The 'Barn Find' is not dead my friend...

You might need a hazmat suit for the rescue mission!

 

1956 Citroen Traction Avant. A surprising find in the hinterlands of Alabama!

It was parked in 1966 with a busted transmission case. The story is that a front wheel fell through a wooden bridge, which broke the aluminum transmission case. (The transmission is in front of the engine on these cars). Still has a 1966 Alabama license plate. Now mine.

 

CharlieBob - very cool find!

 

Strange find you got there CharlieBob. Here,s some inspiration for you. BTW that lower grille badge/emblem is worth some decent coin.

 

Nice find,,and very complete as finding one with both headlight bezels and front bumper is rare..I also got my K1 just a few miles west of Minneapolis..It was in a barn but had certainly not spent it lifetime under a roof

 

Thanks ss34coupe. As you can see, the Citroen has a family resemblance to 33-34 Fords.

34 Gaz, Thanks. Both are inspiring.

 

The only old thing I ever stumbled across in a barn I had to get a tetanus shot for

 

I do some day work for local ranches when they need help gathering cattle.....2 months ago I was on a local place north of Ft.Worth I had not been to before and pulled up to unload my horse behind a barn......there is a side cover coming off the barn and I can see a roof to a coupe sticking up from all the junk stacked up under it.
Sure enough it is a 1934 5 window coupe (Plymouth)....looks like an old rod from the 60's with artillary wheels. Somebody had screwed a piece of sheetmetal over the roof after the filler had rotted. Interior was mohair and very complete.
Thru the side louvers I could see a flathead engine I think.
I asked the owner if he would consider selling and he just said no.......that it would get fixed back up someday.....I left my number and was thankful that at least I got to see it and it was in the dry and pretty well protected.

.....also I will do my best to keep in touch......maybe he will change his mind someday !

 

a 60 fairlane and starliner!!!!!! ugh!!!!!!

 

I've found two....bought one of them.

The first was a Studebaker Lark Daytona with a factory supercharger. I was 15, staying with my grandmother for the summer. It was her friend's late husband's car. It was parked when he died in the 60's. It had very low mileage and was absolutely perfect in every way, except for one cigar burn on the front seat. I had my own money from working but I had to clear the purchase with my dad and he wouldn't let me buy what he referred to as "a ^@#%! Studebaker!"

The second was when I was stationed at Grand Forks AFB in North Dakota. I apologize in advance to anyone from ND, but the place is a God-forsaken festering hell-hole and there's nothing to do there. So....I spent my spare time looking in the hundreds of old abandoned barns that dot the landscape there. I hit the jackpot with a 39 Chevy tudor that had been stored since the 50's, in very nice condition.....just paid a few hundred bucks for it.

 

That same grandmother was very sympathetic to my old-car obsession and she and I would troll for hours looking for old cars.

We found a Model A Victoria next to a garage on one of those trips but the owner wouldn't sell. This was around 1984 and it had obviously been there for quite some time.

An old lady neighbor of hers (that same summer) had a very nice, original one owner 55 210 hardtop that she said she'd sell to me. I can't quite remember the price, but it was something like $2 or $3 grand. When I called my dad to clear the purchase with him, he said that there wasn't a 55 Chevy on the earth worth that much money....had to pass on that one too.

 

Holy crap - I saw that car parked by the San Gabriel Buick dealer back then (I lived a block north) and shot some photos; always wondered who was the lucky guy who dug that one up. Congrats! What's under the hood?

 

I've found a few and they all had history. I don't care a bit about exclusivity or pride in owning it... What amazes me is to find a car that has sat through amazing times... Safe and sound in one spot as the world moves on.

 

Not a barnfind in the truest sense of the word because the owner hasn't forgotten about them or neglected them, but I did find them in a barn so.....

I work in the petrochemical section of Houston (south and east of town) in a pretty industrial area. I was in the lab today and was talking to another guy about old cars, and he says that there are a couple of old cars in the barn next to the facility.

I asked around and found out that they belong to one of the owners and that they've been there for about a decade or so....a 54 Chevy pickup and a 30 Plymouth.

The Plymouth is cherry.....the 54 is presentable but has some rust in the fenders.

You never know what's out there. You wouldn't think, in a million years, that there'd be vintage tin in a building in the heart of the refinery area of Pasadena/Deer Park...but you just never know.

 

I've been lucky on the barn finds, my coupe set since 1959 in a barn til last year when I got it, I also know where there is a 1940 Chevy thats been sitting since 1947

 

Last summer I got invited over to a guys garage after chatting him up at a car show. He gave me a part for my car for free no less but i was staring at the 36 ford pickup sitting in an old honest to God barn. It has been there for about 30 years and I still think of it even though I already have two cars. It is about 4 miles from where I work and it drives me nuts.

 

This one wasn't a "barn find" it was a "hotel find" having been stored for many years in a clapped out old hotel. It was a one horse town, and an old guy that just graduated from "clown school" (Bobo) rolled it out and sold it to me. The rear fender shows a water line from a flood. It's been in my possession for 15 years now, and now drives down the road quite well.

 

Found a 61 in a barn in 07...

 

No barn finds but back in the early 70's I was a lineman in Fresno and we spotted many old cars and bikes from pole top in back yards that could never be seen from the street. Bought quite a few trifive Chevys, a few old bikes and a mint 50 Olds 88 coupe this way and passed on many that I would really like to own now-remember spotting many early Fords and C1 Vettes-most were in the older neighborhoods.

About 1998 also spotted a 62 Vette parked in a field under a towerline-told a friend and he got that one for a great price-had to winch it out of the field in the mud-is now restored.

About 5 years ago a friend told us about a 40 coupe in a barn up above Sonora. Away we went with cash and a trailer no knowing what we would find. In the building was a very nice 40 coupe taken completely apart-bought it for $8K-no rust and minimal body work required with a decent 327 to go with it. In the building was also a nice 55 210, a panhead and an old flathead Harley as well-none of these were for sale.

Same friend and I went to lunch at this little burger joint south of Sacramento. We have gone there frequently. As we were leaving, we spotted the shape of another 40 coupe covered with tarps behind a little shop nearby. We went and inquired and the guy had recently hauled it there from his fathers ranch. The hood,fenders and decklid were stored in the attic and had orig maroon paint-bought it the next day-a very nice old 40.

 

Pictures?

 

Some pics somewhere- dk blue 40 my album is the one fron Sonora (kids car)-the other is there too-it is Folkstone grey-have an old pic of the Olds somewhere. The 55 in my album was a backyard find in 77 in Fresno-still have it. Have another recent 40 coupe found and it is coming apart as we speak. The 57 fuely in my album was also found behind a small dealership in the valley in 77-spotted it from pole top while working-still have it.
It is interesting that for us old timers (I'm 70), our cars will be garage finds in the not too distant future. I know of many nice old cars around here that are owned by guys my age and older and they are starting to come out due to the passage of time, owners age, health etc. Near me is the nicest 55 Chevy convertible I have ever seen--the owner is 84.
I have considered thinning the herd too(57 Fuely and a 40 coupe)so should something happen my wife won't have to deal with the grinders, looky-loos and such.

 

About all I've found in old barns are wasp and hornets nests... I have took a few stings home with me...

 

When I heard a rumor that there was a Diamond T pickup for sale in my area, I knew exaclty where to look, becuase I had seen one back in 1995 and there aren't that many around. I even had a photo I had snapped from the side of the road. What I didn't realize is that the one I saw was just the parts truck for the good one, which was in the barn nearby for a quarter-of-a-century.

 

OK HAMB People: I got several.

A guy walks into my place sees all my old cars parked and asks if I wanted a 61 Dodge wagon and a 54 Chev wagon. next day I had them in my yard.

A guy comes in and says that his family has just sold their property (vacant land with a horse shed) almost completely surrounded by new luxury homes to the developer for an incredible price and there were 3 cars in that shed that needed to go immediately. The next day I had 3 very cool Mopars last licenced in 1975, so dirty that I couldn't tell what color they were. Mitch

 

About 5 years ago, it was discovered that an older gentleman had over 50 cars stashed in buildings on his property. I had driven by there dozens of times, but there was not a hint on old cars. On the back side of his house and garage were lean-to after lean-to (very well hidden), filled with cars from the late 20's through the 70's, mostly low mileage cars (some with miles in the teens). He sold them all to an acquaintance of mine who owns a salvage yard. I talked him into letting me go with him on one trip to haul cars out. He sold about half of them on the internet and scrapped the rest. The older gentleman is still with us (in his late 80's) and still has a handful of cars that he kept, but not ready to sell them yet. These were true barn finds!