Barn Find Road Trip

by Tom Cotter

  “I’d take $2,500 for the two cars (the ’54 Ford and the Studebaker),” Billy said. They were not in great shape, but the price was certainly fair for street rod material.

  Directly next to British Auto Restorations’ storage facility sat a couple of other relics that were for sale, like this Ford Courier and a bright green Studebaker Silver Hawk.

  Ford Couriers are rare vehicles. Though this 1954 model has seen better days, the car still has much potential and is for sale.

  Tyson from British Auto Restorations told us the building next door to his had a number of American muscle cars and hot rods inside. Tyson gave us the building owner’s phone number, and we were soon met by Gary Sledd.

  Gary was a successful businessman who is now semi-retired, which means he has time to spend messing around with his old cars. He invited us inside and showed us his collection, which included two beautiful 1957 Chevys, a Nova, a Fairlane GT, 1956 Ford Crown Victoria, and a Mustang GT. And he owned a freshly built, hot rodded 1940 Ford coupe.

  We liked Gary’s cars, but we told him we were not here to see his beautiful cars, but instead to photograph and discuss ugly barn finds. Did he have any?

  Old cars seem to gather in the same neighborhood. This 1940 Ford Standard sedan is in a building next to the cars in the previous four photos. It’s got a honking 318 Chrysler installed, and might be available.

  As a matter of fact, he had just recently removed a rather rough 1940 Ford two-door sedan from a barn just 1 mile from where we were standing. It was a rather odd combination of parts: the nose was from a 1940 Ford Deluxe, and the main body was from a 1940 Ford Standard, complete with one taillight. Someone had installed a Chrysler 318-cubic-inch engine and a Torqueflite automatic transmission with a Ford 9-inch rear axle.

  “They said it was running recently,” said Gary. “Someone was making a hot rod out of it. The frame was solid, and they didn’t want much money for it. I don’t know if I’ll fix it up or sell it. I know from restoring the coupe that these front fenders with no rust are worth a fair bit of money.”

  We said goodbye to Gary and thanked him for his time. It was time to head for another foreign car shop we were told about, Webb Motors, on the other side of town.

  Back in the heyday of sports and import cars in the United States, Webb Motors was the center of the universe for enthusiasts in the Roanoke area. I walked in and met Mark Hancock. Mark had been associated with Webb Motors as a young guy in 1970 until 1981, when he actually bought the company.

  “I eventually left and went into commercial banking but retired from banking about two years ago and came back here to help them out a little bit,” he said. “And I never left.”

  Some of the cars behind Webb Motors include an MGB and a Triumph TR7.

  The basement at Webb is where the real treasures are hidden. This almost new, but flood-damaged Simca holds numerous wiring harnesses. New rollbars sit on the floor.

  At one time, Webb Motors had been a British Motor Corporation, then British Leyland, dealership, selling MGs, Triumphs, Austin Healeys, and Hillman at this location since 1957. The business is still owned by Byron Webb, the son of the founder. In its prime, Webb Motors was also a motorcycle dealership that sold the Vincent, Indian, and Matchless brands.

  Mark showed me some cars around the rear of the building that he said were probably good enough to be restored at one time, but now are better suited as parts cars or race car projects.

  There were a couple of MGBs, one of which was made up of two cars, a 1965 front and a 1970 rear. There were also a couple of Midgets that had seen better days.

  In the showroom were a number of very nice sports cars, a few original and a few restored, that were being sold by Webb for their owners on consignment.

  But the real gold mine here was the huge vintage sports car parts inventory in the basement. Over the decades, enough new and used parts, Lucas and otherwise, accumulated in the basement that could satisfy nearly any British enthusiast. In addition, there was a strange little Simca. Apparently, at one time, Webb had also been a Simca dealer in addition to all the British marques.

  “That car was our original Simca demonstrator,” said Dexter Bradbury, who has been at Webb for 25 years. “The owner had a green Simca and his brother had the gold one that is now in the basement. That one went through the flood of 1985, so they towed it over here, and it’s been sitting the basement ever since.”

  They mentioned that all the parts cars, in addition to the Simca, would be for sale.

  Before we left Webb Motors, they recommended we talk to a man named John Eldridge, who they said owned a barn full of old sports cars. I called John and couldn’t believe what I heard. John said he owned more than 100 sports cars, mostly MGs, and that they were stored in several locations in the Roanoke area.

  I told John that we were leaving Roanoke in order to stay on our road trip schedule. But we made an appointment to meet when we came back through the Roanoke area after we left Hershey. A visit to John’s collection would be an exciting conclusion to our adventure!

  When we left Webb, we drove through an older part of Roanoke and came upon a giant old hook-and-ladder fire truck that was sitting in the corner of a parking lot. We thought it would be cool to include a piece of heavy equipment in this book, so we stopped to take a look.

  The fire truck is owned by the Roanoke Firefighters Union, who had an office in the adjacent building, but they didn’t know much about it. Luckily Brian had some friends in upstate New York who collect and restore old fire trucks, and he sent them a text. Within minutes it was all over social media and information started arriving on his iPhone. This is what he found out:

  The truck is a 1940 American La France with a 100-foot tiller. It was formerly Truck #1, delivered in Battleship Gray to the Roanoke Fire Department and repainted red in the 1960s. The Seagraves was still in service in 1979, when it was stationed downtown. The roof light is a Federal Beacon Ray, which was introduced in 1948. The wooden ladders are still original to the truck.

  Brian, our heavy-equipment specialist, had to fulfill a boyhood fantasy about steering the hook-and-ladder from the rear!

  And now for something completely different—we stumbled upon this 1940 American La France hook-and-ladder truck sitting in a parking lot.

  It has not been started in at least 15 years. It was purchased by the Roanoke Firefighters Union from the Virginia Transportation Museum with the intention of restoring it. This has not happened due to lack of donations. So it sits.

  We were told, though, that perhaps they might consider selling it. Do you still have the childhood dream of becoming a fireman?

  — OUR VIRGINIA CONNECTION —

  One of the folks who had been following our journey on social media was Zach Strait. For those of you who have read my most recent barn-find book, 50 Shades of Rust, you may remember the great story of Zach’s car, a 1967 Camaro SS/RS that he inherited from his grandmother, who bought it new.

  Zach lived in nearby Staunton, Virginia, and sent me a text saying we needed to connect while we were in the area because he knew of a couple of interesting cars he wanted us to see. He told us an interesting story about a 429 Torino that had been sitting in one spot for decades. That certainly got my interest.

  The street-level showroom at Bruce Elder’s Staunton, Virginia, dealership features about 50 special-interest cars that are for sale, including this Continental Mk II.

  He said we could visit that car the next morning. But tonight he arranged for us to visit his friend Bruce Elder, who operates a special-interest car dealership out of an old Staunton, Virginia, Ford dealership that had been built in 1911.

  Great! Sign us up!

  Bruce makes his living selling interesting old cars, which is not a very unique business these days. What makes Bruce’s business interesting is that, instead of storing his cars in a modern showroom or warehouse, Bruce stores the cars in the vintage Ford dealership he purchased in 1989.

  And he lives
there with his wife, too!

  The building sits in an old section of Staunton which was run down when he bought it. But as the area became gentrified, the building became the centerpiece in the town’s beautifully restored historic district.

  “This was a Ford dealership from 1911 until 1965, just after the original Mustang was launched,” Bruce said as he walked us around the expansive building.

  The square footage is actually 27,000 square feet and is comprised of three floors connected by a car elevator. Bruce makes his home on the second floor, in what were the original dealership management offices.

  The showroom, which is on the street level, contains a few dozen cars, ranging from a 1957 Cadillac with a camper body installed to the very first 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge to a Richard Petty stock car. These cars are for sale to the general public, and are not what we came here to see. So Bruce led us to the freight elevator for a short ride to the second floor where his real treasures reside.

  The first car my eyes focused on was an early Cord sedan.

  “That is a supercharged Beverly that is a one-family-owned car,” he said of the wonderfully worn but original car. “It was rumored to be in Roanoke for years and nobody could find it. Only 184 supercharged sedans like this were built that year. A buddy of mine got wind of it and tracked it down about four years ago. It has never been touched.”

  Bruce said all the upholstery is original and has had only one repaint. The 70,000-mile car is numbers-matching, and he said was only three serial numbers away from the Cord that Ab Jenkins used to set a number of speed records at Bonneville.

  It’s upstairs, though, where Bruce stores his seldom-seen cars. This supercharged two-owner, coffin-nose Cord Beverly sedan has spent its entire life within just a few miles of Bruce’s dealership.

  “In 1937, this was the Bugatti Veyron of the period, and was considered as a Baby Duesenberg,” he said. “The current owner is a doctor, as was the original owner. In order to enhance the car’s aerodynamics, the Cord was the first car with hidden headlights, no running boards, and no drip rails. It’s at least 9 inches lower in roof height than a Ford of the same year.”

  Bruce said the motor turns over, but he has not made any attempt to start it.

  “You talk about a barn find, most cars of this age would be on its third or fourth upholstery job,” he said.

  “There are lots of 1955, ’56, and ’57 Thunderbirds that have been restored, but there are none that have one family ownership, original wiring, original paint,” said Bruce, as he pulled the car cover off an exceptional T-Bird. “Except this car. This car has 30,000 miles, has the original upholstery, and was purchased from the original owner.”

  The car is black, has a hardtop with the porthole window, a soft top, and, as with all 1956 Thunderbirds, a Continental Kit. It is powered by a 312-cubic-inch engine with an automatic transmission. The spare tire, jack, and tool kit are all unused.

  “This is an unrestored, original car,” he said. “And, on the frame rail, there is still the car’s stenciled serial number. I’ve never seen that before. This car has had no rechroming, nothing. It’s only had new tires installed.”

  Bruce also showed us a 1936 Ford Phaeton he is restoring for himself. Interestingly, one of the car’s previous owners was a well-known race driver.

  “When I bought this car from a friend, he told me that the title still was in the name of a former owner, a Mr. Glen Roberts, better known as Fireball Roberts.”

  Interesting.

  He also showed us a very original 1940 Ford Standard coupe that was not owned by Fireball Roberts, or anyone else famous. “As opposed to every other 1940 Ford coupe in Virginia and North Carolina,” he said, “this one did not haul moonshine.”

  We all laughed as we said our goodnights and headed across the street for a wonderful dinner with Zach and his wife, Brenda.

  Day four was an amazing day. In fact, we did not find the most cars that day, but we made the most individual finds so far on our trip.

  It was time to call it a night. Back to the Hampton Inn.

  Bruce was particularly excited about this ’56 T-Bird, a 30,000-mile, one-owner car with original paint, Continental Kit, and like-new interior.

  TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

  DAY 5

  Zach met us at the hotel first thing Tuesday morning. And he brought along an old friend from Long Island whom I hadn’t seen in 30 years, Russell Schmidt. Russell was driving a cool 1934 Ford Vicky street rod. We talked Zach and Russell into joining us for breakfast, and he ran a couple of barn-find options past us.

  I love waking up in the morning and being given the choice of several old car collections to inspect! One option was the 429 Torino he had told us about the day before, but he noted that we may want to see a couple of other cars first. One was a 1935 Chevy and the other a 1934 Dodge.

  Since the Chevy was just a couple of miles away, we opted for that first.

  We woke up early, gassed up, and followed friend Zach Strait to several cars that he had lined up for us to see. During our trip, Virginia offered the cheapest gas of the four states we visited.

  We followed Zach to his friend Jim Todd’s garage. It was early morning, and Michael started to get excited because the sun was shining on Jim’s 1935 Chevy sedan just right.

  Jim Todd with the Chevy he dragged home from just 1 1/2 miles down the road. It had been purchased new by Jim’s uncle. It may be for sale.

  Zach led us to his friend Jim Todd’s shop and barn. Inside the barn was a nice old Chevy sedan that got Michael pretty jazzed. You see, our publisher, Zack Miller (Zack with a “k” as opposed to an “h”), kept pressing Michael to look for great front-cover photography for the book. When Michael saw the rustic barn and the way the early morning light was shining on that Chevy, he started to get out his cameras, lenses, and tripods. For a photographer, this was orgasmic stuff!

  Meanwhile, Brian and I inspected the car and interviewed the owner.

  “I grew up on this farm and today live just over on that hilltop,” he said. “The Chevy has been sitting in this barn since 1993. Before I got it, it had been sitting about a mile and a half down the road in the woods. This car was purchased new in 1935 by my great uncle, Wyatt Irvine. This car is called a Master, and is a two-door with a little trunk.”

  The Three Stooges of barn finders (from left to right): me, Brian, and Michael. Five days into our adventure, we were holding up pretty well.

  Todd’s original plan was to build the Chevy into a street rod, but then his son-in-law expressed interest in it. So it just sits. The car is rough but restorable. It had been originally painted dark green with black fenders.

  “Sometime in the 1950s, my great uncle Wyatt sold the car to a guy named Buddy Moore,” said Todd. “And I bought the car from Buddy. It was sitting behind his house. When Buddy was done with a car, he just shoved it over into the woods. He also had an old Nash Metropolitan back there. I bought the Chevy for $200.”

  Meanwhile, Michael was clicking away with his camera, trying to take advantage of the direct early morning sunlight. The car never looked so good.

  Todd couldn’t decide whether he would keep the car or sell it, but said he would entertain offers. Upon hearing that, Zach’s ears perked up and he said he might be interested in it himself.

  Michael completed his photos—one of which is on the cover of this book—and we packed up to see Zach’s other friend, Greg Cash, who had an interesting 1934 Dodge just a few miles away.

  We met Greg at a hodge-podge set of buildings that seemed to have been constructed over a number of years, using a multitude of materials. Greg confirmed that, indeed, the previous owner had been a scavenger who collected odd materials and built this series of structures over time.

  And, according to Greg, these rooms we were walking through were at one time so filled with stuff that you couldn’t see the opposite wall, which was just 20-feet away! Greg told us that the county came down on the now deceased owner because of all
the junk he had piled up in the yard. His “collection” included two old airplanes, which he simply buried in the yard.

  Inside the ramshackle building sat a lonely, lovely, 1934 Dodge four-door sedan with just 22,617 miles on the odometer.

  “I ate breakfast with the old fellow every morning,” said Greg as he explained how he came to own the car. “While he was alive, I never knew he owned the car. When he passed away, his only relatives were a niece and a nephew in Washington State and a niece in Florida.

  This Dodge was so well optioned that it was more like a Lincoln or a Cadillac! There has probably never been a better-equipped Dodge.

  “I helped them with the estate sale, and they asked me if there was anything I’d personally be interested in, and I said the old car. So after I helped them with all the auctions, they brought me the title and gave me the car. Until he passed away, I didn’t even know Neige Deihl had the car.”

  The car is huge and is probably the most amazing prewar Dodge I’ve ever seen.

  The six-cylinder-powered car had so many options: full wheel covers; artillery wheels; dual generators; an electric pre-selector gearshift (similar to a Cord) with overdrive; four accessory horns; dual side-mount, covered spare tires; accessory trunk on the back; spotlight; turn signals; suitcases; rear heater that circulated hot water from the radiator to the passenger floor; windshield defroster; curb feelers; dual mirrors; accessory bumper guards; rope grab-handles; full sunvisor; and accessory driving lights. It’s as though the purchaser ordered every option the dealer had to offer. Or that the Dodge brothers had owned the car themselves.