Barn Find Road Trip

by Tom Cotter

  Next door to Rob’s Body Shop was a mechanical repair shop called Craig Boddy Automotive. The owner, Craig, came over to see the Woody, so we started to talk. He told us there was a man up in the hills on Dry Creek Road named David Shoemaker.

  “He and his wife Shirley are the nicest people you’ll ever meet,” said Craig. “He can repair anything, and he has a bunch of cars.”

  We thanked Craig and took off to find Dry Creek Road. Interestingly, our GPS told us that Dry Creek Road was right off Fried Meat Ridge Road. Hmmm. I bet they don’t have any Fried Meat Ridge Roads in Miami or Beverly Hills.

  We pulled up to a house that could only be David and Shirley Shoemaker’s. There were old cars in the front yard, in the side yards, in buildings, and even on the roof! I knocked on the door, and the dogs started barking. Shirley Shoemaker answered the door and said her husband was working on a bulldozer on top of the hill behind their house.

  “You can look around, though,” she said.

  One of the most memorable finds during our trip came from a lead that led us to David Shoemaker’s house. Wow! This 1939 Chevy is being built with period speed equipment like dual carbs, split exhaust, and a four-speed.

  So Brian, Michael, and I scattered around the yard to see what Mr. Shoemaker owned. We decided that this place was so good we would have to come back later, or even the next day, to meet and interview David in person. But within just a few minutes, David came driving up.

  “I heard the dogs barking, so figured somebody was visiting,” he said.

  We introduced ourselves and told him we were writing a book about finding old cars and wanted to include his collection.

  David Shoemaker was one of the friendliest and most interesting people we met on the trip. He is one of the dwindling breed of Americans who can fix or build anything. I hope to visit him again one day.

  “Go ahead,” he said.

  So Michael got serious with his camera while Brian and I walked around with David from one end of his yard to the other.

  “I moved in here in 1958 and got married in 1962,” said David. “I never really collected cars; I’ve been working on them, but I sure do wish I had collected some of the ones I got rid of. I restore them for people, and some of my own. Right now I’m restoring a 1931 Model A coupe.”

  He showed us a 1942 Ford Business Coupe, a rare car that he bought not because it was the last model built before World War II, but because it was the year he was born. Next he showed us a 1931 Model A with a 392 Hemi with a push-button automatic and a Pinto front end.

  “I was building that little hot rod for myself,” he said.

  In his basement garage he had a 1939 Chevy sedan that he was building into a nostalgic hot rod. It had dual carburetors and factory split exhaust.

  “The engine is a 1964 231-cubic-inch six-cylinder with a cam like the Corvette had when it came out in ’53,” he said. “I installed an 11-inch clutch with a four-speed. I’ve had that quite a while, but it’s been on the back burner for quite a while, too.”

  David’s dog, Top Gun, was very protective of his master and his belongings. He went after both Michael and Brian in a good natured but aggressive way. No bites, though.

  One of three Tri-Five Chevys in David’s garage, this is a 1955 Chevy two-door sedan.

  David likes both Chevys and Fords but said he is probably more of a Chevy guy.

  “It’s because when I first started working on cars, all parts on the 1955, ’56, and ’57 Chevys were interchangeable,” said David. “For the ’65 Mustang, hell, there were eight different brake wheel cylinders, but every Chevy part swapped onto every other Chevy.”

  I asked David if he had a favorite car.

  Believe it or not, this Model A Ford is parked on the roof of David’s garage, along with several spare chassis.

  “Not really,” he said. “I just like old cars. When these cars were built, the manufacturers took an interest in the cars they were building. Cars these days are all top dollar stuff.”

  He did admit that he was probably a hot rodder. I asked him this because he had engine swaps going on in virtually all his projects.

  “No, well, yes, I’ve had a few hot rods. I still have my Henry J with a Chevy engine in it,” he said.

  He said he has dragged cars home from all over the South: South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. He has friends who call him when they discover a car David might be interested in.

  My favorite of David’s cars was this 1941 Chrysler three-window coupe. He said that President Roosevelt owned two like it! I suggested that he install one of the Hemis he had in his garage.

  “I enjoy working on them, but my health is not the same,” he said. “My legs, you know?”

  David brags about the fact that he taught his daughter how to work on cars, which was later confirmed by Craig Boddy back in town. “His daughter knows how to rebuild an automatic transmission better than anyone,” said Craig.

  We looked at an interesting Chrysler three-window coupe.

  “It’s a 1941,” said David. “President Roosevelt owned two just like this one. The serial number ahead of this and the one behind it are sitting in a museum. I’ve had this one for five or six years.”

  Another garage sheltered a hot-rodded 1951 Mercury four-door on the left, and a postwar Dodge coupe on the right.

  I mentioned that one of his spare Hemis would be sweet in that car, and David agreed. He also mentioned that he would probably sell the car.

  “I don’t have so many cars now; I used to have a bunch of them,” he said. “But the state came in about 20 years ago and made me get rid of a bunch of cars. They didn’t want them outside, so we had to put them everyplace we could. I got rid of a bunch of them: Fords, Chevrolets, a Cadillac. You can’t believe the cars I had to crush when the state came down on me. People were actually driving old cars to the scrap yard to be crushed.”

  David Shoemaker was one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. He’s talented, hardworking and humble. He reminds me of two other people: my old race car mechanic, Billy Coates; and California customizer Dean Jeffries. All three of these guys were home-taught engineers, who could fix anything.

  Another “Shoebox” Ford, this one a 1949 four-door sedan. The fenders stored on the roof are from a 1941 Ford, of which David has at least one.

  David had cars hidden in every corner. Here is a long-stagnant project: a 1951 Ford two-door.

  I’m thankful there are still guys like David Shoemaker around; he’s certainly part of a disappearing American landscape. I could have stayed on Dry Creek Road for a week talking with David, but I had a book to write, so we had to keep moving.

  A few miles after leaving David Shoemaker’s, we stumbled across this quartet of Dodge pickups behind an auction company. Yes, they were all for sale. Cheap.

  A few miles up the road, behind an auction company building, was a row of old Dodge Trucks, similar to the Mater character in the Pixar movie, Cars. Of course, we stopped. We met the boss of the auction business, Tim Malcolm, who told us all four trucks, 1951 through 1953, came from the same gentleman.

  “He had one, and bought three more as parts trucks to restore his ’52 five-window,” said Tim. “I bought all four of them, but didn’t pay a lot of money for them. I’ll take $3,500 for all four. They all have engines in them, but none of them turn over at the moment.”

  Next to the Dodge trucks was this 1949 Oldsmobile fastback coupe, equipped with the famous Rocket 88 V-8 engine.

  I also asked about the 1949 Oldsmobile coupe that was sitting next to the trucks.

  “It comes from Romney, West Virginia, just right up the road,” he said. “The owner passed away and was working on a Model A when he died. He also had a panel van, which I wanted. It was supposed to be rust-free, but it wasn’t. The Oldsmobile was the most solid car he had, so I bought it.”

  The Olds had one of the famous Rocket V-8 engines. He said he would take $2,500 for it.

  On Highway 220 in Ke
yser, West Virginia, we saw an interesting Corvair truck parked in a front yard with a For Sale sign in the windshield. Corvairs have always been interesting and curious to me, but lately I’ve really become intrigued with the brand. If you think about it, General Motors took a very bold step in marketing that car. In some ways, it was more Porsche than Chevrolet.

  Anyway, this Corvair truck was last registered in 1980. It featured a standard three-speed transmission, AM radio, and no side-loading ramp. (Do you remember the TV ads where they featured a baby elephant walking up the ramp?) Mileage was 93,000.

  Right in the middle of Keyser, West Virginia, was this Corvair pickup sitting on a front lawn with a For Sale sign on it. Off the road for 35 years, asking price for the fairly solid truck was $5,000.

  The woman at the house said her husband was selling the truck for a friend. The asking price was $5,000. I think the price was fair; the condition was fair as well. A restorer could do worse than fix up this truck. And you’d likely be the only Corvair pickup at your local Cars & Coffee event on any given Saturday.

  This was too good to pass up as a photo op.

  It was another heck of a car-hunting day. Our plan was to drive north to Hagerstown, Maryland, for the evening, but heavy rain was forecast, so we opted for a closer hotel in Winchester, Virginia.

  Virginia. Remember Virginia? We just couldn’t get away from that state!

  We stayed at the Aloft Hotel at exit 313, which was a nice change from our Hampton Inn ritual. Tomorrow we would cross the Mason-Dixon Line, then continue from Maryland into Pennsylvania.

  We parked the Woody under the entrance portico, out of the rain, and drove the Ford Flex to dinner. We ate at the Cork Street Tavern in Winchester. I first visited the Tavern when I was racing my Morris Minor at nearby Summit Point Raceway. Now, almost 20 years later, it’s still a cool place to spend an evening.

  We spotted this 1949-ish Chevy delivery on the side of the road, but there was no For Sale sign, nor was anyone nearby.

  SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4

  DAY 9

  Having stayed in Winchester, Virginia, we were just a few miles from one of the most respected restoration shops in the world, White Post Restorations. It was Saturday, and they would probably be closed, but we figured it would be cool to check out their facility anyway.

  — ROYAL MOPARS —

  We parked the Woody in the parking lot and walked around looking in windows at old cars undergoing restoration. As we were poking around, a pickup truck came pulling up and a guy in a camo outfit got out. Oh, shit, I bet we’re in trouble now…

  “Hi, I’m Billy Thompson,” he said. “I own this place.”

  Obviously our 1939 Ford, which was parked prominently out front, proved that we were not up to no good.

  We told Billy of our 14-day journey. He asked if we wanted to take a tour. As we walked into the building, he told us he had been out bow hunting. The season had opened this morning, and he was just getting out of the woods.

  Billy runs a pretty amazing operation; all mechanical, machine, upholstery, fabrication, woodworking, and paint is handled on site. The only service they need to farm out is plating. White Post will work on any type of car or truck, from a brass-era classic to a later-model muscle car. Billy said his staff would get bored if they worked on the same type of cars all the time.

  The cars we were most amazed with were five 1955 and 1956 Chrysler Imperial Limousines that were being restored for the royal family in Kuwait, who bought them new. These cars were being restored to better-than-new condition. When they arrived at White Post, they had literally been dragged from the desert where they had been riddled with bullet holes from the first Persian Gulf War.

  One of the Chrysler Imperial limos is nearly complete. The car, one of five, will soon be heading home to Kuwait.

  We stayed in Winchester, Virginia, on Friday night, so we decided to visit the world famous White Post Restorations, which was nearby. The shop was closed, but owner Billy Thompson happened along and gave us a tour.

  This is one of the nine Chrysler Imperial limos required to restore the Kuwait cars.

  These huge limos, weighing 6,000-pounds each and powered by Chrysler Hemi 392-cubic-inch engines, were being finished to the highest standards. The only upgrades being performed were dual air conditioning units—one for the front passenger compartment and one for the rear—instead of just the single unit that came from the factory. The cars were also being thoroughly insulated, because they would soon be shipped back to the Middle Eastern nation. Billy said they couldn’t have restored the cars without acquiring a total of nine limo parts cars, which must have been quite a challenge.

  That cars from a country still in military conflict were shipped to this shop in rural Virginia for restoration should give you an idea of just how well respected White Post Restorations is.

  Leaving Winchester and driving north, we came across an interesting business in Berryville, Virginia. It was called Trip’s Auto & Camper Sales, and, as we passed, I noticed some unusually shaped cars sitting behind the building.

  We met the son of the founder, C. T. Hardesty IV, who said we could walk around and look at the old cars.

  “My father goes by the name Trip, he’s the third, and my son, Chase, is the fifth,” said C. T. “Our names are all the same, Charles Triplet Hardesty. The original C. T. Hardesty was born in 1873. My dad is 84, and he’s here every day. I know he’d love to talk to you.”

  I was immediately drawn to the 1936 Desoto Airflow sedan—AN AIRFLOW!— that was being absorbed by weeds and trees.

  Just one of the many cars behind C. T. Hardesty’s Camper Sales in Berryville, Virginia. This Desoto sedan is being reclaimed by nature.

  “I drove that car with four guys in it, parked it there in 1974, and it hasn’t moved since,” he said.

  Wow, Airflows are quite rare. I haven’t found one since about 1970, when I found one sitting in a barn on Prudence Island, off the coast of Rhode Island. The art deco styling on these cars, even though a failure in the marketplace, is fabulous to behold.

  By then, Trip, his father, had arrived. Trip told us a little of the back story on the Desoto.

  “I’d been an Airflow nut for years,” said Trip.

  Many years ago, he said he once bid on one at an auction. His limit was $800, and for $820 he could have owned it.

  “I told the auctioneer, no, that’s it, I’ve reached my limit,” he said. “At that time, I really didn’t have the money. Now in hindsight, I wish I had paid the other $20. That Desoto drove to where it is sitting right now. I’m getting a lot of interest in it all of a sudden, but, of course, most people who are interested want to buy it for $500.

  “I bought it in Norfolk. A police officer owned it and had it advertised. When I got there, there was a fence around the car. I said to him, ‘I called you and said I was on my way. Why isn’t the fence down?’ The seller told me he wanted to meet me first. He said if I was some kind of kid who wanted to make a street rod out of it, he wouldn’t sell it to me.”

  The diamond in the rough at C. T.’s was this 1936 Desoto sedan, which ran when it was parked here in 1974. The race car is now a shed for hubcaps.

  Trip was not very proud of the condition he had let the Desoto deteriorate to.

  “I’ve let many, many cars go to pot,” he said. “I have a 1939 International truck back there in the field with 15,000 miles on it. I bought it at an antique car auction in 1974. I’ve got a 1938 Nash Ambassador with 19,000 miles on it at my son’s house. It came out of the Cord, Auburn, and Duesenberg Museum and sold at the Kruse Auction.”

  C. T. showed us their garage, where he is restoring a 1961 Ford Starliner with a 390, and where his father’s 1940 Chevy was being stored.

  No, Brian, you can’t steal any hubcaps!

  Even owner C. T. Hardesty says this is a shame. This low-mileage 1950 Buick fastback sedan was driven to its location and parked. Who knows how long the windows have been broken.

  “I
was driving around one night in my Starliner, and a friend came up to me and said, ‘C. T., I have a car that looks like that back in my field. Only problem is that it’s been converted to a saw mill.’ So we jumped in his truck and drove back there in the field, and there was a 1961 Country Squire wagon, cut in half and on the back of the transmission was a big old pulley that would turn a belt. I could see under the hood that the engine had a Thunderbird logo on it, so I knew it was a big 390 motor. So I took the 352 out of my Starliner and installed the 390 from the sawmill. Except I installed a little bit different cam.”

  But back to the barn-find cars.

  The property was littered with Buick Reattas, the semi-stylish two-seater coupes and convertibles that GM marketed for a couple of years. C. T.’s father owns 14 of them.

  “Hemming’s Motor News named the Reatta as a one of the possible top-ten collector cars of the future,” said C. T. “They came with V-6 engines and front-wheel drive. When my father read that, he started buying them up.”

  Future barn finds? Maybe. We won’t count the Reattas in our tally today, though. Sorry.

  Some of the other old vehicles around the property?

  A couple of early Ford flathead V-8 trucks being swallowed up by kudzu.