Barn find.... today

A quick stop at a local Italian car show and back to the grind of searching, this time with Jenni and Kris helping. This was a tough one today, we moved Everything from one side of the garage, back room, trailers..... to the other, and then back again. Some 50 years worth of collecting EVERYTHING, including all the building supplies required to build the house..... everything had to be moved, and moved again. Why in the Hell would you over order (15) 80 bags of concrete, double that of plaster, cases of nails... it all moved 2 times at least.

Missing Jeweled crown, rain gutter trim, front fender louvers, trunk overlay panel, fuel sender, front seat belt outer half, all located. The car itself is now complete sans a spare tire hold down and tools to fill the bag we located earlier, heck, we even located the 8 track tape player with the slide mounts. Complete down to the screws that hold all the trim on... but...

There are a lot of ways to buy a car, this is not it! Better than 100 miles round trip on each effort, 3.5 days searching for the smallest trinkets, rummaging through what most could not believe possible, I would strongly suggest against doing it this way. After a half hour long shower and a good nights sleep things will look Rosy again but right now.... Lets just say without the quest I have of putting a good man back behind the wheel of his pride and joy, I would smile while revving up the Sawzall myself! Never in 40 plus years of doing this have I put in an effort of this level. Add to that having to buy numerous Margaritas and a hideously over priced, marginal at very best, Mexican dinner for the ladies on the way home, just to calm the verbal harassing I endured for putting them through this... a Tough day it was.

At this point I must focus on the anticipated smiles that are sure to come when I drive this car back to his house and put him back in the drivers seat. Without that minds eye mental image... well... tomorrow is a new day.

 

I have been told variations of that story by two completely unrelated individuals a number of years back. Usually when that is the case, the car is a Ghost but... never say never. I do know of a PF II south of there and a GTE in 500 pieces north of that area. The Muira, I have only heard stories of its existence and if I remember right it was further west of that area as the story was told to me. Good luck chasing that one, it is surely worth the drive and these Bird Dog back road searches can be quite rewarding in so many ways.

This area, being the home to SCCA for so many years, it was a magnet for car people, not unlike the areas surrounding the major race tracks throughout the country. The easy finds have already been plucked up over the years but the tough ones.. they are still laying in barns waiting. There is a small block Cobra, laying on its frame with the windshield frame removed and a workbench built over it, a very historic, big name F5000 car hanging inverted from the ceiling with a drop ceiling built over it, hiding it from view, a missing CanAm race car in a tool shed that now has a Cottonwood tree growing up through the frame members.... Hell, my Jimmy Clark Lotus 19 and a Big Block CanAm Special that was half in CO and Half in Alaska until I reunited all the bits in one spot... and they too were/are in thousands of pieces but complete and were laying in barns.

There are many of these finds left to be discovered and with the right attitude, relationships can be made that are more rewarding than the car itself. There is a 120 Jaguar Roadster that I will likely never own, owned by an old Cowboy/Rancher I will most likely never see again. Every spring about the time his seed bills come in I call him... going on 25 years now. It was a project that the man and his son were doing together when his son left for 'Nam and the car was put in the tool shed to await his return. In my yearly phone call we haven't so much as mentioned the car in some 9-10 years now, that was only something that drew us together but is no longer important. Something's were meant to be, some are not, some are far bigger and more important than a car. I just happened to meet that Rancher on the anniversary of his sons passing and we sat on his deck having a beer, total strangers at the time, chatting about his memories. "Powerful" doesn't begin to describe the moment.

In my quest with the quad 330, it brought back to me a friend from years back, thanks only to a local Fireman who has gone far beyond the call. I'm not smart enough to understand how or why these things happen but in this case, I think the timing was right in more ways than one. Having spent many hours with the old man over the last week.... I can now see time is not on our side and this quest of mine must now proceed with a sense of urgency, if it is to happen at all.

 

The story to be told is that of a young man and his family doing all the right things.... I still shake my head over that and am proud to have met such a fine man. My reward here is that we now have a dinner planned together with our two families sitting on his deck, yet another friendship I already cherrish.

Now with a sense of urgency to see stage one of this project through, I will have to make time to do this in the evenings. My plate is already full with my day job but I will try to get this old lump driving this week by working evenings to see if my quest is even possible.

If it is meant to be and it drives well enough to reward the old man with the experience..... I will take you up on your offer, at that point it will be all hands on deck to see this through. I am now near certain we do not have the time to do this in a proper manner, Triage repairs, color matching duct tape and bailing wire will have to do at this point. Heck, I have won races with race cars repaired in the same manner, done right the end result will still be rewarding.

 

The rewards of a weekends efforts. And with that... we have a complete car.
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Come on along... I am likely to put a towel in your hands.

An absurd project for a worthy cause. Four of us spent hours in one single room searching for one jeweled crown that mounts above the PF badge, the size of your thumb nail... and wouldn't you know, we found it. I had been walking on the box that contained the fender louvers for three days in that trailer... and yet we recovered them undamaged.

I now know the two areas where most of the bits and pieces were found. We kept a ledger of these findings, not unlike an archaeological dig. We now know where to focus our efforts in future digs but I need some time away from those areas to regain my composure! With an empty tool bag, laid out like it was drying... I know there is more to find there.

Now starts the history search, I now know my initial posts about this being a one owner car, based on the data I would told by the old man, are false. I have reason to believe there was one more owner in between the first and last owners, it might be a three owner car. Another name was thrown out in the middle of a conversation and a moment later when I asked about the name... he had already lost it. Its all good, I should be able to bird dog this data now I know a direction.

 

The man we are doing this for, some 60 years ago.
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He sure must have been! Based on the scores of record albums... yes, he was the original rocker. One story of his time in CA, he was invited to sing with Harry James and his band at a club where he happened to be humming along to a song being played. Betty Grable was there and they chatted during the breaks so... another timeline identified because Harry James and Betty Grable were married from 43 to 65 or there abouts. He stated at that time Betty had put on some weight but he still commented on her $1M legs... putting him solidly into the drivers seat in that conversation!

One of the reasons the searching took so long is that these trailers had not been opened for decades. This man never threw away anything, regardless of its condition. Opening each trailer was literally like reviewing his past life in stages. When he would pick up something that obviously brought back a very special memory he would get very quite and just stare at it. At that point I did not have the heart to continue the search and we would just sit down and talk about his memories brought back by... a pair of pants, a pair of spurs... heck, kitchen curtains in a box. When I decided that this mans story was every bit as important to me as the car itself... out came the pencil and paper and I would just jot down notes of the conversation. In the big picture, none of the conversations were important, to me it was because this was his life. He has been alone so many years, knowing someone was interested... it brought out some hard (!, I thought he was going to hurt himself laughing that hard) laughter and some very broad smiles.

The second 40 foot trailer... that was tough as the lock was such that a 4 ft bolt cutter didn't even scar the hasp. That required a 12V compressor, an air tank, a cut off wheel on a die grinder and a great deal of patience while that miserable little compressor would refill the tank after 15 seconds of cutting. It was during those periods that I would put the compressor in the car, close the door on the cord so not to disrupt the peacefulness of the setting, grab a few bottles of water and we would sit under the trees just chatting. What would normally be an awkward period of silence in any other situation, sitting on a soft 4" of pine needles, leaning up against a tree in the sun, was anything but, it was very comfortable and the company good.

Once the lock was cut and the door opened I was somewhat shocked when I saw it was only about 8 feet deep and then a wall was built with plywood and 2 x 4's. Working towards the front of the trailer, there were 4 such walls and each 'section' was different time of his life with the wall being a point of closure to that stage. It was quite evident to me that there had to be something quite moving for a wall to be built, putting all those personal belongings behind it... the time was not right, so I didn't ask. Everything went in there, furniture, cloths, dishes, record albums, brief cases full of work papers of that period, along with divorce settlements showing the Ferrari as a personal item (every little bit helps to give an ownership timeline I guess)... heck, even the stereo, and each stage contained all of the same types of items. It truly was a case of 'starting over' and provided a very distinct look at that stage of his life, I found it odd but very interesting all the same and it provided a good snap shot of that period.

One would hope with all this effort and meaningless drivel I write... the gold mine of Ferrari parts lied behind the next wall... alas No. There was not a single car related thing other than the divorce papers to be found in the trailer, there wasn't anything worth having a garage sale for, it was all destroyed by time. Memories... there were plenty of those, it was a gold mine in that respect. Some were good, some were bad, and revisiting them section by section seemed to allow him to find peace with each. I tried hard to find a light hearted way to put closure to each section, until he was laughing I made sure we would just sit there and chat before we moving to the next.

Nothing of any importance in the story other than it is part of the search we went through in this effort to bring a car back together. For the old man it was everything... for the car... nothing. It was a delightful day all the same and had me smiling for the whole drive back home.

PS... I agree Tex. Why seeing those sickers and printing in such nice shape on the back of an interior panel, intrigues me.... I dont know. Maybe its just because the rest of the car was such a disaster and so filthy, seeing something clean and well perserved at that point was a treat.

 

In due time, once all the affairs are in order and I know the entire ownership trail. I have shared it privately with those would benefit from knowing it.

Now that is interesting. My focus has always been on the mechanical aspect of these cars, all I have ever concerned myself with is all related to that area. I know the bushing material for a 250 Kingpin upright and the weight categories of all the connecting rods.... but its these small details like this on the interior that are of interest to me now. Having been involved is so many of these old project cars over the years, I know how important these small details are. I make no claim to be an expert in these areas so I rely on those that are. The part number for this piece, shown in the S1 Body Parts book is 242.62.251.0.0. for the left and 250.0.0 for the right. That make the parts book wrong, as the 250 piece fits on the left side... go figure! We even found the upholstered buttons to cover the holes in the panels! The label on the right panel has been damaged beyond the point of reading it.

Pictures of the unique sculptured carpets this car had as an overlay. These were found in the trunk and all 4 positions of passanger floor mats. Jute backed and nicely seam bound.
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I have to tell you Fred, that quote of yours is Powerful for all of us! It will be printed out, framed and hung on the wall next to the car for its stay here. Thank You.

I too appriciate ( that word falls short but I cant think of another at this time) the WWII vets and what they went through. My own father who was with on this pick is a WWII Pacific Vet, flying as the Belly Turret Gunner in a B-24. I have all the declassified microfilm records of 307th, 422nd and 424th "The Long Rangers", with all the mission reports, planning and recon photo's from 44 and 45. Being as Dad was in the glass ball, many of these photo's were taken by him. One day I will find someone that can print all these records from non sproketed microfilm.... a quest I have had for many years now. These are also stories that MUST be told and not lost. To hear them first hand... lets just say I grab a Coke, sit back and feel like the 8 yr old in front of the tube radio in the livingroom.

 

He was racing sports cars in that time period, an E-Type was mentioned at one stage, and he was frustrated being over taken in the corners. Having been there racing the English lumps myself for years, I could relate to every word! He got to drive a Ferrari... and that was it for him. He owned "One of those goofy Gullwing Italian cars and some under powered Maserati's" but they just didnt stand up like the Ferrari did. His memories were very vivid about a dropping off camber corner where the Ferrari stuck like glue.... I have notes to pick his memory more on those points, there is so much more to hear from him...