Author Topic: Major Barn Find (Read 3377 times)

DF · « **on:** July 05, 2007, 06:06:46 PM »

How would you like to have bought this property?

Imagine you're going to live in Portugal. You find a lovely farmhouse set on a decent plot of land. The place has been empty for 15 years...

While exploring your new property you find a large barn.

The door is padlocked and welded shut and it's all rusted solid.

So you grind the padlock and the welds off and....

http://www.intuh.net/barnfinds/afa70.htm

Jugghead · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2007, 06:22:40 PM »

Absolutely amazing!
There must be quite a story behind the collection and the collector!
i would love to learn more. Seeing the newspaper in the one car should give you some idea of when they were put up for storage.
Just phenomenal!

Jeb · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2007, 06:24:16 PM »

I think I just soiled myself. Is this true. Oh, I think I did it again.

Dusthawk · « **Reply #3 on:** July 05, 2007, 06:41:09 PM »

You lucky son of a gun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is the MOTHER of all barn finds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You do realise you are now an extremely rich man, right? Each of those Lotus when cleaned could probably sell for at least $20,000 if in running condition. Not to mention the Formula one cars, those cost over $100,000 to build, and if restored could fetch quite a tidy sum as collectors pieces.

Even if you parted out all the incomplete cars it would be worth a fortune!!!!!!

Are you going to wash them and take more pics of the ones that deserve it? Some of the interiors look pristine, and I'll bet they clean up very well for the most part. My envy needs fuel to burn

I wish something like that could happen to me! What I wouldn't give for just the Lotus Super Seven!!!!!!

Congratulations on the find!!!!!!!!

Jeff

Sam Green Racing · « **Reply #4 on:** July 05, 2007, 06:49:50 PM »

So ya found ya self a scrap yard....."so what"

and my next project is

after the Honda is finished

Sam.

tbone · « **Reply #5 on:** July 05, 2007, 07:02:57 PM »

I'll give ya ten bucks and half a meatball sub for the whole lot!

Jugghead · « **Reply #6 on:** July 05, 2007, 07:04:18 PM »

( I don't think it's his place)

DF · « **Reply #7 on:** July 05, 2007, 07:18:24 PM »

I just went to the barn and looked at the newspapers in the Alfa Romeo and they are dated 1965.

Joking - they are not mine. Someone sent me the link. If they were mine, I wouldn't be here - I would be busy selling them!

CrisPDuk · « **Reply #8 on:** July 05, 2007, 07:26:08 PM »

This cropped up on another foum I frequent about 6 months ago. Turned out the guy had a habit of buying cars, getting bored of them pretty quickly, and sticking them in this barn because he didn't want the hassle invloved with selling them

I'm not sure whether provenance is certain on them though, I do know a couple of the classic car magazines back in Europe are having kittens just waiting for them all to turn up at auction

bill440cars · « **Reply #9 on:** July 05, 2007, 07:40:45 PM »

Okay, now we need details on who got this fantastic barn find!

Does anyone know anything?

If it were me, I'd probably die of a heart attack, there would be millions of solars coming in for them and my wife would be estatic!

Later on, Bill

seaweb11 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 05, 2007, 08:05:23 PM »

It would be a great place to do a car wax commercial

Jugghead · « **Reply #11 on:** July 05, 2007, 08:06:40 PM »

solars or escudos?>

edbikerii · « **Reply #12 on:** July 05, 2007, 08:16:58 PM »

I've never seen so many money pits in one place!

Rocker · « **Reply #13 on:** July 05, 2007, 09:15:14 PM »

Talk about positive cash flow on the property!! The moment the buyers bought that property, the net worth went through the roof.

Soos · « **Reply #14 on:** July 05, 2007, 09:30:02 PM »

uuuggg....(drool)

sorry went stoopid there from the find photos.

There was even a opel GT in there.... i'd give my left nut for that one...

you never know what you will find in a old place.
l8r

nickjtc · « **Reply #15 on:** July 05, 2007, 09:50:38 PM »

I'll have the Lotus Super Seven. And I'll even live with it in the yellow. Thank you.

CrisPDuk · « **Reply #16 on:** July 05, 2007, 11:45:00 PM »

You're welcome to it Nick

It's only a series IV, they were dog-ugly badly built pieces of sh!t

I'll take one of the S2 Elans instead

clarkjh · « **Reply #17 on:** July 06, 2007, 02:36:40 AM »

Am I crazy, I want the cooper

James

CrisPDuk · « **Reply #18 on:** July 06, 2007, 04:07:13 AM »

Not at all, every man should own a mini at least once in his life

I've more than completed my stint in purgatory though

clarkjh · « **Reply #19 on:** July 06, 2007, 05:15:10 AM »

I was thinking along the lines of a coffee table.

James

xtalon · « **Reply #20 on:** July 06, 2007, 06:37:53 AM »

WOW!!!! I think there must have been something seriously wrong with that guy... like maybe a compulsive behavior disorder? He (assuming it is a he) collected cars like a you or I collected Matchbox cars or Corgis (added that last one for our British/European brethren).

I just hope they can all find good homes and be restored to their former glory. I must admit for cars just sitting in an open barn, they look in relatively good shape. Must be in a descent climate.

I sure the mice and pigeons had their way with them though, but damn, they still look nice!

I'll take the Porsche 356, the Mini Cooper S, a few Lancias and maybe nice bike classic Mercedes-Benz.

--xTalon

boatsdickson · « **Reply #21 on:** July 06, 2007, 07:08:10 AM »

My pipedream version of this would be...... Huge barn found loaded with Superbike era cb's handlebar to handlebar and in the corner (under a freakin tarp) would be my 64 or 66 Ford Galaxie 500 7 liter 2 door. Now Im droolin. 64 or 66 because I cant decide which one, but that doesnt matter yet cause I cant locate one anyway

nickjtc · « **Reply #22 on:** July 06, 2007, 08:28:20 AM »

Of course this may have been a cache of stolen vehicles, tucked away so no one could find them...

Slapguts · « **Reply #23 on:** July 06, 2007, 08:39:29 AM »

Only thing similar to this I've ever seen was a car a friend bought.

He went to an estate auction with his wife, and saw a VW Beetle under a cover in the garage. He was a huge VW collector, so he put in a bid of $500, figuring if it was good nough for a cover, it was worth at least that much.

A day or two later he gets a call to come get his new Bug. Gets to the house, pulls the cover off, and finds a pristine 1970 Beetle. 1001 total miles, original everything, down to the air in the tires. Window sticker still in the window, factory plastic still on the seats. Every last option the dealer offered. The car was FLAWLESS.

He drove it to shows, collected a room full of trophies, and ended up selling it with 9000 miles for a little over $15,000 to a museum.

sandcastcb750 · « **Reply #24 on:** July 06, 2007, 10:45:12 AM »

Unfortunately....it lacked climate controls......pretty scuzzy stuff....but interesting nevertheless

Jugghead · « **Reply #25 on:** July 06, 2007, 10:55:34 AM »

Depending on where in portugal this stuff was found, it could be like storing it in a desert.
east portugal is arid and dry, hot as heck in summer, mild winters.
the north, however has extremely cold winters, and therefore a big temp swing season to season.

I looked into it more and it seems that there are two differing stories.
one is that they are from a car dealer in portugal who kept everything interesting
the other "story" is that they belonged to a wealthy portuguese doctor who had a penchant for cool cars.

what's the real story? I don't know. cool find nonetheless

tramp · « **Reply #26 on:** July 06, 2007, 02:50:45 PM »

why do i get the feeling about a dead drug dealer

Jeb · « **Reply #27 on:** July 06, 2007, 07:38:10 PM »

A guy who lived in my dorm in the late 70's had a late 50's Corvette. He was working at a gas station in N.C. and was called to tow away a junk car from a storage shed. He find this vette. The old lady said it belonged to her son who put it there before he was shipped off to Viet Nam. You guessed it her boy didn't make it back. He tells the women the truth about the car's value but then quickly calls his dad asking for a loan.

edbikerii · « **Reply #28 on:** July 06, 2007, 07:58:22 PM »

Drug dealer would have had the cars all pimped out, not rusting in a barn.
A car dealer would have had the service department get them all in working order.
A wealthy doctor would have paid to keep the cars in top notch condition.

I get the feeling that these were accumulated by some pack rat who bought every car that had something interesting going for it, but was cheap because it had some stuff wrong with it. I can hear it now, "its nearly complete", followed rapidly by, "it just needs....". A hundred times over. Each time either of those two phrases are uttered it is a recipe for a restoration project failure. Anybody who has had the misfortune to restore a classic car knows that it is the last 5% of the project that costs 95% of the budget of the restoration.

Pack rats never complete projects. They just keep buying new ones and salivating proudly over their expensive piles of unfinished junk.

bwaller · « **Reply #29 on:** July 06, 2007, 09:35:25 PM »

Pretty incredible. Advancing through the pics I was sort of hoping there would be some two wheeled jewels in there!

Steve F · « **Reply #30 on:** July 07, 2007, 02:48:05 AM »

I'm wondering how the new "owner" is planning on disposing of all of these cars. I don't know how things work there, but I can assume there is gonna be a pile of paperwork to get just ONE of these cars freed up, let alone hundreds! Looks to me to be a major headache along with legal battles over ownership, title searches etc.
Really cool though.

dustyc · « **Reply #31 on:** August 11, 2007, 01:31:03 PM »

Amazing what seeing that can do to your head. I think I just about busted a nut.

I've heard a tale of an old guy around here that has bought a new car every year and after a year of driving stores it. I recall the cars supposedly go back to the 20's.

boatsdickson · « **Reply #32 on:** August 11, 2007, 04:52:55 PM »

Paperwork? You dont need no stinkin paperwork.
We got the Heff repo company.

'The keys were in the ignition, I swear!'

...

dustyc · « **Reply #33 on:** August 11, 2007, 04:58:03 PM »

The debunking petercb750 posted http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/barnfind.asp rules out the necessity for paperwork.

I like boatdickson's anti-bureaucratic thinking though.

boatsdickson · « **Reply #34 on:** August 11, 2007, 07:18:04 PM »

Thanx - Ill resemble that remark, pretty much anti everything...

News:

Author Topic: Major Barn Find (Read 3377 times)

DF

Jeb

tbone

DF

Jeb