Barn Find Road Trip

by Tom Cotter

  This 1957 Chevy two-door wagon was an unfinished project. It sat protected under a shed roof and seemed solid.

  We walked around with John, looking at some of the vehicles scattered around his property. Here was a 1957 Chevy two-door wagon; it was a decent car John said he bought seven or eight years ago at auction. And there were a couple of 1930s Ford pickup cabs he bought a day ago at the Carlisle flea market; he needs them to repair a third truck he is building. His collection was large and eclectic.

  He said he’s been in this location since 1978. And he said he has acquired too many projects.

  “I want to restore six or eight cars to drive,” he said. “The rest just need to go away. I just don’t have the time to work on all of them. I have a deal on two cars inside, and they’ll go away next week.”

  John specializes in rebuilding Rochester Fuel Injection units for 1950s and 1960s Corvettes. He said that alone keeps him too busy. And he builds engines.

  I asked about a Corvette that was sitting in the weeds.

  What a shame; a drug-addict dentist left this ’76 Corvette at John’s for repair work 20 years ago and never returned to pick it up.

  “I worked on that car 20 years ago,” he said. “It belonged to a dentist. And the guy turned into a drug addict and never came back to get it. I don’t think he’s even alive anymore. It’s a 1976 and it has the high horsepower engine and a four-speed.” It had been sitting there so long that much of the paint on the hood, trunk, and roof was flaking off, exposing the raw fiberglass.

  This ’62 Corvette sits inside another shed. John has been into Corvettes for 40 years. He’s bought them for as little as $800.

  We walked up to an early car, also in the weeds.

  “That was the first Corvette I ever bought,” he said. “It’s a 1962, and I bought it without an engine. I put a built-up 327 in it, and it would pull the front wheels off the ground.”

  Then there was a 1958 Corvette, which happens to be my personal favorite early-model Corvette. I really dig the faux hood vents and the two chrome strips on the trunk.

  “It’s a fuelie car,” said John. “I bought it just like this. And there’s another ’58 fuelie car. I bought it about four months ago.”

  Man, this guy has the Vettes.

  John has owned many of his Corvettes for decades, but this 1958 fuel-injected model was purchased just a few months before we saw it.

  But John is not totally a Corvette guy. There, parked next to his building, was a 1940 Ford panel truck. In what must be the oddest engine transplant of all time, the truck had a Ford 300-cubic-inch straight-six-cylinder engine—probably 1960s vintage—with a four-barrel carburetor.

  “It has an Offenshauser intake manifold and a C-4 automatic transmission,” he said. “And it has a Deluxe passenger car nose, instead of the commercial nose. I have gathered all the parts to put this back together, and bought a second truck as well.”

  One of the oddest vehicles in John’s eclectic inventory was this 1940 Ford panel delivery, which had a Deluxe passenger car grill and a Ford straight-six-cylinder engine.

  Finally we got inside John’s building, where the real gems were hiding. This coupe had a fresh paint job when restoration was halted.

  Sounds like the typical car guy; he doesn’t need the first truck, so he bought a second one. He did tell me these trucks are for sale.

  We were now inside his building, which was large and cluttered. John pointed out a ’64 Stingray that had belonged to a friend of his.

  “It got crashed about 10 years ago. The owner loaned it to someone, and this guy pulled out in front of someone and the front end got knocked off. I may fix it. Time is the issue.”

  John said he does all his own fiberglass and paint work.

  He pointed out a 1932 Ford panel truck inside the cluttered building.

  “It’s the old Culligan truck,” John said as he pointed out the lettering on the side of the body. That’s my winter project. It’s going on a J&W Chassis, a built-up Ford 302 with a five-speed with air conditioning. It will be a keeper and a driver.”

  Some of the other cars in the building: ’64 Impala SS (300 horsepower, four speed); 1955 Chevrolet Suburban (327, automatic); black 1966 Stingray coupe (a/c, 360 horsepower, disc brakes, original knock-off wheels and side pipes); 1957 Pontiac Safari wagon (rust-free Arizona car, Tri-Power, with a spare Smokey Yunick—built 377-cubic-inch engine); 1965 Corvette a/c car; 1957 Chevy sedan delivery (owned 25 years); a 1966 Pontiac GTO with four-speed; a 1968 Camaro RS/SS convertible; 1962 Corvette that he uses to test run his rebuilt fuel-injection units before sending them back to customers; 1965 Corvette coupe that John drove for a number of years; and more. John admits that he bought most of his Corvettes at the right time. For some of them he paid as little as $800.

  One of my personal favorites in John’s collection was this 1962 fuel-injected Corvette. If I owned this car, I would clean it up and use it as-is.

  John restores cars for customers and does all mechanical, bodywork, and paint in his shop. This coupe is receiving major body repair.

  And now for something completely different. This 1957 Pontiac Safari wagon has a Tri-Power engine and is free of rust.

  And, until recently, John also owned a Rangoon Red 289 Cobra that he purchased about 40 years ago.

  John brought us into another garage, where he had a very nice 1940 Ford Standard 60-horsepower coupe and the last 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350 ever built.

  John said he has never advertised his cars or business, and yet he has more work than he can handle.

  Something Completely Different, Part II. I never expected to see a Mustang among John’s Corvette collection. This is the last 1966 Shelby GT350 built.

  I think we could have spent another hour, or a week or two, with John, listening to his stories, but the sun was going down and we needed to pick up the Woody and see if we could repair it. So we said goodbye to John and reversed our direction on his long dirt driveway.

  Back at the ice cream stand, I jumped into the Woody and followed Chuck in the very fast Dodge truck. Driving the Woody without power steering was tough, but not impossible. We drove to Chuck’s brother’s repair shop in Baltimore and put the car up on the lift.

  A broken Woody again. For some reason all the power steering fluid leaked out and made the Woody hard to drive. We needed to find a place to work on it Sunday evening.

  “Oh, we just need to have a new high-pressure line fabricated,” I said. “We’ll take that line off and, when a hydraulic shop opens in the morning, we’ll have a new one made, and we’ll be back on the road in no time.”

  That evening we went to Chuck’s favorite Italian restaurant, La Famiglia, in historic Roland Park, Maryland. Because he was so helpful, I treated him and his brother, Emmett, to dinner. And we may have had a little too much red wine. Thankfully our hotel was just a two-block walk away.

  We all had a good night’s sleep and woke up early to begin looking for a shop that could fabricate that hydraulic line.

  This proved to be fruitless.

  Our friend Chuck Goldsborough arranged for us to work on the Woody that evening in his brother’s repair shop. It was a ruptured power steering line. Easy—we’d just get a new one in the morning. Ha!

  Before fixing the Woody, we sprung for some homemade ice cream. We all have priorities. Ice cream is one of mine.

  MONDAY, OCTOBER 6

  DAY 11

  — WOODY REPAIR II —

  We went from one hydraulic shop to another and another. Three shops, and none of them could make a line with a compression fitting like we needed. They had actually never seen a high-pressure fitting like it before.

  How could this be? What will we do?

  Then Brian had a brilliant idea. “What if we buy a rebuilt steering rack from an auto parts store?” he asked. “I’ll bet that would have the correct line attached.”

  We drove to an Advance Auto, looked at a steering rack for a Mustang II, and Brian was correct!<
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  So we bought the $60 rebuilt steering rack in order to get a steel line that was probably worth $5. But by noon we were back on the road, ready to hunt for more cars.

  (By the way, if you know of anyone who needs a rebuilt power steering rack for a Mustang II, minus one steel line, let me know; I have one in my garage…)

  I asked Chuck whether he had heard any more about all the Porsche 356s in the barn, but he had not heard back from the owner yet. But he did recommend another interesting collection of cars north of Baltimore that we could look at in the meantime.

  So we headed to one of the most incredible automotive sights I’ve ever seen.

  Because of the Woody repair, we only made one find on Monday. But what a find! Chuck led us to a house that had the most amazing collection of cars, such as this Trabant wagon.

  Mike has the most eclectic collection of cars. It cannot be categorized. This ’57 Chevy four-door is one of several Tri-Five Chevys he owns.

  How’s this for diversity? A 1953 Cadillac sedan and a Corvair share the parking lot in the side yard.

  We followed Chuck from highways to rural roads, until we came across a residential yard that was littered with dozens of interesting old cars: old Divco milk trucks, Corvairs, East European Trabants; all spread across the front yard.

  This was amazing.

  Just one of a number of Divco milk trucks that Mike owns. These have been rented for use in a number of movies.

  We parked our cars and walked around with our mouths gaping. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen a collection quite like this. I have an eclectic automotive taste, so to me seeing collections of only Thunderbirds or Jaguars is not half as interesting as this.

  Ready? Yugos, Chevys (1955, ’57), Trabants (passenger cars, Jeep-types, and wagons), Caddys, Corvairs (sedans, vans, and pickups), VWs (Beetles and buses), Fords (domestic, English Prefects, and Zephers), a Plymouth Barracuda, an International Harvester, mid-’60s T-Bird roadster and more and more and more.

  And that is just what I could see in the front and side yard and through the fence. There were many, many more cars in the backyard I could not see because it was blocked by all the bamboo! (Remember bamboo?) I had to talk to the owner. I knocked on the door and met Andrew Annen. He said his father, Mike, owned the cars, and that he was at work.

  “I’ll call him and see when he’ll be home,” said Andrew as he walked back into the house.

  A very solid 1959 Ford two-door sedan and one of several VW buses in the side yard. And we haven’t even visited the backyard yet. That will come this evening.

  When he came back, he said his father would be home after 7:00 p.m., and that he’d be glad to meet us. But until then, Andrew would be glad to show us some of the cars in the front and side yards. We started out looking at the Trabants, a brand that was manufactured in Eastern Europe during the cold war. They were two-cylinder, 2-cycle, air-cooled, and front-wheel drive. And they had the reputation of being smoky and slow.

  “These have metal subframes and a body made of cotton fiber,” said Andrew. “They take cotton—basically old clothes—and press it with resin and it turns into a hard, almost plastic-like material.”

  Andrew said they can smoke badly if oil is mixed incorrectly. In reality, they are like the two-stroke engines in a Lawn Boy lawn mower.

  “It’s like a weed wacker,” he said. “The earlier ones smoke a lot. My father has been bringing them in from out of the country.” He pointed to a Trabant military vehicle, which I just could not imagine going to war with.

  “My dad’s been into Trabants since about 2004,” he said. When I asked what type of car his father drives every day, I was surprised to find out it was a Mitsubishi electric car. “He had been into big American cars, but then he started to get into smaller European stuff,” said Andrew. “Now Trabants are his next big adventure.”

  Michael aimed his camera over the fence and this is what he saw! Let me see—right to left, I think it’s a Trabant, a Vespa, and a Model A Ford Deluxe cabriolet.

  The interior of this English Ford Prefect sedan is being kept out of the weather with a handy pickup truck cap.

  Mike gave us a tour of his backyard in the dark, which added to the intrigue. This Austin Healey Bugeye Sprite has seen better days, but it runs! In the background is another Trabant wagon.

  Andrew told me that Trabants are pretty reasonably priced. “Depending on their condition, about $3,000 for a running daily driver. They are EPA and DOT exempt, because they are more than 25 years old.”

  This was a serious find, and I was so glad Mike agreed to talk to us. I gave Andrew a copy of my 50 Shades of Rust book, which had just been released. “Here, give this to your father,” I said. “We’ll be back after 7:00.”

  We left with Chuck for a terrific meal a few miles down the road at a place called the Manor Tavern. Great place in Monkton, Maryland, smack dab in the middle of horse country. We had some great food; I had the baby back ribs with their special homemade barbecue sauce, which had quite a kick! And there was a kicking bluegrass band playing as well. It was a neat place, and some of the patrons at the bar approached us to talk about our Woody in the parking lot.

  Almost two hours later, it was getting dark and was time for us to go back to Mike’s house so we could meet the man in person.

  Chuck said goodbye, having spent almost two entire days with us. He needed to go back home to spend some quality time with his family. Before I said goodbye to Chuck, I reminded him that I would still like to see that barn full of old Porsches while I was in the area. He promised to find out about their status and call us in the morning. With that, we headed back up the road to Mike’s house.

  Something you don’t see every day—a rare Citroen 2 CV panel delivery truck, minus one front wheel.

  This is me standing next to a Morris Minor sedan and looking upstairs in Mike’s barn. He has cars on ground level and more upstairs!

  I knocked on the door and Mike invited me inside. He had been reading the 50 Shades book, so he had a good idea of who I was before we met. Even though it was dark out—almost 8:00 p.m. by now—he offered to take us on a tour of his backyard and buildings. He provided the flashlights. But first he wanted to check out my Woody. Mike was a real car guy.

  He started to discuss the Trabants. He said his son Mathew was operating the website www.trabantusa.com and that there are close to 100 members nationwide.

  “It was actually Tom Brokaw that got me into Trabants,” he said. “We had been watching the news about the Berlin Wall coming down, and I became intrigued with the little cars.”

  Eventually Mike was bringing home shipping containers full of Trabants from Europe. He said he’s paid as little as $25 for them plus $9 customs fees. He could stack six in a container. He’s traveled to England, Germany, Poland, and Hungary on Trabant buying trips.

  Not really a “Woody,” this 1951 Chevy had a metal body that was painted to look like wood. The interior, however, contains real wood.

  A couple more Citroen 2 CV coupes. The spunky, two-cylinder cars have a suspension that supposedly can carry a basket of eggs across a plowed farm field without breaking any!

  This Porsche 914 doesn’t look like it’s been driven in a long, long time. Don’t get excited; it’s not a six-cylinder.

  Brian finds another barn on Mike’s property and decides to explore…

  OK, enough with the Trabants. What else did Mike have?

  “My first car was a 1969 Chevelle that I wrapped up and kept on rebuilding,” he said. “Then I bought another Chevelle, which was an SS 396. I still have that car in the barn.

  “My first old car I found in 1978 while riding around during high school and it was a 1950 Buick Sedanette. It was a straight-eight with a Dynaflow transmission. The gas mileage sucked. Then I got into Divco milk trucks for a while. I bought a bunch and have rented them out for movies. I bought 11 for $2,200 from a laundry near DC that was closing. I made money renting them out, and when the movie w
as over, I sold one truck for $3,000. I still have about nine left.”

  Inside he finds a small-mouth Triumph TR3 that seems to be covered in surface rust.

  Mike told me about the challenges of owning that many cars in a residential area. He must register each vehicle with Maryland Historic tags, and has to deal occasionally with police officers who decide to walk through his property to inspect license plate tags.

  Other cars on Mike’s property: Model T; Model A; ’47 Chevy Coupe (semi hot rodded); DKW (freshly restored); ’51 Chevy hardtop with Cadillac fins; Renault; Oldsmobile; 1953 and 1954 Chryslers; Fiat (couple of 850s); International tow truck; 1961 Buick Skylark convertible; Citroen 2 CV; and on and on.

  This 1947 Pontiac four-door sedan seems to be returning to the earth.

  Most of the cars in the rear of Mike’s property were buried in a bamboo forest, which hides most of the cars until you are right on top of them. Mike said that if he cuts the bamboo, it grows back quickly. He’s given up on trying to keep it mowed down.