History When did you first hear the corvette in the barn story

Was driving home from work and a song that came out maybe 15to 20 years ago came on. It was called "Riding with Private Malone", was a country music hit and was the story of a guy buying a corvette that had been sitting in a barn since the young owner " Private Malone" had gone off to war and never returned. Well when it first came out years ago I had to marvel at how close it reminded me of an event I was involved with years before that. In 1979 I was working one Saturday morning and after quitting at noon I stopped at a local Bar and Grill for a beer and burger. Well just about the time I finished up lunch and was leaving a truck with a 57 Corvette on an open trailer pulled in . Being a car freak since birth I had to check it out. The guy was from Janesville and had heard about this couple near Stevens Point that had their sons 57 Chevy for sale after haveing sat for many years. He said he could not believe that it was a Corvette and not a Bel Air, which is what he was actually looking for. The son had bought it shortly after high school and then ended up in Vietnam and sadly passed away there. The car had been parked in the mid 60's and remained there till 1979. I had no reason not to believe his story at the time , because I was looking at a 57 Corvette that was covered in dirt and grime and mouse and other rodent infestation. You could see where the dry rotted tires had gone flat and had sat that way for many years. I was amazed that they even held air at all. Then I heard the song 20 plus years later and heard others speak of similar stories in numerous places across the country over the years and I cannot help and laugh and wonder how much the story I heard was truth and how much was creative bull shit! So I actually saw the "Private's" Corvette in 1979. When did you first here the story! lol Larry

 

Usually when i hear those stories they say that the vette only had a few rust spots and a couple dents.

 

This is the first one I heard of.
https://www.corvettemuseum.org/cemented-in-history-1954-entombed-corvette-joins-museum-collection/
No rust though

 

I saw another '54 Corvette barn find on YouTube from Texas. Why doesn't this happen to me?

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I have heard the same story about every year of Corvette up to about 1967. I seldom hear it about any other kind of car. Kind of like the story about a girl from a few towns over that drives a car that has "if you can beat me you can eat me" lettered across the trunk.

 

Yeah, I heard the same story back in the early 70s. Son died in Viet Nam, parents advertised a 1957 Chevy in the paper and it turned out to be a Corvette. I believed it because my dad called my Corvette a Corvair, so I guess old people don't really know the difference.

 

It was a '58 Corvette in Tulsa, advertised as 1958 Chevrolet. I know, because I heard it in 1975.

 

Before the stories about “the soldier that never returned” (some of which are no doubt true) made the rounds, there was a slightly different tale going around.

It seems there was an ad in the paper, or somebody told somebody, about a (pick one) ‘53, ‘54 ‘Chevy’ for sale real cheap. Nobody seemed interested in the ad/story until one guy decided to check it out. As the story goes it was a ‘Corvette’ in the garage. The widow said her husband wanted one, bought it, but seldom drove it, passed away years ago, and she decided to let it go.

Then there were the stories of the ‘Corvette’, T-Bird, etc., etc. that somebody died in but wasn’t discovered for some time. The car was available really cheap because ‘they’ couldn’t get rid of the foul odor.........and so on.

I think the term is “Urban Legends”.......

Ray

 

my buddy recently responded to an add for a '54 chevrolet........you guessed it......ended up a vette and he was lucky enough to be the first one there

 

About the same time as that story about the guy calling his wife and saying to sell the Corvette and wire him the money, so she did...........for $1.00.

 

I saw a GTO, about a 66, that the couple kept after their son died in Vietnam. They weren't selling it though. This was around 1994

 

Wasn't a Corvette, but "An old car" parked in 1959. This happened 2 me in 1990. Customer tell me about his neighbor has a car she wants to sell. So I hook up the trailer and drive 30 miles to find a 1957 Olds 88 hardtop 371 cu in with 3x2's in a 1 car garage. Older woman says her husband bought new and only drove 1 or 2 times a week locally until his passing in 1959 ( had less than 2000 miles on it) She had all original sales documentation. Asked what she wanted for it and she said "Would $1000 be to much? I quickly reached in my pocket and gave her $1200. Loaded on trailer and back to shop and had running the next day.

 

It got moved from the barn to a shed.....shame.

 

First heard a version, I was probably 10-11 years old, always hanging around older 'car' guys. There was the never returned soldier car, death foul odor car, and the always exciting hook in the door handle, parking story.
Pretty much what @Hnstray stated.

 

I hesitate to tell this story. As I know I wouldn't believe it if it were told it to me. lol I do know where there is a 1956 Vette with the factory 2 x 4's that was bought new. It was entombed in a building that has no garage door or Windows. He just boarded up one side the shed, with just a single walk in door. They bought it new in 56 so yeah a one owner.They where, are the nicest family. He passed away about 10 years ago though . Now here's the problem. He intombed it in the 60s. I used to ride in it back when I was a kid. I really like this family, and I do understand about being sentimental. So I never told a soul where it's at. But she's now in a nurseing home. So I may contact the family to see if I can be of any help to them to find it a new home. There are some things that's more important than money. But sometimes out of sight is out of memory too. I'm not interested in it for me, and would never do anything to cause any bad feelings! So not sure if I should do anything at all? But I'd like to be able to tell the rest of this story someday. It'll be a great story. Ron......


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I heard a story about a 1923 roadster in a old rundown neighborhood. After talking to friends Ronnie Elliot told me he had talked to the woman in 1967. She said she was saving it for her son when he got home from the war. WWII. It was in plain sight in her back yard and the power company and meter readers knew about it. She got old and died. Another old woman lived there without repairing the house until the house was uninhabitable. That's when I heard about it. I drove down the alley repeatedly and couldn't find it. Finally I saw one headlight sticking out of the bushes that enveloped it. I got it.

 

Go on.... Haha best I can do is talk about my buddies 32 coupe he pulled out of a creek bed.

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In 1971 I was stationed at Shaw AFB in South Carolina. Out of the back gate on the north side of the base was an old farm with a barn. Clearly seen heading east in one of the stalls was a Model T. Not for sale, been sitting there since WWII started. One of those stories where the owner did not make it back and they kept it for sentimental reasons. This one I saw personally.

 

No Corvette barn finds for me, closest I got were some Corvair field finds.

 

no dead soldier, no barn, divorced dead guy, trailer across the yard from the barn,

 

I have a barn-find story that beats them all. A few years ago when I lived in Bakersfield Ca I kept seeing couple pre-war Willys sitting outside a guy's shop on Rosedale Hwy. A coupe and a sedan shell but obviously under construction.
I finally got curious enuf to stop and ask about them and when I walked into the shop My mind blew. There were 3 more '40 -42 coupes under construction. When I regained consciousness he explained he found a stash of 20 or so 33-42 Willys in the desert community of Mojave, east of Bakersfield. Stored indoors and in the desert, they were in pristine condition. He negotiated a price (I think he said $20,000?). Was building them to order for customers.

Absolutely true story.

 

a friend of mine got a 58 pontiac , cant remember the model ,but 2dr. sedan with like 20k on it .from a old lady whos lawn he was mowing , for like $100.oo . this was about 1980 . the car was just like new in the garage behind the house . she had kids who where very unhappy when they found out and tried to get it back .saying she was senile . he didn't give it back and they couldn't do a thing about it !! I think he still charged her for mowing the grass!

 

I have stories but no pics. Guess they never happened.

 

Years ago I believe it might have been in Rod and custom reboot in the eighties there was a story of an owner of a store who walled a first year Vette into a storage room and installed a light so he could view it through a hole in the wall. There were pictures when they extracted it years later I think after his death.

 

@slowmotion .........geesh....thanks for the reminder about the 'hook in the door handle' fable....don't know how come I forgot that classic.......and my experience was similar to your...late adolescence or early teen 'rite of passage' it seems.....

Ray

 

I was at a shop tour when I overheard these 2 older guys talking about how they went out hunting in the desert one time. They saw what appeared to be a part of an old windshield. They tried to pull it out because they were going to shoot at it. Well, it didn't budge. That was because it was still attached to the rest of the car. They dug it out over a couple days time. Some old T roadster. Anyway, it was complete and they were able to get it going again with minimal work. They found out shortly after that, that there'd been a large flood not too long before that and the car had most likely been swept away and deposited there from the flood.
They wore a straight face and never flinched as if it was simply a factual story. Not bragging or anything, just a curiosity they'd encountered.

 

I know these things happen. I have no reason to doubt the pictures and posts here. But I've personally had various versions of these tales told to me by bonified bullshiters. So, you know, grain of salt and a roll of the eyes most of the time.
I did hear a rather funny one that I am 99% sure is true. In my younger working days, late '60s, I was assigned a fresh out of high school apprentice to mentor to show him the ropes. I got to know him very well over time and he was a straight shooter, not prone to 'embellish'. He told me there was a fellow he knew that owned a Ford Pinto, a few years old and less than 30 miles on the clock, stashed under a car cover in the guy's garage. I didn't see it but it struck me as a hilarious and true story.

 

The first new car I ever bought was a Pinto. My ex talked me into buying it. Worst POS I ever owned. Started rusting at the seams within a year, traded it even Steven for a 1969 Austin Healy Sprite before I even had 20k miles on it.

 

I guess I can now tell this, the principle players are no longer around....

Back in the 80's, guy that was married to some of the wife's folks had a brother in law that was somewhat an outlaw. I knew some of his escapades were pretty wild, he was one to take chances with the law, a lot. He grew his own weed, sold some, bought and sold some items from midnight auto supply, etc. I had heard rumors he had a 57 Vette, minus engine and trans, supposedly taken out and put in his race car. At the time, I hadn't seen it, so knowing him I didn't put much faith in it, he'd sell his shoes for a bag of pot, so I didn't figure he would have a Vette, much less hold on to it. I did find out later, the car was supposedly stolen from another state. That was why he didn't let anybody but a select few see it.
A few years later, one of his close buddies talked him out of it. He put a Dodge 318 in it out of his wrecked pickup, and started driving it. It needed paint, was part primer, two or three colors, I figured to camouflage it. He drove it around a few days, and got pulled over by the cops. They knew that guy was sketchy too, so they ran the tag and numbers on the car...............

Tag came up belonging to the guys wrecked Dodge pickup, car came up clean! If it had been stolen, it had been taken off the list. The dude got a $50 ticket for improper tag was all! He pulled the Dodge motor out, slapped a worn out 283 in it, and sold it to a restorer.

 

In my neck of the woods cobra was substituted for corvette, musta' looked in every old barn in three counties..........