The Great Barnfind

[bitzman]

I know Tom Cotter has these neat books (Cobra in the Barn) but now the magazines are picking up the idea, one car magazine has the headline The $1000 Shelby find"
or somesuch.
Maybe this site could have a forum topic where we could hear about the Shelbys or Cobras that you or your buddies found in a barn and how cheap it was (whether you bought it or not).

I would tell such tales but unfortunately tho I was once an exotic car hunter, I was never assigned by my clients to look for either but could tell you about Ferraris, Bentleys, etc.

I did investigate one gen-u-ine A.C. Cobra only after it had been discovered and plucked out of decades of storage in a storage lockup;
that was the Daytona Cobra coupe in Fullerton. The guys who knew it was in the OC never told me it was in Orange County during the 40 years I hung around Cobras or I think I could have found it...the guy who finally found it merely hired a private detective to find the last registered owner.He owned the car one day and made a million profit.

[Jerry_Moss]

Hey this would be great!!!
I bet there are a few projects out there that started life again
out of a barn.
Please post some pictures guys if you have a "barn find" project.

Thanks Jerry

[shelby6t5]

I don't know if this counts, but the car in the pic above sat for 28 years in a garage until that pic was taken. Pic is right after the owner (in pic - that's not me!) pulled up the door from the inside. Another thing that may disqualify me is that I paid a lot more than $1000!... and yes, that is "bubble-wrap" he had on it!

Mike

[rshelby]

Good Topic. Also, check these threads...


garage/ cooler find - GT350

Barn Find (So to speak)

rare barn finds still out there gt500kr

barn find - 1969 GT500

[lnevill]

While not shelby's, I found my two 1970 Boss 302's and my 1971 429CJ Mach 1 in a pasture....

I had heard about "3 fastbacks" setting in a pasture "over near Franklin". Well Franklin is a long street that goes through 2 cities and lots and lots of farm land so I decided I would methodically start looking. My son was just getting his driving permit and needed some seat time with a parent so we began the search. On about the 3rd trip my son spotted a white fastback setting in a field beside a barn. I pulled up to the house and was thrilled and amzaed to see the infamous Boss stripe. I did the knock and talk thing and found the owners mother at home and got permission to go look at the cars. She said her son owed her some money so the timing was right....

There were 2 more cars behind the barn and low and behold the grabber blue car was also a G code. I didn't know much or care much about the 71-73 big body cars, but on a return trip my buddy pointed out that the red car was a 429CJ "J" code and it was all there and loaded with every option you can imagine. Turned out to be 1 of 815 71's built with the 429CJ and C6 tranny.

Took me almost a year to convince the owner to sell them to me but I got all three and a barn load of parts. Once they were securely home and in my shop, I made the anouncement at the mustang club. You should have seen the faces on the "old timers" who knew about these cars and had tried to buy them for many many years. Turms out they had been ther since 1985 and all of the old timers had given up on the guy ever selling them!

Moral of the story: Once you find a car, keep going back at least once a year and ask if they might be for sale.

You can see these cars at our club's web site ( http://www.treasurevalleymustang.com/ ) under members cars of the month for Feb 07, Sept 04 and Feb 02.

[tommyleea]

I found mine in 72, but not in a barn, some college kids were washing their cars and drinking beer. A Road Runner, a GTX, and the 66 GT350; my car. Anyway, the cobra in the barn book; I do know Jerry Shotz, who is in the book. He had a body shop when I was a kid and just getting into Shelbys. He had literally dozens of them, and one was a 65 that he had in the front room of his body shop. Those were the days. I still visit him when I go back home for a visit. Cheers

Tommy

[67200F5A02206]

Didn't find my Shelby in a barn but I do have a story about a $100 (one hundred dollar) Boss 429.

Back in the late 80s I was finding Mustangs and flipping them for a profit (obviously pre Ebay). I got a call from a guy who said that he was approached by somebody who had recently acquired a Boss 429 and was looking for a motor). He told me that the guy was some young kid who had bought the car for $100. I got the Boss 429 guy's phone number and gave him a call and sure enough he had a Boss 429. Went over to see him. It was a 1969 (KK1983). The drive train had been replaced by a 289/C4 combo although the 9" was still there. Interior was complete but very rough. Engine compartment was perfect and all the tags where there. Only serious rust was in the trunk where the battery used to be. The owner was a kid about 23 years old.

Turns out the kid was driving through a neighborhood and spotted the car sitting in a driveway. The Boss 429 decals were gone but it had that big hood scoop on it. The kid read the VIN and saw the Z engine code. He knocked on the door and asked if they wanted to sell the Mustang. He was told yes - price was $250. Kid was ready to do the deal right then but the owner could not find the title and told him to come back later. Kid kept going back but nobody ever answered the door. Finally after a couple of months somebody did answer the door, said that he had found the title and the price was $100 if he would get the car out of there. So the kid bought the car for $100 with the idea of restoring it.

Now for the good part. The kid was married with a pregnant wife, a brand new Mustang GT and lived with his uncle in a trailer house while trying to save enough money for a new house. He was getting a lot of crap from his wife about the piece of junk Mustang that he had just bought and wanted to spend money on. I saw a real opportunity there and offered him $5000 for it. He turned me down. I gave him my phone number and left.

Now I don't know exactly what happened next but I can picture the scene. Kid goes back into the house and proudly announces how I had offered him $5000 for that junky Mustang and he had turned me down.....

So my phone rings the next day and the kid asks for $6000. I hemmed and hawed and countered with $5500. He said $5600 and I said OK. Three hours later I was there with the cash and did the deal.

I spent about 9 months trying to find a drivetrain for the car. Everybody that had a motor wanted the car instead of selling their motor. Finally I gave up, advertised it in Hemmings and sold it to somebody in California for $15K. I have always wondered what happened to it.

[wcardoc]

I think this qualifies as a barn find. I have posted here before about my 68 GT 500 convertible #0056.The very first production GT500 convertible. This car was sitting in my father in-laws barn for about twenty years without moving. He owned the car since 1981. He bought it as a true Shelby, Drove it five summers then never got it out again. In about 1995 I started doing some searching on the car and was told by two supposed Shelby restoration shops that it was not a true Shelby but likely a clone. They said this due to the three different engine codes on the three different vin and build tags. One showed a C, code, one S. and one Q. They also stated that the vin was too early for a 1968 and that the car was not listed in the Shelby registry. I didn't know much about Shelby's and didn't even know there was a registry so I took them at their word. And they were not even trying to buy the car either. The car sat about seven more years and my father in-law said he wanted to sell the car, said he thought $15 k was about right for a clone. Both he and myself offered the car to several people for this amount and no one wanted to even look at the car. His neighbor was into flipping old cars and he even offered it to him for $10 k and he wouldn't come look at it. finally in 2006 my father in-law told me to come get the car and get it out of there. (I could have taken it at any time I just wasn't too into it back then) I took the car to my shop and stored it for another year and someone told me I should contact SAAC to see if it really was real. I did just that and contacted Vinnie Liska and the rest is now history.
So here was a true barn find someone could have bought as recently as 2006 for $10 to $15k that turned out to be a very special car. Heck, he would have probably taken $8k cash if someone was standing there.
You can also read about this car at www.thecoralsnake.com Under "whats new" #0056. Pete is going to be completeing the restoration sometime in
2009.

Chuck

[67GT500#2100]

Originally Posted by wcardoc

I think this qualifies as a barn find. I have posted here before about my 68 GT 500 convertible #0056.The very first production GT500 convertible. This car was sitting in my father in-laws barn for about twenty years without moving. He owned the car since 1981. He bought it as a true Shelby, Drove it five summers then never got it out again. In about 1995 I started doing some searching on the car and was told by two supposed Shelby restoration shops that it was not a true Shelby but likely a clone. They said this due to the three different engine codes on the three different vin and build tags. One showed a C, code, one S. and one Q. They also stated that the vin was too early for a 1968 and that the car was not listed in the Shelby registry. I didn't know much about Shelby's and didn't even know there was a registry so I took them at their word. And they were not even trying to buy the car either. The car sat about seven more years and my father in-law said he wanted to sell the car, said he thought $15 k was about right for a clone. Both he and myself offered the car to several people for this amount and no one wanted to even look at the car. His neighbor was into flipping old cars and he even offered it to him for $10 k and he wouldn't come look at it. finally in 2006 my father in-law told me to come get the car and get it out of there. (I could have taken it at any time I just wasn't too into it back then) I took the car to my shop and stored it for another year and someone told me I should contact SAAC to see if it really was real. I did just that and contacted Vinnie Liska and the rest is now history.
So here was a true barn find someone could have bought as recently as 2006 for $10 to $15k that turned out to be a very special car. Heck, he would have probably taken $8k cash if someone was standing there.
You can also read about this car at www.thecoralsnake.com Under "whats new" #0056. Pete is going to be completeing the restoration sometime in
2009.

Chuck

Great story, usually these stories are told from the "lucky guy who bought the car" perspective, not the "luckily these guys were too lazy to look at it" perspective. I'm glad you were able to tell this as a story with a happy ending!