Ever see a barn find...

And know you can't do anything about it?

My boss just texted me a pic of a one owner 1971 Porsche 911T with 25k original miles. It is a light green, maybe Kermit green, and has been covered in a 3 car garage for many many years.

If I can figure out how to copy and past the pic I will. And even if it was for sale, I couldn't afford it. Lol.

I had a "beside the barn" find SAAB Sonett II that I couldn't do anything about. The barn was not near any houses and I had no way to figure out whose it was. So there it sat, the frame was probably gone but the fiberglass shell and glass were all there.

About 12 years ago an old shop in town had an Austin Healy 3000 and a Datsun 240Z rusting away outdoors. I tried to approach him once, (the shop owner)and was told rather abruptly and rudely, NO! ... ......and of course the cars sat and sat and sat. They still may be there, I don't even look anymore

There is a Jag Mark 6 in a garden near me quietly rusting. Ten years and counting. Not for sale. I tried to buy it just to save it.

Back around 1990, I stumbled across a Jag XK140 MC roadster in a barn/very old garage. It had been there since 1965. Story was the owner's sister died in a car accident and the owner of the car had to take in her sister's children. The car was parked in the garage at the time. A few days later, the new side curtains that were ordered before the accident arrived and were tossed into the car on the passenger seat, still in the paper wrapping. Time went by. The kids grew and went off. The car was never touched again. In fact the garage doors were never opened up again. The concrete driveway grew over to be just grass. A large pile of dirt, probably 3 or 4 yards worth was in front of the garage door, and had been there for a very long time. The other stall of the garage housed an old wooden boat with a vintage outboard engine. It looked like those old boats you see restored cruising around on the larger lakes. I tried real hard to "save" that car. Nobody even seemed interested in allowing me to move the dirt. I checked back in several times over the next few years. Same apathetic response. Years later I learned the lady passed and the house was sold. Her airline pilot son was the executer of the will, and I never found out what happened to the boat or the car. You ride by now and the house has been divided into apartments and the barn has been turned into apartments as well. Drove by yesterday in fact, with a sadness in my heart.

I keep waiting for somebody to drive past my house, notice the neglected ES in the back yard and then post a picture in "ran when parked"...

Granted, the condition of the car is about the same as when I bought it over 10 years ago (and it didn't run when it was moved to the back yard), so it's not like things have gotten worse during my stewardship.

In reply to t25torx:

Easy:

• Take a photo on your smartphone (make sure location awareness/geotagging is on).

• extract exif data from said photo using this pic2map

• Take address to township office and ask for property owner information (it's public knowledge)

There's a very well know house in my old town that houses a Ferrari Daytona. It's been there for decades and very, very rarely the garage door will be up and you can see it. The car is covered in so much dust and dirt that I have no idea what color it is. All four tires are so flat that rims look like they are on the ground. The old woman that lives there will not discuss the car which belonged to her late husband. In fact, there's a faded sign in the front door window that says "please do not ask about the car".

Grtechguy wrote: In reply to t25torx: Easy: * Take a photo on your smartphone (make sure location awareness/geotagging is on). * extract exif data from said photo using this pic2map * Take address to township office and ask for property owner information (it's public knowledge)

Yep that would work now, in fact it's even easier than that. Most property records are online now, all I need is to look up the address on google maps then go to the county website. It's pretty crazy what you can do now. But this was over 10 years ago when that tech was not so prevalent.

Edit: Ha looks like it's still there, it's been moved, probably with a tractor lol. When I get moved back to TN I'll have to follow up on it.

Barn finds are particularly odd; very often the cars are so rusted rotted mice infested that they are nothing more than a nice way to store parts that may be worth money. The person left with the car either thinks it's worth record auction price or there is some sentimental value that no amount of cash would cause them to part with it. Either way the rot and become worthless.

I know of a place that has a Lotus Elite, stash of Datsun roadsters, Austin Healey 100 and a couple of others all of which are working their way to being worthless.

Recently I have taken a new tack; while it breaks my heart to see cars rot I no longer try to rescue the car. I may give the owner an article on the car that has the values and let them know if they ever actually decide to sell the car I'd be happy to post it on various websites or get them in touch with a marque specialist that will make sure it goes to a good home and they get a proper price for it.

My previous succes rate for saving cars was 0.5% it's no up to about 10%. I have a friend who is a hoarder of Vintage MX bikes, it's painful to see as you know there is a backstory behind the collection as with all hoards.

I don't mean to be a wet blanket on barn finds but it's just that I find them to be some guy in a dark cave clinging to them and mumbling "precious".

t25torx wrote:

Grtechguy wrote: In reply to t25torx: Easy: * Take a photo on your smartphone (make sure location awareness/geotagging is on). * extract exif data from said photo using this pic2map * Take address to township office and ask for property owner information (it's public knowledge)

Yep that would work now, in fact it's even easier than that. Most property records are online now, all I need is to look up the address on google maps then go to the county website. It's pretty crazy what you can do now. But this was over 10 years ago when that tech was not so prevalent. Edit: Ha looks like it's still there, it's been moved, probably with a tractor lol. When I get moved back to TN I'll have to follow up on it.

Not trying to be a jerk but just an FYI: That's a Sonett III.

Funny, but I posted this same topic on another Porsche specific board I am on and received a PM about providing any info I have on the car and got offered a "finders fee."

I have the tag off the 911T, wonder what those digits are worth.... Lol

Woody wrote: Not trying to be a jerk but just an FYI: That's a Sonett III.

Doh! You are correct, mistyped earlier.

I know where there are about 80 Opel GTs rusting away in a field along with a few other Opel models, Manta, Ascona 1900, Kadett, a Karman Gia and a few other cars. At the same place some of the better ones are tucked away in the basement of the house, a detached garage/workshop and a metal storage building w/concrete floor. Last time I was there I offered to get one of the GTs running for the owner, He just laughed and turned me down. He couldn't drive it anyway, he was 86 at that time several years ago. He passed away 2 years ago and I haven't heard anything about those cars. He'd been buying Opel's up since the late 70's expecting to make a lot of money later selling them and parting them out. Sorry, Opel's are interesting cars but were never designed to be a high dollar car. Just not the interest. I do enjoy mine though I realize it isn't anything special.

In reply to jimbob_racing:

Have you carried a bouquet and proposed marriage?

wlkelley3 wrote: I know where there are about 80 Opel GTs rusting away in a field along with a few other Opel models, Manta, Ascona 1900, Kadett, a Karman Gia and a few other cars. At the same place some of the better ones are tucked away in the basement of the house, a detached garage/workshop and a metal storage building w/concrete floor. Last time I was there I offered to get one of the GTs running for the owner, He just laughed and turned me down. He couldn't drive it anyway, he was 86 at that time several years ago. He passed away 2 years ago and I haven't heard anything about those cars. He'd been buying Opel's up since the late 70's expecting to make a lot of money later selling them and parting them out. Sorry, Opel's are interesting cars but were never designed to be a high dollar car. Just not the interest. I do enjoy mine though I realize it isn't anything special.

That is too bad, I really like some of the older Opels and they are getting hard to find!

I learned of one of these, belongs to an old guy with no family and he won't sell it.

Won't work on it either. (just needs freshening)

I bought a 1972 Datsun 240Z barn find covered with 20 years of chicken poop dust on it. Some things might be better left in the barn.

Back in the 50s and 60s, guys used to stop at our farm to inquire about the 1928 Model A sitting in the yard. My fathers reply was always the same. The kids play in it and no it's not for sale. When I was about 13, he told me if I wanted to drive a car I had to get it running. Took about a month before my brothers and I got it running and we drove it around the farm. I graduated, went into military, he passed, the farm was sold and someone bought the car at the auction. Years later, my youngest sister met the guy that bought it when she was back in Iowa on a visit. He had sold it and gave her the name of the buyer. She contacted him, found out it was disassembled in a garage, went to see it, bought it and is presently building it into a street rod. Sometimes there are good endings.

I have not been in enough strange barns to find anything. Well, I once stumbled across a small 1960's Suzuki motorcycle in a barn, but most of my finds were in back yards or otherwise exposed. I haven't seen anything too interesting in a few years though, and never had the ability (financial or otherwise) to save anything I saw back when I did. When I was in my teens (1990's), it seemed like I saw crusty backyard Porsches pretty regularly. An occasional Fiat too.

Bad thing is there are MG race cars stacked up in his barn, this and that XJ were in his garage with a disassembled bowling alley...

Glad I saved it,

I basically had to stop reading this. Dennis Leary has a skit about Irishmen literally exploding as they walk down the street thinking about their fathers. I cannot even mention what he let rot.

In the Kingwood area of western NJ there is a 68 GT500KR rusting away... (or there was... back in the mid late 1990s)

The story on that was the purchaser died in Vietnam, and his parents wouldn't sell.....

nutherjrfan said: I basically had to stop reading this. Dennis Leary has a skit about Irishmen literally exploding as they walk down the street thinking about their fathers. I cannot even mention what he let rot.

Please share! Letting the story out might relieve some of that explosive pressure.

In reply to Storz:

There are two (maybe 3?) Opel GT's sitting down the street from my office. Have not moved in 5+ years. I believe they belong to a shop a few blocks away.

EDIT appears to be 3!