You never know what you might find when looking around for old cars. Barn Finds reader Scott M. has been very busy looking and he has stumbled across some very interesting stuff lately. This time he thought he was just going to see a Camaro, but he ended up finding something more…
I was driving down the road and I saw just a small part of a red rear quarter panel behind a house under a carport, so I turned around and drove by slowly, it was an old Camaro! I pulled in the driveway and met an older gentleman. I asked him about the old car and he said which one?
We walked out back to see his 68 GTO and 68 Camaro SS! both have been parked since the late 80’s but like all the others… he was not ready to sell.
Thanks for sending this in Scott. It gets us all motivated to go out and look. Just have to keep at it because you never know when you will find one that they are actually ready to sell!
I guess he liked those wheels to put them on both cars….an original GTO that you could keep that way!
Hoarders!
Envious NON-HOARDER, wannabe car owner…..
What is the difference in an old man with long attachments to two cars that have memories involved, and someone with buckets of money and a building full of cars he don’t even drive?? I guess it just the good old american double standard. Maybe that old man is just tired of being offered a very small amount knowing that the real value is much less. I have a sportscar and a hotrod truck one in my garage and one in a carport, both covered. I am 60 now and disabled to the point I can’t enjoy them like I used to. Every summer when I might have the garage open someone will stop and tell me a friend told them I might sell one of them or the other. I ask what they would give me for one of them and they give me an amount that wouldn’t even pay to get one licensed again for the road. So I tell them to come back when they are serious about buying one of them. So maybe there are not so many hoarders and just someone that knows what he’s got and tired of tire kickers.
Isn’t everyone with more than one car, to some degree, “hoarding?” How many times have you seen a person with a couple of dozen project cars, outside, deteriorating……until he has the time to “get around to it?”
The line between collecting and hoarding is a thin one.
I have five vintage cars. The reality of this is that I spend some time every day tinkering on them. I enjoy every one of them immensely and for different reasons, but I keep them in good shape and drive them when I have them together, so I really can’t see how this is hoarding. Hoarding is stashing the cars in wet places and letting the tires go flat.
Wow!! I love that original GTO. Used to have a 68, but with an automatic…
I tend to disagree with the ‘hoarders’ term. I know I’m guilty of using that same term but so many of us don’t know the reason the person is hanging onto those vehicles. For some it’s simply nostalgia. For others it runs a lot deeper than that. There is a local auto wrecker who has an original ’72 GMC Jimmy parked out in front of the premises (probably 15 years at the time I asked about it). It’s complete and has something like 40K miles on it. It’s not for sale nor will it be as long as the owner of the place is still alive. You see, the truck belonged to his late son. He parked it there one day and (according to the story I have; if there is someone who knows more about it, please comment) died later in the day. The (still) grieving father can’t bear to let it go, nor let it leave the last place his boy parked it. Today, if you approach the father, he’s mellowed a bit, and will talk about it without ripping you a new ‘endgate.’ But it’s still an extremely sensitive issue. I say respect the wishes of the owner. Let him know that and just keep in touch. You never know: wish for something long enough and you just might have that wish come true…
Well said.
The storage location doesn’t exactly shout ‘high-end’, but the cars are covered twice (tarp; carport), so give the owner credit for preserving them better than most unrestored cars that get featured here. That’s important because when the cars eventually get sold they will probably be a lot more practical as project cars than, say, that ’65 GTO from yesterday, so they probably WILL get restored.
Smart man holding onto them until there worth more $.
Smart man !
(He is) Holding on to them, until they will be worth more money ($)..
Power play in his mind only. I see this stuff all the time.
“I got this car that’s rare and you can’t buy it”.
Couldn’t care less what Billy Bob thinks he has. Someone will haul it away when he starts getting the mail via Ground Hog. Cars and guys like this are a dime a dozen.
Shall we move on?
And how many of these “dime a dozen” cars do you have Slim? We as Americans become very attched to our cars. Since it is America he can do as he wants, I already like the owner because of his taste in cars.
I like the GTO with 4-speed trans!!! NICE!
The fact is he has two “classic” Detroit pony cars slowly rotting away under tarps in an outside car port. Too bad he won’t sell them now while they have some real value. Both cars will probably be sitting there 20 years from now, total rust buckets.
INCORRECT.
Looks like they are in a drier climate and don’t look like they’ve rusted much at all, And neither will they for the next 20 years in this same location.
You only wish, because you can’t have them…..
The GTO has the rare factory Tach on the hood!! Nice
too bad someone left the drivers window open
I am a camaro guy but I really like this find
good job Scott
Gee guys, wonder what they’ll be worth (as a pair ?) in FIVE years -:) ? ! ?
Ed
Maybe, if you drive by with the car that you have done would change his mind.
Just because you want to buy his stuff does not mean he has to sell it .
Scott has done it again, years ago when I lived in the north east one of my favorite pass times was driving in the country & looking in peoples driveways, I bought alot of cars that way & for cheap too.
These are a nice find.
My Fiancee’ is always asking me what I’m looking for when we drive together…they just don’t get it.
~ i’ll call this ‘Tom Cotter’s Worst Nightmare’ out of respect for his wonderful books.
. i have an acquaintance in Missouri who has accumulated a herd of cars [over 175 and counting]. a few years back when his new neighbor complained to the county about the rusting hulks deteriorating throughout his property, he built a tin building on an old farmstead he owned 50 miles away. the 40′ x 60′, dirt-floor structure w/ 20′ lean-to on each side is now crammed to its disorganized limit with every imaginable expression of the vintage auto industry. this is in addition to packed garages at property about the city and whatever he can conceal from the inspector at his home. he has never sold a car or even the smallest part that anyone knows of. in fact he bought two fresh rebuilt big-block Chevy engines from my neighbor 5 years ago which both sit unused. it saddens me so i won’t go on though the stories seem endless. he has no interested next-of-kin and stands no chance of finishing his ‘projects’ if he lived 100 more years. hoarder, yes or no?? OCD poster boy.
incidentally, he drives a 25 year-old import crap-box and never spent a nickle that he didn’t absolutely feel he had to.
“some” of these pics are fake or setups.Not syaing this one is, but some are.
I saw a 70GTO (had rare performance option) I sold in 2004 back in the heyday for price $ on one of the” barn find” online phto sites that was a setup/fake/dishonest post, so beware of the BS.
It was exactly as I had sold it to a resto shop owner and he never did anything with it, going out of business and did have it for sale in losely worded description (his contact info listed).
Kind of funny….he had bales of hay around it and some stuff stacked all over it….saying found in barn find, stored for the last 34 years or some bull. Owners son had been KIA in VietNam or some horse hockey and he couldnt bare to sell it.
Funny, it had been in my indoor shop (down South) stashed in a corner for 15 years prior to selling and I bought it from original owner from MS.
Beware….lots of crooks in this hobby and people who made livings in MC hobby are getting desperate as prices continue tanking/gets worse for musclecars.
Luv the original hood tach on the GTO, little things like that are uniquely special. Like the cowl induction hood lettering on a chevelle or the cubic inch/horsepower plate on the console of a vette or the shaker on a Torino Cobra Jet or the six-pak hood scoop on a Cuda. The crazy wild colors used on the mopars are probably most memorable.
Folks have a lot of emotion and history invested in the ‘parked cars’ that prospective buyers may not realize, much less respect if all you see is a car some “old guy” won’t sell. If you want to buy the car, make the “old guy” your friend. Earn the right to buy the car, or at least get a chance.
Patience and persistence.
Exactly Roy well said
I’m kinda turned on right now.
1968 chevy impala 4 door hardtop under 100000 original miles= 200.00
1928 plymouth “Q” coupe #3604 off the line= free!
1958 gmc napco panel 4×4 running still all original= 1000.00
1953 chevy 1500 2 ton car hauler tilt deck=truck was free tilt was 1500.00
shall i go on???
Well, I can sort of understand the guy who lost his son but if you’re leaving really lovely pieces of American auto history out in the open and I mean more than one, what kind of emotional attachment is that? If you never touch them, work on them or do anything to protect or improve on them. The I guess everyone is just going to be sitting around hoping you go before the cars do.
When does a used car become collectable? With the exception of really exotic or rare ones, at about 20 years, until then the price drops, and drops. At 20, when the guys who really wanted one at the age of 18 are 38, and finally have a little cash, the price of those which are left, starts going up. Your average ’55 Chevy, Mustang, Camero, 442 Olds, peaks at 40-50 when that 18 year old is 58-68 and has more money. And then, declines, except for the trailer queen condition cars, or the really ecotic or rare. Not many people are interested in Model A Fords, or even the everyday l940’s cars of any make. Those who wanted them are mostly dead or in nursing homes. So HOARDERS beware – keep those cars too long and the value declines. Look at the McInnes auction of the Terry Bennet collection last summer if you want proof.
I’m with Slim Chance. Also, cars like these were made in the thousands and demographics are changing all the time. For the ones that think of these as investments…….I would question that, as in, I think their day has come……..on the other hand…what do I know?.
Keeping a car because of the passing of someone reminds me of the old joke. “the late John Wayne………..late?……..he ain’t never showin’ up”.
As a Six MOPAR Classics Owner, I hate to lecture anyone here, however, a little respect and perspective is needed. These rigs are simply material ‘things’ at the end of the day . . . the Owners are fellow HUMAN BEINGS, who share all of our love and passion for cars. The callous nature of some folks only after the Other Man’s objects with zero empathy for the backstory is the shameful reality of 21st Century America
Good job Roy. The guy who has old cars in his yard and doesn’t want to sell is really his business. It is still (for most everyone) America. Why beat the guy down because he has a car rusting away and you think it is a sin? You may not know the real story.
Not the end of the world. You can go to ebay any day of the week and buy the same make and model anytime you want.
From someone who knows and lives next to a major highway with over 20 cars (not for sale) has seen his share of compassionate car collectors go right past the many no tresspassing signs and leave with out spending a dime.
Anyone else notice that the ’68 Camaro has ’67 tail lights on it? What are the chances that he changed the tail light assemblies? Slim, I bet.
I agree. He is sick of being lowballed on these.Probably have been numerous people trying to steal them from him. Go in with a legit offer I bet he would sell.
One thing about cars, everything is always for sale. Just gotta get the #’s right.