"barn find" what is the fascination!

It's like finding hidden treasure. When I see a barn, my imagination kicks in and my curiosity starts to really kick in. All I ever find is Hay, old farm equipment or some 80's POS Chevy Citation.

Or maybe some the car hunters just like aroma of mouse piss and it's like the sweet nectar of long sitting, hidden old cars.

The term has been used so much for anything, that it has lost it's real meaning.

 

Finding hidden treasure is exciting! It is human nature to be overly optomistic about the quality of such treasure.

Geography also affects the experience those might have in PA, Tx, or CA. I can tell you that a Missouri barn is a worse place to store an old vehicle than the open desert. My honest-to-goodness barn find Diamond T suffered more from its poor storage than the truck that was driven and parked next to the barn in Utah.

When I bought the truck in the barn, I knew it was going to be rougher than I hoped and I knew it was rougher than the farmer thought it was when he parked it. There was so much junk around it, you couldn't tell what was there. I bought it anyway, becuase I wanted the "barn find" experience. My goal now is to undue the really disgusting things that happened to the truck in storage and turn it into the barn dream we all wish it was. So far, I am really happy with the decision and it is turning into a great truck.

The Utah truck just needed gas.

 

Other than the wheels and tyres, and the removal of 35 years worth of dust, this is exactly how my car was found after being parked in '73. It may not have been found in a barn, but I think it qualifies as a true survivor and that is exactly how it is going to stay. "Barn find"?, you be the judge.

 

Libby
Thank you for sharing your heart felt response.
Your old car hunts with your dad were really special times...
Some of my treasured memories and now my sons memories are very similar
Keep on searching for precious metal.

ybloke

 

Libby
Thank you for sharing your heart felt response.
Your old car hunts with your dad were really special times...
Some of my treasured memories and now my sons memories are very similar
Keep on searching for precious metal.

ybloke

 

I'll offer a perspective as a restoration guy, and no, I didn't read every reply so if the sentiment has been expressed here's my words on it anyways.

Decades ago, restoration meant something different than it does today. By different, I mean cars were done to not only rvive them but to please the owner. Extras, gadgets, colors, trim mat'l, all were almost fair game and it didn't really have much impact on values. Today, especially with the internet as handy as some cell phones, we have a deeper understanding of "what was", and add to that, new clients are almost anally hung up on EXACT right down to stitches per inch. We're also seeing another swing or shift in the generation gap. That's nice way of saying another older demographic is passing on, many of whom we know from their cars and collections, also many of whom have offspring that always had no interest. Some think it's junk, some see $$$$$ signs, some keep the torch lit and carry on their elder's traditions.

In the "barn find" of today a restorer can see just what was. We learn histories, find odd accessories we didn't know existed, read paint patterns, have genuine examples of upholstery and what was or was not plated. Some should never be restored as they can become permanent benchmarks for the industry. Some are so bad that with careful and sympathetic restoration they can still be a benchmark. One example many of us are familiar with, the "Joyo 36 Ford" as described in TRJ, here, etc. What "we" get to see is how the average custom was done. I haven't followed that car since discovery and don't know how much, if any, additional history has been attached. But once found and examined what do you do? Me, I'd restore that car in a heartbeat. I'd clean and polish, I'd lovingly peel back layers to get to trim material, I'd even refinish it in lacquer, documenting every step of the way and clean and re-use the old fasters wherever possible. Why? Because right now it's deteriorated. It's been subject to weather, decay, and all the other ravages of time possible. It shows how bad a period custom can get with neglect vs what folks were looking at (and perhaps dreaming of) back in the day. It deserves it because it didn't get consumed by the easter egg street rod days, didn't get scrapped, and essentially survived to show us which way to go. I'd rather go there again than let it be because a barn find can be that too. I could go on and on but I'll leave it for others.

 

No barn finds around here because there are no barns anymore. However, there are garage finds. Cars that may have not been driven in years. My friend has a '63 Split Window Corvette he bought brand new. He paid $3500 for it. It currently has 125K miles on it. He only drives it to the store to keep the battery up. Funny, he likes going to car shows with me but always wants to ride in my car. He never takes his Vette.

 

I think this nails the "definition" of a "barn find" to most of us car people...maybe not the "turn it for major gold" part, but to find something, unmolested, that we can otherwise never afford.

 

How would you like to stumble upon this place before the auction ? Just ask around, and hear the words, sure, we'd love to get rid of some of that ol' junk....


http://www.vanderbrinkauctions.com/auctions_details.php?detail=135&allimages=NO

 

An older thread but some of you might enjoi it and the others will understand better why barn finds are cool:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=542363

 

Since everything I own is in my barn/shop I guess when I'm gone it will all be a barn find

 

Barn find= sex with a virgin hot rod style

 

It's just a great feeling to stumble onto a car that has been in hiding for many years.
I will agree that the term is over used, especially when it comes to for sale ads.

Some of the finds I've been fortunate enough to be a part of, though admittedly some were next to a barn or garage or even in a garage. But they all had sat for many years out of sight.


My first vehicle purchase when I was 14 years old was a 49 Ford F-1 sitting next to a barn. My dad saw it and stopped to ask about it. Still not sure how he saw it where it was sitting. $75 later, it was my first project. Never finished it and ended up selling a few years later. No pictures of that one.

First 8 pictures, my buddy Curt was driving by a repair shop and saw the model a doodlebug and the MG sitting out, so he stopped in. Turns out they were getting ready for an auction. Dragging all kinds of stuff out of the buildings. So we went over there and bought the 6 cars and 2 doodlebugs before the auction.














The MG had a crazy mural on the hood of a naked man and woman standing on top of a mountain.












My buddy Steve told me about this one. Had been sitting in a garage for years and a beam fell across the 1/4's. Hauled it home in the bed of my S-10 pickup



The 36 had sat for 40 years in a barn, changed the distributor, carb and battery and had it running on the trailer when I got home.


An uncle of a friend of my dad's had this 56 DeSoto Convertible and a 48 DeSoto convertible in barns for years. No pics of the 48, but my dad helped them sell it, then a few years later, bought the 56. The 48 was still on a bumper jack with one wheel off since the 70's





This old generator made from a Model B engine and cut down trans had the 32 passenger car grille shell and radiator on it when I bought it. Converted to run on propane, it powered the airplane hanger of a dentist in Eastern PA who also flew planes.




Model A bed on a cut down Chevy frame trailer that was stuffed in the back of a local barn/garage



Found hanging on the wall in the barn where the model A/Chevy trailer was.




29 Fordor chassis and cowl along with the late 31 pickup cab behind it. Came out of a junkyard




Roadster cowl was on a cut down tractor that was dragged out of a barn and was waiting for the scrap man when my buddy Curt spotted it and gave it a new home. I bought it a few years later. Sold the cowl with an open pickup project, still have the doodlebug with a 1930's wrecker boom on the back.




Front half of a 1919 Dodge Bros touring body that was pulled out of a barn full of cars by the guy I bought it from. Hauled home in the back of my Jeep Grand Cherokee.



And a 59 VW that sat next to a garage right next the road for years. I drove by there for years and never saw it. I had to cut a path to get to it.







I've missed out on more than a few and don't have pictures of others.
The one I missed that I regret the most was an old heavily chopped and channeled 32 5 window body. I bought the chassis from a friend, but didn't put enough effort into tracking the body down. When I finally decided to really pursue it, I found out it had sold a few weeks before.

There's so much stuff out there hiding. And I enjoy the heck out of finding the stuff. I only wish I could afford to keep em all.

 

It's all about the find,not the location.

 

You got that right!

 

If it's not a barn find I bet it'll have sucide doors!

 

We don't have many barns by me unless you go way out east, and those are slowly but surely being torn down for condos.

I have seen some astounding garage finds though on Long Island, Brooklyn and Queens. Those tend to be in better shape that relics that come out of said barns out in EBF.

Bob

 

The seller rolled this out of his barn and on to a trailer for me,,not sure how long it had been in the barn,,,long enough not to have any rot but the drive train was long gone.

 

I found this about a mile from my house; had been sitting waiting for me for 21 years( belonged to an 82 year old guy that bought it, took it apart and locked the door.) He found out I liked Model A's and approached me about buying it from him. Lucky me!

 

nice find!

 

Nice story!


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Looking in NJ for a barn find???

 

Whoh! Check out the patina!

 

Check this out! http://autos.yahoo.com/news/nearly-500-classic-chevy-found-nebraska-181608803.html

 

The coolest "barn find" I ever came across was actually next to the barn, not in it. It was a 1957 DeSoto Firesweep 4 door hardtop with 42k original miles on it last registered in the mid 70s. The car was in western New Jersey, I lived in southern Pennsylvania at the time. The front fenders were toast and the outer rockers were gone, but I picked it up for 800 bucks (this was in 2004). The rear seat still had the clear plastic seat cover installed at the factory. I rebuilt the carb, shot a little oil down the cylinders and that little 325 Poly fired right up! Put on a pair of rust free Texas fenders I had laying around and welded on some repop outer rockers and sold it for a pretty little profit. I like the "barn find" because to me breathing life into a car that has been forgotten about and neglected for decades is priceless. Last I heard that DeSoto was completely restored and is now back on the road like it should be.