that Dave owns. “I haven’t seen a Merkur in several years, and you have three of ’em right here.” Dave says the XR4Ti has “great aerodynamics” and a 175-hp, 2300-cc, turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which has propelled the same model car to 200+ mph at Bonneville.

We aren’t done yet, Dave says. “We’re going to look at one more car out here.” But before he can open the doors, we’re hit with the dreaded TO BE CONTINUED …

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post RARE Ford Merkur, 80-mph Model T, and turbo Hudson Pacemaker | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 116 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Mitsuoka. And lots of Figaros, S-Cargos, and other Japanese Domestic Market vehicles that you may have never seen before. Down the road a piece, there are Volkswagen Vanagons as far as the eye can see. Just another day in the life of Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter.

Tom begins his Virginia adventure at Duncan Imports and Classic Cars in Christiansburg, where he gets reacquainted with Gary Duncan, who has imported 4000 right-hand-drive JDM cars since 2016. The two met at SEMA 5–6 years ago, and Tom kept Gary’s contact information in case the BFH team was in the area. Today is the day.

Gary says he’s been a lifelong car guy. He jokes, “I’ve got a PHD—Papa Had a Dealership.”

Among the JDMs that catch Tom’s eye is an MGB V-8. Say what? Isn’t that British? And isn’t that a four-cylinder car? Not this one. It is powered by a 215-cubic-inch V-8 with Buick origins that was available only in Japan.

There’s also a 1971 Toyota Crown that was released when Japanese automakers were trying to break into the U.S. market. “The front end is about half-ugly,” Gary says, “but it’s unique.”

After checking out a pair of elaborate—and we mean elaborate—Japanese hearses, Gary shows Tom a 1996 Mitsuoka Galue, built on Nissan running gear but made to look like a Rolls-Royce. There’s also an all-original 1970 Datsun 240Z, a ’72 Honda N600 (purchased new for $1648—about $11,335 today), and a rare Honda Accord Aeroback, which Tom describes as a “mini sport wagon.”

And it gets better …

Gary welcomes us into the “Figaro Room,” which is filled with dozens of 1989 Nissan Figaro compact cars, a one-year-only JDM that Gary saw at the Tokyo Motor Show when they were new. “We knew it was a winner,” he says, “but we couldn’t bring ’em in for 25 years.”

Gary never forgot the attractive little cars, so as soon as the 25-year embargo was lifted, he immediately went to work. Only 20,000 Figaros were built—“in four colors for four seasons,” Gary says—all powered by a 987cc turbo diesel engine that generate 75 horsepower. Potential buyers can purchase one from Duncan Imports for $9000–$25,000.

Oh, there’s more. The Nissan S-Cargo—which, if you hadn’t figured out yet, looks like a snail—was also rolled out in 1989, and Gary has some of those too.

The oldest JDM on the property is a 1937 Datsun, plus there are some that appear older than they are—Tom says the 1983 Mitsubishi Jeeps available at Duncan Imports look like Willys Jeeps from the 1950s. Nearby is one of the most popular JDMs, is a 1996 Nissan Skyline GTR.

If you love Japanese cars, this is the place. “I think I need treatment,” Gary jokes.

The same could be said for “Kevin,” a Volkswagen Vanagon collector from Polaski, just 25 miles away.

“(That) was a different kind of Barn Find Hunter stop, but it’s worthwhile …,” Tom says as he leaves Duncan Imports. “Now its on to a dirtier, grittier location that you’re familiar with.”

That would be a couple of huge lots filled with 1980s–90s Vanagons. Tom is met by the owner’s representative, Adam, who explains how the collection came to be. “Kevin started grabbing them when steel prices went through the roof and people started scrapping cars like crazy. His goal was to save ’em.” And save ’em he did—traveling from Maine to Florida and buying up as many Vanagons as he could find.

He now owns more than 300, and you’ll find everything from fully stock models to custom “shorties.”

It’s been a Tom Cotter kind of day. “I’ve been Volkswagen conscious my whole life,” he says, “(and) this is one of the most amazing Volkswagen collections I’ve seen.”

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post 4000 imported Japanese cars and 300+ VW Westfalias discovered in Virginia | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 115 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter is a serendipitous kind of guy. That doesn’t mean he isn’t a planner, it’s just that some of his chance meetings result in so much more than he anticipated. So, he isn’t afraid of taking the road less traveled.

Case in point: Years after meeting a classic car enthusiast named Howard at the annual Hershey Swap Meet in Pennsylvania, Tom and the Barn Find Hunter crew finally accept Howard’s invitation to visit him in rural Virginia, where Tom discovers a great story, an amazing accumulation of automobiles, and a few surprises along the way.

“It looks like you’re a GM guy,” Tom says as he surveys the cars he sees in the immediate area of Howard’s property in the Appalachian Mountains. Yes, Howard says, but there’s so much more here than that.

“My granddaddy was a car dealer … He owned a Ford dealership,” Howard says. “When I was a kid, I stayed with my grandparents while my mom and dad worked,” so he was around cars all the time.

Howard explains that his grandfather had a building that housed his personal collection, which included a 1937 Packard and fire engine—every kid’s dream. It’s no wonder, Howard says, “I always just loved cars.” And when his grandparents passed away, he received some of their treasures.

After ogling a 1955 Buick Roadmaster, Tom is stopped in his tracks by the first of many surprises: a 1988 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur with 60,000 miles, parked next to a 1981 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit with 80,000 miles. Both cars are in beautiful condition, as is a  1951 Rolls-Royce a short distance away.

Tom immediately admits that he misjudged the situation. “I look at those Buicks up there, and (I think) there’s no way this guy owns a Rolls-Royce, but you do!” Five of them, in fact.

And we’ve just gotten started. As the two walk through the cars and buildings, there is much here to admire. There’s a mostly original 1952 Buick Roadmaster with only 16,000 miles on the clock, a ’55 Buick Super two-door hardtop that Howard found in a field and bought for $200, and a 1950 Buick Special (his favorite marque and year) that was his mother’s daily driver. Tom checks out a couple of Ford Model Ts, a ’69 Buick Le Sabre, and a ’55 Desoto before stumbling upon—you guessed it—another Rolls-Royce, this one a 1974 Silver Shadow. (Howard’s fifth Rolls is a 1928 model, by the way.)

Tom immediately repeats a question that he has asked Howard many during this visit—“Does it run?” Howard answers exactly as he has multiple times before: “Yes.”

“That’s a requirement of yours, I guess,” Tom says.

Howard agrees. Although not every car that he owns runs, he says it’s important that most of them do because it’s the only way he can truly enjoy them. “I like to get ’em out once in a while. Even if I don’t run ’em on the road, I’ll run ’em in the field.”

After checking out a few more cars—including a 1977 Mercury Monarch that also belonged to Howard’s mother, a former senator’s limousine, another ’55 Buick, and a ’63 Lincoln Continental convertible that a friend of Howard’s bought new—Tom stops in front of a 1964 Buick Riveria and discusses the car’s breakthrough styling, particularly up front. “It was like a piece of sculpture on the road,” he says.

At one point, Tom makes a bold statement, considering that this is the 113th episode of the Barn Find Hunter. He tells Howard, “You have the most eclectic taste in cars that I’ve ever seen.” And he never would have seen them if he hadn’t said yes to Howard’s invitation.

“Listen,” Tom says, wrapping up the show while Howard hilariously focuses all of his attention on his cell phone, “if somebody calls you and says, ‘I’ve got some neat cars,’ maybe it’s worth spending time going over there and checking them out.”

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post 5 Rolls Royces and a HUGE Buick collection in the Appalachian Mountains | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 114 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Reggie Jackson struck out 2597 times in his Hall of Fame baseball career—about once every four times at bat—yet he connected enough times to become one of the game’s all-time leading home run hitters. What does that have to do with classic cars? The message is the same for baseball and automotive treasure hunting: No matter how many times you strike out, just keep swinging; you never know when you’ll hit one out of the park.

In the latest episode of the Barn Find Hunter, Tom Cotter hits a few bumps during his search for hidden gems in northern Michigan, but he perseveres.  Driving a borrowed 1965 Mustang coupe, he heads north from Hagerty’s home base in Traverse City and hugs the shore of Lake Michigan. There’s plenty to see along the way, but Tom whiffs three times before he finds someone he can actually speak to about their classic ride. And, as luck would have it, the owner of a sweet Ford F-100 pickup that Tom spotted isn’t a local, so he can’t help either.

Never fear. Tom is no quitter. Soon he sees a 1968 Dodge A100 Sportsman, and its owner, Jack, is not only home but he’s willing to chat. The van, which was formally owned by Jack’s dad, is powered by a 318-cubic-inch V-8 and has 122,533 miles on the clock. It also has some rust problems.

Jack says, “I’d like to restore it, but they’re talkin’ $10,000—and there’s nothing really wrong with it because it runs really good … except, like me, the body’s shot.”

A few miles later, Tom hits a home run when he catches a glimpse of an old Ford Falcon in a 50-foot break in the trees. This, he says, is why you have to keep your head on a swivel when you’re searching for cars. It isn’t about the Falcon, it’s about everything else that can’t be seen.

The Falcon turns out to be a parts car for a beautiful 1964 Falcon that’s parked in the garage. “This is a sweetheart,” Tom says, describing the Wimbledon White Falcon with red factory stripe, red accents, and shiny chrome. He also points out something a bit unusual under the hood: a fuel-injected Chevrolet 350 V-8. The car also has Mustang II suspension and a six-speed manual gearbox.

Tom later admires a Ford Falcon wagon and a ’55 Chevy Bel Air, which is also sporting a 350 engine.

“I don’t know if he’s a Ford guy or a Chevy guy,” Tom says of the owner. “[But] he’s certainly a Chevy engine guy.”

Hiding under a cover is a black, early-1990s GMC Syclone pickup truck showing only 7800 miles. Tom points out that it “was the fastest truck in the world at its introduction,” with a 0–60 time of 4.6 seconds and a quarter-mile time of 13 seconds. “You don’t see many of these,” he says, “and when you do, it’s a special day.”

Going from one extreme to the other, Tom checks out a 1957 Chevy four-door Bel Air in the woods that he says is “great yard art,” before he looks inside one last garage and finds a clean Buick Grand National.

“This turned out to be a pretty good stop,” Tom says, celebrating how the day ended, not how it started. “I’m telling ya, cars are hidden all over the place. Some are outside and they’re worthless; some are inside and they’re pretty darn good.”

Happy hunting.

The post GMC Syclone, Dodge A100 Sportsman, Buick Grand National, and a ’57 Chevy | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 113 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In Episode 88 of “Barn Find Hunter,” you met a man named Vernon Brannon, who took us on a tour of one of the most impressive barn find collections we’ve ever had on this show. Vernon has since invited us to see his collection of Triumphs and other British sports cars deep in the hills of North Carolina. One car that makes this collection so unique is a Triumph sedan that has an interesting backstory. Back in the late 1970’s British Leyland began negotiations with Honda to develop a small family sedan that would fill a production gap until the release of the Montego in 1983. To keep a long story short, Honda ultimately ends up re-badging one of their cars known as the Honda Ballade to become what we now know as the Triumph Acclaim. It’s Vernons collection of unusual triumphs, such as the Acclaim, that make his collection one of the most complete collections of Triumphs in North America.

The post The MOST complete Triumph collection in North America | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 112 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter has always wanted to use an airplane to search for classic cars from above. On his latest treasure-hunting trip to northern Michigan, he gets his wish.

Flying over inland lakes and along the shore of Lake Michigan, Tom uses his cellphone to drop a GPS pin when he sees something promising, and he plans to drive to the location later when he’s back on the ground. It’s a great idea in theory, except it doesn’t bear fruit. Not directly anyway. After visiting a repair shop that works on more modern vehicles, Tom prepares to leave when the owner offers, “I’ve got a friend about 45 minutes away who has a bunch of old cars you might like.” Bingo.

“Even though that airplane trip didn’t actually produce a barn find, the experience produced a lead that we’re going to check out now,” Tom says. “You never know where they’re going to come from. Crazy world.”

Soon the Barn Find Hunter team arrives at the home of 74-year-old Frank, a longtime race car driver and accumulator of project cars. Regretfully, Frank didn’t get around to fixing as many of those project cars as he’d hoped.

“The original plan was to restore ’em,” he says. “Every time I’d find one, I’d buy it (and say), ‘I’m gonna fix that,’ and I’d put it out there with the rest of ’em. Now I’m too old and I’m gonna sell ’em all off.”

That means there are deals to be had, in case you see something you can’t live without.

Among the cars in Frank’s are a 1968 Ford Torino with a 302 engine and automatic transmission. Frank discovered it on a hunting trip in Montana and towed it home. Parked a few feet away is a 1983 Mustang with a 302 powerplant and five-speed gearbox, along with a pair of 1941 Ford business coupes. A tree appears to be growing out of one of them.

Tom asks about a Ford drag car sitting nearby, and Frank explains that it belongs to his son. “He couldn’t beat the old man on the circle track,” he says, “so he went drag racing.” Frank says his son is a fan of Cleveland engines; Tom innocently asks if Frank likes Windsors.

“No, I hate Windsors,” he says, which makes Tom laugh. “The 351 Windsor—all that is is a Chevrolet painted blue. I don’t like it.”

Well, OK then. So what happened to that dilapidated ’66 Galaxie over there, Tom inquires? Frank admits, sheepishly, that it’s been sitting at his place too long.

There’s so much more to see here: several more Torinos, a ’68 Mustang, an LTD convertible, and a ’38 Oldsmobile. Wait a sec, Tom wonders aloud, what’s an Olds doing with all these Fords? “I liked the damn grille,” Frank says.

Tom later spies a race car hauler, a ’47 Lincoln two-door coupe, and a ’65 Mustang convertible. He asks about Mustang. Frank says it belongs to his son. “He got divorced, and he was going to leave it here a couple of months until he found a new place,” Frank says, then he pauses briefly before delivering the punchline. “That was about 20 years ago.”

Tom notices a white car way off in the field, far away from the other vehicles. “Is that a Nissan?”

“That’s a piece of s**t Subaru,” Frank says. “A buddy of mine left it here, so I towed it back there.”

Tom laughs at Frank’s colorful comment, and then thanks him for spending so much time with the crew. As Tom drives away in his borrowed 1970 Challenger, he revels in what the day has brought.

“That turned out to be a neat stop,” he says. “And you know what? Better than the stuff (we saw) were the people.”

Which is often how it goes. Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Using an Airplane to Hunt for Barn Finds | Barn Find Hunter Ep. 111 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Omar Ramirez is a man after Tom Cotter’s heart, even if he’s nowhere near his age. Ramirez, 26, is an old soul with a love for classic Ford Galaxies, so when he spotted a 1964 500XL on the Barn Find Hunter, he reached out to the owner, and soon a deal was done.

That was three years ago, in Episode 34. In this week’s BFH, Omar tells Tom the story of how the Galaxie made the move from Texas to his garage in Long Beach, California. “I saw it in the background,” Omar says of the Galaxie, which he spied in a sea of Fords owned by Tom Cross. “It was like a time capsule.”

Omar says the 500XL has air-conditioning and a swing-away steering wheel, and its patina-covered body is solid. He has installed new suspension and disc brakes all around, and although the Galaxie arrived with a 300-horsepower, 390-cubic-inch V-8 engine, he’s swapping it for a 428 that he found locally. Now he’s just waiting to get it back from the machine shop.

“It just kind of worked out,” Omar says about finding the 428 engine. “It’s going to be a nice little fast car.”

Tom applauds Omar’s pursuit of original parts as he brings the 500 XL back to life. The car hasn’t been registered since the 1990s.

“What I like is that you’re going to junkyards and pulling parts yourself—sun visors and taillights and trim and interior … 26-year-olds don’t do that.”

Omar’s attitude is even more surprising considering he is the first car guy in his family.

“I admire you, man,” Tom says. “… You’re like an old-time hot rodder. I really dig it.”

“I love it; I love the whole culture,” says Omar, who also owns a Ford Torino. “I love anything to do with these old cars.”

No wonder Tom appreciates his effort so much.

Happy hunting.

The post 428 Galaxie 500 XL Hot Rod goes from rusted to the road | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 110 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter has covered a lot of ground during his visit to northern Michigan. The Barn Find Hunter’s adventures have included racing a pair of classic Mopars, driving an antique tractor, and visiting an old friend whose woody restoration shop burned down. This time around, he gets down and dirty at an auto detailing shop and in a field of vintage SUVs.

First up is a visit to Dane at Bayside Detailing, a meeting inspired by Tom’s interest in a Jeep Wagoneer and a Chevy Camaro sitting outside, which he passed several times before stopping.

“You don’t have to drive into the middle of the U.S. and hunt through barns,” Tom says. “Sometimes barn finds are right next door.”

Dane’s 1982 Wagoneer—which he purchased at the age of 17—is a bit rusty, and he blew its straight-six engine a while back. On the bright side, “It has a perfect [copper-colored] interior—just mint.” That’s important because Dane plans to put the Wagoneer’s interior into the mud-caked Jeep pickup that he just off-roaded over the weekend. “It has nice patina,” he says, “if you could see it.”

Dane bought the silver Camaro from his former boss. It has a 1995 LT1 engine, a six-speed manual, and ’95 Corvette seats. The body was rough when Dane bought it, and he did all of the restoration work himself—in about three months, because he wanted to drive the car ASAP. Now he wishes he had more time behind the wheel. Unfortunately, between Dane’s job and the other classic vehicles he owns, he just doesn’t have the time he once did.

Much like Tom, Dane enjoys driving around searching for old cars. The best vehicle to find, he says, is one that looks like it has been parked and forgotten, “because you know (the owners) aren’t thinking about it … and you can go over and work it.” Work it, he means, as in make an offer.

It’s a strategy that Tom uses while uncovering barn finds across America. In fact, it serves him well on this trip; after he leaves Dane’s place, he drives down a dirt road and discoveres an enthusiast named Joe that he’d actually met several years earlier. Joe’s property is a honey hole of vintage SUVs … Ford Broncos, Bronco IIs, and Toyota FJ40s. The Broncos at Joe’s are mostly parts vehicles because his son loves Broncos, and “all of the better ones are at his place.”

Tom asks about one of the Broncos, which isn’t complete but has a decent-looking body. “I’ve seen worse,” Tom says, to which Joe replies, “There’s always a worse one out there.”

While Joe’s son is into the Ford SUVs, Joe finds Toyota FJ40s more to his liking. One of them, housed in a storage building, is an early import model with a power winch. He also has a Ford Fairlane XL, a 1956 Thunderbird, the shell of a ’57 Chevy, and two Corvettes—one that features a ’63 front clip, ’64 body, and ’65 frame.

Then there’s Joe’s red ’72 Corvette convertible, which he scored in a trade for a boat in 1976. Joe and his wife made a lot of memories in the Vette, and he is currently rebuilding it so they can make more. New additions to the car include a 360-hp 350 V-8, power steering, power brakes, and air conditioning.

Tom delights in his reunion with Joe and says their happenstance meeting exemplifies the importance of taking the road less traveled.

“If you’re just driving around looking for old cars, go down that road you’ve never driven before—you might just meet someone like Joe, who has a garage full of stuff, and a backyard full of stuff, and cool Corvettes to look at.”

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Broncos, FJ40s, and a lifted Grand Wagoneer | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 109 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Andrew Bolasky grew up in a musical family, studied music in college, and was headed toward a career in music when he had a change of heart and direction. Now the music that he makes comes from the engines of classic cars.

Andrew, who went on to earn a degree in classic car restoration from Ohio Technical College, works for the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He reached out to Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter about a very special car that he just acquired, a 1960 SCCA H Production Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite.

“This is actually one of those cases where the car found me,” Andrew tells Tom. “Out of the blue, a friend messaged me.”

That friend, Jason, told Andrew that the car belonged to his father, and it had been sitting in a barn in Waterford, Maine, for 36 years. He reached out because the barn and the nearby inn had just been sold, so everything had to go. Andrew was soon on his way with a trailer. He took plenty of photos of the Sprite as he found it, and he thought Tom might be interested in hearing the story. After all, not only was the Healey a barn find, it had racing history. Tom was definitely interested.

During a walkaround of the car, Andrew points out that if you compare photos of the Sprite as it was in the barn and how it looks now, you can tell that: “A lot of paint was blown off on the trip back on the open trailer, and a lot of authentic Maine barn dust was washed away in a little bit of a rainstorm we had. But other than that I haven’t touched the car; it’s still in barn-find condition.”

The car’s previous owner raced it in SCCA events at Road Atlanta, Rockingham, and Summit Point between 1983 and 1984, and Andrew says it looks like he was working on the engine before the car went into hibernation.

Andrew, who also owns a 1958 Chevrolet Biscayne, hopes to restore the Healey to its previous racing condition and get it back on the track someday. “I want to keep it true to its original intent.”

Among the Sprite’s custom features is a wooden plate on the back that reads, “Hey Now.” Andrew called Jason’s dad and asked about it, and he said it had everything to do with the Grateful Dead song Iko Iko, which includes “a lot of Hey Nows.”

Somehow it seems appropriate that the race car has a musical background and found its way into Andrew’s hands.

“It definitely felt like it was my duty to save this car, because the alternative was that it was going to scrap,” Andrew says. “Justin was very sad thinking about that. He actually offered to pay for my gas there and back if it meant that his dad’s #4 didn’t have to go to scrap … and that hurt me right here [in the heart]. So, I made sure that wasn’t going to happen.”

— Jeff Peek

The post Resurrected after 36 years: 1960 SCCA H Production Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 108 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter and the Barn Find Hunter crew have had their fair share of highs, but that means a low has to crash the party eventually. This week, Tom is back in northern Michigan to continue his search for forgotten cars, and while he’s there he decides to stop at an old friend’s house. Unfortunately, they’re meeting under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Mike Nickels is the woody wagon guy, and he took Tom on a tour of the shop a few years ago (episode #76) while his Tom’s yellow Ford woody wagon sat in his driveway. Sadly, just a week before Tom’s most recent visit, Mike suffered a devastating loss  when his shop caught fire. Only a tiny portion of his workspace was left untouched by flames, and that too was damaged by water and smoke. It’s truly a sad sight to see, and it serves as a reality check that misfortune does not discriminate.

Mike and a few freinds worked feverishly alongside the fire department to save a few cars and minimize the damage. The fire chief said that almost 40,000 gallons of water were dumped on the blaze, but there was still only so much that could be done. More than cars were lost; the shop contained historical objects and personal items that meant a lot to Mike, along with templates and patterns that may have only existed in this shop.

It’s not going to keep Mike down though. He has a positive outlook on it all and is already planning his rebuild. A GoFundMe was started to assist in the rebuilding process, and Mike will soon begin searching through the rubble to salvage what he can.

The post Devastating LOSS for Classic Car Community: Rare restoration shop burns | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 107 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The last time we followed Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter on his search for hidden treasure in northern Michigan, Tom ended the show by drag racing his borrowed 1970 Challenger against Cliff Wilson’s 1966 Dodge Polara 500. This episode is a little slower-paced than that, but it ends with an iconic performance car that’s been hibernating since 1993.

Following up a tip from Cliff, Tom and the BFH crew visit Bob DeVol, who worked at a Case dealership as a young man and is naturally partial to Case tractors. First up is a 1952 Case with fairings over the wheels so that tree branches slide past the tractor—and its driver—while working in the orchard.

Bob also shows Tom a rare 1949 model that was built exclusively for export. He says only 40 of them were built, and just five remain in the U.S. Bob owns two.

After that is a 1939 Case Model R, which is smaller than the others and features a distinctive starburst grille.

Bob says he maintains all the tractors in his fleet himself. “If I can’t do it, it doesn’t get done.”

Bob’s treasured collection isn’t limited to farm equipment. He keeps a handful of old cars in his barn, and he’s owned many of them for decades. Bob worked for Chevrolet for 50 years, so of course he’s partial to the brand. But he also owns several Fords, including a 1930 Model A that belonged to his father-in-law—Bob’s wife learned to drive in it—and a 1950 pickup truck. “The last of the flatheads,” he says of the truck’s engine. “I just had to have one.”

Bob’s Chevys include a 1950 fastback with only 11,000 miles from new; he also owns a ’36 and a ’40.

After Tom enjoys a spin around the property on one of Bob’s tractors, it’s time to meet Tony, who works for Hagerty and mentioned to Tom that he owns a car that’s been in storage for 28 years. Rolling up the storage door, Tom spies the covered car and tries to guess its identity by its shape. He gets the marque correct; it’s a Buick.

Not just any Buick, either—a first-year 1984 Grand National with 3.8-liter SFI Turbo engine. A former media-use car, it has only 31,000 miles on the clock, is rust-free, and is all-original right down to the air in the tires. Tony says he plans to get it back on the road soon, but his other cars have been a priority.

Tom reflects that there’s a lesson to be learned from this episode of Barn Find Hunter. “I firmly believe that everyone knows somebody with an old car … (so) talk to everyone you know.” Just asking a simple question—“Do you know anyone who owns old cars?”—pays off more times than not.

Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Low Mileage 1984 Buick Grand National press car and Barn full of cars | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 106 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Way back when, during the first season of Barn Find Hunter—several years and more than 90 episodes ago—Tom Cotter peeked through the windows of a shuttered car dealership/repair shop in Arizona and spied a handful of classic cars that he just had to see up close. After calling the building’s leasing agent, Tom not only got to look around, he spoke over the phone with Cliff, the owner of two nearly identical big-block 1968 Chevrolet Camaros.

Shortly after that episode went live, Greg Garson, of Alberta, Canada, asked to be connected with Cliff, and the two eventually struck a deal for both Camaros. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, recorded earlier this year via Zoom when travel was restricted due to the pandemic, Tom catches up with Greg and learns what he has done with the cars.

Tom begins by asking, since Cliff owned one of the Camaros from new, did it seem difficult for him to let them go? No, Greg says, because “he knew I was going to restore them and get them back on the road.”

One of the Camaros, now painted red, is barely recognizable from the original BFH episode, and Greg has done almost all of the restoration work himself, “other than the radiator … I don’t do that. And the machine work …I can’t do that.”

Greg describes himself as a “heavy duty mechanic, so the mechanical part is simple for me; it’s second nature. My brother was an auto-body mechanic, so he taught me how to do body work.”

Greg finished the red Camaro this summer, after he and Tom spoke. It’s his third restoration project; he also restored a 1946 GMC cabover and a 1939 pickup truck. Next in line is the blue ’68 Camaro. Greg won’t hazard a guess as to how long that one might take; he just wants to go slow and “do it right.”

Tom is just happy that he and the Barn Find Hunter crew were able to bring the cars to light so they could find a new home and get back on the road.

As Tom always says, happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Chevy RS/SS Camaros from Barn Find Hunter get restored | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 105 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Well, we’ve never seen that before. As if it isn’t rare enough watching Barn Find Hunter host Tom Cotter strike out three times before noon, the latest episode ends with our humble treasure hunter gripping the wheel of a 440 Challenger and squaring off against another Mopar in a street race.

Say, what?

We know, right?

Tom’s annual barn find hunting expedition in northern Michigan (filmed earlier this summer) is even more special this time around because it’s the first time that he’s been out and about since the pandemic hit—a span of about 18 months. “I’ve missed this like crazy,” he says enthusiastically.

Something else that’s new this time around is Tom is driving a borrowed 1970 Challenger instead of his Ford woody wagon, and he’s having a blast experiencing the Mopar’s horsepower.

“I’ve never driven a car this. It’s pretty darn cool,” he says, later adding, “It’s as fast as stink.”

Tom and BFH crew make three separate stops, checking out an International truck, a 1971 Mustang Grande, and several Subarus, but they can’t find anyone home.

“This is what barn find hunting is all about,” Tom says. “It starts off slow, but as you know, sometimes it really picks up speed, and we wind up spending the last few days frantically trying to put all these cars on film so that you can see them … And as I say that I just saw an old Mopar in a garage, so I’m going to turn around.”

Stop no. 4 is a winner. Tom chats with Victoria Wilson, whose husband owns the 1966 Dodge Polara 500 that he spotted from the road. Considering Tom’s mode of transportation on this trip, he declares, “Suddenly, it’s Mopar Monday!”

Victoria explains the history of the car and says her husband appreciates the Polara’s patina. “He loves that it’s not a perfect car,” she says. “… He’s never wanted a car that he’s not [able] to drive.”

Cliff Wilson arrives right on cue and confirms as much.

“It’s got the dent in the back where it looks like somebody’s grandmother clipped the edge of the garage,” he says. “And it has a couple of spots where it has primer.”

Cliff adds that he’s owned the Dodge for 22 years, having purchased it in southeast Michigan after its owner drove it from California and blew the engine. “That’s where it sat until the police impounded it,” he says. The car’s original 383-cubic-inch two-barrel V-8 was then replaced with a 440 before Cliff bought it.

As Cliff talks about the car and the other treasures in his garage—like a 354 Hemi engine from a ’56 Chrysler Imperial—he states the obvious. “I’m a car junky, Tom,” he says. “You know, I’m not the first one you’ve met.”

After coaxing the Polara a bit, Cliff gets it started, and Tom is suddenly struck with an idea.

“We’re going to do something that we’ve never done on Barn Find Hunter before … We’re going to drag race this Mopar against this Mopar,” he says, laughing. “… Best man wins.”

Except he isn’t kidding.

How did it turn out? You’ll have to watch for yourself.

After the showdown, Cliff explains why he loves his Dodge so much. “It’s a real unique car—it’s just not real desirable. And I’m OK with that, because I don’t have guys knocking on my door asking me if I’ll sell it.”

Not yet, anyway. Happy hunting.

— Jeff Peek

The post Dodge Polara 500 Vs Challenger R/T: Dodges drag’n in the streets | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 104 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

It isn’t often—outside of the U.K., anyway—that you find three Triumphs living within 300 yards of each other … and not one of them is a Spitfire. And Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter discovered them within a few miles from his home in Davidson, North Carolina.

In episode 103 of the Barn Find Hunter, the first since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the country, Tom forgoes driving his 1939 Ford Woody Wagon in favor of another car that he’s owned for years: his Fern Mist 1953 Ford Ranch Wagon.

“What? Where did this come from? You know I’m a station wagon guy. You know I like Fords …,” Tom says. “I bought this car in 1972 as a high school senior. My girlfriend said, ‘I’ll never ride in that car.’ Now my wife of 46 years, she has ridden in this many times.”

Tom explains that the seller wanted $100 for the Ranch Wagon, but he agreed to take all that teenaged Tom could afford: $85. “It had a surf rack, curtains in the windows, and mag wheels. Then about 25 years ago I restored it.”

The Ford is a “bare bones car,” with three-on-the-tree manual transmission and no radio or clock. Tom says that ’53 was the last year of the flathead V-8, “but this car does not have an eight; it has a six.” Meant to be shipped to Germany, the Ranch Wagon’s speedometer is in kilometers. Tom says he considered upgrading the engine many times, but he’s glad he never did.

“You don’t see these much anymore,” he says. “They’re all gone.”

Also unusual are the three Triumphs that Tom discovered while jogging down a gravel road in Davidson.

First up is Chuck’s 1975 TR6, which he has owned since 1994. “I loved the lines,” he says. One day, Tom ran past Chuck’s garage and saw him tinkering on the TR6, so he stopped to check it out. It runs much smoother than it did then, since Chuck spent a lot of his downtime during the pandemic working on it.

He tells Tom that he’s now planning to sell the car, but Tom encourages him to hold onto it. Chuck is already doubting his resolve.

“You know, every time I get it running right, I say I’m going to sell it, then (I think), ‘I can’t sell this car.’ But I think my wife is tired of me doing that.”

Just down the road is Mark and his 1971 Triumph Stag, built the first year the car was available in the U.S. The two are greeted by a puddle of oil. “The first sign that you’re in Triumph territory is the oil slick,” he jokes.

As a teenager, Mark convinced his father to buy the V-8-powered car for his mother in 1981, and it has now been in the family for 40 years. Tom remembers the strong odor that hung in the air the first time the Stag drove past. “We call that British car cologne,” Mark says with a smile.

In addition to the rare Stag, Mark also shows Tom a pair of Jeep CJ2As in his garage. Then it’s on to Triumph no. 3, Jane and Bob’s 1966 TR4A.

Bob bought the four-cylinder TR4 new in 1966 and drove it as his daily driver for years. “One day he just disappeared, and then he came home with this car,” Jane says. “… He drove the kids to school every day. They put the top down, they sang—they still sing the songs … They were very popular in that car.”

Tom also visits another neighbor with a 1957 Studebaker Provincial Wagon. That makes three Triumphs, two Jeeps, and a Studebaker. It’s amazing what you can find in your own backyard … or down a gravel road.

The post Three Triumphs and Two Jeep CJ 2As in ONE alley | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 103 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

When Tom Cotter scours the country looking for hidden automotive gems, he’s not just looking for interesting stories and more fodder for his next book. He’s also always in the market for a new project. In the latest installment of Barn Find Hunter, Tom shows us the storage facility where he keeps many of his own vehicles and stops by a few to highlight their histories.

Early on, Tom introduces us to two Datsun 510s, including one that he has a long history with that’s got a fresh coat of paint and is nearly ready for assembly. Also in the fray is a 510 that’s showing a bit of rust and in need of a restoration of its own. Next up, a Morris Minor race car that Tom has owned for more than 30 years. Although it is currently without an engine and transmission, the stripped-down and caged racer has served Tom well on the track, including some endurance racing.

Tom’s family has had a long history with VWs, so it’s no surprise there’s a couple of Wolfsburg’s finest in his collection. He pulls back the cover on a mildly customized 1960 VW Beetle convertible that wears Porsche wheels and opens the hood to reveal a Judson supercharger that boosts power to a much more exciting 50 ponies. It may not seem like a lot, but the factory mill was only good for 35 horsepower.

Next up is another Morris Minor race car, but this one’s even more of an oddity than the first as it sports an early grille that relocates the headlights from their familiar fender-mounted location. This one’s topless for less drag and slotted all over with louvers. After brief stops at a couple more of his cars, including a fully stripped 1964 Comet convertible, it’s off to a new site.

The next venue is a property with a couple of the less-well-preserved projects. First off is a 1946 Ford car/pickup hybrid with a rare Marmon Harrington 4×4 drivetrain. Originally a woodie wagon, it was used as an alternative to a chair lift at a ski slope. When its wood body rotted, the body and bed of a Ford pickup were grafted on. Tom has an additional woodie for use as a parts car to help get that rare piece of history restored to its original condition.

There are even more cars in the video that we didn’t mention, but one of the final projects that get some screen time in this episode is one you may not have heard of. Only about 20 Standard/Triumph Vanguards were produced in left-hand-drive for North America and this one is about to be put back on the market.

As Tom points out, storage facilities such as the one he uses himself, with all the cars under the same roof and visible to any visitor, make a good place to scout for your next project. Remember, the cars are still out there.

The post Private tour of Tom’s barn find collection | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 102 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There are literally millions of configurations of “old cars,” but if one person could rightfully claim to have seen them all, it would be Tom Cotter. This rare 1957 Oldsmobile convertible, however, caught Tom by surprise when he first found it back in early 2019. It only made sense that the car would someday be reborn to a second life—but not because of Tom’s influence alone.

Not long after the Barn Find Hunter episode had aired, the red-and-white convertible popped up for sale on Facebook Marketplace, where its current owner Rob found it in December of 2019, unaware that the Olds had starred in the show. The ’57 was improperly listed as a Rocket 88 rather than a Super 88, its correct title. Rob thinks the mislabeling helped to disguise this great find.

The Super 88 is rare for a few reasons. Rob points out that the car has minimal rust and its excellent condition, combined with the J-2 tri-power option, makes it a particularly special piece of history. The odometer reads just 17,000 miles, but when Rob discovered it, the Olds’ engine was clearly in need of some love. The exhaust seats had cracked and were leaking. Rob points out that this was a common failure point on the 371 V-8s because they got hot-rodded more than the other Olds engines of the time.

It wasn’t easy for Rob to get this car back on the road. In fact, Redline Rebuild expert Davin Rekow was the first to try and get the Super 88 running, but he declared defeat after finding the 371 locked up solid. The mill was worth a full-blown rescue effort, but Davin simply didn’t have the time. Rob dove into the engine and found the root issue: Rodents had taken up residence in the number five cylinder. All the nasty stuff they left behind after years of living in the block meant that the engine was in desperate need of a total rebuild.

The Olds V-8 is all back together now and better than ever. Rob can’t wait to put some miles on the car after the 11 months of work required to return it to well-deserved health. His story proves that finding these cars is one thing; bringing them back to life is an entirely different challenge. It’s a task worth tackling, however, even if your project isn’t as rare as this ’57 Olds. If you want to see more barn finds and discover the stories behind them, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel and look for new videos every week.

The post Rags to Riches: Barn find Tri-Power Oldsmobile gets restored | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 101 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There are plenty of folks who parrot the saying that “there are no shops like the old ones anymore.” Tom Cotter is out to prove that myth is exactly that—a myth. This week on Barn Find Hunter, Tom and crew head into the North Carolina mountains to visit a friend with some fantastic British race cars before dropping through a VW shop that continues to operate like it’s 1970.

First stop is a shop owned by Tom’s friend Brian. The large race trailer out front is a big hint about what sits inside. A pair of Lotus Elevens greet Tom right off; one sports a fiberglass body, and the other is beautiful bare aluminum. Both are powered by similar Coventry Climax 1500cc four-cylinder engines. Interestingly, those engines were not produced as racing engines. They were initially stationary pump engines but sharp eyes saw a compact and durable overhead-cam engine that would be a perfect fit for the racing world.

In the back trees of Brian’s property is an odd duck. It’s an Austin Healey 3000 with a strange fiberglass roof, but under the hood is the real meat: a Ford V-8. Brian thinks it’s a 289, but no one can be 100 percent sure with the amount of detritus that has accumulated on top of the iron lump. The car needs a lot of work now, but at one point, it was probably a wicked fast machine thanks to that trans-Atlantic engine swap.

Tom then heads out from the race shop and stops by a more modest establishment. There are no race cars to be found at Guy Roberts VW Repair. Now in its third generation of ownership, this garage carries a reputation that draws customers from five hours away. As impressive as the shop is, the side yard, which serves as a de-facto parts car collection, is  even better.

Folks know that the shop is VW only, so when someone’s VW dies or they don’t want to deal with it anymore, they tow it and leave it in the yard. When the scrap price is right, the shop empties the yard. The dozens of donor cars run the gamut of VW’s history. Tom compares it to cutting down a tree and counting the rings to get the history of the tree—this yard is the history of Volkswagen all in one spot. Some of the cars were customers that never came to pickup their vehicles. One air-cooled Beetle has been waiting to be picked up for over a decade; it’s more of a storage unit now.

From the side lot of the shop Tom travels five minutes down the road to investigate the personal collection of Guy Roberts. The quality is a massive shift compared to the outside storage. A single cab pickup welcomes Tom right away, and as the pair venture deeper into the building, more interesting air-cooled machines are revealed.

Shops like Guy Roberts VW are scattered throughout the country, sometimes a little ways off the beaten path. All you have to do is spend some time looking for them. As Tom always says, “happy hunting.”

The post Volkswagen dreamland: Rabbits, Squarebacks, Beetles, and Buses | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 100 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter and crew have traveled the U.S. countryside (and also the UK) in search of dilapidated and hiding cars. He can’t find them all though, so we put out a call in the Hagerty Community for folks to share their best barn finds and the tips rolled in. There were fascinating stories in the posts shared, so Tom sat down with his computer and went through some of the best.

Broncos galore

User montanabroncos has one of the more straightforward user names in the Hagerty Community. (Hint: they find Ford Broncos in Montana.) Well, sort of. Apparently most discoveries are better described as field finds, which tickles the dad humor in Tom. Regardless, the beautiful green first-generation Bronco is one that takes Tom back in time to when he was a salesmen at a Ford dealer. Just proof that time travel does exist, it just requires a different machine than what you see in the movies.

The dream E-type (might be a nightmare)

A red Jaguar covered in an inch of dust, subtly lit by the suns rays peeking through the space between the barn wood slats. The picture sent in by user ClassicRoadster could have been plucked out of just about any gearhead’s dreams. But Tom offers a reality check; a car like this one is a huge project to take on, and unless you want to do it yourself, you might struggle to find someone willing to take it on. Between finding good parts and the right shop to work on it, diving into a project like this could be a mistake for the unprepared.

A flat-four luv affair

Of all the submissions that have poured in, user longboardluv is a someone seemingly born for this moment. He and his friends have been pulling Volkswagens out of garages, fields and basements for years and documenting it all on a YouTube channel. Tom has a soft spot for VWs and admired their work, so he called them up to chat. Each member of the team has their own VW story and trips they like to take to get away and explore the central Texas area they call home. From fast cars to the slowest VWs built, they love it all and have found just about every type, as well.

All of these submissions show that there really is no trick to finding cool cars. Tom points out that it helps to have a fun car that attracts attention and can be used to break the ice of the initial conversation, but that is a luxury.  Almost everything highlighted in the Barn Find Hunter series has been found the old school way—just driving around and looking. The Hagerty Community shows that there is plenty of cool stuff to be found out there, you just have to go look. What are you waiting for?

The post 5 guys drag home 70 Volkswagens, Tom reads about Broncos, E-Types, and many more | Barn Find Hunter appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Of all the crazy-valuable and hyper-rare cars Tom Cotter has uncovered in his time rooting around barns and dusty garages, nothing lights him up like a Datsun 510. Wait, why does Tom get a thrill from picking through hoards of Japanese economy cars? This latest Barn Find Hunter episode may clarify it for you.

The Datsun 510 is a car that follows the same formula as the venerable BMW 2002. A simple four-cylinder engine in the front, bolted up to a manual transmission to power the rear wheels, independent rear suspension, and a couple different body styles. The trick here is that the 510 was $1996 off the lot while a BMW would set you back over $5000. A smart buyer who is chasing the driving experience, not the panache, would likely save that $3000 in price difference for maintenance items—or track prep.

One person who can relate is Peter Brock, the same man who penned the Cobra Daytona Coupe. Brock is such a staple in the 510 community that the paint scheme you recognize is attributed to him. Brock campaigned multiple 510s in Trans Am 2.5-liter class under Brock Racing Enterprises—better known as BRE. The red, white, and blue BRE color scheme matched with 13-inch American Racing Libra wheels and slight fender flares to really muscle up the looks of this econobox.

Looks are one thing, but the 510 backed it up on the track. The Alfa Romeos and BMWs were no match for the humble little Datsun. Unfortunately, the 510 only lived six years before production ended in 1973. The fans have never forgotten about the little car though, and Tom counts himself as one of the faithful.

There is plenty of additional iron in and around this North Carolina hoard, and all of it is rooted in the small local area. As Tom points out, the cars are still out there and hiding just about everywhere—you just have to look. Whether you want a classic Buick Riviera or a race-storied Japanese economy car, it’s up to you to go out and start searching. Or as Tom calls it: hunting.

The post Datsun Dreamland: Tom finds a large collection of 510s and Z Cars | Barn Find Hunter Ep. 98 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Most of Tom Cotter’s barn find stories end when he walks away from whatever barn, building, or field in which he found them, so it’s exciting when we hear the rest of the story. Especially when there’s a happy ending. Such is the case with a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera that Tom uncovered on a trip to New Hampshire in 2017.

Welcome to the first installment of the Barn Find Hunter Reaction Series, in which, as Tom explains, instead of physically looking for barn find cars, he checks out photographs and videos sent in by our viewers.

This Pantera immediately caught Tom’s eye, since he ogled it four years ago and always wondered what had become of it. Turns out it was purchased at auction by Pete Weeks of Windsor, Colorado, who had known of the car since the 1980s. “I think you’ll enjoy the transformation it’s made from sitting in an ant-infested, mosquito-ridden storage container to what it has become today,” Tom says.

Weeks worked for the car’s owner as a teenager in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and he was fully aware that it was a big deal, because he’d heard about the Pantera competing in the 1980 U.S. Express cross-country race. As Weeks explains, after he moved to Colorado, he remained in touch with his friends in Portsmouth, and several years ago one of them reached out to tell him that the De Tomaso was up for auction. Of course, Weeks had to have it, even though it was a dilapidated mess.

He fully restored it over three years, and the now-orange sports car is still powered by its original 351 Cleveland engine, which Weeks built into a 408 stroker that produces 470 horsepower.

“It’s not just a ’72 Pantera to me,” Weeks says. “It brings back a lot of the memories I have as a teenager … and seeing it as a teenager, it was probably the coolest car I’d ever seen.”

After checking out what Weeks has done to the car and seeing it in action, you’ll likely agree that the Pantera’s cool hasn’t faded a bit.

The post BEFORE & AFTER: The De Tomaso Pantera we found is restored after 35 years | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 97 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Searching for automotive gold during a pandemic can be problematic, even for Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter. So he’s getting by with a little help from his friends.

In episode 96, Tom visits Tim Herman in Hickory, North Carolina, a city that’s famous for two things: furniture and Porsches. Seriously. As Herman explains, Hickory is so Porsche-crazy that at one time all six Porsche 959s in North America were located right here, 56 miles northwest of Charlotte.

Herman, 72, has been restoring high-end Porsches for nearly 50 years, so he has plenty of Porsche barn-find stories. And although we’re here to focus on a machine that resulted in not one but two rare 1955 Porsche 356 Continentals, Tom has to get a lay of the land first. So he starts by showing us a clean SC engine and then mentions that Herman is looking to hire two experienced body guys, or he’ll never finish all of the cars on his list. (You can inquire at carerramotorsport.com.)

The first car we see is a stunning blue-over-red 356 (Pre-A) that was once part of Herman’s collection but is now headed elsewhere. Then we step into another room and check out the progress of a 1952 356 body, which is currently in primer, that Herman and his staff have been working on “five days a week for a year.” When completed, it will be Asher Blue over light beige.

Finally, Herman shows us the reason we’re here. He explains that he once stopped to look at a Volkswagen inside a barn and saw a rusted-out 356 cabriolet. As he started to negotiate a deal, the owner said that Herman would also have to take a 356 roadster in similar condition. Done.

Work on the cabriolet “Continental,” one of fewer than 50 made and 6–8 known to exist, came first and seems to be progressing well. The roadster provides Tom an example of what the cab once looked like.

“It’s a little crispy,” Herman admits as Tom examines some rusted-out metal.

“It would scare the willies out of me,” Tom says.

Herman is nonchalant. “That’s just all in a day’s work.”

Tom and the crew step outside of Herman’s shop (Herman & Walker, LLC) and point out some newer—and less expensive—Porsches sitting outside Herman’s neighbor, JTS Motorsports, which is a Porsche service shop. First, Tom shows us a 924 “that’s trashed, but I’m told it runs.” It can be had for $500. “If you only have $500 to spend on an entry-level project car, these are out there,” Tom says, then jokes, “If you want to own the ugliest Porsche in the world, then here’s your opportunity to do that.”

One thing is for sure: A 924 will cost you a lot less than the cars on which Herman spends most of his time and labor.

Until next time, happy hunting.

The post 1955 Porsche 356 Continental | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 96 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Since the introduction of the Barn Find Hunter series, the tips and leads have never slowed down. Tom has mentioned in the past that he simply can’t get to all of them—there is just too many. The information coming to us is worth talking about though, so we put out a call in the Hagerty Community for folks to share their best barn finds. Of course, the photos and videos rolled in. With limited travel time, Tom sat down and perused the posts to give his take on the best that have been submitted thus far.

Range Rover Triplet

Dougscars must be a special kind of masochist because he found and acquired not just one Range Rover Classic, but three. They were in sad shape when they came home, but within a day he had them running and even got them driving. The power plant in these Range Rovers is a variation of the Buick 215 V-8, which is stout and durable, so maybe we shouldn’t be surprised they came to life so easily. Then again, looking at the photo of a pair in the field where they were sitting makes them look pretty rough.

GTI, Hearse, and Beetle, oh my!

This next group of find comes from kfolk‘s front yard. It’s an eclectic grouping for sure, led by a what Tom believes is an eight-valve 1986 Volkswagen GTI. It’s a car Tom knows a good bit about because he has one in his home garage right now. He bought his new and it served as a family car for many years. The next car in this group is a rusty but seemingly complete Cadillac hearse. Tom recounts when these used hearses were cheap and he would watch the surf guys strip out the interior to make them into surf wagons.

The MG and Jaguar in the… Lean to?

There isn’t much information for Tom to go off with the photos AJS sent, but the images make Tom want to know more. What appears to be an MG TD and Jaguar XK140 are under some type of shelter roof, but there are no walls to protect these two Brits from getting absolutely covered in dust. We can’t even be sure what the paint color is on either car, but they each look complete and worth saving. A really neat find.

FJ40 rescue

The Toyota FJ40 has been riding the value roller coaster, and as it has continued to climb the likelihood of finding a good one in the sticks seems to shrink. User dhaayer didn’t let that discourage him, and he got lucky enough to come across a nice FJ40 in southern British Columbia that was worth saving. He has documented his journey to bring it back to roadworthy condition in a video series that is worth a watch.

Not Indiana—India

Tom has been luck enough to travel coast to coast in the U.S., and even the U.K. on the hunt for vintage iron. One country he hasn’t been lucky enough to visit yet is India. Tom likes the thought of uncovering interesting cars in other countries, and TheDoc68 only reinforces Tom’s interest by posting a group of cars from India. It’s an interesting mix of English and American cars and includes a first-generation Camaro. That must have been difficult to import, and it looks like the current owner is taking care of it as such.

That is just a taste of the submissions that Tom and the team have received, and we will continue highlighting the best that come in via the Hagerty Community. If you would like to share yours, be sure to add some photos and include a brief description. You never know, Tom Cotter might be knocking on your door.

The post Range Rovers, Toyota FJ, 1978 VW Bus, and cars hidden in India | Tom reacts to your barn finds appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There are a few things Tom Cotter like to do the old-fashioned way, and finding vintage iron by doing his own footwork is one of them. However, the occasional tip comes through that he can’t ignore. In this case, it’s a call from Steve Davis who has a 365-foot long chicken coop that is no longer used for poultry. Instead, the structure packs all manner of vintage horsepower, of both the two- and the four-wheeled variety.

The property might look familiar to long-time Barn Find Hunter viewers, because Tom first visited back in 2017. There weren’t enough hours in the day to investigate the vehicles in all 12 of Steve’s buildings, so Tom decided to return and take a more focused approach. This hunt is all about two-wheeled vehicles, and the stash is epic.

The starting point is a lineup of 1960s Hondas, which for Steve represents the literal starting point of his collection. In his youth, he borrowed some money from his father and fixed up a few Honda 50s. Soon, Steve realized he was never going to get rid of anything, and the proverbial snowball started rolling. Today, he owns a full-on avalanche of timeless machines.

A couple highlights include a fleet of unrestored Yamaha motocross bikes from the late-’70s, a Wankel rotary-powered Hercules, and a Czechoslovakian-built CZ whose odd starting method is its claim to fame. The shift lever on the bike’s left side pushes in and flips over to become the kickstart—one lever to do it all. In the end, though, Steve’s hoard is merely the appetizer to the main course that exists just down the road.

The second collection is owned by Robin and, despite being just 10 miles from Steve’s well-known property, was entirely unknown to Steve until recently. Robin is a U.K. transplant who loves the motorcycles of his homeland and has acquired and stashed a multitude of vintage machines.

The cornerstone is a Vincent “Red” Rapide that he purchased in 1964. Robin has done a lot of work to the bike over the years to upgrade it to Black Shadow specification. Interestingly, just 26 Vincents like Robin’s made it stateside, and the red paint is said to have been sourced from the U.S. Post Office fleet. Sitting right next to the red Rapide is a black Rapide that has been a part of this collection for 50 years as well. When Robin buys, he buys what he likes and holds onto it.

Tom jokes at the outset of this episode that the nice thing about motorcycles is their compact size; you can store 10 bikes in one car’s worth of space. A motorcycle collector can easily amass a decent collection in a small garage or storage space, but that also makes bikes a bit tougher to find out in the wild. Tom loves a challenge, though, and that’s why we love him.

Be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel and tune in each Friday for new Barn Find Hunter episodes. These motorcycles are just the start of the new season, and you won’t want to miss the great finds just around the corner.

The post Vincent Rapide, Velocette Venom, and 5000 other motorcycles | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 95 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom and the Barn Find Hunter crew have been put in a bit of a pinch by the travel restrictions placed in various parts of the country. Despite what you may think, there is a silver lining: it has allowed the crew to go back and revisit some of our greatest finds, particularly the ones in which we didn’t have enough time to talk about all the good stuff. Time is something we all have in great supply, these days.

One of the biggest stashes of cars Tom has ever stumbled across is also one that really deserves a revisit. Billy Eubanks’ massive collection of cars was nestled into the trees of the Carolinas, and the depth and breadth of the cars in the multitude of buildings meant that even with an extra-long episode back in 2018, we couldn’t even begin to talk about them all.

It’s almost hard to believe that the first episode covering this group of cars had to gloss over this many great finds. More than a few Hemi cars, homologation specials, and Jaguar coupes are strewn about the property, and now two years on you get to hear the whole story. Enjoy this walk with Tom around a property that might be familiar, but it’s all fresh cars for you loyal viewers.

The post Part 2: Greatest barn find collection known to man | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 94 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Everywhere Tom and the Barn Find Hunter team travel, they play a game of getting and chasing leads to scope out where old cars are hiding. Tom usually has one friend or contact in each area he explores, and that person will connect him with a few promising owners or collectors. In the case of his San Diego trip a while back, that initial contact was Peter DaSilva. However, though Tom and crew were itching to hunt for the cars Peter had mentioned, Tom thought it would be fun to drop in on Peter’s shop to poke around the piles of interesting artifacts he had amassed over years.

“This building would be like your bedroom as a teenager if your mother never made you straighten things up,” says Tom before the team heads inside the building. “There are cool things hidden all over the place.”

Of course, Tom tells no lies. Inside is a smorgasbord of vintage racing parts with fascinating backstories—everything from original knock-off spinners sitting on a desk to a 1964 Crosley race chassis lying under a pile of, well, stuff. In the back corner rests a weird piece of art. Peter found a Shelby GT500 years ago and, since it was beyond saving, so he scavenged all worthwhile parts before having it cubed by a crusher in New York. The original idea was to make the final brick of steel into a dining table, but you would need a seriously sturdy floor to support the 1100-pound mass of metal.

Tom then heads off in the woody to investigate another wild automotive lead. He spies a fellow on the side of the road with a Mercedes on a trailer and, naturally, Tom stops to ask whether the driver knew where any old cars were. The man introduces himself as Mike and tells Tom that the crew should stop by his place and check out a few of his own cars. When Tom arrives, he’s greeted by a dune buggy—but probably not the contraption you’re picturing.

The engine is an early flathead, and the rest of the mishmash of parts on the car point to an early-1950s build. Honestly, it looks pretty wild, but we are willing to bet the buggy was mighty fun out on the sand … almost as much fun as Tom had as he rolled around San Diego to find it. This episode goes to show that a vehicle doesn’t even have to be a car or be in a barn to be a barn find—it just has to be interesting.

The post Tom discovers a cubed Shelby GT500 and a wild ’50s dune buggy | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 93 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Rare cars are commonplace to Tom Cotter and the Barn Find Hunter crew, but every once in awhile there’s a combination of both rare and odd enough that warrants a real look. How does Tom find these cars? The same way that you could—by chatting up the locals at a cars and coffee event. Just asking who has old cars sitting around leads to a small stash just down the road, and the wild mix is definitely worth the price of a cup of coffee.

The dozen-car collection ranges from a flatbed Diamond-T truck to a scratch-built racer powered by a Hillman Imp four-cylinder mill that makes 90 horsepower. The little racer weighs in at only 800 pounds with all fluids on board, an absurd number achieved by the heavy use of aluminum in the construction process.

The real fun of the collection is beneath a low-slung blue cover. Tom’s favorite game while out on the road is to try and guess what’s underneath a car cover only by feel. This one gives him a headache, but even he would admit he’s faced with an uphill battle. With a rollbar sticking tall over the left-hand seat and a shape that’s similar to a few other cars, Tom narrows it down by asking questions about what powers it and where it was produced. In the end he surrenders and pulls the cover off without taking a guess. The 1-of-3 Santee SS (with Buick 215 Aluminum V-8) that greets him is gorgeous, but Tom admits he would not have guessed that. Finally, he got stumped.

The eclectic collection is just another example of one man’s passion represented in cars, a grouping of cool iron and fiberglass that’s begging to get out on the road or track and be driven. For now, it’s Tom who hits the road and heads on to the next find. To see where he goes, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel and tune in with each new video. Until the next one, take a tip from Tom and go hunt down a few cars of your own.

The post 1 of 3 Santee SS with Buick 215 Aluminum V-8 and a Morris Minor Traveler | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 92 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The woodie wagon takes a break this week, with Tom focusing less on discovering cars (for once) and instead looking to move a few dirty cars from one resting spot to another. That, to be fair, is a bit of an oversimplification considering he’s dealing with a Ferrari and a Cobra that need to get the shove. But they are mighty dirty, and the building they’re in is set to be destroyed.

The move, however, doesn’t commence until we discuss some of the other interesting rides living in the doomed building. The first is a green Morgan Plus 8. The 215 V-8 powered roadster is one many interesting footnotes of Morgan history because it is an example of a propane conversion car. Mainly a response to emissions regulations, the conversion required removal of the entire fuel system that was replaced with a propane tank and all the hardware to make the engine run smoothly. With no traditional fuel gauge, the glovebox mounted propane tank pressure was the only reference to range the driver would have. Good luck talking the 19-year-old at True Value into topping off your car with a fresh tank.

The other relic worth noting in the garage is a white Triumph TR6. The 1976 convertible has just 9000 miles on it from new, and as Tom points out, it is absolutely a neat piece, but is overshadowed by the Cobra and Ferrari. The original tires and trunk full of bits and pieces make it a restorer’s dream. Many folks consider the sound of the British straight-six to be sublime, but this one is not one many have heard since it has not run in decades.

With the talking done, it’s time to get to work moving cars. The driveway angle is causing issues with getting a trailer right to garage door, so it becomes a careful game of pushing cars. The Cobra and Ferrari leave their places without a fight, but the Morgan and Triumph both initially suffer from locked-up wheels. Luckily for Tom and crew, the restoration shop that came to help out has a set of wheel dollies and a trailer with a winch.

The wheels all eventually broke loose, making for a much less stressful day. The cars all went off to the restoration shop for storage, and the garage was ultimately torn down.

It is not all about finding cars to Tom, but also about keeping them out of danger and putting them in the hands of a loving owner. What will Tom find on the next adventure? You’ll have to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube channel to find out with the next video.

The post Moving a Ferrari and a Cobra to get to a Triumph and Morgan Plus 8 | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 91 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Motoring around Los Angeles, California, in a woody wagon is worth the trip for some folks, but not for Tom Cotter. No, he’s determined to find cars and uncover stories. This week, he meets up with a friend who is reconnecting with his Mini after five years.

That man is Tim Considine, an actor and writer who can trace his roots in Hollywood back decades. His relationship with Tom also goes back many years, and the two are close for a number of reasons—including a trip to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in which luggage was lost and underwear was borrowed. In fact, one of the only things that goes back farther in Tim’s life is this Mini Cooper.

The pale blue Mini entered Tim’s life when he decided that the petite car would be perfect for scooting around L.A. without garnering much attention. He was wrong, but he kept it anyway. The Mini’s a 1968 model, but when Tim purchased it, the ’68 model was not cleared for sale, so the dealership fudged the paperwork and called it a 1967.

Under the hood is a 1275-cc, A-series four-cylinder that is nearly ubiquitous in British cars of the era. However, since the Mini is a featherweight, the 69 horsepower is plenty entertaining. What wasn’t fun, Tim recounts, was the half-decade in the mid-1970s in which he lost the car.

As Tim tells it, he got distracted by a parking spot as he was coming to a stop and just kissed the rear end of a Porsche at a stop sign. The low-speed impact was enough to put the Mini in the shop for repairs and, in sorting out insurance and out-of-pocket expenses, Tim lost the shop’s phone number. That by itself wouldn’t be a crisis—but the shop apparently lost Tim’s contact information, too. The Mini sat in the back of the shop and turned into a private residence for the shop’s guard dog. It took Tim five years to track down the Mini and reestablish his ownership.

Now, Tim drives the Mini on a regular basis. He must really trust Tom, too, because he lets Tom and the Barn Find Hunter crew take a lap of the neighborhood without fearing that he might not see the car again for five years. Tom wouldn’t do that to his friend, though—and if he did, Tim could rest assured he’d have Tom’s beloved woody wagon. Seems like a fair trade to us.

The post 5 years later, Mini Cooper reunites with its owner | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 90 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The trips, finds, and interesting people have been countless, but there is at least one thing about Barn Find Hunter that we can count–how long Tom and the team have been at it. A lot can happen in five years, and there have been plenty of awesome finds and happenings during Barn Find Hunter filming. We asked Tom and the crew to highlight the top 10 finds thus far and now we get to see what they selected.

“To me, it’s not the value of the car, it’s the value of the story attached to the car,” Tom says about the vast array of unique and interesting cars he has literally uncovered over the years. It is easy for the story and personality of the owners to eclipse the value of the cars in most cases, but more than a few times Tom has smoothly chatted his way into buildings filled with some high-dollar sheet metal.

That might be why this list sounds more like Tom’s 10 favorite people he has met on the road. From Terry and Preston in North Pole, Alaska, to Bill Eubanks deep in the woods of the Carolinas, Tom was always quick to point out that these collections were not hidden. One just needed to introduce themselves and ask to hear the story behind the cars to be welcomed into the lives of these great owners.

Sure, there is no shortage of very valuable cars to be found out there, but as long as Tom is out scouting the countryside in search of interesting stories, it won’t be the value that impresses him. It’s all about the story, and that is a story we will continue to tell so be sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube channel to never miss a new find or adventure.

The post Top 10 Barn Finds: Breaking down the top ten stories from the show | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 89 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

He was hesitant. When you own 170 vehicles and they’re stashed bumper to bumper in a secret location that folks in the U.K. might recognize, you’re not exactly thrilled to hear that Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter has flown 3500 miles to reveal them to the world.

Still, Mr. Brit relented. Maybe it’s Tom’s honest face. Or his background in public relations. Or the friends who vouched for his character. In the end, he made a whole lot of promises that he and our film crew vowed to keep, and before we knew it, we were on our way to a remote British farm.

The rules of engagement were straightforward. Can’t reveal the owner’s name. Can’t show his face. Can’t mention what he does for a living. Can’t reveal the name of the city or the area in which he lives. Can’t show the exterior of the buildings or the surroundings—not even the farm animals nearby. Short of having pillowcases pulled over our heads and being driven to the location in the back seat of a black SUV, this is about as clandestine an operation as Barn Find Hunter could possibly execute. And it was worth every accommodation.

Upon our arrival, Mr. Brit brews us some tea and offers some insight into the mass of metal that we’re about to see. Clearly, the cars and trucks mean a lot to him. “If you said, ‘Sell everything and keep one,’ I couldn’t do it,” he says. “I couldn’t even sell everything and keep only 10.

“Don’t even ask to buy anything. It won’t work; people have tried. I don’t sell anything; I just keep buying. To be honest, I’ve slowed down a bit, but I haven’t stopped. I can’t stop. When I see something unusual, I have to buy it. It’s an obsession—a constant obsession.”

Today’s episode, which caps Tom’s weeklong search for automotive treasure in the U.K., never would have happened had it not been for “Vernon from Charlotte.” Vernon is friends with both Tom and Mr. Brit, and he thought bringing the two together might be worthy of a Barn Find Hunter segment. He’s a savvy matchmaker.

Vernon had already planned a trip to the U.K in mid-February, back before the pandemic halted international travel, and he volunteered to fly to Great Britain a day early to meet us and serve as a go-between—an on-camera interpreter of sorts, guiding us through the dozen or so barns and buildings that house Mr. Brit’s massive collection.

Although there is a smattering of cars outside, Tom applauds Mr. Brit’s resolve to protect most of his vehicles from the elements. “This is a preservation effort,” Tom says as we enter the first building, “as opposed to a deterioration effort.” Off camera, Mr. Brit says, “I’ve heard of another guy in the U.K. who has 200 cars, but they’re all outside. I couldn’t do that.”

We’ve seen plenty of American cars on this trip, and there are more here too, including a gorgeous 1956 Pontiac Star Chief, but Mr. Brit’s love for ordinary British models is evident. We begin by making our way through a maze of them, starting with a Standard-Triumph and moving on to a Ford Anglia, a Triumph Herald, and an Atlas cabover pickup with a new Mini body perched in back. Tom spots a late-1950s Fairthorpe Electron, a fiberglass two-seater that came fully assembled or in kit form. The rare little roadster features a sharply swept windscreen, 1098-cc overhead-cam Coventry Climax engine, and—as Vernon points out—wooden floorboards.

“I’d like to see this car,” Tom says, “but it would probably take us four weeks to get it out of here.” That rouses a laugh from Mr. Brit, who says off camera, “We’ve had to play a bit of Jenga in here.”

Our discovery walk continues with a Ford Cortina Mk II 1600E, Vauxhall Firenza SL fastback,  Vauxhall Viva with 10,440 original miles, and a 1963 Austin Armored Security van—that’s Armoured Security, in the U.K.—described as “ax proof.” Tom demonstrates how the van’s fortified double doors work and says all of these vehicles were supposed to be destroyed after being decommissioned, making this, perhaps, the only survivor.

Upon seeing a 1969 Rover, Tom points out its aluminum-block V-8 engine. Originally built by Buick, the engine’s patent and tooling were sold to British Motor Company. “It started in a Skylark,” Tom says, “and ended up in Range Rovers, TR8s, TVRs, and MBG GTs.”

We check out an Austin A40 hot rod with a Fiat engine, a Humber Super Snipe, and a Morris Minor Traveler that requires Tom to use his best climbing skills. “All you guys sitting in your living room right now … remember I was doing this for you.”

And then more Vauxhalls—a Bedford Rover campermobile and a Viva in Brabham configuration, which pays homage to Formula 1 champion Jack Brabham. After seeing more cars too numerous to mention or to show on camera, Tom completes his tour of Mr. Brit’s collection by checking out a turbo-charged Ferguson tractor. Vernon says it “would probably pull these buildings down,” but we wouldn’t want that, not after the amazing day we’ve had.

“We want to thank Vernon, and we want to thank the owner, who’s standing right over there,” Tom says, pointing off camera. “I can’t reveal who he is, but he’s a really good guy. He knows these cars, and he loves these cars … That’s pretty cool.”

Cool doesn’t even begin to describe it.

The post 12 barns full of classic cars hidden in rural England | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 88 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Being a racer himself, Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter will always make a detour to talk race cars—even if the vehicle is one enthusiasts like to make jokes about. Despite the cracks, the Ford Pinto is a chassis that racers have loved for decades across motorsports. The last time Barn Find Hunter took a trip to Florida, Tom took a trip just south of Jacksonville to visit a shop chock full of unlikely vintage speed.

Tom has some experience of his own racing a Pinto and he admits that he is a big fan of the vintage economy car. When he was wheeling one, he bought a lot of his parts from a guy by the name of Racer Walsh. Now Tom is closing the loop a bit by visiting the shop of Racer Walsh’s son, Brian. The purple-and-gold two-door was raced by the elder Walsh for years before being sold. Years later, the car was rediscovered and Brian spent time prepping its return to the track. After his father passed, Brian mounted a small billet urn to the roll cage. In a way, his father is still turning laps in the Pinto.

The rest of the cars in the shop are of relatively low dollar value, but they’re more than worth their metal in fascinating stories. Brian makes a point to try and save Pintos and other less-known racers, especially ones with good history. One of the best parts of the classic car hobby that there is seemingly something for everyone. It is fun to get excited about Cobras and Ferraris, but humble vehicles can be just as compelling and significant when a story is there. It just goes to show that just about everything is interesting if you dig deep enough. Tom is really good at digging, as we’ve seen, so be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive notification with each video that goes live. You won’t want to miss out on whatever he finds next.

The post Pinto Race Cars | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 87 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter has a multitude of methods for finding cars, but the one that nets him the most interesting finds is simply asking anyone he talks to if they know of any old cars in the area. As he was roaming the northern Michigan countryside, Tom got a tip to go talk to Jeremy in Lake City. A short drive later–in his woody wagon, of course–and he was in a yard full of cars that beckoned exploration.

It’s a field full of ’60s muscle, and each car has its own weird tale. The first car Tom spots is a Chevy Nova sporting a standard small-block and orange paint, but its the factory sunroof that really sets it apart. It’s a 1973 model, one of just 3259 that were built with the sky roof option. Jeremy is using a fabric tonneau cover to keep rain and moisture out, and he says that even when they were new these Novas weren’t that water tight.

Another cool car on the property is a 1964 Chevrolet Impala SS. The ’64 is one of the most popular Impalas, and this one lacks its powertrain, but it would still be a great start if you’re looking for a project. Tom even thinks it might have a factory air conditioning, based on ducts he noticed under the the dashboard.

Of all the makes and models that Tom has found traversing the highways, AMC is the brand he tends to see the least. This particular trip, he lucks out and finds two in one place. The young owner was in the hunt for something to take off-roading with his friends and came across an AMC Eagle. The straight-six four-wheel drive is now on the receiving end of a front axle swap that will affix a Dana 30 for extra off-road capability.

With just a little time driving around rural Michigan, Tom was able to find some noteworthy vintage iron and hear the stories direct from the owners. Whether you’re looking for something to buy or just want to learn the history of that car you saw in the yard, now might be the time to strike up some conversation with the next car person you meet. You never know what you might find.

The post 1964 Impala SS, Lifted AMC Eagle, and a 1963 Galaxie 500 Convertible | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 86 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Considering the way things were headed with jokester Bernie Chodosh leading the way, Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter should have known he’d eventually land in lockup. The good news is that “lockup” in the United Kingdom doesn’t refer to a jail cell but to a storage unit. Inside this little storage facility is a car you’ve already met, a 1956 Morris Minor 1000 convertible named Mable.

In our fifth installment documenting Tom’s week-long search for automotive treasures in Great Britain—pre-coronavirus—we return to awaken Mable from her two-decades-long slumber.

Unfortunately, it takes a little longer than expected to bring the ol’ girl back to life. That’s a minor inconvenience (get it?) for Bernie’s sister Valerie, whose daughter owns the car. That’s because Valerie has enjoyed every minute of this unexpected adventure.

“This has been so much fun,” she says off-camera. “It’s the most fun I’ve had in years.”

“Then you haven’t been going out with the right men, have you?” Bernie says, poking fun at his head-shaking sibling, who gives him an eye roll.

We’re off.

After filling a flat tire and rolling Mable out of the garage and into the sunlight, Tom and Bernie assess the job ahead. While Bernie takes a peek under the bonnet, Tom accepts the job of cleaning the car. He asks for a wash bucket, but Bernie offers him cleaning wipes instead.

“This will clean everything,” Bernie insists.

“Instead of washing it?” Tom asks. “(But) washing feels good.”

They agree to use the wipes on the interior and leave the exterior for now.

Bernie sums up what’s needed to get Mable up and running again. “So the plan is, we take the battery out. There’s no point charging it; it’s been there for 22–23 years—that’s a waste of time. I’m going to pull all the plugs out, we’ll whiz it over, I’ll put a bit more oil in it—so it’s got a bit of oil in the top of the bowl. It’s got a bit of oil in the bottom of the engine and it’s free, so what we’ll do now is we’ll turn it over to make sure everything is clean and tidy, put some new plugs in … we’ll have a new battery, give the old distributor a squirt of WD40, and off we go.”

Well, that sounds easy.

Tom finds something he thinks might help. “Bernie, here’s your new hammer,” he says, handing his British friend an Irish shillelagh that he found inside the car. A what? Bernie demonstrates.

“They would walk around with it in their pocket or their jacket, and if they wanted to have an argument with somebody, they’d go, ‘Hold on a minute … whack!’”

Thankfully, we won’t be needing that today, but Bernie could use some good luck getting the engine started. While he prepares to give it a go, Tom has completed the interior cleaning and is reluctantly using the wipes on the outside of the car. “I want soap suds … cleansing … but whatever,” he mumbles to himself. Despite his complaints, the car is beginning to look top notch. “You know, I was critical of Bernie’s method, and I still am—because it’s Bernie—but it’s looking pretty good.”

“I think you’re wasting your time on barn finds, Tom,” Bernie says. “You should be a detailer.”

Bernie adds water to the radiator, which promptly begins to leak due to a cracked hose. “As long as we don’t run it for too long, it’ll be OK,” he says. “Let’s see if it’ll turn over. That’ll be a bit of fun.”

It isn’t much fun at first, however. It seems that, no matter what Bernie tries, the car won’t start. “I can’t see a spark at all,” Bernie says. “The points are opening and closing. The gap looks pretty good. I think it’s probably the coil that’s not behaving … The fuel pump is definitely not working. Let’s put more fuel in and try that and see what happens.”

“Not even a kick,” Tom says. Bernie keeps trying. “Come on, Mable!” Valerie shouts.

After more fiddling, Mable finally roars to life. “Haha!” Bernie exclaims, then turns to the camera. “Did you get it? Did you get it? That’s unbelievable!”

High fives, back slaps, and hugs all around. Definitely pre-COVID.

Tom summarizes the Morris Minor’s condition. “The fuel pump’s not operating, so we have to fill the float bowl with fuel, and it can only run until the float bowl is empty. I don’t think the ether was even necessary, to tell you the truth. The distributor is loose and needs to be tightened up … It needs a fuel pump … The coil is obviously good … It needs hoses.”

The exterior cleaned up well, Tom admits. “It doesn’t look like the same car.”

So what’s next for Mable? “In a weekend, this could be turned into a nice driving car,” Tom says. Bernie and Valerie intend to do exactly that.

“We shall go to the ball!” Bernie says off-camera.

“It’s a happy ending, isn’t it?” Valerie asks. “I’m amazed.”

Just another day in the U.K. for the Barn Find Hunter. There’s still one day remaining, too—one jaw-dropping day that you won’t want to miss. Stay tuned …

The post IT’S ALIVE! Tom and Bernie bring “Mable” the Morris Minor back to life | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 85 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

The Barn Find Hunter’s six-episode trip to the UK has turned into Weekend at Bernie’s, only better. Our Bernie is livelier than the movie character—and that British accent and sense of humor are priceless. Tom Cotter can attest to that.

As we begin our fourth installment documenting Tom’s week-long search for automotive treasures on the other side of the Atlantic—back in the pre-coronavirus days—it’s raining. Again. Which is why, Tom explains, we’re checking out the cars in one of Bernie Chodosh’s barns.

“Let’s see what you got in here, old man,” Tom says. Bernie responds with something resembling English, and it deserves a bleep just to be safe. “Only joking,” he says with a laugh.

Immediately behind the door of Unit 3 is a 1990 BMW M5 Touring, and Tom immediately melts. “Oh, this is a beauty. Ohhhhh, man … I’m a wagon guy, and I also happen to be a BMW guy, and this is the cat’s meow.” Bernie explains that he searched five or six years for the M5 Touring on behalf of a client. “Basically, you can’t buy these cars,” he says. “They never come on the market. People never want to sell them.” This one has 100,000 miles on the clock but has been well looked after. And that paint—wow.

“Aubergine?” Tom asks, pronouncing it abber-gene.

“Aubergine,” Bernie answers, pronouncing it ober-gene. “Bloody … freakin’ Yank.”

He continues. “These are the cars that guys in their 40s are now dying to get, because it’s their era. Everybody has their era.”

The building is wall-to-wall cars, parked so close together that you couldn’t move one without moving several others first. Bernie walks a few steps to a black 1972 Chevrolet Corvette race car, wearing No. 72. He describes its features: small-block V-8 engine, four-speed, factory wide arches on the wheel wells. “It’s a club racer—pretty much ready to race,” he says, adding that there aren’t many Corvettes in England.

Tom asks if Corvettes are revered here, like Ferraris are. “No. No,” Bernie says. “People who buy Ferraris—I don’t know why they do it. They’re like hair dressing cars, aren’t they? They’re like for guys in their 50s and 60s that got nothing better to do, and they buy a Ferrari because they want to have a … It’s the badge, isn’t it?

“We got a Ferrari here. There’re actually bits of shit. If you’ve ever worked on a Ferrari, they’re stuck together. They’re hopeless. But it is what it is.”

Tom laughs. Feel the Bern.

Moving on, Tom asks about a red 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 Mk II. Bernie says it hasn’t been driven in years. He bid £42,000 for it at auction, but it didn’t meet the reserve. Two days later, however, he received a call from the auction house—the seller didn’t want to ship it home, so he was willing to deal. “He said, ‘What will you pay for it?’” Bernie says. “I said, ‘34,000.’ He said, ‘Hold on a second, you bid over 40,000 for it on Saturday.’ I said, ‘That was Saturday, this is Monday.’ Anyway, we did the deal.”

On the other side of the room, Tom spies a Cadillac that he just has to learn more about. It’s definitely an eye catcher: a 1931 Drop Head Coupe that has been blinged out in 24-karat gold-leaf bodywork on behalf of Liberace. We think. Before Bernie bought it, it was in a German museum that claimed it belonged to the colorful pianist. In addition to the gold-leaf exterior, the exterior door handles are plated in silver, the inside handles are 24-karat gold, the interior is white leather, the floor is covered in mink, and the headlights pivot with the steering wheel. Under the hood is a 5.7-liter V-8 mated to a three-speed automatic transmission.

“Don’t ask me why I bought it,” Bernie says. “I couldn’t resist it … I must have been on drugs at the time, I suppose.”

Now he’s feeling a bit of buyer’s remorse and is looking to sell it, preferably to someone in the U.S.

“You’d have to be a very flamboyant person to want to own something like this,” Bernie admits.

“That’s why you own it,” Tom says.

“Exactly. I fell in love with it. I thought, ‘Where in the hell am I going to see another one?’”

Next to the Cadillac is a 1981 Maserati Merak. Tom says he’s never seen a Maserati interior like this one has. “That’s typical sort of ’70s …,” Bernie says. “They went through this sort of Scottish tartan thing. I love it because it’s so different.”

Bernie pulls back the cover to reveal a gold-painted 1965 Ford Mustang K-Code fastback, powered by a 271-hp, 289-cubic-inch V-8. “It’s my favorite … I just love it to death, and I’m a Chevy man,” he says. “There are certain [Ford] models I really like, and this is one of them … That whole muscle car era, it was fantastic.”

Bernie then reveals a red 1991 Acura NSX—he calls it a Honda (or Honder, in his British accent). “Fabulous. Designed by Ayrton Senna. Just a super nice car. This is a manual, not an auto. We spent five years looking for a car like this … Boy, one of the best cars you’ll drive from its era.”

Tom agrees, saying automotive writers of the day called it too good to be an exotic car. “It started all the time, the heat worked, the air conditioning worked. It’s a great car.”

Before leaving the building, Tom admires a 1968 Mercury Cougar with Cragar wheels. “This was like a luxury Mustang,” he says. “It was a step up.”

As if it couldn’t get any better, we’re off to Bernie’s house to see one of his racing Corvettes, as well as some other fabulous rides. The 1958 Corvette in his garage—don’t mind the mattresses on the roof—is nearly identical to the ’59 ’Vette he races in the States. He’s owned it for 38 years. “It’s been to Sebring and Daytona,” Bernie says, but now “my boys race it.”

Dodging the rain drops and walking to Bernie’s other garage, he reveals a Mini Cooper that belongs to his son Adam, who “went through five Minis to get to this one.” Off camera, Bernie says he has done his best to stoke Adam’s automotive fire. “I try to keep the flag flying. We’re losing young people, so you have to encourage them when they show interest.”

Bernie extols the virtues of a recently purchased 1970 Mazda Cosmo Series III. “This was a good car that went from Japan to Russia, of all places [where they restored it] … then it went to Paris.” That’s where Bernie saw it at an Artcurial auction. “I love this car. I love the shape. I love the typical American design on it”—which he says Mazda expertly “nicked” or “thieved” by taking some of the best ideas from other manufacturers.

“Jay Leno’s got one of these,” Tom says.

“He’s got one of everything, doesn’t he?” Bernie asks. “He’s a greedy bugger.”

We move on to a familiar-looking car, a 1965 Aston Martin DB5, the ride preferred by James Bond. Stunning in silver, Bernie explains that it was “built as a gentleman’s race car,” and it carries a six-cylinder mill with Weber headers. He’s owned it for more than 10 years. The bodywork, he says, is “aluminium.”

Tom doesn’t miss the opportunity. “Aluminum,” he says, using the American pronunciation.

“No, we say aluminium,” Bernie answers. “You say it wrong.”

“I think we invented it, didn’t we? Didn’t Americans invent that?”

“You invented Coca-Cola. That’s about it.”

Feel the Bern. Again.

We wrap up our tour of Bernie’s garage by checking out a couple of racing Porsches, a 993 GT2 and a 964 RS.

“This is a barn find show,” Tom says. “Couldn’t you have rusty cars here instead?”

“Well, they’re dirty,” Bernie answers. “It’s about as near to it.”

Oh, no, it isn’t. But never fear, barn find fans. They’re coming. Very soon. Stay tuned …

The post Liberace’s Gold Cadillac and a BMW M5 Wagon Touring EVO | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 84 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter keeps talking about his friend Bernie, but in the previous two episodes of the Barn Find Hunter’s trip to the U.K. we’ve only gotten a brief glimpse of the witty Brit. That’s about to change.

In the third installment documenting Tom’s week-long search for automotive treasures on the other side of the Atlantic—back in the pre-coronavirus days—we’re properly introduced to Bernie and his sister, Valerie, who generally refers to him by his proper name, Bernard. “That’s Ber-nerd,” she says, correcting her new American friends, “not Ber-nard.”

You’ll have to wait just a bit longer for that. First up on this rainy English morning is Simon Lane, a friend of Bernie’s (isn’t everyone?), who stores a few of his vehicles in the back of a BMW repair shop located on a gorgeous horse farm near London.

Tom jokes that he’s traveled a long way just to see a lot of American cars. “We’re in the U.K.,” he says. “Where are the Lotuses?”

Nope, no Lotuses here, Tom. Just Chevys and Fords. We begin with Simon’s 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, which he has owned since 2000 and has raced several times in the States. “It isn’t FIA sanctioned,” he says, referring to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the 115-year-old motorsports governing body. “I just make it as quick as I can.” The Camaro is powered by a bored-and-stroked 436-cubic-inch small-block V-8 that produces a hefty 610 horsepower, and Simon did all the work himself. The result: “It blows the cobwebs away.”

Nearby is the shell of a 1960s Ford Falcon that Simon says began as a three-man project before “the other two slowly, but surely, backed out.” When completed, the Falcon will have a 289 engine and be FIA compliant. The problem, Simon says, is it’s the fourth or fifth car on his priority list. “I should be about 109 when I get to this one,” he jokes.

Tom spies a 1929 Ford Model A truck that Simon says is “a truly intercontinental car.” The pickup carries a 283 engine from a ’57 Chevy, a cab from an American-built Model A, an English right-hand-drive chassis, a three-speed gearbox from a Lincoln Zephyr, and “splash aprons and various other bits from Australia.” The truck hasn’t been driven in 8–10 years, and it sat outside for a time, but Simon says it will be roadworthy again someday. “I’m not mad on the rat rod scene, but it is just a nice old car,” he says, then admits the truck isn’t exactly a luxury automobile. “Everyone should have a car like this so that they realize just how nice their modern cars are … This is hell on earth, driving this.”

Soon we’re transported to Simon’s home garage, where we’re introduced to his pet project, a 1928 Ford Model A roadster sporting rare Ardun heads. Designed by Zora Arkus-Duntov and his brother Yuri, the Ardun (ARkus-DUNtov) OHV conversion added power to the venerable Ford flathead. The brothers sold the heads through the Ardun Engine Company of New York in the late 1940s, and they’re labeled as such—although Simon says the heads were actually built in England.

Simon explains that he started building the roadster in 1978 and got it on the road in ’82. Then he blew the engine. “I bought the Ardun from a pal of mine in the mid-’80s,” Simon says. “It sat in the corner of the garage ever since, and I vowed when I put the car on the road, I’d put the Ardun in it.” That happened last year.

Simon says when he began working on the engine, he discovered that newspapers had been used to fashion the gaskets. He peeled them apart and was able to read the sports pages, where he identified four football players—we’d call them soccer players—who played professionally in England for just one season in 1954. He says that indicated that the engine hadn’t run in more than 60 years.

Tom says, “These heads are so rare that in five years of Barn Find Hunter, we’ve never seen another set.”

Speaking of rare finds, the time has come to meet Bernie Chodosh. The humorous, energetic 67-year-old car collector tells us, “I’m a busy body. I enjoy life! That’s what I do.” And he proves it time and again.

Bernie and Valerie invite us to a London storage garage, which hasn’t been opened in decades. We’re here to meet “Mable,” a 1956 Morris Minor 1000 split-screen convertible that Valerie’s daughter bought “30–35 years ago and drove for 5–6 years” before she got married. That’s when Mable went into storage.

“By the way,” Valerie says, “Mable and I aren’t too far apart in age.”

“Nineteen twenty-eight,” Bernie interjects, adding a few decades to his sister’s actual age.

The miniscule Morris was originally powered by a 948-cc, four-cylinder engine that mustered a measly 37 hp, but Bernie swapped in a 1275-cc engine from an MG Midget years ago. He thinks it wouldn’t take much to get it roadworthy again, but the strength of our entire crew is required to push the car forward, breaking the wheels loose, so that it can see the light of day for the first time since 1998.

“It’s a fun little car, you know. It’s quite a rare car in as much as most of the cars that were built were two-door sedans or four-door sedans, and this is a convertible,” Bernie says. “[The] split screen makes it, sort of, relatively rare. It’s a bit of an iconic car. I know they made millions, but there aren’t really that many left.”

When Tom refers to the front glass as the “windshield,” the siblings quickly correct him, calling it a “windscreen.” Tom doesn’t make anything of it at the time, but he returns to the subject later and asks Bernie for a vocabulary lesson.

“You Americans have bastardized the English language,” Bernie says, and he begins to point out the car’s features. “This is a bonnet, not a hood. The hood is the top. The top is not the bonnet …. These are wings, not fenders. Wings. W-I-N-G-S. And the boot is the boot, not the trunk.”

Bernie points to the side directional signals. Before calling them both “indicators” and “trafficators,” he asks Tom a question.

“What’s a flasher in America?”

“It’s someone who takes their clothes off,” Tom says.

“Well, it’s the same over here.”

So is our love for cars. As we close the door and say goodbye to Mable, Valerie blows the car a kiss. “See you soon … I hope,” she says.

Something tells us that we’ll be back to get Mable running again. But we have other cars to see first. Stay tuned …

The post Hot Rods, Ardun Heads, and a forgotten Morris Minor | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 83 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

After an unfortunate meeting with an unforgiving curb on Day 1, the Barn Find Hunter’s second day in the U.K. begins with an uneventful Uber ride for the support team and an amazing feel-good story that erases the sting of the previous day’s mishap.

First stop is the Watford home of Cliff Ryan, a racing friend of Tom Cotter’s who has graciously allowed Tom to drive his 1989 Jaguar XJR-S while he is in Great Britain. Cliff travels to the U.S. on occasion to race his classic Mustang—often against Tom’s 1964 Corvette—at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park.

“When you race against someone at 150 mph,” Tom says, “you get to know them pretty well without meeting them—as long as they don’t do anything wonky.” Then he takes a humorous jab at his old friend.

“Let me show you a photo of my Corvette leading Cliff’s Mustang.”

“Obviously,” Cliff says, “it’s a very rare photo.”

Our host explains that his XJR-S is an upgraded XJS produced by JaguarSport—a joint venture between Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) and Jaguar—to commemorate Jaguar’s 1988 victory at Le Mans. We soon wander off to Cliff’s garage, which houses a racing version of the same Jag, as well as a V-8-powered 1976 Triumph Stag that he bought in ’83.

“My wife (Melanie) and I toured France in it on our first holiday together,” Cliff says. “It’s not going anywhere—ever.”

Cliff’s son Sam, one of the Ryans’ three adult children, interjects. “This will be my car (one day),” Sam says with a laugh. That may be true, but we’re here to talk about the car that Sam already owns, as well as the very special story behind it.

We’ll get back to that …

This episode of Barn Find Hunter also includes a stop at the Jaguar specialty shop owned by Gary Davis, a racing friend of Cliff’s. Of course, Jags are the backbone of Gary’s business, but his automotive versatility is on full display as we tour his property. First up is a 1962 MGB roadster that Gary says is “one of the oldest MGBs still racing.” The car’s current owner has raced the MG in Belgium’s Spa Six Hours “at least six times.” Gary adds that “as a mark of respect” for the late Rod Longston, who raced MGBs for 50 years and this one in particular for 30, “his name is still on the side of the car.”

Gary says he performs “mostly race prep, but restoration too,” and there are plenty of projects to choose from. There’s an E-Type here, a Jag MK9 there. Also among the dozens of cars scattered about are a 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk, 1981 Ford Cortina Mk5, and 1972 Ford Escort Mexico Mark I, which Cliff’s oldest son Daniel crashed in a race last autumn.

Then we come upon a royal find—and we do mean Royal—a 1991 Jaguar Sovereign V-12 (AKA Series 3) that was driven regularly by Queen Elizabeth in the early ’90s. The Jag, powered by a 5.3-liter engine, carries the insignia of R.A.K. & Sons, holder of a Royal Warrant as supplying dealer to the monarchy.

Cliff bought it more than 20 years ago, but it’s been off the road since 2004.

“It’ll take a little work to bring it back,” he tells me. “It came here for some body work, and I didn’t plan on letting it sit this long. But life happens. Other things get in the way.”

Do they ever. Which brings us back to Sam Ryan, proud owner of a 1957 Austin A35 that he has owned since 2007.

“Dad had a race car, which was an Austin A35, and … I was driving it around the driveway, and I just fell in love with it,” Sam says. Cliff surprised his son with an A35 of his own a short time later. “It didn’t look like this,” Sam says. “We brought it home, and unfortunately … I fell ill with a brain tumor—cancerous.” While in the hospital, Sam was put in contact with Rays of Sunshine, a charitable organization that grants wishes to children fighting cancer.

He could have met a celebrity or gone away on holiday, but at the top of Sam’s list was having his A35 restored. He says he doesn’t even remember his alternative choices. With the help of an anonymous benefactor, Sam’s wish was granted.

Asked whether his son is a chip off the old block, Cliff says, “Absolutely, in every way. He restores old furniture. He just likes old things.”

Sam adds, “It’s all about antiques and restoring them and sort of keeping the heritage.”

When Sam told Rays of Sunshine that he wanted to restore the Austin, the charity was willing to go all out. He says they asked if he was interested in sending the Austin to the American television show Pimp my Ride, “where they put speakers in the car and they put all this bling paint work on it and stripes down the side and God knows what. I said, ‘No, I don’t want that. (I want it) just exactly how it was originally.’ And they said, ‘Are you sure you don’t want speakers in the back or something like that? I said, ‘No, I don’t even want seatbelts. It didn’t come with seatbelts.’”

Cliff says his son has always had an appreciation for history. “We bought [the Austin] for him to restore, and he and a friend were restoring it in the garage when he was taken ill.”

Sam was 15 when his cancer was diagnosed, and with a tangerine-sized tumor in the motor sensory area of his brain, the outlook looked grim. “Every bad box was ticked,” Cliff remembers. “We were told there was nothing they could do outside of experimental surgery. The doctors (at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children) discussed it and asked if we could come down. A dozen of them were sitting there, and they said, ‘We’ve had a look and we want to try.’”

The surgeons were frank that the surgery could leave Sam paralyzed on one side of his body, but Sam was undaunted. “They took me into the room where they give you bad news, and they told me the risks,” he says. “I said, ‘I’m 15. You just gave me a positive path. I could come through this and be perfectly fine. So let’s do it.’”

When Sam awoke, “I could feel my fingers and toes. I was over the moon.”

Chemotherapy followed, and Sam went into remission. Eighteen months later, however, he had a setback. He suffered a seizure, lost his eyesight, and had to be revived twice—once in the ambulance and again at the hospital. After being stabilized, he underwent two more years of treatment. That was five years ago.

“Thank God I’m still the same person,” Sam says. “I have trouble with my short-term memory, but I have a good life.”

Every time Sam drives his Austin A35, he’s reminded of the power of hope and perseverance. And these days, he isn’t the only one who enjoys the little car.

“Everybody looks at it, and the kids will say, ‘Daddy, Daddy, what’s that? Look at that!’ as we’re driving past, and it just makes me smile.”

Sam and his Austin are spreading even more smiles than he knows—we can vouch for that.

The post Young man’s wish granted: 1957 Austin A35 restored by anonymous person | Ep. 82 (UK Trip 2/5) appeared first on Hagerty Media.

One swerve, one curb, two flats, two bent rims, and four hours on the side of the road—the left-hand side of the road, which is definitely part of the problem. Welcome to Barn Find Hunter’s first day in the U.K.

To be fair, the Barn Find Hunter himself, Tom Cotter, isn’t the one who hits the curb. Tom, tooling around England in his friend’s 1989 Jaguar XJR-S, arrives in London days ahead of the team and seems comfortable with the right-hand-steering/left-side-driving situation. The rest of us, fresh off an overnight February flight, plan to ease into things by rotating driving duties. Instead, we get a crash course in English driving. Literally. Oversized support vehicle + narrow roads + “wrong side” of the road = trouble (at least for us). Bloody Yanks!

After our slight bump in the road (OK, two very large, “What was that?” bumps), half the team crams into the Jag with Tom and heads to barn-find location #1. The rest of us sit and wait for the rental car company to come to our rescue. And wait. And wait some more.

Despite the rough start, Tom and our video guys keep calm and carry on toward northwest London, where they meet up with car enthusiast Pete (who asked us not to use his last name). “It’s harder to find cars in England than in the States,” Tom explains before climbing out of the Jag. “People keep those things hidden. Except [Pete] doesn’t keep his cars hidden—they’re kind of out in the road.”

Sure enough, after saying hello to Pete, who says he has loved cars for so long that as a child he slept with Corgi diecast toy cars under his pillow, we learn the stories behind his weather-worn collection of automotive misfits. First up: the car that Tom heard about and brought us here to see—a one-year-only 1974 Datsun 260Z, which looks like no 260Z we’ve ever laid eyes on. That’s because, as Pete says (pronouncing the Z as Zed), “it started out as a 260Z 2+2.” It didn’t exactly stay that way.

Pete tells us that he owned a Triumph GT6 Mk II as a teenager, and after his friend finally talked Pete into selling it, he discovered the 260Z. Pete bought it nearly 40 years ago, but it didn’t perform quite as well as it looked.

“It looked absolutely fantastic,” he says, but it was “the slowest thing on four wheels.”

Packed with a 2.6-liter, six-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual transmission, “You would think it would have flown. But it was like a pigeon without wings.”

Hoping to change that, Pete hired a guy to install a 327-cubic-inch small-block engine with a “mad cam,” added a Pro-Stock hood, and built a wooden Plymouth Superbird-like spoiler that he attached to the rear (it’s long gone now). Oh sure, the car looked like it had more muscle, but Pete’s friends were not impressed. Just the opposite, in fact. “Everybody used to take the piss out of it,” Pete says. “They used to say [the spoiler] was a tea tray … a tea trolley … You put your drinks on it.”

He admits that the car was also undrivable. “It was never good enough to be a daily driver. It was insane. You couldn’t keep it in a straight line, and I crashed it a few times.” One of those crashes included driving it through the doors of his parents’ garage.

Pete shows Tom an AMG Mercedes with a supercharged 5.0-liter engine under the hood. “It’s still restorable,” Pete says, “other than a little moss growing on it.”

Up next is a Jaguar—that’s Jag-U-ar, Pete insists, not Jag-war—one of 36 built by Britain’s Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR). Packing a 5.3-liter V-12 engine and wearing an aluminum shell—pronounced al-u-minium, if you’re keeping score at home—it no longer runs, but Pete says it’s worth saving.

Opening the door to his garage, Pete reveals a fully loaded Mercedes-Benz 560SEC widebody conversion, then uncovers a 1989 Pontiac Trans Am Turbo Indianapolis 500 Pace Car. One of 1555 built, the Pontiac has only 10,086 miles on the clock. Pete found it on eBay in 2014 and had it shipped across the Atlantic to England. “It’s an absolute pucker,” he says.

As Tom and crew bid farewell, Pete thanks them for stopping by. “It’s nice to see car guys are alive and well,” he says.

Switching gears from eclectic to classically elegant, the team heads to central London to meet Richard Price, owner of a 1951 Allard P1—or P1 Allard, as Richard calls it. His father bought it new. “He did his courting in it,” Richard says, then flashes a mischievous grin. “I wasn’t born until 1954 … My father reckoned I was conceived in it.”

Sydney Allard created the P1 to compete in the Monte Carlo Rally. Since all race vehicles were required to be production cars, Allard built just enough P1s (505 or so) to hit the obligatory 500. The Allard was a success; it won the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally.

“It’s a bitser … bits of this and bits of that,” Richard explains. “Originally it had a Ford V-8 … subsequently I’ve changed it a few times.”

Tom asks if the P1’s body is made of aluminum, and he receives just the reaction he was looking for. “Al-u-minium,” Richard says, echoing Pete’s earlier pronunciation. “We’re in London.” They compromise, calling it “alloy.”

Try as they might, Richard, Tom, and Tom’s friend Bernie just can’t get the Allard to turn over. (We later learn that the car was simply out of petrol. Silly Brits!)

Off camera, Richard says his father played rugby until he was 63, and the Allard often served as transportation for him and as many rugby pals as he could fit in it—“four, five, six big guys.”

Richard accepted ownership from his dad about 25 years ago, although he prefers to call himself the car’s caretaker. “My father died in 2013,” Richard says. “He had dementia at the end of his life, but I showed up one day in the Allard and his eyes lit up. He said, ‘My car!’ The memories must have flooded back. I nearly cried. We’ve both had some good times in this ol’ girl.” Now, so have we.

Stay tuned for more from the U.K. in future episodes.

The post Tom’s in England! Finds AMG Mercedes, Pontiac Indy 500 Pace Car and more | BFH Ep. 81 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

There is a gadget, nay, an instrument in Tom Cotter’s Barn Find Hunter tool kit that is second only to his personal charm and vintage car knowledge. That is his woody wagon. The yellow paint and bird’s eye maple have made a warm first impression on many folks to whom Tom has introduced himself over the years. This wagon’s fascinating history reaches farther back than its tenure on Barn Find Hunter, however, and the latest episode is dedicated solely to this one car—which is possibly Tom’s first barn find.

See, like many of us that have been diagnosed as gearheads, Tom didn’t even have his driver’s license before he began coveting cars. There was one car in particular, though, that caught his eye as he crossed the schoolyard one day as a 15-year-old. Tom spotted the 1939 Ford wagon in Brentwood, Long Island, and it captivated him. Somehow he talked his father into investigating the wagon further that same night. It was indeed for sale, but Tom didn’t have the $300 needed to take the car home.

Luckily, a woman for whom Tom had previously done some around-the-house work decided to advance him the money. Tom then had the summer to work off the debt. He kept the wagon until 1973, where it was then sold to a buyer in Puerto Rico. 26 years later, Tom’s wife tracked it down and returned it to his ownership, and it’s been with Tom ever since.

The ’39 Ford has logged 50,000 miles in the pursuit of interesting cars and their stories. The original drivetrain was not up to that kind of usage, so the long yellow hood hides a modern Chevrolet V-8 backed by an overdrive transmission. With that combination, Tom can achieve fuel economy in the mid-20s. That allows for a lot for exploration per tank of gas.

If you want to see where this wagon goes next, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive notifications with each video that goes live.

The post The crazy story behind Tom’s ’39 Ford woody wagon | Barn Find Hunter – Ep. 80 appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom has an established procedure for introducing himself to the owner of a promising barn-find location, but things went a little differently during this visit to Traverse City, Michigan. Luckily, it was a change for the positive.

While motoring around in his woody wagon, a flock of vintage Mercedes-Benz cars surrounding a house caught Tom’s eye. The site seemed worth investigating, so he returned and knocked on the door. Unfortunately, no one answered. To see whether the hoard was worth a return trip and a second attempt to contact the owner, Tom snuck around to see what was in the yard—something he typically doesn’t do. If the owner were to drive up or appear while he is snooping around, that wouldn’t be a good look.

Tom got lucky this time, though. A Chevy Suburban pulled into the driveway right as Tom walked out from behind the house, and the first words out of the homeowner’s mouth were, “Hey, I know you!” Guess it pays to be famous sometimes.

Ron Borher, who owns the stash of cars, happily ushered Tom around and chatted about the vehicles. It was an especially interesting tour because Ron is legally blind. Though he can’t drive his cars anymore, he doesn’t let macular degeneration stop him from working on them. He does repairs by feel, thanks to 41 years of spinning wrenches for a Mercedes-Benz dealership. The hardest part, Ron says, is finding the right wrenches; he can’t read the engravings that denote sizes.

His range of projects and vehicles is vast, from a 1988 Unimog to a ’61 Chevrolet 6400 to a Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16. Some vehicles are workhorses and others are just for fun—even though he doesn’t get to have the behind-the-wheel experience anymore. The cars are in various stages of running and project planning, but all of them are in the care of a talented, experienced enthusiast who wants to return them to their former glory.

Talking to someone who has been tied to one brand for 41 years is a fascinating opportunity, and reveals what a spring of information such a specialized gearhead can be. Even without his driver’s license, Ron is the real deal. It’s folks like him who keep the car hobby alive by passing along information to the rest of us.

The post Mercedes-Benz tech shares 49 years of knowledge and collecting appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter and the Barn Find Hunter crew make it look easy, but the reality is those days out on the road filming are long. This episode is an example of just that. Regardless of the time of day, you can’t slow down Tom’s hunt for interesting cars and stories.

The first stop is a bit of a flashback from the last episode, where Tom drove past a large yard full of vintage steel and joked that “that’s our next find.” At the time he had no idea who owned the yard, or if they would let him and the crew in to look around. Luckily, Tom dug up the owner’s name and managed to make contact with him overnight, arranging a meeting first thing in the morning. Tom is old school, however, so no matter how early the meeting, he arrives 15 minutes before the agreed-upon time.

That policy really pays off this time around, as Maurice gives Tom a tour of just a handful of the 100+ cars he has in his stockpile. We really like Maurice’s style, with a nice blend of timeless Mercedes-Benz models and quirky British motors, like the Triumph Stag, trapped in the middle of it all. In fact, that V-8 powered oddity is the car Maurice would keep from the whole bunch if he was forced to part with the lot. Tom is a bit impressed by this call, and he understands the draw.

Then it’s off to visit another Tom; this one isn’t a Ford guy like Cotter, but rather an air-cooled enthusiast—mostly of the German variety. The 1957 Porsche Speedster he introduces is an interesting piece of racing history, a prime example of a car that would have interesting things to say if it could only speak. There might be nothing for sale, but it’s not all about buying or selling for Tom. He likes to find the stories worth telling—and he found a few good ones on this trip to Atlanta.

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The area around Atlanta, Georgia, supplies a trove of fascinating imports for Tom Cotter to investigate in his most recent quest. In the latest Barn Find Hunter episode, he takes a quick walk through the shop of Alfa Romeo expert Paul Spruell before dropping in to check on a fellow hunter—one Tom knows pretty well.

Paul Spruell is a humble man, that much is clear. As Tom introduces him and lists Spruell’s racing accomplishments over the years, Spruell simply nods in acknowledgement of the four SCCA national championships under his belt. All those wins were behind the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, so it makes sense that all the cars Tom examines hail from the Italian brand.

The sheer variety of the Alfas assembled in Paul’s shop is impressive. A 1966 Guilia GTV sits on a dolly out back, while cars almost ready to race sit on lifts inside. Of course, there is everything in between scattered about for Tom to investigate, including the very Duetto in which Spruell racked up those SCCA wins, plus a barn-find ’66 Spider Veloce. Paul explains the intricacies of Alfa Romeo’s Guilia/Giulietta naming formula and the finer points of a couple of the cars in the shop. For fans of vintage Italian metal, it’s a must-watch.

The next stop is to see someone Tom has known for fewer years than some of the show’s previous guests; but that’s only because Brian Cotter was born after Tom met those other fellows. Brian is Tom’s son, and the Cotter household could well be an orchard with how closely the apples fall to each other.

Brian’s managed to stuff three cars into a small two-car garage, and each has its own interesting story. The first he discusses is a Mazda RX-7. Many third-generation RX-7s are modified and tuned, but Brian chose to keep his as stock as the farmer he purchased it from had kept it. This silver example is remarkable in its originality.

Brian also has a 1985 Porsche 911 Targa and a Formula Vee racer, each in different stages of maintenance and care. The Formula Vee is currently lacking its bodywork, which gives us a nice view of how these cars got their name—they’re mainly composed of VW parts. The 911 is a bit rough around the edges, a grey-market car born out of Brian’s college-era Porsche search that needed some TLC to revive from a long garage rest.

Tom is clearly a proud father, and he has every right to be. It’s younger enthusiasts like his son who are driving the future of automotive passion. With gearheads like Brian out there, the future of car culture is in good hands.

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Tom Cotter has driven his Ford woody wagon all around the country looking for cars, but this week he visits a man he has been reading about for decades. A man who promptly critiques Tom’s beloved Ford—valuable feedback that Tom welcomes, since it comes from a person who’s been doing woodwork on cars like Tom’s for more than 50 years.

After hunting around Hagerty’s headquarters in Traverse City, Michigan, Tom decides to make a trip just outside of town to visit Mike Nichols at his woodworking shop. Mike is known the world over for his handiwork on woody cars and trucks. Tom may have logged a lot of miles in his, but he has burning questions about how they are built—questions that have been burning since he was 15 years old.

Of course, Tom is a professional, which means he takes the time to talk about the cars in and around the shop first. Projects waiting to begin sit in the tall grass, awaiting the day when Mike’s focus turns to them. First up is a 1942 Ford military staff car. These four-door Fords were basic autos designed to serve alongside the troops. Interestingly, these cars were powered by a flathead inline-six rather than a flathead V-8. Durability was likely the goal, not power.

Once inside the shop, Mike shows off another odd military car. It’s another 1942 Ford, but this car was converted to a woody wagon of sorts. Mike’s research shows roughly 100 of these conversions were built, and the example Tom is crawling around is just one of two known to still exist.

Tom is here not only for the cars but also to indulge himself a bit in the intricacies of the woodworking process. One look at the finger jointing machine shows why it takes a brave person to run such an overtly dangerous piece of equipment. That might be part of why woody construction never quite caught on in history.

This episode is a good reminder to go out and look around; a world class restorer might be just around the corner from you without you realizing it. This is the perfect time to take a drive in a car you love and look for interesting things—on the side of the road or otherwise. Maybe make a note and head back later. The military calls that scouting; Tom calls it hunting.

The post The Barn Find Hunter takes his woody wagon to a woody specialist appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter is always looking for new finds for his Barn Find Hunter series, but occasionally he revisits a select few automotive honey holes. And he knew if he ever got back to Georgia he had to return to David Sosebee’s place. Twenty-five years after his first visit, Tom was excited to return and see what Sosbee had hiding around his property. In the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter, Tom does exactly that. 

Sosebee isn’t just a hoarder of vintage cars. He’s the son of Gober Sosebee, who was one of the first big names in stock car racing. Many of the cars on the Sosebee property are ex-race cars, but the one David shows Tom first is a production car with an odd options list.

The black 1965 Ford Fairlane 500 tucked back in a dark, block garage is a four-door that packs a 225-horsepower, 289-cubic-inch V-8 mated to a four-speed manual—but not much else. No power brakes. No power steering. Basic black over black interior with a bench front seat, and no air conditioning. It was a custom order that Sosbee’s father insisted on getting as soon as he could—meaning he drove it right off the production line.

Tom and Sosebee head off into the woods to talk about race cars and racetracks. The Sosebee family had aspirations of building a racetrack right on their property in 1946. The land had natural gradient to it, which would have made it less expensive to put up, unfortunately Darlington raceway was constructed first, and the Sosebees decided their venue wouldn’t be able to compete. So they let the idea die.

As Tom says, folks like this, with so many stories to tell, are worth finding just as much as the cars themselves. Listening to David tell stories is worth more than the cars on his property, which is saying a lot since the cars in his field are historic racers that offer a flashback to when stock cars were actually stock cars.

The episode closes with Sosebee telling Tom and the video crew about a time when his father was flat-towing his race car to an event and things suddenly went sideways—literally and figuratively. Worth sticking around ‘til the end just to hear that story.

The post When stock cars were stock: Pre-NASCAR tales and a flock of vintage Fords appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In the world of barn find hunting, there are legions of pre-1970 cars that have been parked for one reason or another, but there seems to be a significantly smaller abandoned stash of 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s cars. Tom Cotter loves a challenge, so he decided to dedicate this episode to finding something of a different flavor—some more recent cars. A few such discoveries in this episode even came with the help of some younger enthusiasts.

First, Tom stops to see a man about a Mazda. That man is Jim Downing, the co-creator of the HANS device ubiquitous in high-level auto racing. He is also a man in love with Mazda’s rotary engine. However, his collection isn’t in a barn, and none of the cars are truly neglected like long-time Barn Find Hunter viewers might expect.

Instead, Tom finds row upon row of interesting bits of racing kit. From four-rotor show car prototypes to FD RX-7 models that will spin the tires at 60 mph, Jim has it all. The entire collection is a smorgasbord of racecars, simply because Jim snaps up just about any interesting car he can find for a decent deal.

From there, Tom returns to the bread-and-butter of Barn Find Hunter—a flock of rough-condition cars awaiting something. The cars are all Datsun Z cars and owned by Max and Clay, two young enthusiasts who run Resurrected Classics. Tom isn’t easily impressed, but the pair manages to trigger a little surprise when they walk him through the lineup in front of their shop, revealing that they have three or four first-generation 240Z examples from 1970.

Variety is the spice of life, so Tom will always leap at the chance to search out a few offbeat cars. What will he find next on this trip? Well, you have to watch the next episode to find out. If you are worried you might miss it, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive a notification with each Hagerty video that goes live.

The post The Barn Find Hunter uncovers Japanese imports galore appeared first on Hagerty Media.

So many of the Barn Find Hunter adventures center around connecting with locals and chasing leads. Tom Cotter is among the best when it comes to that, but his greatest fear is simply running out of time. Thankfully, Tom didn’t have to confront that fear during the last two days of his Utah trip.

After spending the first few days making friends with local restoration shops, the leads begin rolling in. They reveal not just cars, but stories. The first is from Ruben, who leads Tom and the woody wagon to a large garage with a 1937 Ford, done in the style of cars he enjoyed during high school. The fastback has all the right appointments, from the Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels to the ’39 transmission and juice brakes. It’s an undeniably cool hot rod.

The day gets even more interesting when Tom heads over to Steve Sewell’s house, where the garage door is already open revealing a handful of shiny cars. But Tom isn’t here for shiny cars, which is how ends up in a basement built to accommodate 12-13 cars, combing through an array of interesting metal. And wood.

The cars started as bits and pieces, and Steve carefully assembled correct body structures from barn wood and other materials based on photographs. The giant mail truck fascinates Tom, from the fact that it survived decades in a field to the latch for the rear doors. It is a behemoth Chevrolet that reminds us how it all worked back then, and how far we have come.

Of course, there are projects at Steve’s place too. In another building are a doodlebug in process, with the frame already bobbed and the engine ready to go back in. Next to the car-turned-tractor is a replica Lamborghini, a company that went from tractors to cars. Now sporting a small-block Chevrolet engine, the replica would surely make a purist cringe.

In all, Saint George started off as a trip that Tom and the crew thought might be a bust. Instead, he found dozens if not hundreds of cars. All it takes is a bit of talking and asking questions, and Tom isn’t out to keep how to find cars like these a secret. You just have to go out and look.

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The Barn Find Hunter crew is at it again, this time combing through St. George, Utah, in search of automotive treasure. In this episode, Tom Cotter meets with three enthusiasts, each with a totally different flavor of vintage vehicle. The last one, however, is a Duesy. It used to be, at least.

The hunt starts off with some solid momentum—Tom Cotter gets a sweet tour of a man named Marty’s 1964 Corvair Greenbrier. After he sold his VW Bus, Marty was scouring Craigslist when he came across the spacious Chevy. “Why would I buy a Volkswagen when I can have a Chevy?” he reasoned. He fixed a pair of cracked rings on the Corvair engine, and once the engine’s all fixed up, he plans to return the van to its original red color.

Next up is a young man named Kyle, who owns a shop in town where he works on some sensational restoration projects and modification jobs. His pride and joy at the moment, though, is a 1957 Buick Roadmaster four-door. The grandfather of Kyle’s landlord bought the car when it was new, and he insisted on road tripping to Detroit to pick up the car right from the production line, so he could drive it home to Utah from 0 miles on the clock. He got his wish, and his daughter (the mother of Kyle’s landlord) kept a diary of the adventure, which is still intact. The Buick spent its whole life in St. George, until an engine fire finally put it out of commission. Now, the car retains its original motor and heads, along with a Chevy S10 subframe and front end, Camaro rear end, and disc brakes. When it’s done, it’ll be a reborn relic of St. George history.

History, as Tom knows well, often doesn’t stay buried forever. That’s certainly the case with this last find—a rare fiberglass-bodied coupe from the early 1950s from a company called Atlas Fiber-Glass. If the shape of the svelte two-door brings to mind a certain Pinin Farina design, you’ve got a keen eye. As its owner and caretaker, Dave, explains to Tom, the Atlas was an all-fiberglass-body built from a splash mold of a Cisitalia 202 like the one in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Atlas Fiber-Glass was founded in 1952 by Roy Kinch, initially supplying fuel tanks and tops for MGs. But Kinch had ambitions to build special fiberglass bodies for the British sports cars. How Kinch got a hold of a Cisitalia splash mold for his upstart outfit is a whole other tale, involving George Barris, speed innovators Bill Burke, and Mickey Thompson, as well as Hot Rod magazine publisher Robert “Pete” Petersen.

As Hemmings detailed in a 2012 piece, Kinch ran an ad for Atlas in Hot Rod in 1952, which in all likelihood caught the attention of advertising manager and belly-tank-racing phenom BIll Burke. Savvy as he was, Burke was probably aware that Hot Rod publisher Peter Pertersen had bought a Cisitalia 202 and was having it sent straight to the Barris brothers’ shop in southern California to be prepped for the 1952 Motorama show. Burke, allegedly, used his insider knowledge to his advantage. According to the story, when the car arrived, George Barris and Mickey Thompson took a splash mold of the car without Petersen’s permission or knowledge. Thompson and Burke then went into business with Kinch, changing the Atlas company name to Allied Fiberglass, in case there was any doubt the industrious trio were in cahoots. For his part, Burke’s plan was to use the roughly 200-pound body to build a from-scratch land-speed racer for Bonneville, which he did rather successfully, winning his class in 1953 with a top speed of 167 mph.

Dave’s particular car, using a coupe body called the Swallow, is an Atlas from before the company changed its name. The chassis is made from elliptical PBY aircraft tubing, which was used for the struts in World War II troop gliders. The material is both strong and lightweight—ideal for a sports car. This particular car has torsion bars and a Ford banjo-style rear-end, albeit with the driveshafts that are normally near the transmission, in Dave’s words, “scabbed on” to the rear end to make a swing axle. Up front is the same story, with a solid front axle broken in the middle to include ball joints and tie-rod ends. Without any load on the chassis as it sits, the wheels are all cambered out in a way Beetle owners will surely recognize.

“We found the car from a gentleman who was getting out of vintage racing,” explains Dave. “We bought a whole garage full of stuff—you opened the door and [you could] see nothing, with stuff stacked out to the walls. He says, ‘Well there’s a little of this and a little of that, and even way back there you’ll find a car!’ We hadn’t even seen it. We didn’t even know what it was.”

In his research into the car’s history, Dave came across the website Forgotten Fiberglass, run by Barn Find Hunter alumnus and weird-car extraordinaire Geoff Hacker. An amazing article that Geoff wrote details the fascinating history of a certain fiberglass land-speed sports car that was thought lost. It was only after following the leads and talking to Geoff that Dave realized the car from the story was the one he owned.

Not strange enough for you yet? That discovery also taught Dave that his Atlas, built by a fellow named Gene Hersom, was originally built with a Duesenberg straight-eight that was effectively cut in half to make a dual-overhead-cam four-cylinder engine. (The middle cylinders were cut out, interestingly enough.) The engine needed a custom billet crankshaft to work properly, but the setup proved problematic while running at Bonneville in 1954. Later, after the magneto casting broke, a more reliable Flathead V-8 replaced it. There’s some amazing period photography from this era documenting the Atlas’ history, as well.

The coupe has been in Dave’s family for 20 years, and his plan is to restore it with a flathead V-8, three-speed transmission, and the original shade of blue paint. Then, the Atlas could go vintage racing to do the car’s history real justice. Dave shows Tom, over against the wall, that he still has the original hood with racing stripes and a cutout for the original Duesenberg engine’s carburetors. So if you’ve got a Duesy I-8 and you don’t mind losing half of it for the revival of a bizarre, fantastic old fiberglass land-speed racer allegedly made from the unsolicited splash mold of Pete Petersen’s Cisitalia 202—drop us a line. We know a guy who’ll take it off your hands.

The post Long-lost ’50s fiberglass coupe, built with half a Duesenberg engine, resurfaces in Utah appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Ditching his trusty Woody for an F-150 that’s better suited for the rainy weather, Tom Cotter and the Barn Find Hunter crew start their 71st episode searching for hidden classics in North Carolina. Tom admits that he’s breaking a lot of his own tips for barn find hunting success, as driving an old car like his Ford Woody can help ingratiate yourself with property owners, and hunting on Sundays and holidays often means people are spending time with their families. But even starting with no tips and operating against all odds, Tom finds his treasure.

The first promising spot from the road turns up a pair of classics, but an owner that doesn’t have time to show them off. Undeterred, Tom finds a house with a ’67 Camaro, a ’67 Chevelle, a Fox-body Mustang, and a Mercury Comet, but again, an owner that doesn’t have time to show them off. It is NASCAR country, and it is the Daytona 500 after all.

The first story Tom gets about an old car comes from the owner of a ’66 VW Bug. Parked and no longer running, the car does have some hope of returning to the road, and Tom hears the tale of a lumpy snake. Next up, Tom meets a police officer, Corporal Ransom, with a ’69 Chevelle. Supposedly “really ugly”, the Chevy is quite straight, only showing signs of decay under the vinyl top.

Martin’s Auto Salvage leads the crew to pay dirt at a local property where Buddy shows off his ’35 Ford, a recent acquisition. In pieces, but supposedly complete, Buddy is asking just $3500 for the flathead-powered project. Next to it is a ’53 Chevy wagon powered by a Stovebolt inline-six. The engine runs, but it’s in need of floorboards and plenty of bodywork. Buddy is asking just $1500 for the long roof. After a quick look at a ’39 Chevy on a lift, Cotter heads into the woods behind the shop to find a ’60 Chevy Biscayne, a Super Beetle, and a Fox-body Mustang GT hatchback. Buddy is a fellow car hunter, and acquired his cars one at a time, stopping to ask car owners if they were interested in selling.

If any of the cars interest you, Tom encourages going after them but warns that they’ll all need considerable work. We’re sure that someone watching will have the skills needed to get one of these cars back on the road. Warm-up your welding torch, top off your media blaster, and get to work!

The post Barn Find Hunter turns up bargain beaters in North Carolina appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Are you still coming down from that Christmas Day high of package unwrapping? Want to see some unboxing that involves automotive treasure rather than plastic toys? Maybe your 2019 New Year’s Resolution was to get caught up on your favorite YouTube shows—an honorable endeavor, indeed. If any of those apply, Barn Find Hunter is running 70 episodes back-to-back on New Year’s Eve starting at 2:25 AM EST on December 31, just in time to get all of those episodes in before the New Year.

Of course, if you’re asleep when the stream starts and you miss one of your favorite episodes, like Episode 3 and the trip to Turner’s Auto Wrecking in Fresno, California, or the stash of big-block first-gen Camaros Tom Cotter uncovered in Arizona in Episode 11, you can watch them any time, of course. But why not tune in for a bit and be a part of the live conversation?

Happy New Year and happy barn find hunting from everyone at Hagerty!

The post Spend your New Year’s Eve watching a Barn Find Hunter marathon appeared first on Hagerty Media.

While we can’t quite pinpoint when a building full of cars becomes a collection, the selection toured by Tom Cotter in the latest Barn Find Hunter episode tours a collection that is wildly eclectic—a place where Tom gets to geek out over Volkswagen Rabbit pickups in the same building as a Daimler SP250. It’s also a building full of cars that you can easily purchase, as the tour is led by a dealer who purchased the entire group and plans to list them all for sale.

We’re getting ahead of ourselves, though. Window shopping is often just as much fun as real shopping, especially when it comes to cars. This grouping of cars is a lifetime collection from one gentleman who unfortunately has fallen ill, and the family needed to liquidate the cars to sell the property. That’s where Mike stepped in and came to the rescue with three trailers in tow. Before he started loading up the cars, however, Tom got a tour and took us along for the ride.

To call the collection “eclectic” would be a bit of an understatement. From Porsche 356 Speedsters to diesel Volkswagen pickups, the first building ran the gamut of post-war automotive cars of interest. Mike purchased 44 total after walking through and investigating a few of them, but Tom is digging into more than Mike did.

The storage has taken its toll on some, with mildew visible on door panels and steering wheels. However, a keen eye and willingness to do a little work makes these cars stand out as great potential projects. With a few still holding their secrets, even with Tom’s deep well of car knowledge on tap, it will be interesting to watch these go up for sale and head to new homes.

If you are interested in one of the cars, you can contact the dealership directly at AsheboroFord.net. Better yet, go out yourself and find a classic hiding in a barn. This Barn Find Hunter episode proves they’re out there and worth looking for.

The post Did the Barn Find Hunter find the greatest hidden stash of cars? appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In the hunt for classic metal, the Barn Find Hunter feels that no distance is too far to travel. This might explain why he happily hops in a pickup and motors eight hours to visit a pair of brothers who inherited a shop—and a big helping of interesting cars.

Right from the start, Andrew and Dennis humor Tom and his seemingly insatiable love for the oddball cars. That is to say, they help him uncover what is likely the weirdest car in the group, then they tease him. Tom spots the unusual vehicle on his first walk by, and he immediately impresses the brothers by guessing exactly what small bits are poking out from under the canvas. Dennis and Andrew help Tom clear away a stack of metal from atop the Crosley chassis, which is fitted with a custom body. The Jeep grille is merged to a Ford hood, which covers a V-8 60 flathead from an early Ford.

The remaining cars on the property are a mix of vintage and full-on old vehicles. A restored Ford Model T give Tom flashbacks to his cross-country trip in a similar car before one of the more impressive cars is revealed. A 1962 Thunderbird seems to be languishing under a carport, but upon closer inspection it appears to be quite a catch. The interior is quite nice, and the paint is claimed to be original; it would be a great cruiser.

A Buick Grand National sits in an open barn, which honestly seems like a sad spot for one of Buick’s greatest gifts to the gearhead community. It starts and runs on cue, however, and has rolled almost 30,000 miles in the last handful of years, which is better than it sitting in the open shed collecting dust. Andrew mentions he’d take $20,000 for it, which is right in line with its average #4 condition value.

All of these cars were amassed by a single man over the course of a lifetime, and even the truck that started it all remains on the property: a Model T pickup that is languishing in a shed. Tom points out on a similar truck with a composite body construction that’s composed of wood beneath its metal exterior. Pre-war classics like this are full of interesting bits of trivia. 

Perhaps it’s time to seek out that old car in your neighborhood, talk to the owner, and see what you can learn—it might just the tip of the iceberg.

The post The wildest finds from Tom Cotter’s walk through two brothers’ inherited collection appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter is out in the wide-open spaces of Montana, but just because there’s space to roam doesn’t mean he is looking far and wide. In fact, Tom locates a 1970 Oldsmobile F-85 and 1966 Volvo 122 wagon with great stories just down the street from each other. Here is the final episode from the Barn Find Hunter’s trip to Bozeman, with Cotter’s renewed love for often-overlooked cars in full display.

“If you think of this car hobby as a big ball, most of that ball is consumed with people who enjoy Chevy, or Ford, or Mopars—common cars like that,” Tom says as he wraps up the epic trip. “But there are these subcategories that shoot off, and people that specialize in cars that are less common but just as cool.”

Cotter’s analogy is designed to show that no matter the type of car you love, there’s a spot for you in that big automotive ball. By searching out those specialists of the lesser-loved and niche brands, we can all help keep the history of our passion alive for a long time—and learn a thing or two in the process.

These videos offer a kick of encouragement to go out and find interesting pieces of history yourself. As Tom says in each episode, all of these vehicles have stories. He isn’t able to tell each and every one, so it is up to us to go out and learn the stories of cars in our area and retell them to others.

The Barn Find Hunter series has shown time and time again that a conversation about the rusty car in the yard often leads to a discussion about other cars, and before you know it, you have a new friend. Sure, the cars are great, but the people are often better. So, as Tom says, “Happy hunting.”

The post Out in wild Montana, Barn Find Hunter shines a light on unloved classics appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Missing out is part of the game when it comes to hunting barn finds; Tom Cotter knows this better than most. He follows a solid lead in Bozeman, Montana, and arrives at the resting place of a long-stored GT350 only to find that the owner is out of town, and he can’t see the car. What does he do? He keeps hunting.

The next lead he decides to chase takes him down the recommended roads for those in search of old cars—dirt, rural, and dead-ended. A quick question posed to a local gives Tom the extra information he needs as he follows a tip on a fleet of Dodge Power Wagons stashed in a nearby field.

Owner Matt Ely has a passion for the utilitarian beasts of Dodge’s extensive truck lineage, and it shows after just a few seconds with Tom. Ely’s collection spans decades of the same truck, with conditions ranging from a solid start to a restoration to “multiple broken welds on the cab and the frame.” That doesn’t make the history of the trucks any less interesting, and Ely seems to know the backstory of each truck. Spoiler alert—the Yellowstone graphic on that truck doesn’t mean it came from Yellowstone. Bummer.

Tom then heads to the home of the man who’s helped him during this Bozeman trip—the man behind the entire hunt, so to speak. Lyle was Tom’s eyes and ears leading up to the trip, sending messages with lists of cars, locations, and phone numbers. Lyle also has his own stash, and Tom is curious to peek in the outbuildings and see what’s lurking in the corners.

It’s a Ford-heavy garage for sure, with a ’66 Mustang coupe mid-restoration for his son and a ’69 Mustang convertible for his wife. In another building was a Cougar XR7 with green paint and a 302 under the hood. Next to the Cougar, though, sits an unassuming, sun-faded blue ’69 Mustang. With no hood scoop to give it away, Lyle reveals to Tom that the relic lying dormant before them is in fact a factory 428 Cobra Jet. It’s an oddly optioned coupe with quite a story to tell.

That Cobra Jet find serves to reinforce a common theme in this episode of Barn Find Hunter: it takes persistence to find the good cars. Regardless of where you look, taking the right steps will lead to something with an interesting story; you just have to suss it out.

As Tom would say, “happy hunting.”

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The search for classic cars has taken Tom Cotter all over the country in the course of the Barn Find Hunter series. That said, going back to a previous location can yield new results. Tom knows his way around Traverse City, Michigan, by now (it’s home to Hagerty HQ), but evidently there are still plenty of sweet cars waiting to be discovered. Every time he opens up a garage or barn door, he hopes its a Jaguar XK roadster. Is today his lucky day?

On Barn Find Hunter’s first trip through town, Tom was chasing leads left, right, and center. Despite his success, he had to head home before he could investigate them all. It’s time for some payback. In his words, “We left some meat on the bone last trip.”

The first stop on this second lap of Northern Michigan is a fifth-generation farmer, Denny Hoxie. When Denny leads Tom to a mystery car in a cinder block building, naturally, Tom engages in his favorite game—guessing the car hidden under the cover. Lo and behold, it’s a Jaguar XK120—a car Tom has been hoping to find for years.

Tom and Denny regale each other with stories of their love for the XK-series Jags. The Old English White roadster has been in Denny’s ownership since 1977; the engine was pulled for some repairs that never happened, and now the car sits awaiting a rescue that will hopefully one day return it to the road.

From the cinder block garage, Denny leads Tom to some other buildings on the property. The range of vehicles is wide, but the pair focus on a collection of work trucks, including a Ford AA pickup and twin International flatbeds. It’s a solid reminder that even 50 years ago, humble agricultural tools could still have lasting style.

As Tom admires his XK120 find one last time, Denny takes a phone call. Serendipity. Jim, a friend of Denny’s is right around the corner with another classic Jaguar. Field trip!

Not a quarter-mile from Denny’s, deep in the back of a small warehouse is a Jaguar XK150 that has been under cover since 1985. The yellow coupe was bought from a local auction and was a plaything for some years before being placed under cover. And then, life, we guess, just moved on without it.

As the three men are closing the door on the Jaguar coupe, Tom mentions that they can head back to work now. “I don’t work too hard these days,” says Jim. “I don’t work too hard either,” Tom agrees. It might not be hard work, but it’s a labor of love I think a lot of us out there love to see unfold. Naturally, Tom is happy to give Denny a ride home in the woody, complete with tire-roasting enthusiasm. Because when you love cars, they make you feel like a kid all over again.

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Tom Cotter is insatiable when it comes to finding cars, and that is for all of our benefit. His latest hunt for the dustiest and most interesting hidden cars took him to Montana, where one gentleman has all manner of interesting four-wheeled oddities from very early Model T Fords to a smattering of Oldsmobile Toronados.

Continuing his adventures in and around Bozeman, Montana, Tom is out to find a man named Bob. Just about everyone the crew has talked to thus far in the trip said, “You’ve got to talk to Bob.” Curious as to what this well-known local might have, Tom goes hunting. The giveaway that he arrived at the right house? A trailer full of Model A parts. Don’t worry though, it gets better from there.

Behind the garage door was a very early production Ford Model A. Bob states it is one of the earliest with the original engine still in the frame rails. After a lesson in the intricacies of early Model A production (hint: it can get pretty geeky), Bob hops in Tom’s wagon and they head for the larger stash of cars that Bob keeps away from home.

That stash consists of a wide cross-section of cars. From the 26 Oldsmobile Toronados to a Berrys Mini T, the collection contains just about anything that catches Bob’s eye. Many of the cars are original and worth preserving. Even with boxes stacked atop most of the cars, it’s easy to see the potential in the old iron parked beneath.

The deepest corner of the shop reveals a hidden Corvette gem. Tucked away so tightly that Tom has to climb through an Oldsmobile to get to it is a C4 convertible sporting the Doug Nash 4+3 transmission. Bob states that while he didn’t order the car, the dealer took it upon itself to order the car exactly as Bob would have ordered it. Upon seeing the ’Vette delivered, Bob took it home. Talk about knowing the customer!

Leaving the big horde of cars, Tom and Bob head to a storage unit just outside of town. A 1912 Kissel sits just inside the door, looking quite dusty but holding the promise of a rewarding restoration. The car began life with a circuit court judge before going through a chain of owners, each of whom Bob seems to know.

To show that pre-war cars are the best cars, Bob lubes the leather clutch and goes about cranking the Kissel over—by hand. No electric start available on the 1912 model. One spin and the inline-six sets into a mellow idle.

Before leaving Bob for the day, Tom goes for a tour of the Montana countryside in that big red Kissel, a reminder of what these vintage machines are made for. That small amount of oil and attention took that dormant car and put it back on the road—right where it belongs.

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When Tom Cotter saw a yard full of cars two years ago in Bozeman, Montana, he knew he wanted to check it out—unfortunately, he didn’t have time to do it right.

Now, Tom gets the chance to make good on his promise to do the yard justice. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, he scours the property until he’s investigated as much metal as he (and the crew) can handle.

Even as Tom walks up the driveway and feasts his eyes on a few old rides, the sights prove quite eclectic. Big American cars, sporty British sedans, Japanese econoboxes, and pre-war iron lurk around Marty’s property in various conditions, and almost everything is drivable. After he and Tom discuss a Ford Model A pickup the first day, Marty proves it’s not just yard art. When Tom comes back the next day, Marty and his son are trundling the pickup around the yard, happy as clams.

Highlights from the yard include one of the first handful of BMW 2002s imported to the U.S. Though buried, Tom can easily spot the signs confirming its early import status: round taillights, slender bumpers, and solid steel wheels. Over 50 years later, the door closes nice and solid.

Rather than just talk about cars, though, Marty takes it one step further. He declares he could probably get a 26K-mile 1951 Nash Deliveryman running by the end of the afternoon. Bold, Marty. Once the hood is up, he and his son go to work. It’s not long before the flathead-six is cranking over, and before Tom can believe it, the flathead is puttering along smooth and quiet. Bozeman is indeed full of surprises.

Before Tom leaves, he answers a question he asked himself when first walking the expansive collection: How many cylinders could this guy own? Turns out the answer’s 842—not counting 69 rotors and one steam car. 

Seeing the Nash come back to life reminds us that even some of the roughest-looking cars are worth saving. Sometimes they’re even better than we expect underneath the debris. You just have to get out there, find one, and put in the work.

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The plains often get dismissed as fly-over country, but Tom is out to prove that great things are happening in the wide-open spaces of Kansas. He is continuing his trip from Midland, Texas, to McPherson, Kansas, and this is the final leg of the trip. As he crosses through Kansas, he sees the range—both literal and figurative—that the classic car hobby has to offer.

Tom and the wagon have already covered hundreds of miles, but this is a man who is insatiable when it comes to talking about the cars in yards, barns, fields, and storage units. The 1962 Ford Country Sedan wagon has been a good partner this trip, rumbling along without so much as a hiccup. Tom is looking forward to handing the keys off to the students at McPherson College; but first, he has some cars to find.

The weather has a different plan, though, as Tom talks with a farmer in Dodge City about his custom panel truck before the sky opens and unleashes a midwestern spring storm on the crew. Tom decides to pack it in and attempt a run north out of the storm, aiming to escape the hail set to fall from the clouds.

The dash to McPherson pays off. Tom’s first stop in the Kansas town is a shop to drop off the wagon for safe storage for a few days. Then, he hops in with the camera crew to venture across town where students of McPherson’s automotive restoration program work on their personal projects. It’s a goldmine of stories—everything from piecing together a custom bosozoku Datsun 510 to building a Sebring-style Bugeye Sprite for a mother. These young car lovers are taking the skills from the classroom and applying them to an even wider range of metal than the professors could imagine.

McPherson is a happy place for Tom. The halls and quad brim with potential and enthusiasm for the vintage cars we all love so dearly… which is why he is heading home without the wagon he worked to rescue. It is going to the program to become a parts runner and project on which the students can hone their skills before entering the classic car workforce.

This will be the wagon that keeps on working, even when it isn’t.

The post The Barn Find Hunter proves gold is in the plains, not the hills appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Recently, Tom Cotter put a fresh spin on the Barn Find Hunter series by not just finding, but rescuing a Ford Country Squire wagon. The wagon got a remarkable refreshing to respectable  condition, which is pretty amazing considering not long ago it was more or less rotting in a yard. Tom’s master plan from there is to pilot the reborn wagon on a road trip to hunt for cars, before finally handing off the wagon to some deserving young automotive restoration students at McPherson College, in Kansas. In his latest episode, Tom motors past Cadillac Ranch in North Texas and into Oklahoma, where he turns up a few classic Chevrolets—and a Pontiac.

If you haven’t watched the first two episodes in this series, it is worth catching up on the revival of the Country Squire, along with Tom’s first couple finds of the adventure, including a GTO Judge. Now Tom is primed to cover ground on his way to the annual C.A.R.S. Show at McPherson College, where he’ll hand the wagon’s keys to its young new owners. Of course, Tom can’t just simply put the shifter in drive and motor down the highway. It’s just not in his nature. He hunts out cars, even in the wide-open spaces that so many folks (incorrectly) refer to as fly over country.

After a quick pass by Cadillac Ranch in Texas, is isn’t long before Tom is scuttling around Guymon, Oklahoma, where a 1959 Chevrolet Impala catches his eye. So he knocks on the shop door to find out more.

“It had been in a field for 14 years, out in the wide open,” Roy Taylor says. “Then a friend called me and wanted to know if I wanted to buy it.”

And buy it, Roy did. Now he is waffling on whether he will re-power it with a modern Chevrolet V-8 or keep the rarer 348 mounted in the massive engine compartment. Roy’s other car has been with him much longer than the Impala. In the back of his shop hides a dusty 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu sporting a factory four-speed and Positraction rear end. After looking around a bit more, Tom gets back on the road.

And then, just 10 minutes down the road, one of the shops that Tom had visited gives him a call and says, “I got this Pontiac in the back you might like. I had forgotten about it.” So back to the shop Tom goes, of course

Turns out it is a late-1940s Pontiac that sports a straight-eight engine. The body shows some damage from its almost 70 years of existence, but it also appears complete and quite savable—a point which Tom underscores by comparing the dusty Poncho to the wagon he left cooling in the parking lot outside the shop. Tom returns to the trail for a spell before finally calling it a day. 

The next episode of Barn Find Hunter promises more finds and more stories from the road as Tom crosses into Kansas en route to the Country Squire wagon’s new home. Be sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube Channel to receive notifications when each video goes live.

The post Barn Find Hunter scours small-town Oklahoma and discovers dusty GM gold appeared first on Hagerty Media.

In the last episode of Barn Find Hunter, we left off with Tom Cotter heading up the road to McPherson, Kansas in the Ford wagon he found last year and rescued. Of course, Tom can’t just drive down the road without getting distracted by dull sheet metal he spots out of the corner of his eye. As usual, his instincts prove fruitful, yielding two big finds.

From his starting point in Midland, Texas,Tom and the Ford wagon cover solid ground and make it to Lubbock, Texas before a grouping of cars held captive behind a chain-link fence capture his attention. He interrupts the owner, Mike, who was mowing the grass, to talk about the aging metal. Interestingly, the cars are all for sale at $500 each. Tom picks out a few good projects and takes a moment to remind us that the wagon he is driving cross country was in a similar state not so long ago. Something to think about, for sure.

Leaving that yard full of potential, Tom doesn’t make it far before he veers off toward another point of interest on the roadside. Don’t forget, cars in varying states of disrepair, becoming one with the earth in an overgrown yard, is like catnip to Tom. Sure enough, the property’s owner happily obliges Tom with a tour of the grounds—and more.

In 61 episodes of Barn Find Hunter, you would by this point think Tom had found it all. Yet, he admits, there was one car that had deep down hoped would turn up eventually—a Judge. A Pontiac GTO Judge was high on Tom’s list, especially after finding cars with lower production numbers and higher attrition. There in the weeds was an honest-to-goodness 400/four-speed Judge. The hood was stuck closed, but it’s the culmination of a long search that Tom still counts it as a victory.

Does crossing the Judge off his hunting list mean Tom is hanging up his hat? No way. To learn what is next on his must-find list you will have to stay tuned. Be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube page to receive notifications with each new video that gets posted.

The post After four years on the trail, Barn Find Hunter finally uncovers a Judge appeared first on Hagerty Media.

If Tom Cross hadn’t produced a can of rubbing compound and a shop rag 18 months ago, this episode wouldn’t exist. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, Tom Cotter gets to carry out his childhood dream by reviving a desert junkyard car. Follow along as Tom walks you through the restoration process of a 1962 Ford Country Sedan he found in episode 34.

The post Rags to riches: Tom restores a Country Sedan he found in a junkyard | Ep. 60 (Part 1/4) appeared first on Hagerty Media.

If Tom Cross hadn’t found me a can of rubbing compound and a shop rag 18 months ago, I wouldn’t be writing this now.

But he did. And it triggered an unexpected journey.

It was February 2018, and I had been foraging through a few dozen old cars behind Cross’ shop in Midland, Texas. Why was I in Midland? Because I’ve always wanted to visit the birthplace of Jim Hall’s Chaparral Cars, producer of some of the most innovative cars in racing history. Plus I thought there might be some rust-free old cars to be found.

Midland is a gritty little town measuring 7-miles-by-7-miles, complete with pot-holed roads and lots of dust. Yet my friend John Mecom, a successful oil man from Houston, claims, “It’s a place where a person can make a billion dollars, lose it, and stand a good chance to make it back again.”

This was the town where I decided to drive my Woody wagon around. Maybe I’d strike gold of my own.

Driving down one bumpy, dirty road after another, I came across a yard of old cars, mostly Fords, behind a steel building in an industrial area. The business that occupied the building is Holiday Pools, which is run by Cross and his wife, Diane. The cars were leftover parts cars and future projects that would likely never see the light of day.

“Sure, go back there and take a look,” Cross said. (Most guys with old cars are not so accommodating.) So I walked the couple of acres, not sure if I should be nervous about rattlesnakes—I’m an East Coaster, mind you.

Cross had an interesting collection of vintage tin, most that he dragged in 20 or 30 years ago, mostly full-size Fords from the 1960s. I made a beeline toward a two-door 1960 Ford Ranch Wagon, a very rare beast but in rough condition. There was a 1962 Ford Galaxie here and a 1963 Fairlane there. I was attracted to a dusty red 1962 Ford Country Sedan, a baseline wagon.

After an hour or so, I asked Cross for a rag and some compound. I had seen a TV commercial as a kid for Simonize or J-Wax Kit, or some product like that. The person in the ad walked up to a dingy car in a junkyard and rubbed out the fender to a brilliant luster, bringing dead paint back to life.

I’ve always wanted to do that. So this was my chance. With the rag and compound, I rubbed out a small section of the fender and brought the 57-year-old paint to a brilliant luster.

“Tom, you wouldn’t happen to have a buffer in your shop, would you,” I asked. He said that he did, but not enough extension cord to reach out to the yard. But that wasn’t a problem. He fired up his forklift and began to reorganize his yard, making room to relocate the red wagon next to his building. Now with buffer in hand, I began to burn away decades of sun-bleached, oxidized red paint. The result? A fender that “Shined like a million dollars, Tommy boy,” as my Uncle Bob used to say when I waxed his Mustang as a kid.

I had a flight to catch, but our Midland adventures became one of the most popular Barn Find Hunter episodes. I couldn’t get that car out of my head.

“That wagon doesn’t want to die,” I told Cross when I called a few days later.

I spoke with my colleagues at Hagerty, and we decided to purchase the car from Cross for a very reasonable price. “If you buy the car, I’ll give you all the parts you’ll need to fix it, plus my friends and I will work on it,” he said. Such a deal!

We decided that we’d refurbish the car and donate it to McPherson College in McPherson, Kansas, the only college to offer a four-year degree in Automotive Restoration. I sit on the advisory board for the program and know their old Chevy Luv parts chaser was running on only three cylinders.

We set a time table of 14 months to get the car from junkyard to driver condition and deliver it to McPherson for the annual student car show in May. It only needed… everything. There was no engine, no transmission, no front crossmember. Other than that, it was complete. However, it was filled with decades of desert red dust as fine as talc, and it was in every crack and crevice.  Cross used a yard blower to get rid of as much dust as possible, producing a toxic red cloud in the process.

Had I bitten off more than I could chew, having fallen in love with a shiny paint job but refusing to see a multitude of mechanical issues?

In the ensuing months, Cross and his Midland friends got after the car. A thorough cleaning was followed by a thorough cleaning. Then is was cleaned again. The original floorpan was rusty, so Cross cut a solid floor pan out of a 1964 Ford wagon and had it welded into the ’62. And he replaced the missing cross member.

I arranged for a small crew of students from McPherson College to work on the car during the winter semester break 2019. Hagerty’s Brad Phillips also rolled up his sleeves, installing new wiring harnesses under the dash and in the engine compartment. Students Dalton Whitfield and Austin Heibert jumped under the car and installed new tie-rod ends, ball joints, and shocks in the front. They also installed a front disc brake kit that was donated by the local street rod club, West Texas Cruisers. In the rear, new axle bearings and seals were fitted, in addition to all new brake components.

To finish the job that I had started a year earlier, I manned the buffer and a bottle of liquid compound and polished the rest of the car. I admit I’m not a professional car detailer, but the wagon’s original paint came back with a brilliance not seen on that car since it was new. I did burn through the paint here and there, but it just added to the car’s wonderful patina.

This was beginning to take shape.

The original plan was to paint the roof its original white, but when the students sanded off the surface rust, they came to a conclusion: the top should be clear coated, not painted. Cross, Phillips, and I looked at each other and concluded, what the heck, it’s not a restoration—it’s a car to be used by college students, not old farts like us. Let’s clear coat it!

Dalton said standard clear coat would be too shiny over the thin rusty surface that remained on the roof, so using an old customizer’s trick from the 1950s, he mixed in a few tablespoons of cornstarch. And he began to spray.

The result was beautiful. The roof had an almost leather-like finish, with just the right amount of shine. Perfect for our Midland hot rod.

The engine rebuild was not going quite as well. A friend of Cross’ owns a machine shop and offered to rebuild one of the 390-cubic-inch engines that Cross had lying around his shop. But after it was cleaned and checked, they discovered it had a cracked block, as did the second 390… and the third. Finally, the fourth engine was crack-free. A full rebuild commenced, and the dyno numbers showed the engine produced a hefty 375 horsepower. Cross volunteered a Ford-O-Matic transmission that had already been rebuilt.

It had been an amazing four days of hard work, arriving at Cross’ shop before sunrise and leaving for the hotel well after dark. But we got an amazing amount of work accomplished.

The time had come for all of us to return to our regular lives. The remainder of the work would be finished by Cross, his son Jacob, and a handful of volunteers.

When we returned four weeks later, the car was finished. Cross went overboard, rebuilding the dashboard and installing a new wiring harness. All the gauges and switches worked! He also had a dual exhaust system installed, which ran through a pair of glass-pack mufflers. It sounded sweet.

I took the wagon for a ride around town and could not believe it was the same hulk that had resided in Cross’ storage yard. He admitted that just before we came knocking in 2018, he was getting ready to crush all his derelict cars and sell the property. Timing is everything.

After an amazing beef brisket dinner with a room full of volunteers, and a few dozen of Diane’s amazing cookies, we hit the road. Destination? McPherson, Kansas, about 1000 miles away.

It would be an interesting test drive…

The post Thanks to a shop rag, this 1962 Ford Country Sedan was reborn appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter has turned the practice of finding classic cars into an art, but he still has to do the legwork to gain access to the great finds. In the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter, Tom teams up with Davin Reckow of our Redline Rebuild series to uncover some iron in northern Michigan.

With a nickname like “the rustbelt,” northern states like Michigan don’t exactly provide prime pickings for vintage cars and trucks that haven’t been properly stored. With some digging, however, there are cars worth finding, and Tom is all about exhuming anything worth finding. And digging is exactly what he had to do.

Tom has searched near Hagerty’s home office in northern Michigan before, so coming back and hunting for new cars and stories is a big ask. Yet when presented with the challenge, Tom leapt right to it, finding a yard brimming with cars that the locals didn’t even know about. Just one problem: there wasn’t a clue of who to talk to about these cars. Cue the investigative work.

Thanks to some well-pointed questions to a few locals, Tom manages to find the name of the daughter of the land owner. Then her phone number. A few unanswered voicemails later, Tom is becoming a bit discouraged as the clock is ticking and the film crew knows he’s running out of time—and daylight. Then the phone rings and an invitation is extended.

The opportunity also piques the interest of Redline Rebuild star Davin Reckow. He hits his own goldmine while scouring through cabinets of new-old-stock in the hopes of finding some Chevrolet SS parts, or some bits and pieces for Tom’s Cobra.

It all stands to show that there are cars to be found everywhere, and even in the worst environments there are cars worth saving. Take the time and find the owner of that one you spotted on the side of the road a while back—you know the one—because that connection might lead you somewhere even greater. Just be prepared to repeat the story, even if your drinking buddies don’t believe you.

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Tom Cotter and the Barn Find Hunter crew are back in North Pole, Alaska, for their 58th installment. Their previous trip to the town was quite the success, but now they’re following up on a different tip. First they visit Robby, who has a field filled with classic American iron.

Robby admits that he’s an indiscriminate collector, buying up any old car he comes across and that he’s been doing it, he says, “as long as I can remember.” One look at the yard that has ‘50s and ‘60s trucks, convertibles, and muscle cars tucked everywhere, and it’s clear that Robby wasn’t kidding.

The first car Tom lands on is one he’s very familiar with, a 1962 Ford Galaxie convertible  equipped with a 390 V-8 and a column-shifted automatic.

Among the mid-century treasures on the property are a 1956 and 1957 Pontiac, a 1957 Oldsmobile with its distinctive rear quarter windows, and a 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Coupe with its long, low fins ending in oval taillights.

The two don’t spend much time on any one vehicle in particular; there are just too many cool rides to stop at each of them. In fact, Robby and Tom walk right past what looks to be a 1970 Nova SS en route to a 1959 Ford Skyliner with a retractable hardtop and barely mention a 1968 Mercury Cyclone before pausing at a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria.

We won’t mention every vehicle we noticed at Robby’s property, but we will tell you that if you keep your eyes open, you can spot two flavors of Mopar pony car before the two stop at a ’68 Camaro and a massive Cadillac.

Tom’s next stop is also in North Pole, this time with Carl, who has a fleet of Ford Broncos outside. Some better-preserved projects are located in a garage, where Tom checks out another first-gen Bronco that’s being rebuilt. For Carl, Fords run in the family. “Everybody has Jeeps and go off-roading, but I like Fords and my dad had Fords, so that’s what I wanted,” he tells Tom. “Those Broncos are good winter cars and had better tops than the Jeeps.”

There’s a special find for fans of Japanese imports at the final stop: the first-ever appearance of a rotary-powered vehicle on Barn Find Hunter. Tom spends more time with Bonnie and her Mazda RX-4 than any other car this episode, listening to a fantastic tale of how the car was beloved, ruined, and then left to rot amidst a dense thicket of overgrowth.

Bonnie loved her RX-4—a six-speed car with 77,000 miles. “My husband hated it, my father called it a Japanese POS, but they always wanted to drive it,” she says, recalling what a blast it was to drive at high speed on the highway. Unfortunately, her husband one day put diesel in the tank and the car never ran right again. Bonnie parked it behind the house, and at some point, the roof got crushed in by a pole barn.

Before any of you say it, yes, we think it would make a perfect candidate for an LS engine swap.

The post Barn Find Hunter #58: Back to Alaska for a field of chrome and fins appeared first on Hagerty Media.

After scouting around Utah, seasoned Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter finds his way to a gate. When he takes a peek over the top, he sees a veritable motherlode of vintage metal. Locals told Tom he would never get behind those walls. But after calling a phone number he found on the gate and leaving a nice voicemail, he gets a call back with an invitation to poke around. Sometimes all you have to do is ask—but it doesn’t hurt to be a well-known internet car sleuth.

So, bright and early the next day, the woody wagon arrives outside the walls of the car-packed lot. Tom is still slightly skeptical that he will get the chance to look around inside. Sure enough, not only do the doors open up, but someone familiar with the story spares the time to walk with him and offer up some history on the cars that—over many years—found their way onto this nearly 20-acre property.

Jim McEwen takes Tom on a rusty, crusty journey through the lot. Jim isn’t the owner—that would be Red—but he is intimately familiar with the situation at hand. Some of the vehicles appear more complete than others, but the Utah desert climate was fortunately kind to the sheet metal of most everything. The interiors, less so.

“You come to the Southwest for metal, and go to the North for interiors,” quips Jim. “‘Cause there’s no interiors here that made it through the hot summers.”

As Jim says, hundreds of ‘60s-era cars sit with metal exposed but nothing worse than surface rust to show for it. The paint just baked off under the sweltering sun as the years wore on. A prime example is a 1966 Chevrolet Impala Jim points out. A two-door Impala might not be anything to write home about on its own, but with options including a big-block, air conditioning, and power steering—but not power brakes—it’s suddenly an intriguing car.

The lot looks like a pile of abandoned body shop projects, because Red spent a number of years spraying paint and slinging filler, according to Jim. Many cars became donors for better-condition vehicles, as several missing quarter panels indicate.

Tom probably could have walked the yard for a few days, with an endless supply of interesting cars to enjoy, from big-block Ford Torinos to an ex-Yellowstone tour bus. It just goes to show that keeping a keen eye out for cool cars can yield great results, even when the doors seem like they’ll stay closed to you.

The post Barn Find Hunter gets exclusive access inside secret yard in Utah appeared first on Hagerty Media.

Tom Cotter loves driving his woody wagon, but sometimes the driving enjoyment takes a backseat to the doors it opens and conversations it starts. Case in point: the latest Barn Find Hunter in Utah. Starting the day with no leads and looking a bit like it might be a bust, one conversation in a gas station sparks a chain reaction of finds.

While hunting for a place called Washington, Tom finds himself aimlessly wandering Utah. A stop for gas shines a light in the dark tunnel, however, as the woody wagon sparks a conversation that results in Tom following the gentleman home to talk about his 1964 Volkswagen Squareback. An off-and-on project, the VW has been driven only 300 miles or so since 1988.

From there, Tom follows a chain of cars spotted in driveways, each having its own interesting story. Showing why he is the Barn Find Hunter, Tom backs out of a driveway and spots a VW bus on a hill in the distance. He finds his way there and is lucky enough that the owner, Mont, is pulling into the driveway at the same time.

Mont shows Tom around his property, noting that the green pop-top VW is owned by his son. Driven while his son was stationed at Yellowstone, the van shows at least one trip to Mount Rushmore. The garage hides a five-window 1948 Chevy pickup and a Buick Skylark packing a high-compression, 350-cubic-inch engine.

These were all the easy finds. By looking around and chatting with people, Tom turned a day that was looking like a bust into a day talking about great vintage iron. Just goes to show that sometimes what you’re looking for is right under your nose—or on a hill.

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Tom Cotter continues his search for the lost cars across the U.S. and finds himself in a giant chicken coop packing some Oldsmobile muscle. From parts to complete cars, this stash of ‘60s muscle represents a classic barn find. Covered in dust and sunk up to the rims in dirt, these cars are just waiting to be rescued.

With the northern states still under the cold spell of winter, Tom heads to NASCAR country based on a tip from a social media post asking for leads on cool cars. When he arrives, he finds a chicken farm that no longer holds chickens and instead houses all types of machinery.

Deep in the chicken coop hides a Buick GS Stage 1, one of the hottest muscle cars Buick produced in the era when horsepower was king. The GS 455 was rated at 350 horsepower and a ground-pounding 510 pound-feet of torque, and the GS Stage 1 also came equipped with a 455 cubic-inch V-8, this time with larger valves, higher compression, and a lumpier cam that was rated just 10 horsepower higher. Many tests of the era concluded this was a gross underrating as the full-size car could rip off a 13.38-second quarter mile at over 100 mph.

These rare pieces of muscle car history were in hiding, but it didn’t take much for Tom to find them. All he had to do was ask. Are you looking for a particular car? Leave a note in the comments below. Another reader just might have the lead you need.

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On the hunt for long-forgotten cars? Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter is the expert, but as he’ll tell you, developing a nose for vintage metal is all about practice and good habits. During his search in Utah, Tom loads up his yellow Ford woodie wagon and explores St. George, but he knows better than to just drive down every street with no plan. So what does he do? Consults the local specialists, of course.

Tom figured if anyone would know where the old cars are, the local restoration shops would. The first spot he drops into comes up bust, but in the process he learns about another possible lead. On the drive across town, Tom notes that the area has a lot of new construction, which is not typically conducive to finding forgotten cars. This might be an uphill battle.

Steve’s Hot Rod Garage, however, is proof that Tom is in the right place. With projects in varying degrees of completion filling the lot outside the shop doors, there’s everything from a chopped VW Squareback to the shell of a 1957 Ford Country Sedan in the process of being parted out. Shop owner Steve Nielsen shows Tom that the really interesting stuff is hidden away in his storage units.

Behind storage door number 16 is a piece of hot rod lore, along with a bit of Nielsen’s own history. It’s a wicked cool Chevy van with “Delirious” lettered on the side and a custom tufted red interior Nielsen did himself. It’s really a time capsule to an era when the boxy customs were all the rage.

“It was my high school van. I’ve had it 42 years.” Nielsen says. “I used to work at Custom Vans of Utah back when vans were the thing. I did all the upholstery and paint work.”

Behind the van sits a car with its own hod rod history, a fiberglass 1932 Ford coupe with pinstripes laid by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth—the name synonymous with the eye-popping style of hand-painted custom work that was prevalent in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. The Rat Fink logo is Roth’s most famous creation, a character that made it onto cars as well as endless merchandise. The Deuce coupe has no Rat Fink, however—just a subtle pinstripe job on the deck lid and tail panel, which still looks badass today.

All these great finds (plus a Corvette-powered Volkswagen) and all Tom had to go on was a thin lead from a local shop. It just goes to show that even in far-flung places, it isn’t about looking everywhere, it’s about looking in the right place with the right attitude and approach. Next time you’re searching for a special barn find, remember that.

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Tom Cotter has a knack for finding cars, but it’s not all raw talent. The magic behind locating hidden treasure comes down to persistence and talking to as many people as possible. In the latest Barn Find Hunter episode, Tom decides to test his skills by searching out cars in Le Claire, Iowa. Better known as the backyard of American Pickers Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe, Tom is out to prove there are cars to be found in even the most over-hunted areas.

Expecting an uphill battle, Tom makes it just three blocks from American Pickers headquarters before he is out of the rental car to talk to some locals. After a quick exchange he’s standing next to a Ford Model A, in pieces, that the owner drove in high school. Next to that is also an interesting piece of kit: a Ford Model A engine with a cylinder head swap to turn the center cylinders of the four-banger into an air compressor.

From there, another conversation results in a new lead. Tom knows where to look, but that doesn’t mean there’s anyone there to show him around (and trespassing is generally a bad idea). After no response to a knock on the door not once or twice, but three times, Tom and the crew choose to just wait it out, sitting in the rental car and hoping the resident of the house would come home while they wait.

An hour and half passes, but the plan worked. Except Rick Riley didn’t come home, he just woke up. Headed out the door for his night shift job, Riley gives Tom a walk around his modest and eclectic collection of Pontiacs and Fords. The collection ranges from a 1950 Crestline parked out front of the house to a LeMans-turned-GTO in the back garage, with conditions ranging from parts car to driver.

It just all goes to show that by getting out and talking to locals, Tom found dozens of cars in a small town that is best known for finding the undiscovered. Or as he would put it, “persistence pays off.”

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Throughout Barn Find Hunter host Tom Cotter’s adventures in Alaska, he’s uncovered several Mustangs, Broncos, a sweet Chevy Sedan Delivery, unique Pontiacs, and much more. The road to discovery isn’t over yet, though, as Tom’s next lead brings him to John McDonald’s place, in the forests around North Pole, Alaska. There he finds a wildly eclectic grouping of vehicles, all with a delightful patina. And each with a price tag.

John’s place is nestled into a dense collection of spruce trees, down a gravel lane that juts off from a single-lane road. As soon as you come through the gate and up the gentle hilltop, there is a baffling variety of American metal parked in the yard to greet you—old Ford hot rods, Studebakers, a crazy-looking ambulance with a set of antlers on top. When Tom and I arrive, John is there waiting for us, along with his new puppy, Banjo.

Donning a Rat Fink hat and a “Surfink Safari” t-shirt, John is obviously in his element surrounded by his various hot rods and custom projects. He’s thin, looks to be in his sixties, and sports a gray goatee. He tells us he’s lived at this location in North Pole for 31 years.

“I’m into everything—I have a bucket list and it changes every week,” John says, admiring the collection he’s cultivated. He spends a lot of his free time browsing eBay Motors, clicking around and finding new projects to get shipped up to Alaska for him to sink his teeth into. “If I’m attracted to it, I’ll get it so I can enjoy it.”

But as his projects pile up, John realizes he can’t do it all. “I just don’t have time to deal with all of it,” he says. Pretty much everything out in the yard is for sale.

Tom’s eye first catches the lovely red and white paint on a 1957 Ford Ranchero, packing a 312 V-8 under the hood with dual carburetors. John says he bought it for a birthday present, and Tom prys a little, asking if it was a gift to himself. “Why not?” John quips, with a laugh. “I’ll drive it til I wear it out, and then I’ll sell it. I’ve been driving it every day this summer,” he says.

Sure enough, the Ranchero starts right up. John says he’d part with it for $20,000, but he doesn’t offer road trip insurance for the maiden voyage off his property. “I don’t guarantee anything past that gate at the end of the driveway,” he makes clear.

Nearby, John’s red 1960 Studebaker Champ truck offers a much different flavor of utility. It’s a one-ton model with a V-8, three on the tree, and 53,000 miles that may or may not be original. For $6000, it could be yours.

If modified 1930s Fords are more your flavor, John’s got you covered. His 1932 Ford 1.5-ton dualie has a flathead V-8 that starts right up, or if you prefer a ‘33 pickup, he’s got one with a V-8 and aluminum heads. He built that one back in high school—now he’ll part with it for $18,000.

There’s more Studebaker goodness afoot, too. John shows us a huge truck he drove up from Oklahoma, and he claims that in the process he burned through 15 gallons of oil in the 500-cubic-inch Cadillac engine it used at the time. As soon as he got home he tossed that old monster into the junkyard and swapped in a 390 Ford instead. These days he mostly uses it to haul firewood.

Want to make a real statement? Show up to cars and coffee with a 1943 ambulance, complete with an official plaque indicating it was purchased with World War II-era war bonds. John suspects it never saw official service and likely was a support vehicle of some kind in the U.S., as the roof rack and big winch up front indicate. Under the hood is a flathead single-carb six-cylinder. For $8000, it’s up for grabs. The antlers on top come with it for free.

After a few more trucks and assorted hot rods, John pulls a glorious 1937 Studebaker Dictator out of his garage. It has a 283 Chevy small-block in it with a three-speed transmission, along with a new rear end to replace the insanely short gearing it had previously to handle the hills in San Francisco where it lived. This thing looks straight out of Frank Miller’s Sin City, and John already posted it on the local Craigslist for $18,000. Also in the garage is a sweet Model T speedster hopped-up with a Model A crank, 351 Cleveland valves, electronic ignition, and a bigger carb. There are more Model Ts around as well, including another speedster from 1926 that was brought up from Minnesota many years ago for Alaska’s centennial celebration.

What’s crazy is nearly every single one of these vehicles starts right up when John turns the key. The uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking this weird roster of aging metal was just a decaying scrap pile, but there’s no doubt the man puts a lot of care and effort into running and maintaining all of his cars. He loves to drive them, too, especially if they have a bench seat. “Nothin’ beats the bench, because I can take along Banjo for a ride,” he tells us.

Out in the fresh air, breathing in the smell of sprucewood, gasoline, and exhaust, going for a ride with a new puppy in an eight-decades-old machine you’re keeping alive—sounds like a pretty good way to live to us.

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When searching for forgotten old cars, there are a few things you can do to maximize your chances of success. Barn Find Hunter extraordinaire Tom Cotter always suggests arriving to a potential find in a classic car, which helps break the ice and establish that you’re one of the vintage-loving tribe. Tom couldn’t manage to get his Ford woody wagon up to Alaska from his home in North Carolina, so he borrowed a friend’s green Shelby GT350 for his car-searching needs in America’s 49th state. I was along for the ride, and there’s no doubt that the pony car worked like a charm wherever we went.

Tom visited a local car show, made some friends, and got some leads on where old cars were hidden in the Fairbanks area. One of those new contacts was Willie Vinton, curator of the Fountainhead Auto Museum, who has his own kooky personal collection of dusty metal hiding in an old wooden airplane hangar. Like beloved auto journalist Peter Egan said, airplane hangars are great places to look for old cars, because there’s always space under the wings for storage.

In Willie’s case, the hangar he shows us is so full of cars that he doesn’t even have room for a plane. Willie is a cheerful guy who looks to be in his mid-50s, with a baseball cap and a bristly white mustache. He’s excited to lift the curtain on the hangar door so he can show us his collection, and in the light of day, Tom declares it quite an eclectic collection. Staring at us is a vintage pickup with generous patina, a yellow AMC Gremlin covered in dust, an early Model A Ford, and the remains of an old midget race car.

Tom is immediately drawn to the 1947 Mercury one-ton pickup—a Canadian market truck that was just like the Ford equivalent but with a little bit fancier trim and detailing. The pickup is a real survivor, and despite some body rust in the bed area, you can tell Willie is proud of it. He found it nearby in Fairbanks. “I chased this truck for 25 years before I got it,” he says. “It had an awful rough life.” Apparently the truck sat dormant for years, and the owner’s wife wouldn’t sell until she passed away and her daughter sold it to Willie.  

The Mercury’s flathead V-8 fires right up when Tom turns the key. Willie wants to keep it mostly original, but when he rebuilt the engine he added aluminum heads and a six-volt alternator. He tells Tom to take it for a spin around the airfield. Tom does not need to be asked twice, giddily shifting the four-speed manual into gear and puttering around the empty roads with obvious enjoyment. “This is just my kind of vehicle,” Tom tells me. “Willie’s done a great job of maintaining its authenticity. It’s mechanically sound but far from restored. Nature has a way of making both people and cars softer and more worn with age, and I think this Mercury is honest to that fact.”

Once back in the garage, Tom and Willie turn their attention to a Ford Model A, built in December 1927. Willie says it was originally bought new in Dawson City, Canada, just across the border, as a mail carrier with no back seat. It’s an early AR model from the last year of the Model T, evidenced by the left-side handbrake. The engine isn’t the original, but the rest is. Willie wants to give it a full restoration. “I love when they haven’t been molested,” he tells us.

That’s definitely true of the dusty yellow 1975 AMC Gremlin in the corner, which was Willie’s dad’s car from Montana. It has 62,000 miles and has been in Alaska for 20 years now. It’s an automatic with a bench seat and a six-cylinder. In front of it is an old midget race car, which Willie claims is the last known example in Alaska, retired from competing on dirt tracks. It has a stamped aluminum frame, runs a 60-hp flathead engine with no transmission, and uses a Model A rear end along with a lot of other Model A parts.

We say thanks and part from Willie, only to exit the airfield, drive around the edge of it around to the other side, and pull up to an airport rental car lot with a nondescript warehouse next to it. Another contact of Tom’s, Peter Lundqvist, is there to greet us, stepping down from his mud-caked Toyota Land Cruiser with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He drops the gun in the trunk and shakes our hands, motioning for us to follow him inside his warehouse full of automotive delights.

In the corner of the building, next to a sweet-looking Jaguar XJ12, is a faded ’57 Chevy. Tom immediately notices, however, that this is no ordinary ’57 Chevy. It’s a rare government-issue Sedan Delivery, which looks like a wagon except that it has a different rear end with a glass window and a single-piece hatch. It’s like a panel wagon in that it has no back seat, but it has windows. How did it end up in Alaska? Peter tells us it was his brother’s vehicle, which he bought for $500 in 1975 in Tacoma, Washington, while attending law school. His brother often drove it back and forth from Tacoma to Fairbanks.The story makes Peter a bit emotional, his voice faltering a little as he tells us that it wasn’t long after that his brother was killed by a drunk driver.

Peter can’t sell it—the Chevy means too much. He tells us the wagon has been sitting idle for 12 years. It’s dirty and covered in primer, and the tires are all flat. There’s a sticker inside that indicates it was a Department of Agriculture service vehicle, and judging by the one-piece bumper, it likely operated in California. Like you’d expect of a government work vehicle, it’s the most basic spec you can imagine—base 235-cubic-inch straight six with a single carburetor, three on the tree, spartan steering wheel, no armrests, no clock, no radio, and no additional trim whatsoever. The odometer shows 99,636 miles, and the glovebox reveals two blasts from the past—a logbook documenting oil changes and inspections, alongside a government-issue book recommending service-station procedure.

The Chevy fires up fine and can even drive, but the long-term plan is to restore it to stock condition. Peter has all the parts, although he admits the Chevy’s time on unpaved roads means the body has suffered from a lot of dirt and silt, so it will probably need some attention.

Another family heirloom sits on the other side of the warehouse, this one a lot older. Peter walks Tom over to a rare 1914 Model T Town Car, passed down to him from his father. These were the elite-level Model Ts of the time—coachbuilt, extremely expensive, and largely intended for chauffeuring. As you might expect, the interior was very luxurious and there was a glass partition between passenger and driver. It was bought new in the Lower 48 and barged up to Fairbanks to join a taxi company, but Peter said that it got into a collision not long after and was junked for scrap. His father bought it in 1954, and it’s been in the family ever since. Peter shows us all the parts for it and says his goal is to restore it, but he needs to find both the time to do some work himself and the money to pay someone else for the tougher restoration jobs.

Lastly, Peter leads Tom over to a pony car hiding under a car cover, walking straight past his shiny red C4 Corvette ZR-1. Tom lifts the cover and reveals an original-paint, blue 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 with a shaker hood. The car belongs to Tom’s friend David, the same guy who loaned us his GT350 for our time traveling through Alaska. David found it in Anchorage several years ago, and it shows just 22,000 miles. Inside Tom notices the Hurst four-speed shifter and 8-track player. It’s in good condition overall, and according to our valuation data probably worth about $66,000–$70,000.

It’s hard to believe, but there’s more to come from Tom’s travels in Alaska. We met even more car geeks, investigated more backyards, garages, and junkyards, and peeked under more dirt-caked covers. Alaska is truly a vast land full of undiscovered potential. Stay tuned—and happy hunting.

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Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter is always offering tips to anyone with an interest in discovering hidden old cars. Some of his greatest hits: Go to local shows and meetups to make friends; keep an eye out for cars in driveways, yards, and open garages; and when meeting a potential seller, it helps to show up in an old car to break the ice and let them know you’re not just a looky-loo.

[Editor’s note: The video above, and a previous version of this story,  incorrectly refer to the Jim Wagners Pontiac as a Ram Air IV. As some of our readers pointed out, the car is a Ram Air III. The story has been updated.]

Some people, however, are just born naturals. Father-son barn-find team Terry and Preston have turned up some fantastic vintage metal over the years in their town of North Pole, Alaska. Tom met the duo at a car parade in Fairbanks, heard that they had a few trophies to show off back home, and paid them a visit to see for himself.

I’m riding with Tom down a small lane off the main highway through North Pole, about 14 miles southeast of Fairbanks. The guys are sitting outside, in front of the house, waiting to greet us. There are several crates of stuff in the front yard. With his white goatee and a bandana tied around his head, Terry looks like a former biker. He tells us he moved to Alaska from Minnesota about 40 years ago to work on the pipeline. His son, Preston, is clean-cut and ready with a handshake to welcome us and show off their cars.

We walk right past a pair of gorgeous muscle cars—which are shiny, and therefore not what Barn Find Hunter is all about—and Tom sets his sights on a sweet 1969 Ford Torino Cobra. According to Preston, he and his father found it in someone’s yard seven years ago, buried under a few feet of snow, during one of their usual cruises looking for cars around town.

Wearing its original green paint, black interior, and SportsRoof fastback, this Torino came from the factory with an uncommon combination of options. It has factory hood pins, air conditioning, an automatic transmission, a clock, and yet no gauge package, which would have added a tachometer. The Marti Report shows that it sat on the lot at a dealership in California for about a year, which Preston thinks indicates it might have been a display model. Today, the floors and panels are all totally solid, and the odometer shows 78,000 miles.

Tom is really into this car, remembering how it was exactly the imaginary spec he built out as a kid in one of Ford’s advertising inserts in many car magazines. A big smile appears on his face when Preston offers him the chance to fire up the big 428-cubic-inch V-8.

Next, under a pair of covers wait two other Fords—a pair of Mustangs. First is a 1967 fastback with 51,000 original miles, which Terry and Preston found three years ago in a warehouse. The original owner was a parts runner who’d run into some health problems and had to sell of the candy-apple red car. It’s a choice example of a ’67 Mustang, complete with its 289 C-code V-8 and two-barrel carburetor, four-speed manual transmission, styled wheels, heavy duty suspension, and rare blackout rear panel. The same seller also had a 1965 Mustang convertible, painted to match, which was his aunt’s car. It’s also a C-code V-8, and Preston notes it’s a little freaky to drive given the lack of standard seat belts.

Around back, amidst a bunch of bramble and tall grass, and past a 1971 GTO the duo also discovered in North Pole, are several cars in proper barn-find condition. It’s a real graveyard of Pontiac metal, including a 1967 LeMans “Post” coupe with the overhead-cam six-cylinder engine (standard hardtops had no B-pillar). Preston freely admits he uses it as a parts car, which makes sense given the condition. The car looks to be sinking into the earth, and vegetation is growing up through the engine.

A few feet away, Tom, a lover of vintage wagons, admires a crusty 1967 Pontiac Bonneville with a big 428. It’s a project Preston started, meant to be a competitor to his friend’s hot-rod Oldsmobile station wagon. When Terry and Preston found the old Pontiac wagon, the owner offered it to them for free.

We make our way out of the tall fireweeds and back into the driveway. Terry and Preston have a treat they want to show Tom. It’s not a barn find, but there’s no doubt it is a fantastic car with an even better story. In their garage is a beautiful-looking 1969 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 400 Ram Air III, which the father and son bought from none other than Pontiac executive Jim Wangers. A longtime champion of Pontiac’s performance efforts, Wangers sent the car back to Pontiac for restoration and repainting, adding to the car’s mystique and legitimacy. It even still has Wangers’ Detroit plates, and on the passenger-side visor is a note written from Wangers in silver Sharpie, telling Preston he’s happy the car is finding a good enthusiast home.  

Tom lights up when he hears this story and sees the car up close. He remembers when he was a kid and used to hitchhike home from sports practice, he once rode in a Trans Am and remembered the experience for the rest of his life. When Preston offers him to take it for a ride, Tom hesitates, as if he isn’t sure he should alter that childhood memory. His curiosity wins out. After gingerly backing out of the driveway and accelerating out of the neighborhood, he finds an empty stretch of road to lay down a little patch like it’s 1969.

I can’t help but be amazed at how a group of perfect strangers, from complete opposite sides of the country, are so quickly united by something simple as a love of cars. Truly, it’s what the hobby is all about. When you hunt for cars, you often find new friends.

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Tom Cotter stops by a friend’s property on the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter, hoping to catch a glimpse of something new.

When the opening shot reveals a clearing filled with at least 80 classic cars, you know this is going to be a good find, but that’s not the half of it. The vehicles outside, which include a late-production C3 Corvette, an early second-generation K5 Blazer, and a whole lot of ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s American iron, are in various states of rot and disrepair. Tom has already braced us for this, warning earlier in the episode that, “They’ve kind of deteriorated down to a point where I’d call them sculpture.”

It’s a rainy day, and the big field behind the shop where this stash is located is more or less a marsh. As the mud and wet grass squishes under his feet, Tom walks past a ’69 Camaro, a ’69 Impala, and a ’57 Ford two-door wagon on the way to his first talking point, a ’63 Ford fastback with a 390 that seems to be a good candidate for a restoration. Next up is a ’72 two-wheel-drive Chevy K5 Blazer and right next to it, a 3/4-ton ’72 Suburban.

The sheer number of cars keeps Tom from seeing everything at once, which means he skips right over a wood-grained Vega wagon to scope out a big-block Impala and a trio of Corvairs. We’ll forgive him for that, as there’s much cooler metal ahead. For example, as he opens the hood to discover a ’66 Impala’s big-block V-8 is not entirely intact but still in place, he’s standing by a different 1969 Camaro.

Out in the back of the field, in more the mud, the remains of a 1963 Ford Galaxie represent an automotive tragedy for Tom. What was once an R-code 427 four-speed car has been cut up and cannibalized for parts. Hopefully its powertrain is back on the road in another R-code somewhere. 

We’re able to spot a ’60 Impala, a Kaiser Henry J, a ’66 or ’67 Pontiac Tempest, and an early ’70s Pontiac Ventura Custom as the Barn Find Hunter film crew heads toward a car that was stored in slightly better conditions, an early De Tomaso Pantera. A little bit of cover and some breathing room between it and the damp ground didn’t save this mid-engine Italian marvel from a fate that often claimed cars of that era: rust. Still, the inside of the car is a time warp to the late ’70s, complete with an 8-track player and massive car phone. Still, the car’s yellow paint and lovely shape are a sight for sore eyes on this rainy day.

Just so you’re not too sad about the derelict R-code, this episode concludes with a nicely-preserved 1963 R-code Galaxie 500 XL nestled among a ’69 Mustang and early Thunderbird. Located way in the back of a large storage unit, the R-code Galaxie looks like it might have been the first car stored there before dozens of others boxed it into a corner. In recent years it looks like it’s been used more as a shelf for junk, than anything else. Tom pops the hood to reveal the dual-quad 427 that was used by many of NASCAR and drag racing’s most notable teams in the early ’60s.

Most of these cars weren’t visible from the road, but to a savvy car spotter willing to ask a few questions they weren’t totally hidden, either. As Tom reminds us, keep an eye open, because finds like these could just be a backroad drive away.

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In a departure from his typical methods of finding cars by old-fashioned sleuthing and poking around, Tom Cotter follows a tip from a viewer on the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter. And it leads him to a fantastically cool former Buick dealership in Iowa. Bet you can guess what happens next.

The dealership—built in 1941 just before Buick switched from building straight-eight car engines to wartime V-12 and radial aircraft engines—has interesting Art Deco architecture and lots of charm. There’s even a curved glass façade and generous use of glass blocks. The building’s owner, Robert, tells Tom a bit about the history of the structure, and Tom can’t help but peek inside for his first glimpse of the cars that have been stored away for decades. The first he’s able to identifying is a diminutive, door-less two-seater known as the Crosley Hot Shot.

Tom is all smiles as he finally sets foot inside the building and gets on with the exploring. First, the cover comes off a 1968 DeTomaso Mangusta, the svelte mid-engine Italian sports car was the predecessor to the long-lived Pantera that also used small-block Ford V-8 engines. Unfortunately this car was without its 302-cubic-inch V-8 and manual transaxle, but it appears that the small-block’s headers were still in place.

Moving further into the dealership yields a wonderful variety of sports and GT cars. A Jaguar E-type, MG MGC-GT, and Facel Vega are worth noticing, but Tom is drawn to the biggest of the bunch, a fully-restored 1965 Imperial convertible complete with 413 big block power. Next up is a Toyota-R16-powered Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite and another British roadster, an MG TD.

Robert and Tom spend a moment poking around the wonderful French GT car that we saw earlier, a 1957 Facel Vega FVS that’s powered by a Mopar poly V-8. Inside the trunk there’s a GT-style fuel cap on a nicely finished fuel tank. After a quick stop with the six-cylinder MGC, it’s off to another Italian, a Lamborghini Espada. The roomy GT is powered by Lamborghini’s V-12 engine and which is fed by six Weber side-draft carbs. With 20,000 or so miles, it looks like it’s a tune-up away from being ready to hit the road.

Next, the pair make their way to a 1963 Jaguar E-type, Robert’s dream car that he’s owned for 35 years, before heading to the old bodyshop portion of the dealership that offers up a Willys Jeepster and a litter of tiny Crosleys, including the Hot Shot Tom spotted earlier. Robert and Tom explore more of his eclectic collection before making one last stop at the Imperial to hear that big-block Mopar V-8 fire up and rumble.

This Barn Find Hunter has some of the widest-ranging cars under one roof. But rest assured, Tom will always be on the hunt to see if he can top it with the next find.

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To live in a place as wild and wide open as Alaska, you need something to bring you closer together with those in your community. That’s true on a practical level—a car is essential to get around—but I found that there is a real love for classics in Alaska that leads to conversations with total strangers like you’re old friends. And if there’s one thing people in Alaska really love, it’s Broncos.

While at a burger stand in Delta Junction, Alaska, a few weeks prior to our visit, Barn Find Hunter host Tom Cotter struck up a conversation with vintage first-generation Bronco owner Adam McNabb. The two gearheads bonded over McNabb’s blue 1972 Ford Bronco, and Tom said he’d follow up to come check out some of McNabb’s various Broncos and assorted off-road delights.

Upon returning with the full Barn Find Hunter production staff, we set off in Tom’s borrowed 1966 Shelby GT350, heading out of urban Fairbanks and into the densely wooded countryside. The burly drawl of the vintage Mustang echoes through the trees and over the river as we cruise across miles of empty road, the occasional RV or lifted truck passing the other direction and flashing their lights to signal their appreciation for our good taste in American muscle. It’s the car, the beautiful landscape, and the joy of driving.

Turning off the main road, we are trace a few long dirt paths, finally arriving at a gravel trail that leads to McNabb’s house. A pair of barking dogs greet us with wagging tails. Waiting there in front of the garage is McNabb, a strong-looking guy whose build suggests he could have been a fearsome football player at some point. He extends a meaty hand and greets Tom and me, offering to show us around his property and tell us about his passion for Broncos.

We start off with the blue ‘72 Bronco that first caught Tom’s eye. It’s a first-generation, original-paint truck. “I picked it up from the second owner about 160 miles from here,” he says. “He bought it from a school district that used it to transport kids across a small creek crossing during high water. That’s pretty much all it was used for.”

The truck now shows 110,000 miles, and is powered by a 302-cubic-inch V-8. It’s almost totally stock, aside from a new Holley carburetor in place of the original Motorcraft. “It had sat for about 15 years. I threw a battery in it and filled up the float bowl with gas, and it started just like that. I’ve been driving it ever since,” McNabb tells us.

Right now it’s a trusty daily cruiser for summer, because during the winter the Bronco can’t keep the cold out. “Alaskans like Broncos because they get around different terrain easily,” he says. “They make good plows, and the tight turning radius is great. For my son, Nathaniel, his first vehicle will be a Bronco.”

Next up is a 1966 Ford Bronco, the oldest complete example in McNabb’s fleet. The reason this truck doesn’t look barn-find worthy is that he put his mechanic and restoration skills to work, transforming it from just a frame in the woods behind someone’s house into a family road tripper. After adding new Dana 44 axles, among other upgrades, McNabb towed the truck behind his family’s motorhome and used it as an adventure-mobile throughout off-road destinations in the Southwest, including Moab. “Lots of great memories in this rig,” he says.

He then takes us to another 1972 Ford Bronco, this one suffering from some rear end damage but bearing just 72,000 miles on a 302 V-8 with a three-speed transmission. There’s a bit of rust, but nothing terrible. The truck has an electric heater in the cabin, which some Alaskans use to keep the interior warm when vehicles are plugged in at night to an engine block and oil pan heater. But McNabb doesn’t recommend it. “ I think they burned a lot of vehicles to the ground.” This truck, McNabb says, will be a good candidate for his son to restore when he’s older.

We head to another property just a mile away, and Tom gets behind the wheel of the blue ‘72 and gives McNabb a chance to drive the Shelby GT350. It’s the perfect example of how cars bring people together and offer the chance to get in someone else’s shoes. “I think we’re making his day,” says Tom. “And he’s making my day—I’ve never driven a first-gen Bronco.”

At the second property, we see that McNabb also has a thing for Toyota FJs. “I’ve got an addiction for pretty much anything four-wheel drive,” he admits. There are a bunch of FJs lined up, and he explains that while the Broncos make for excellent daily drivers, the Toyotas are tough as nails and the better choice for a high-power engine swap and a lot of hard, abusive off-roading. One example has awful rot, because people sometimes used spray-on foam to keep cars warmer and better insulated, which traps in the moisture and leads to stage four metal cancer.

A ‘68 Bronco shell rests nearby, originally equipped with a six-cylinder engine and a three-speed. McNabb was driving it for a while but decided to pull off the body for a better one, but Tom can’t believe that after some of the metal was sand-blasted seven years ago, there’s only a bit of surface rust visible—a testament to the dry Alaskan air that keeps old cars alive out here.

McNabb saves the best for last. Out in the field is a lovely 1972 Ford Bronco Sport. It has no motor, and it’ll make for a great restoration candidate. Part of the reason the cars are so popular in the area is that the Air Force base nearby at one point bought a whole bunch of them, so there are survivors floating around that if nothing else make for good parts donors. And as these 4x4s become ever more popular and desirable, it’s going to only get harder to find clean examples at good prices. You might want to get away from the lower 48 and take a trip to the Last Frontier before it’s picked clean.

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There are barn finds, and then there are barn finds. This, my friends, is the latter. Longtime fans of Barn Find Hunter know that Tom Cotter has turned up some unbelievable treasures in the past, but I can honestly say this very special discovery is one of the most spectacular automotive experiences I’ve ever had. Come with Tom and me into the deep woods, somewhere in the Carolinas, where a hidden motherlode of barn-find classics slumbers in scattered buildings amidst the poplars, sweetgums, and hickories.

You’d never know that down an unmarked, unpaved road lives a barn-find collection that would melt any car enthusiast’s face off. And when you meet Billy Eubanks—a friendly, soft-spoken old-timer dressed in plaid—you’d never guess he was the caretaker for an automotive goldmine easily worth several million dollars, if not more.

Before you even get to Billy’s house, cars start appearing in the woods. A headlight poking out from behind a tree here, a rusted fender breaking up the forest of green there. It’s raining hard, so near the first gaggle of cars we can hear the rain’s gentle pitter patter on the old metal. A good omen.

When we finally find Billy, he’s sitting in an armchair next to his father, Walter “Bicket” Eubanks. “I’m proud of my cars, but I learned everything about how to work on ’em from my Daddy,” Billy says, motioning to the man in the next chair. “He taught me a lot at NASCAR and dirt-track races, although he mostly worked on old school buses. I learned to weld when I was 14, and at 16 I built a ’34 hot rod with a Hemi that won its class at Charlotte Coliseum.”

The room is dimly lit, but all the shadows are full of automotive signage, trinkets, and memorabilia. There’s stained glass with the Ford blue oval, plus models, posters, and toolboxes in every corner. But center stage in this first room is a Hudson Hornet Special that the Eubanks bought new in 1957. It’s very well kept. Billy explains that he enjoys doing the restoration work himself, and remembers fondly his days teaching auto restoration at his local community college.

But once you start walking the vast, wooded property, anybody with a pair of eyes can see that as much as Billy likes restoration, he’s deep down a dedicated collector. First we see a 1929 Stutz, one of two Stutzes he owns. It’s gorgeous. Next is a 1940 Lincoln Continental with supposedly factory handmade rear fender skirts. There are Corvettes, Mopars, Jaguars, Cadillacs, and more. There is no rhyme or reason to what fills the rooms—if Billy liked it, he got it and fixed it up. Some he drove more than others, but he never got rid of his cars and never even thought about flipping them for profit.

Maybe that’s brought good fortune from the automotive powers that be. Case in point, Billy’s white ’63 split-window Corvette, which was stolen from him once. Billy wanted it back real bad, so he “prayed to the Lord to get it back to me by the weekend.” That Friday night the police in the town nearby called him up and said they’d found it in the woods and it barely ran—the thieves had apparently ripped a burnout so fierce it broke a motor mount and mangled three spark plug wires. He drove it home on five cylinders.

“I got into Chevys because they were easy to work on and get parts for, especially when I was young,” Billy recalls. “I wanted to show them boys at school I knew how to build a car.”

There are buildings and buildings full of dirty, flat-tired but generally well-kept cars at this place, and they’re parked bumper to bumper, as if he filled one structure up the best he could and just decided to start filling up the next. “You get in a rhythm liking one kind, but then you start liking something else,” Billy says. After a 440 Six Pack Charger, a lovely red Daytona (one of three he owns, all purchased because they were banned in NASCAR).

The next structure over is a garage six lanes wide and about three cars deep, filled with a totally eclectic mixture of stuff. Tom immediately gravitates to a pair of rare Fords—a ’69 Torino Talladega with a 428 and a Dan Gurney Mercury Cyclone. Nearby is a ’57 Chevy Nomad, one of several we’ll find today. Next over is a black Lincoln Mk II, another Hudson Hornet, a Chrysler 300, a ’58 Chrysler Imperial that Billy drove to high school (!!), a 1960 Rolls-Royce, a 427 Chevy Impala convertible, and more.

In a shed across the way we find a pair of Chevys, red and green, the latter a ’55 four-door with 36,000 original miles. Behind another door, two old Jaguars, also red and green, plus an E-type.

“We’re walking past stuff here that we’d normally spend an entire Barn Find Hunter episode on, salivating over it, if we found it anywhere else,” Tom says. “Really, there’s just too much to even wrap your head around. I feel guilty about not paying attention and giving credit to them all.”

It’s overwhelming, but for Billy’s wife, Carol Lee, it’s just another day. “When we first got married, he only had a car or two,” Carol Lee remembers. “After our daughter was born I was in the hospital and he came and told me to look out the window. I thought he was just so happy about our little girl, but he actually had just bought another car and it was out in the parking lot and he wanted me to see it. And my life has been like that forever more.”

It is her birthday, and she still has the kindness to show us around what she considers her husband’s life’s work. She concedes that it’s possible she could even discover a car she never knew she had—one time her grandkids counted them all, and there are more than 100 if you include everything in the woods. She takes us past another big-block Chevy convertible, a Camaro Z/28, another ’50s Chrysler, and finally a Lincoln Cosmopolitan.

We stumble upon a black ’40s Lincoln cabriolet with a great story and a trophy to prove it. Billy entered it into a car show and registered in his daughter Tammy’s name, while he hung out in the parking lot to swap car parts with all the other guys there. Sure enough, the car won its pre-war class, and they called out “Tommy Eubanks,” incorrectly, and still Tammy ran up and snatched the trophy so fast to show her dad outside that Carol Lee couldn’t even act quick enough to snap a picture.

In the same building, just around the corner, things start to get even more interesting (if you can believe it). Yes, it’s yet another Dodge Daytona, this one extensively modified with a 426 Hemi, big rear wheels and tires, and likely a drag racing pedigree. Billy explains that the previous owner took it to the Chelsea Proving Grounds in Michigan, where Chrysler to this day does its testing, and ran it to 190 mph. The owner and the Daytona were promptly kicked out and banned from the premises.

And right nearby is a sibling to the Daytona, a white Plymouth Superbird—the 43rd to roll off the production line. Just a reminder, prices for these range from $91,000–$216,000 depending on condition. Tom is confident that although the car hasn’t been started and run in a while, it wouldn’t take much to get it in fantastic shape, and it has the benefit of being totally original. My head hurts. The scale of it all is absurd.

But it doesn’t let up. A dusty Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz with the most wonderful taillights. Outside, under cover, is the actual ’41 Lincoln Continental that was shot up in The Godfather. Next to it is an Australian Ute from the mid-1950s. A super-clean Chrysler Airflow.

It. Never. Ends.

We head down to yet another building maybe a five-minute walk away, as I’m chased by a pack of tiny Pomeranian-looking dogs. They’re all bark and no bite. But they’re apparently guarding one of Billy’s favorite cars, a 1957 Dodge D500 with a high-performance Hemi engine, one four-barrel carb, and a stick-shift transmission. Bicket bought it new, and Billy eventually freshened it with new paint.

Honestly, I’m skipping over a lot here. Watch the video. Like Tom said, there’s just too much. And don’t forget to notice that in just about every building there is a complete set of tools, many made by Snap-On. But I can’t skip over the metallic blue 1968 Corvette with the Tri-Power 427, four-speed, air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, and side exhaust. This thing was optioned like crazy, and Tom confesses he’s never seen one quite like it. “How you can have cars like this and never got a speeding ticket, I have no idea,” Tom tells Billy.

There are even nicer, cleaner cars in other buildings, including three ’57 Ford Thunderbirds and several Corvettes. Most incredible among them is an L82 Corvette from 1980 that Billy bought new and then drove straight home from the dealer and has never driven again. It has 9.2 miles and all the original plastic. A few cars down is a 1971 DeTomaso Pantera with 14,500 miles. In the basement is Tom’s favorite, a very elegant Jaguar XK120 coupe in dark blue with original brown interior.

Even with an injured knee that makes it hard to get around, Billy is still busy restoring cars. He shows us (in yet another building) a ’59 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz he’s actively working on, complete with factory bucket seats, Tri-Power, and a beautiful red paint. Fair, #4-condition Eldorado Biarritzes command $101,000 and go all the way up to $260,000 for the best examples in the world. It’s absolutely massive and totally impressive and I’m still not convinced any of this is real.

“After hours and hours, I think this is the finest collection of unknown cars I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tom says. “In all the years I’ve been doing this, since I was 12 or 13, I’ve never found a collective group of cars like this. Not ones that so fit the definition of a ‘barn find’ like this. And cars that are so desirable—not just a Superbird, but #43 like Richard Petty, and not just an old Lincoln, but the one from The Godfather. Billy has a real taste for what’s great. And to think he didn’t do it for money, but just because he loved it and to preserve the cars.”

Before we leave, Billy shows us his daily driver, and Tom and I just about burst out laughing. We couldn’t have written the script of the day better if we tried. It’s a red Toyota Prius.

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When it comes to searching for old, forgotten cars, nobody likes to go off the beaten path like Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter. But this time Tom’s taste for adventure takes him way out in Alaska, where classic car culture is alive and well. You might remember Tom’s previous visit to Alaska with his 289 Shelby Cobra resulted in an unexpected encounter with a bear, courtesy of Fig Newtons. Would Alaska be so welcoming this time around? I joined Tom’s hunt to find out.

If there’s one thing I learned while bumming around Alaska searching for old cars, it’s that Alaskans love Mustangs. Regular Barn Find Hunter viewers know Tom usually hunts in his Ford woodie wagon, but being that Alaska is incredibly far away and the threat of rain is something woodie owners have to take seriously—plus the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive to ship—we sourced a very special Mustang as a stand-in. No doubt the green 1966 Shelby GT350, which we borrowed from a local friend of Tom’s, opened a few doors along the way.

Of course, opening a garage door to find a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 with a rare and desirable list of factory options was a hell of a way to kick off our adventure in Fairbanks. The prize pony is hiding just outside of downtown Fairbanks in a garage next to the home of Tracy McLeod, whose late husband, Ray, was a lifelong Mustang aficionado. “He could never turn a Mustang down, as you can see,” Tracy says, motioning to the lot next to her house. Parked there are three vintage Mustangs, two in major states of disrepair and one black 1971 Mach 1 hot rod that was Ray’s favorite driver.

Ray, who passed away recently, built the black Mach 1 hot rod for drag racing at the nearby Fort Wainwright military base. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, drag racing at the base ended. But Ray continued to drive the Mach 1, and taking rides in the car inspired his granddaughter’s love for Mustangs. In fact, she loves to play “Pony1” a game for car-spotting Mustangs. The license plate on her grandfather’s black Mach 1? Pony1, of course.

Also on the property is a first-generation Mustang, which Tom pegs as maybe a 1964.5 or a ’65 with an automatic transmission. It’s fairly rough, in need of a major restoration, and by the looks of the brand-new floorpan next to the car, that might have been Ray’s plan. Next to the first-gen is another forgotten pony, this one also with an automatic. It has a V-8, but it’s probably a parts car given the condition and various paints used throughout the body and interior. Last is either a 1970 or ’71 Mustang in blue, with a big-block engine and Holley carburetor, high-capacity ignition, and automatic transmission. It too has suffered from sitting outside, and the vegetation on the lawn is starting to grow through holes in the floor.

It’s clear that of all his treasures, Ray was most fond of this last car—the one he called the “Big Car” and loved so much that it was the only Mustang he kept under cover. When Tom raises the garage door, the taillights betray that this is yet another Mach 1 Mustang, this one also a 1971. It’s under a pile of stuff and surrounded by even more.

But this blue barn find is even more special than the black hot rod outside, particularly because of its rare combination of factory options. A 429 Cobra Jet engine? Check. Air conditioning? Check. Four-speed manual transmission? Well, that’s odd. Tom was told this car was a manual, but inside you can clearly tell it’s an automatic. In a flash, Tracy’s daughter is outside with the documentation that provides answers: a Marti Report, a data sheet produced by Kevin Marti, who inherited a trove of Ford archives. Based on the VIN, a Marti report reveals all of a car’s original factory equipment, date of production, the dealer that took delivery, date of sale, and more. It also provides an analysis of how rare the vehicle is, based on the number of vehicles just like it.

According to the report, the “Big Car” did indeed left the factory with a four-speed manual. Ray bought the car many years ago from a friend in California and trailered through Canada to Alaska.

As it sits, the car is in true barn-find condition, with several parts in boxes and the interior disassembled. But there’s no doubt the body is solid and straight as an arrow, and Tom points out that if someone had the time and inclination to do a lot of the work on their own, this could be a fun restoration project that would more than pay for itself if you ever wanted to sell.

Right now, that’s Tracy’s plan. With Ray no longer around, her hope is to sell everything to someone who could provide a good home—that is, everything except the black hot rod Mach 1. That car is not for sale. Too many good memories were made in it, and there is a certain Mustang-loving granddaughter who will one day take up the mantle. And that’s how it should be.

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Some of Tom Cotter’s tremendous barn finds have come by way of association, word of mouth from someone who knows the kind of things Tom is looking for. Other times Tom stumbles upon the treasures himself as a part of his travels across America. The latter was certainly the case for this particular collection of American muscle.

This episode of Barn Find Hunter brings Tom to Virginia to visit Snowball Bishop, an acquaintance he’d met years ago when he spotted Bishop’s collection from the highway. Snowball is an older guy, maybe in his mid-80s, with a fast-talking drawl and endless stories. He takes Tom around to see a handful of his favorite cars, habitually tapping on the tires with his cane to punctuate key points of his narrative.

The property is a vast swath of land, dotted with maybe 50 or so cars in various states of disrepair. Some of these cars have been parked so long there is an entire ecosystem thriving inside their rusted or rotted husks, and in two cases there are trees growing straight through the engine bays of two cars. In fact, Snowball tells Tom, the property is actually divided in half by the interstate, which he watched get built as a much younger man. Snowball’s place was a communal gathering spot for his car-loving friends, and there were many long nights in the garage with his friends that devolved into poker games. Eventually they’d be cut short when Snowball’s wife would yank the extension cord running from the house to the garage.

He shows off a pair of 1964 Ford Galaxies in a garage, one nicely restored with a 390 and four-speed, while the other is completely original and unrestored, purchased for $250 in 1968. A housecat dances around the two cars as Tom and Snowball chat, jumping on on the restored car and leaving tiny paw prints in its wake. Across the path on the property is an older house that Snowball just uses for storage, and amidst the piles of hubcaps, manifolds, body panels, grilles, and bumpers, Tom finds a carburetor he likes and convinces Snowball to sell it to him. Who says you can’t mix business with pleasure?

There’s plenty of preserved Ford trim and bumpers among Bishop’s buildings, but it’s the shell of a Ford modified stock car outside that steers the conversation towards the highlight of the episode. Bishop had raced the modified with a Ford flathead V-8, but it didn’t have the power he needed to compete. A trip to Lee and Richard Petty’s shop, along with some intense negotiation, had him leave with enough parts to build a 426 Max Wedge, and just enough gas money to get home. Snowball recounts the story like it was yesterday, and amidst the dreary weather and drops of rain, you can almost picture the old Max Wedge burning rubber and taking names in its prime.

The 426 Max Wedge was Mopar’s biggest and baddest street engine prior to the 426 Hemi and was offered in 1962-1964 Dodge and Plymouth B-bodies. For the Pettys it was obsolete once the Hemi was introduced, but it was a huge step up in power compared to any small-block of the era, let alone a flathead. The brutish mill pushed Bishop to several wins in the car.

Tom also inspects a 1963 Galaxie convertible that Bishop has for sale. After just a bit of tinkering, they get the car to fire up. You might be lead to believe that Bishop drives a hard bargain considering the seemingly impossible deals he’s snatched up, but he told Tom he’d be willing to part ways with the Galaxie for just $3500. And if you head to Virginia and take Snowball up on that, you’ll probably get some great stories for free, too.

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In Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter’s first book, The Cobra in the Barn, he wrote about an oddball car carrier that was almost forgotten by history. Known as the Cheetah Transporter, the funky-looking race car hauler was a kind of American hot-rod take on the 1954 Mercedes-Benz Rennabteilung transporter that brought the 300 SL to various races without needing a trailer.

When Geoff Hacker read about it in Tom’s book in 2006, he scrambled to buy the Transporter, which he has now owned for 12 years.

As detailed by Hemmings, the wild cab-forward beast was the brainchild of a man named Norman Holtkamp, who wanted to build his own version of the Mercedes hauler. He started with the chassis from a crashed Mercedes 300 S, which Hacker and Tom see clearly as they poke their heads inside the Cheetah Transporter’s innards in the newest Barn Find Hunter video. Holtkamp apparently valued the chassis’ self-leveling suspension, which he kept stock, but he quickly got to work dramatically slashing the wheelbase from 110 inches to 94 inches.

From there he envisioned the cab, extending the frame ahead of the front axle and attaching the front end of an El Camino body-in-white sourced from GM. Custom aluminum panelwork by Dick Troutman and Dick Barnes, based on designs by Dave Deal, were hammered out and used to fashion the nose and rest of the body behind the cab. Holtkamp swapped in a 283-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 and three-speed manual transmission, mounted behind the driver.

As Hacker tells Tom, the Cheetah suffered from weight distribution issues, particularly with no car on the bed. Under braking, the front end would tip forward and the rear would lift right up. The original solution was to add a pair of heavy-duty water tanks as ballast, which actually fixed the problem pretty well. The Cheetah Transporter appeared on the cover of Car and Driver in 1961, and Holtkamp drove it here and there until he decided to continue tinkering with it in the late ’60s.

Hoping to improve the stability issues, Holtkamp had the idea to lengthen the car’s wheelbase to 124 inches, widen the track to accommodate bigger race cars, and move the drivetrain farther back. Nevertheless, before Holtkamp’s handiwork was finished, he sold the Transporter to Dean Moon, a well-known aftermarket parts maven. As Hemmings explains, Moon wanted to switch to disc brakes, but while it was in the shop the February 1971 San Fernando earthquake brought the facility down on top of the Transporter.

It miraculously escaped with just a minor dent, and then Moon’s plans evolved into including a big-block ZL-1 engine to make the Cheetah the world’s fastest car hauler. Alas, that never happened. And when Moon passed in 1987, collector Jim Degnan bought it and managed to swap in an automatic transmission and 350 V-8 to finally get the old thing running and driving.

That was the end of the story until Hacker bought it from Degnan in 2006. And since Tom’s visit, the Cheetah Transporter is finally on the verge of restoration.

“My goal is to really get the look right and return it to the original design, including the short wheelbase,” Hacker says. “It’ll probably be an 18-month job, and we’ll keep the water tanks for sure. Even if we use disc brakes instead of the original drums, we’ll keep the Mercedes hub caps so it looks right.”

As for the motor, Hacker is thinking either a 283 or 350 V-8 paired with an automatic transmission.

“And once it’s done, I even have the wooden molds, or bucks, for the long-wheelbase version,” Hacker says. “Who knows, we could follow the original up with the longer one and have a pair of Cheetah Transporters.”

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Tom Cotter has found plenty of vintage sheet metal in his Barn Find Hunter adventures, but this trip he finds his way into a field where sheet metal is tougher to come by. What does that mean? Fiberglass. And there is plenty of it.

Tom visits Geoff Hacker, who is an expert on fiberglass and kit vehicles. Geoff’s outdoor storage plays host to a plethora of colors and shapes. With kit and fiberglass vehicles being generally low-production, Geoff’s yard plays host to multiple cars that are one-of-less-than-a-dozen. If weird and uncommon is your taste, then buckle up.

Just such example is a one-of-three car built by Carl Luckenbach in 1954. The European inspired front-end catches Tom’s eye first, but the Lincoln engine under the hood tells the most interesting story. Hacker claims that there are only a few miles on the brand-new Lincoln V-8, but poor storage has locked the bottom end of the engine. Pulling one valve cover shows a very good condition valvetrain, though looks can be deceiving.

Just roaming the yard reveals many stories of one person’s vision for a car, along with their effort to build that vision. Tom got a few of the stories, but there are many more out there. He’ll keep hunting for the next one, as always.

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