Barn Find Road Trip

by Tom Cotter

  And to make this discovery even more insane, Mike has another 150 cars in a building on a piece of property he owns in West Virginia! I asked him how he planned to deplete his collection one day; would he have an auction, or sell them off one by one?

  “I guess when I go, the old lady is going to have a big junk sale,” he said with a big smile.

  This is the first Checker we’ve found on the Barn Find Road Trip. Mike rents his cars and truck out to movies being shot in and around Washington D.C. This Checker taxi was in one of those movies.

  One lone French Renault Dauphine sits in the dark next to another French car, a Peugeot.

  To me this was the most significant find of our 14-week adventure, and one of the best finds of my life. Mike knew he had the car sickness real bad, and joked about it. He was a great guy and was so kind in allowing us to see his collection. He said that he never gives tours of his property, so we felt very lucky.

  I seriously could have spent another 8 or 10 hours walking through that bamboo forest and listening to Mike’s stories. This was a discovery that car geeks dream about stumbling upon once in their lives. It was a great adventure, and I hope to come back for another visit when I am in the area.

  We headed off to our hotel. It had been a long, long day. Time to call it quits. I believe I could write a book just about Mike’s collection. What a day.

  This postwar Chevy sedan seems to be getting squeezed out by trees on both sides!

  Visiting Mike’s yard caused sensory overload, especially in the evening. Before we departed, Michael (our photographer) got a little artistic with a ’57 Chevy tailfin and the moon.

  TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7

  DAY 12

  We were now in Pennsylvania, making our way toward Hershey, where our trip will end. Driving down a road in Manchester, we saw an older gas station-type building on the left that had a couple of old cars sitting outside—a Camaro and a Porsche.

  Of course, we stopped and started poking around. Within a few minutes, Mark Snelbaker walked up and wondered what we were doing. He owned the building and the business. His father had originally run a repair shop out of there and sold interesting sports cars such as TVRs, Facel Vegas, and Italias. Now Mark buys and sells special-interest cars and parts. We asked Mark about the cars.

  “I’ve been messing around with cars all my life,” said Mark. “I started with old Camaros. My first car was a ’69 RS/SS.”

  I asked about the 1968 Camaro next to his building.

  “It’s for sale,” he said. “It’s a plain Camaro with an automatic on the floor. I bought it at a flea market. I have a ’69 Z28 out back, code X77. That car is not for sale.”

  Then I asked about the Porsche, which was pretty rough.

  “I bought it off a buddy of mine. It’s a four-cylinder, and it’s for sale. I’d sell it for $1,000 or make an offer. It’s been sitting for years.”

  We saw this 1968 Camaro and pulled into Mark Snelbaker’s to have a closer look. It’s rough, and it’s for sale.

  This Porsche 914 has seen better days. Mark said he’d like to sell it for $1,000. He has a couple sets of alloy wheels for the car that are available as well.

  Mark had a 1962 Vette in high school, so he couldn’t turn down buying another one. But it sits ignored in his building waiting for Mark to find the time to restore it.

  The other car outside was an Olds Delta 88 convertible, but with the convertible top ripped and the rain running in, I can’t see why someone would want to restore that car. Mark also owns a 1962 Corvette. It was inside the building and literally buried with clutter. It’s a basket-case project, and it’s not for sale.

  “I’ve had it for 20 years,” he said. “When I was 18, I had a ’62 Vette, but I had to sell it for financial reasons. I always said I’d get another one, so I did. Now I’d just like to drive it.”

  Inside his building, he has lots of interesting car parts—like grilles and taillights—that he sells on the Internet. As a result, he keeps lots of boxes around for shipping parts. And he piles those boxes on top of the Corvette.

  Before we left Mark’s business, he looked at our Woody and mentioned that just three houses away were a couple of brothers who restore Woodies full-time.

  “What’s their name?” I asked.

  “Their last name is Kline,” he said.

  Believe it or not, this 1969 Camaro once left a Chevy dealership as a shiny, new Z-28! Mark said he hopes to find the time to make it shiny again.

  Just three houses from Mark Snelbaker’s shop is the Kline Family Woodworking shops, one of the most renowned wood body restorers in the country. This 1949 Plymouth was getting a new body installed.

  I had seen their ads in the National Woodie Club’s Woodie Times magazine.

  “Well, I guess we’ll go there next,” I said.

  I parked the Woody next to the Kline Family Workshop and walked in. I met Tom and Mike Kline, who, in fact, restore Woody wagons full-time. Tom kindly gave me a tour of his shop and gave me a Woodworking #101 course. He told me business is good.

  “I don’t know if it will slow down, but right now it’s all I can do just to keep up,” he said. “We’ve got plenty of work lined up.”

  Tom mentioned that they do mostly Ford Woody restorations, just because there are more Ford Woodies around. But he will take on any wooden car, regardless of brand. He has done a number of Plymouths, Buicks, a couple of Chevys, and a Rolls Royce that needed interior woodwork. In his shop was a 1949 Plymouth that was getting a new body installed.

  I asked if he owned a Woody.

  “I don’t have one,” he said. “I’ve got an old Dodge Powerwagon out back that we were going to make a Woody out of, but it’s just sitting there. When you’re doing this every day, it’s no fun to do it evenings as well. I’d rather do something else.”

  In addition to Woody wagons, the Klines have also built new bodies for a couple of Chrysler Town & Country convertibles and sedans.

  Tom and Mike Kline bought this Dodge Powerwagon with the intention of making it into a “phantom” Woody. But the desire to work on their own car has diminished.

  One fascinating machine Tom showed me was a wood carving machine, which allowed the user to cut a left and right side pattern at the same time. It makes a mirror image of items, like door posts, that are virtually identical from side to side. Pretty cool. Almost like a primitive CNC machine.

  The Klines fabricate and install Woody bodies and also sell kits for customers to install themselves. These guys are master woodworkers. The work they do is nothing less than old world craftsmanship. I would gladly recommend Kline to perform woody restorations.

  We said goodbye to Tom and Mike and wandered off to our next adventure, wherever that was…

  Just a block away from the Klines, we stumbled into another interesting guy who owned a bunch of restored and original Fords and Mustangs, including a 1931 Ford Model A pickup, 1966 Mustang GT convertible, 1967 Shelby GT 500, 1968 Mustang drag car, and a 1969 Mach One. We enjoyed talking with him, but he didn’t want us to use his name or photos in the book, so we said goodbye and hit the road again.

  — ON THE WAY TO POSIES…WHOOPS! —

  We were on a path to Hershey, Pennsylvania, for the annual swap meet and car show. Before we got there, though, I wanted to stop at Posies Rods and Customs in nearby Hummelstown. But our GPS guided us to a bridge that was closed for repairs, so we kept driving up the road on the wrong side of the river from where we wanted to be while Brian and Siri argued over the directions his iPhone was giving us.

  A few miles up the river, we saw an old, rusty Ford in a pasture, so we pulled in the driveway to inspect it. It was a 1937 Ford two-door sedan with a 1940 dashboard installed. And it was so rusty. Barely good as a parts car, if you ask me.

  We walked up to the shop and met Bob Moyer, who was a car collector, hot rodder, vintage stock-car racer and farmer. Bob invited us into his garage to see some of his projects. Sitting next to the garage door was a 19
49 Ford two-door sedan that he was in the process of building into a vintage stock car. Looked like he was doing a good job, and having a great time doing it.

  Around the side under a carport was a barn-find 1951 Mercury four-door sedan that he had acquired. No restoration required; this baby was solid and a great driver.

  “The gentleman bought this car new in 1951, and he died in 1960, so they put it in the barn, and I got it out in 2005. I bought it from the old man’s son. He said, ‘What will you give me for it?’ and I said ‘$4,000.’ The guy started to laugh. He thought it was worth $50!”

  This rusty hulk of a 1937 Ford in Bob Moyer’s farm field attracted our attention. An advertising headline around this photo might read “One of These Cars Used Simonize, and the Other Didn’t.”

  When he brought it home, he had 45 years’ worth of cleaning to do.

  “It was covered in pigeon shit,” said Bob. “So I gave each of my three grandchildren a Brillo pad and they cleaned it. Then I hit it with compound. And the mice had the whole interior moved into the trunk!”

  He also had a nice 1966 Mercury Comet with a 390-cubic-inch and a four-speed.

  “I’m an old flathead guy,” said Bob. He showed us a flathead-powered Modified racer that had been campaigned in the area around the time Bob was in military service.

  Bob dragged home this 1951 Mercury after it had sat for 45 years. A general clean-up, which included scraping years of pigeon crap from the body, made this a presentable, unrestored car.

  “It was a barn find. We found it. There was an old speedway around here, which is now defunct. It was Silver Springs Speedway up in Mechanicsburg. It was one of the most popular speedways in its day. And we found this car; here’s a tech inspection sticker, September 14, 1968. A photographer sent me an old picture of the car, which is the only one I have.”

  He recently displayed this car at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing in York Springs, Pennsylvania. He plans on running the car on the track at next year’s vintage event.

  Bob told me there probably weren’t too many old cars in the immediate area.

  “I’ve lived around here my whole life and been in and out of most every barn, and I can tell you, most of the cars are accounted for.”

  Then Bob raised another garage door and revealed what he calls his “Old Man’s car.” “I take my mom to church in this car,” he said as he showed us a 1959 Rambler Custom with 41,000 miles on the odometer. It was sweet.

  We asked about the rusty 1937 Ford that attracted us into Bob’s yard in the first place. He said it was a sad story.

  Bob’s current project is this 1949 Ford sedan, which he is converting into a vintage-style stock car.

  “There was a junkyard on the other side of those mountains,” he said. “Someone said they were going to go over to the junkyard to get something. I asked, ‘What junkyard?’ My friend said, ‘Evan’s Junkyard.’ I’d never heard of it, and I’d been through every back lane around. So I drove up the dirt road and thought, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be here…’

  “But here was this junkyard, about 300 to 400 cars, nothing newer than 1955 or ’56. My jaw was on the ground. I couldn’t believe it, every car was $200. He had Model As with trees growing through them. Well, anyway, someone came along and bought just about all the cars, but I found this old ’37 hiding up in the woods. So I paid $200 and got the car.”

  Bob dug up this vintage Modified racer, which had history racing at local tracks in this part of Pennsylvania. He hopes to race it at the Eastern Museum of Auto Racing vintage event next year.

  Inside the trunk of the car was a bucket with eight Stromberg Carburetors, a banjo steering wheel, and extra axles as well. “It had $1,000 worth of spare parts in the trunk alone,” Bob told us. The car has been sitting in his field for the past five years.

  Despite the sedan’s awful condition, Bob is considering a partial restoration of the car to prove to his friend that anything can be repaired. Good luck!

  This was the perfect detour; the bridge being closed en route to Posies allowed us to meet Bob, see his cars, and hear his stories.

  Old cars are everywhere!

  Posies Rods and Customs is owned by my friend Ken Fenical and is one of the top hot rod shops in the United States. Ken is a hot rodder through and through, but he is also an artist and a sculptor. The work he turns out is world class. His cars have been featured in books, magazines, and car shows throughout the United States.

  We finally made it to Posies Rods and Customs in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. Parked out in front was owner Ken Fenical’s daily driver, this Chevy-powered Jaguar coupe that he named Flat Cat.

  To get a handle on Posies’ work, check out www.posiesrodsandcustoms.com. Cars are his palette, and sheet metal is his medium. As opposed to most street rod builders who install modern drivetrains in vintage bodies, Ken can’t leave well enough alone; he reshapes metal, re-contours body lines, and builds trim and emblems that are suitable for museum display. Check out the website for his Extremeliner, Swept Back, Orange Krisp, and Jaguar-based Flat Cat. His cars very much resemble the custom coachwork from UK or Italian-based body craftsmen.

  Ken shows me some of the projects going on in his shop.

  Ken is not a barn finder, so to speak. Most of his clients bring cars to him for modification. So, except for a couple of cars he knew about that were sitting in a nearby front yard, he didn’t know about any huge collections of barn-find cars. But when I pressed Ken, he said, “Well, there is the old panel truck in the back.”

  Indeed there was.

  Posies had a terrific barn find literally sitting in the back of their building, in a dark room, all but forgotten. Ken has owned the 1930 Model A for 51 years.

  “I paid $350 for it, and had my choice of either a 1929 or the ’30,” he said. “It became my daily driver for 25 years.”

  He told us about pulling out the original four-cylinder using a tree branch in his father’s yard. Then he towed the panel truck to a junkyard, where they lowered a Chevy V-8 into the chassis, where it rested on 2x4s. He trailered it home and welded in mounts.

  “I made a Ford Econoline front axle work,” he said.

  The drivetrain is nothing exotic, but being his daily driver, it didn’t have to be; it has a Chevy 307-cubic-inch with a Powerglide two-speed automatic. When I told Ken he indeed did have a barn find, he thought maybe he would take it out of the garage and get it running again.

  “I won’t even clean the dust off it,” he said with a smile.

  And there was a lot of dust!

  Michael, right, is always stuck on the other side of the camera, while Brian is photo-bombing every chance he gets. So I shot the photo as Michael posed with Ken.

  See, there’s that photo-bombing Brian, trying to look cool in front of Ken’s Flat Cat Jag.

  Ken tells us the story of his very first shop truck. He paid $350 for it and pulled the original engine using a tree in his parent’s front yard.

  — TIME FOR A BREW —

  We said goodbye to Ken and the staff at Posie’s and hit the road for nearby Hershey. But we wouldn’t hit the swap meet just yet. Evening was approaching, so when we got to Hershey we drove straight to Troeg’s Brewery, which is just up the street from the swap meet site.

  Brian and I had visited Troeg’s on a previous road trip and enjoyed their craft beer and amazing food. We felt it might be a good place to not only catch dinner, but meet with other patrons who might be old-car enthusiasts in town for the big event.

  Well, the food and beverage were great, as usual, but we couldn’t connect with any other car people. The place was jammed and noisy, and everyone seemed to be in large groups that were hard to break into. We were staying in Carlisle, about 35 minutes south, so we decided to get on the road so we could check into the hotel, a Hampton Inn, of course. Tomorrow would be another long day.

  Ken did finally admit that he owned a barn find…that he found in his own warehouse! He has owned this 1930 Model A Panel since 1963
.

  WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8

  DAY 13

  If we judged each day’s success by the number of vehicles we discovered, yesterday was probably our least productive. Still, we met some cool folks and found some cool cars.

  Now our plan was to spend a couple of days at the Hershey swap meet. By walking through the flea market and car corral area, we felt finding cool barn finds would be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.

  Because the three of us also spent time searching for parts for project cars, and I had a couple of book signings scheduled, I decided to count Days 13, 14, and 15 as one day. We found several pretty cool old cars at Hershey, but not as many as you might think. In no particular order, here are the barn-find “highlights” we “discovered” on the Hershey grounds over the three days we attended.

  — 1932 CHEVY PANEL DELIVERY —

  Jim Mack had known about this Chevy for a long time, but the owner did not want to sell.

  “The owner had it for 50 years, and would only take it out once or twice a year, like to the Apple Festival parade,” said Jim, an Ohio-based car collector. “Each year, he would give it a kerosene bath and put it away for the winter. The kerosene preserved the body and kept the moisture away.”

  Jim explained that the owner also had a 1931 Ford Model A roadster in that same barn. “He got married in the roadster,” said Jim. “He also had a 1946 Ford convertible. I went there four years ago, but nothing was for sale. Then the family called me last May and told me their dad’s health was failing.”