CHAPTER 3:

ODD CIRCUMSTANCES

Every car collector is interesting, but some are doubly so because they acted when presented with unique, even odd ways to protect their collections. Sometimes an unusual opportunity to store or display a collection just drops into a collector’s lap. Other times, the collector actively searches for a unique storage circumstance—and finds one! These “activist” collectors understand the importance of their cars and how to show off and secure their treasures. These people often end up with some of the craziest and most unique adventures anyone can have.

A friend led me onto this weird set—a 1957 Chevrolet 210 and 1958 Impala situated between two Quonset huts in Chicago. One Quonset hut was for media blasting, and the dust completely covered the vehicles inside and out!

Here a Plymouth Duster sits just below a hanging 1966 Plymouth Satellite in an old repair shop.

In all my travels I’ve never seen a Mercedes 190SL Roadster. Not only have I never seen one before, but this one was sitting on top of a 1969 Plymouth Satellite four-door!

Hanging from the ceiling next to the 190SL was a 1966 Plymouth Satellite. It had been stripped of paint, hung from the rafters to dry, and left there.

The owner of the 190SL and hanging Satellite also made this incredible trike. He took a Chrysler 400 big-block, cut the front two cylinders off, then made adapter plates and bearing retainers. It’s fully functional!

While on a car-search trip I ran into a clean-cut gentleman. I spoke to him for over an hour. He told me that the local school in the small town nearby was going to be auctioned off. After the auction, the old school was likely to be torn down. Well, the gentleman couldn’t let that happen. The school was one of those small, turn-of-the-century structures with beautiful architecture; its only problem was that it was run down. So the man bought the school at auction, emptied the place, fixed what was needed, and put his car collection in the old gymnasium! From the outside, you would never know that behind those walls were rows of GM vehicles from the early 1960s!

After getting lost, I came upon a stash of incredible Mopar Muscle cars. One of them ended up being in an old oil tank or something similar. The owner built it into the base of his garage and welded on the doors to keep everything nice and dry!

On the other side of a farm, there were two early-50s Dodge and Plymouth cars just sitting tight in an old tractor shed.

Nineteen-sixty-nine Chevrolet Camaros tend to pop up almost everywhere. People love them. This one was stuck on the second floor of an old General Store.

Cows munching on hay is usually what you find in the cow pasture—not a 1969 Dodge Super Bee! I was told it had crashed into a cement wall, then parted out and put into the cow field to be used as a rubbing post.

Collectors of this sort think outside the box when it comes to protecting their cars. They own the equivalent of fine china, but they’re not going to keep it in a drawer or attic. They want a china cabinet. So they make things happen. They buy the abandoned schools or churches. They even do the completely unexpected.

I was traveling through Wisconsin, looking for a old Dodge Travco my friend had said was for sale. Instead, I ended up semi-lost in a small town. I slowly drove down the road and came across a family that owned a large quantity of preserved Mopars. These folks had devised all sorts of incredible ways to protect the cars they loved. They hit on a particularly ingenious method as they looked at the freshly dug foundation of their new garage. Their property was littered with old oil tanks, and the family incorporated some right into the foundation. That way, especially valuable cars could be rolled right under the garage and, when needed, rolled right out again. And if you’ve ever wondered what happens to old vinyl billboard signs, well, this family used them in the yard, as car covers! Whatever works, right?

This Chevrolet Nova sits in an old freight elevator in a small town. It hasn’t moved in years, and the elevator hasn’t moved longer than that!

Friends are always a good source for crazy cars. One of mine told me about a bunch of great vehicles sitting in the middle of a cornfield. He wasn’t kidding—look at this early-’70s Oldsmobile 442!

This is one of the oddest cars I had ever come across. It’s a 1968 Dodge Dart 4-door that’s been cut down into a “compact” 2-door! Never seen anything like it.

With the recent dip in real estate values, the purchase of property becomes a more viable option for many. Factories, warehouses, and other large structures are coming on the market at low prices. Sometimes these bargains show up in the big cities, but you’ll find most of them in smaller cities and towns, often in places that have seen better days. People pick up entire blocks of buildings for pennies on the dollar and use them to store anything and everything.

Backed up to the field was the rarest car of the bunch—a 1968 Pontiac GTO Convertible, a 400-ci V-8 with a 4-on-the-floor. Once the star of the muscle car era, now it lacks an engine and transmission, though the owner intends to restore it soon. I sure hope so.

Right off the road, you can’t help but notice this 1969 Chrysler Newport sitting on the back of a vintage car hauler. The craziest part was the owner put a rare long ram induction setup from an earlier Chrysler on there!

I have a friend who taught me about hot rods. He also had some extremely rare French Fords—a pair of Ford Comète Monte Carlos powered by flathead V-8s with 4-speeds. Only made for a handful of years, few made it to the US.

Here in Chicago, I went to the wedding of friends. The ceremony was held inside a rehabbed old factory where the painting of billboards and other signage had been done. A room on the third floor had incredible windows where artwork could be viewed in natural light. That was impressive, but the ballroom was amazing because the walls were lined with classic cars. The owner had turned the dilapidated factory into the home for his collection! The immaculate cars were framed with vintage automotive neon; the whole room was a real showplace. And from the street, no one would guess that any of this existed. From the outside, the building still looked like an old factory.

Here’s the second of the Ford Comète Monte Carlos; they had both been buried for decades.

Firebirds are not common—you’re more likely to find Camaros. The owner of this 1969 Pontiac Firebird is in the process of being turned into a Trans Am tribute—a fine project.

Tucked next to the 1969 Firebird was another long-term project—a real 1965 Pontiac GTO. The owner cut out all the rust and was in the process of installing the correct patch panels for it.

People can go to extreme lengths to protect their cars. In small towns, collectors tuck cars away in barns, corncribs, and even old stores. In the cities, you’ll find them stashed in old factories and warehouses. All of this means that many cars remain hidden and out of sight for years and even decades. The options are as endless as the human imagination. If someone wants to protect something, the person will do whatever is necessary.

Sitting behind a body shop in a small fenced-in area was a trio of rare cars. Vines had overtaken them all, and this 1968 GTO convertible got the worst of it—the vines took advantage of the topless wonder to spread their tendrils a bit.

Hiding on the far side was a 1968 Pontiac Firebird. It’s just a bare shell, but for sitting in Wisconsin it’s still a decent builder.

Between the two Pontiacs was the only Chevrolet in the group. It was nothing to sneeze at—an original 1964 Impala SS.

This rare late-’50s Lincoln 2-door sits forlorn in a yard where the treeline slowly moves past. Soon you won’t be able to get it out at all!

For sitting in a northern state, this 1957 Cadillac and 1957 Oldsmobile are still in good shape. They have a great patina for sitting outside all these years.

You would never have known there was a junkyard deep in the forest. The trees have enveloped everything, including this 1974 Dodge Dart Sport 340.

As I helped a friend clean out a closed auto parts store that had opened in the 1930s, we came across items squirreled away in all corners of the property—which was nearly a city-block long. There were carbs for Model As in the rafters, head gaskets for a Jeep in the bathroom. Out back was an early ’50s Dodge that was cut in half, crossways. The craziest thing we found, though, was behind a small door that led to a room holding an old VW and a 1972 Chevrolet Monte Carlo! The owner had built the room around these cars, and not with 2 × 4s, either, but entirely in brick. What prompted that person to go to so much trouble and expense? Nobody knows.

It always comes back to the why—why do people put forth such effort? Is it because they know they have a rare car and want to protect it? Do they have a sentimental attachment? Sometimes the reason is one or the other, but usually it’s both. Even the smallest attachment is enough to encourage people to tuck away their cars “for a rainy day.” They may hope to return to the cars when the time is right, and restore them to past glory. Some tucked-away gems are revisited and restored. You see them at car shows and on the road. For others, the toll of time is just too much, and they decay until they are beyond help.

Rows of rare muscle cars and vintage cars are hidden in the forest. This 1970 Plymouth Barracuda sits next to its predecessor, a 1968 Barracuda, in nearly identical blues.

The three Barracudas—a pair of 1968s and a 1970—sit in the forest that has consumed them.

Originally a Lime-Light Green 1970 Barracuda, this model has been sitting so long it’s been completely consumed by the forest.

A few more rare cars slowly being reclaimed by the earth include a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda and a 1977 Plymouth Road Runner. By 1977, the Road Runner was based on the F-body Volare.

Sitting through the years and overtaken by the forest, this poor 1968 Plymouth Barracuda convertible has had its entire top just destroyed over time, rusting out nearly the entire floor.

Fortunately, the decay is slowed when the imaginations of ingenious collectors are fired by the unexpected.

Just about the only Ford product in the forest, this 1970 Ford Mustang in Grabber Blue has a vinyl top treatment that nobody seems to have seen before.

You just never know what you might come across. Deep in Wisconsin, my friends and I encountered one of the first, if not the first, Musgrave Racing Enterprises car hauling trucks, with custom sleeping area and car bed.

IOWA RAIL

As I prepared to travel to a certain part of Iowa, I asked users of a Mopar Internet forum if they knew of any cool cars sitting around out there. My reputation as a good keeper of secrets helped out, and people gladly shared information about hidden goodies.

One of the leads seemed especially promising, and I was pleased to get the owner on the phone. He told me to come on out and see what he had. So on a Friday afternoon I drove to the middle of Iowa.

The gentleman owned a junkyard. Nothing unusual about that—other than that most of the yard sat on an abandoned railroad right of way. That was unique.

The owner gave me free rein to walk around and photograph whatever I wished. He had a variety of nifty cars dating from the 1940s to the present day. I walked down one row to discover a ’58 Dodge Coronet, and a ’70 Challenger down another. I turned a corner and found a ’67 Firebird, and something from around the turn of the twenty-first century. The selection was a real mix, and I really didn’t know what might pop up next. That was when the real surprise revealed itself.

The middle of the property had been an old railroad depot. The building was there, and so were all the old signals and railroad boxes. There seemed to be a little bit of everything. When the owner bought the property after the rail line closed, he bought all these rail artifacts, too, and now they just lay around in piles.

I walked the rest of the yard and saw a lot of incredible pieces. I thanked the owner, who invited me to come back anytime!

PSYCHO BEES

The Mopar Car Club has counted me as a member for many years. At least once a year a group of us will jump in my car and just drive around northern Illinois, looking for old cars. Our very first trip was hard to beat.

Legends about some particular cars had circulated for years. I had heard the stories for as long as I’d been a car guy. But no outsiders had ever seen them up close or gotten pictures of them. This amounted to a sort of challenge, so my friends and I decided to see if this celebrated stash could be located. Well, we got one heck of a surprise.

One spot out in the country looked promising. From the road we saw a farmhouse—and a ’66 Chevy Chevelle SS 396 and a ’69 Dodge Charger R/T. Parked with aft ends facing the street were a 1970 Dodge Super Bee and a ’68 Dodge Coronet 500.

Wow.

We parked and knocked on the door. The family was friendly, and let us check out the cars and see what was what. We stepped around the outside of the house and were blown away. From the street, we hadn’t been able to see a pair of Challengers—a rare Rallye model and a basic small-block V-8. Both were in really good shape.

We left the Challengers and found the car that really took the cake: a 1970 Super Bee painted all over in tiny, psychotic bees! Some of the bees were eating road runners. Other road runners had bees popping out of their heads. The car’s trunk lid said, “Straight from the Hive.” This was the handiwork of the present owner, and it was great.

The ’69 Charger had been altered as well, with a 1970 Super Bee center scoop that had been molded to the hood. It was definitely unique!

We stayed for quite a while, chatting with the family and learning that the place used to be a dairy farm specializing in cheese. The business was long gone, and now the cars sat on the ruins of the barns. I don’t expect to ever hear a story quite like it again.

MISSOURI LIMESTONE

As you’re being driven into the middle of nowhere by a guy you know only from the Internet, you pause to consider that it isn’t the best of ideas … usually. But car nuts who frequent the Internet often know where the best cars are hiding. I had been on many car-hunting expeditions, but this one was going to be a first.

The junkyard sat on the remains of an old quarry. The story goes that the family bought the property a long time ago, and began placing cars on and around the Missouri limestone. When the quarry was active, diggers cut caves into the hills in order to get at the stone. As the junkyard grew, the owners started to fill the caves with cars!

The yard once had some real rarities, like a barn-kept 1970 Plymouth Superbird that was sold for cash.

The caves that we saw were mostly empty, and the yard was much smaller than during its glory days. Despite that, the place had quite a collection of unique and interesting vehicles. The barn alone had a Torino GT, an Oldsmobile from the 1950s, a ’67 Camaro, and even an old dirt tracker made from a Ford.

Most of the cars lived outside. We found a Ford panel van from the ’30s, and a ’69 Firebird ragtop. Another car with a floor-mounted 4-speed, a ’67 Sport Fury convertible, was there. In the weeds out back we found a 1969 AMC AMX.

The yard was an unusual place, and a good reminder that it’s smart to check up on every lead and go down every narrow road.

TRACTOR–TRAILER CARS

Sometimes I go against my gut. I want to discover old cars, but I get the feeling that I shouldn’t do a particular thing, or go somewhere that seems promising. Sometimes, the evidence just isn’t compelling enough.

For years, I had driven past a 1973 Dodge Charger that sat in a storage yard. I always took note of the place but never followed up. The car wasn’t one that I was seriously interested in. One day, though, I had some free time, and pulled in.

The owner was outside, working on a truck. I mentioned the Charger. He pointed to the middle distance. “You see all those tractor trailers out there? They’re full of old cars!”

We walked through the yard and started opening the trailers. One was full of rare Mopar parts. Another housed an old Buick with an air ride setup. Another had a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, and farther down was a ’70 Road Runner. And this was just the first batch!

Another row of trailers sat across the main yard. Each of them had a car inside, sometimes two. One held a ’72 Charger and a ’67 Ford Falcon. A ’71 Super Bee and a ’71 Plymouth GTX were in another. The trailers and cars just kept coming.

The last cars the owner wanted me to see were not in trailers, but despite the lack of protection, they were some of the rarest on the place. I guess you’d call them foolers, because at a glance they didn’t suggest desirability. Both were ’69 Dodge Dart GTSs. They were M-Code 440s, two of only about 640 homologation specials made for the model year. Dodge came up with the package as an answer to the NASCAR success of big-block Chevy Novas and Ford Mustangs. Now these Darts were shells of race cars, the original wrap-over stripes that started on the rear quarter panels barely visible.

This time I had listened to my gut and found something wonderful.