Everyone says buy the car not the story, but I sank $300 into a 'rare' 1972 Datsun pickup that the seller swore was untouched in a barn for 30 years. Turned out the floors were Swiss cheese and the engine was seized solid from sitting in a leaky shed, not a dry barn. Anyone else get burned on a so-called dry storage find that was actually a rust bucket?
Was talking to this guy at the swap meet outside Columbus last Saturday, he's been finding barn cars since the 70s. He told me I'm wasting time knocking on doors that look abandoned. Said I should look for houses where the grass is cut but the garage door hasn't been opened in over a year. Never thought of it that way, those places usually have something tucked away inside. You guys ever try this approach or got your own weird method?
He said look for old registration renewal notices in the mailbox, found a '72 Datsun 240Z that way behind a chicken coop in Ohio. Anyone else got weird methods that panned out?
I got all excited about this Mustang in a shed outside of Akron, Ohio, paid the guy $700 on the spot. Thought I was getting a classic deal, but after sinking another $400 into new floor pans and a transmission that still grinds, I'm wondering if I should have just walked away. Has anyone else here gotten burned by a car that looked better under a layer of dust than it really was?
Last spring I drove 3 hours to a farm outside of Topeka after a guy posted pictures of a '67 Corvette stashed in a barn. He wanted $300 for it and said it just needed the engine pulled. Got there and the barn was empty, just some old tractor parts and a pile of hay. He claimed his cousin sold it that morning, but the whole thing felt off from the start. Between the gas money and the time I took off work, I was out around $180. Anyone else ever get burned by a fake barn find listing?
My buddy Mike has been turning wrenches for 30 years. Told me I didn't need to check the valve clearances on my 1968 Ford 300 straight six because they "never go out of spec." I trusted him because he's the one who showed me how to do a compression test. Well, I got the old shop manual in a box of parts from the seller. Pulled the valve cover after I couldn't get the truck to idle right. Three intakes were tight, two exhausts were loose. Adjusted them exactly to the manual specs and it runs smoother than anything Mike has built in his own garage. He came over, heard it run, and just shook his head. Has anyone else had bad luck following advice from someone who works on newer stuff?
I was using a wire brush on the faded green paint of this truck I pulled out of a shed in rural Iowa last spring, and he walked up and said 'you're gonna ruin the whole story that rust is telling.' Now I just hose it off and leave the surface alone, and the truck looks way more authentic. Has anybody else had a collector or owner talk them out of restoring something?
Was hauling a '72 Datsun 510 out of a shed in rural Ohio last month and the old owner watched me struggle for 20 minutes before asking why I kept letting the air out, then showed me how just dropping the pressure a tiny bit on the rears and using a floor jack under the frame rail saves all that time and sweat. Has anyone else had some simple trick totally wreck their whole system like that?
I was at NAPA yesterday picking up oil filters and this older guy in front of me was complaining about how he never finds anything good in barns anymore. The counter guy just looked at him and said "you gotta look where nobody else wants to look, not where everybody already looked." That hit me pretty hard. I've been hitting the same old farm auctions and known barns for years around here in eastern Ohio. Most of those places get picked clean by guys like me within a day. So this weekend I drove 45 minutes past my usual area down some back roads I never bothered with before. Found a leaning shed behind a house with a 78 F100 sitting in it, been there since 94 by the looks of the tags. Still has the straight six in it. The owner was happy to see someone interested. Any of you guys drive way further out than you used to and find better stuff?
Was grabbing coffee last Tuesday before my shift and this guy in his 70s sits down next to me. He saw the grease under my nails and asked if I hunt barn finds, then said 'son, the best cars ain't the ones that look pretty under a tarp, they're the ones where the tarp has been sitting so long it's part of the floor.' That hit different because I've been passing on a 67 Mustang in a shed near Omaha for 6 months cause it looked too far gone. Anyone else had a stranger flip your thinking on a project?
Guy must have been 80. Walked right up to my 67 F100 frame I was stripping and said I was taking off the original Parkerizing that can't be replaced. He was right. I spent three days blasting that thing down to bare metal. Now I got a frame that looks like every other resto. Should have just used a wire wheel and some elbow grease to keep that patina underneath. How do you guys balance getting rust off without erasing the history?
I was checking out a tip about an old Caddy in a shed outside of Millersburg last spring. The owner said it had been sitting for years. I walked in and saw this beautiful pink '56 Coupe de Ville under a pile of junk. Before I could even get close, I heard a loud crack and about 20 square feet of roof caved in right where I was standing 5 seconds earlier. A rotten 2x4 and a bunch of old shingles came crashing down. I got out of there fast and told the owner he needed to get the car out before the whole thing fell. We ended up pulling it out with a tractor that weekend. Has anyone else had a building almost take out their find before you could even get a deal done?