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S 2 : Ep 15

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

We built this engine to go fast. But for now, it’s time to slow things down. We realize these time-lapse engine rebuilds go by in a blur, and some of you are hungry for more details on how they come together. Redline Rebuilds Explained is our way of diving into the nitty-gritty of each build and providing some context. Here, Hagerty mechanic extraordinaire Davin Reckow sits down with Hagerty video specialist Ben Woodworth to discuss the ins and outs of our high-performance Ford 289 V-8 rebuild.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Ask and you shall receive! A 289 small-block Ford was high on the request list for our next Redline Rebuild, and we made it happen. Starting with a stock 289 engine from a totaled 1964 Ford Fairlane, we decided to have some fun and upgrade from stock with a GT350-esque build.

While Carroll Shelby started with a 271-horsepower HiPo K-code 289 before he got tinkering, our base engine needed quite a bit more massaging to get it up to snuff. With all period-correct upgrades including a new Cobra-inspired cam, Edelbrock F4B intake, carburetor, headers, and some mild porting of the heads, our output should come in at around 310 hp, up a good chunk from the stock 195 hp.

As usual, you’ll find this latest Redline Rebuild is full of oily, greasy details that you won’t want to miss. Follow along as we compress three months of wrenching and 40,000 photos into an action-packed five minutes of engine rebuild glory, culminating in our good friend Davin starting up the small-block on a stand. (These engines purr like nothing else.) Now we just have to find a car to power with this beast.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

We left our viewers hanging at the end of the last episode of The Barn Find Hunter, but classic car aficionado and host Tom Cotter is back and ready to reveal one of the show’s most significant finds so far. In this episode, Tom uses bolt cutters to open the door of a trailer and pulls back a car cover to reveal a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera that hasn’t seen sunlight in three decades. The rare Italian sports car (with a Ford 351 engine) was in the midst of restoration/modification before being locked away. Its claim to fame, in addition to its divine looks, is that it competed in the 1980 U.S. Express, a 2500-mile cross-country race from New York to California. You’ll want to know the judge’s reaction after it was pulled over for speeding in Texas.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Searching through New Hampshire, Tom Cotter digs up everything from off-beat Volkswagens to a fabulous warehouse of odds and ends that spans the classic spectrum. This episode of “Barn Find Hunter” kicks off with Tom peeling back the cover on an unrestored 1967 Jaguar E-Type roadster, which the owner took for a 100-mph joy ride before he was old enough to get a license. Tom discovers that New England is teeming VW Beetles and buses, but not before he strikes bowtie gold in a warehouse hiding a 1961 Chevrolet Impala SS bubbletop, 1956 Nomad drag racer, and 1966 Nova SS…with Corvette parts lurking underneath.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter has been hunting cars since he was 12 and has discovered more than his share of hidden gems. So when he says, “This is what dreams are made of,” you can take it to the bank.

In BFH, episode 20, presented by Shell and Quaker State, Tom heads to South Carolina and gets more than he bargained for. First, he admires the remains of a rare 1953 Woodill Wildfire, one of approximately 300 built by Dodge and Willys dealer Blanchard Robert “Woody” Woodill in Downey, Calif. Tom checks out a 1967 Porsche 912 and a 1947 Cadillac Fleetwood 60 Special when things get a little wild—literally.

After driving to North Carolina to visit old friend Steve Davis, a former member of Dale Jarrett’s NASCAR team, Tom strolls through a car-filled building that Steve claims “is longer than a football field.” He isn’t kidding. Tom also admires a barn full of Jaguars—from an XK140 roadster to an XKE 2+2—and inspects a 1932 Chevrolet moonshine car, complete with a bullet hole in the rear window.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Tom Cotter once again heads out in search of forgotten classic cars. The beautiful barns of Vermont and New Hampshire had a few surprises for him on this trip. We start with a 1936 Ford pickup truck towing a vintage wooden speed boat, before moving on to a beautifully aged 1935 Ford Phaeton. Next, Tom comes upon a true New England classic: a Ford Model A snowmobile. Tom and his 1939 Ford woodie wagon continue on to find a friendly Vermont woman who shows us her 1967 Plymouth Barracuda convertible, which has been in her family for 30 years. To top things off for this episode, Tom uncovers a gorgeous, unrestored Sunbeam Alpine with a well-documented SCCA racing history, including a close encounter with famed race car driver, Don Yenko.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

In the latest episode of Hagerty’s “Barn Find Hunter,” automotive author Tom Cotter heads to Georgia, where he pulls the tarp off a forgotten 1954 Chevrolet Corvette and its numbers-matching Blue Flame Six.

But he doesn’t stop there. American classics abound in episode #18, presented by Shell and Quaker State. Tom checks out a rare 1970 Buick GS 455 Stage 1 convertible, big-block El Camino, and 1960 Chevy Impala convertible with a 348-cid V-8 and four-speed transmission.

Love European classics? Tom doesn’t disappoint. He discovers a warehouse of dusty Italian sports cars, including a Zagato-bodied Abarth Double Bubble, Fiat-Abarth 750 Record Monza, ASA 1000 GT “baby Ferrari,” and more.

As Tom says, “This is what barn find hunting is all about.”

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter has discovered more than his share of hidden gems over the years. But nearly 1,800 classic cars in one location? Now, that’s a real treasure trove. Needless to say, artist Tom Merkel’s Cuyama Historical Car Garden in northern California—“a memorial to the men of machines and the machines of men”—is unique. Tom Cotter, rattle-snake stick in hand, pokes around a bit and finds a 1960 Jaguar XK 150 coupe with an Oldsmobile engine up front.

Barn Find Hunter episode 17, presented by Shell and Quaker State, continues to Fontana, Calif., where Tom checks out a 1929 Ford Model A roadster and a 1965 Ford Falcon Futura, which he quickly discovers is a real “cat’s meow.”

Then it’s on to a junk yard, where vehicles (like a 1939 Ford pickup, 1957 Thunderbird, and 1972 Datsun 510) have been accumulating for more than six decades. Farther down the road, Tom wins over a suspicious property owner who agrees to show him his 1956 Ford pickup, 1964 Chevrolet El Camino, 1968 Mercury Cougar, 1966 Ford Galaxie, and 1972 Ford Gran Torino.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Just another day on the road for Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter, finding million-dollar projects. They only made 85 of these, and it needs a full restoration but it seems like most of the parts are there. Can you guess what it is?

In a nearby shop, Cotter discovers a ’41 Lincoln Continental, equipped with a Flathead V-12, and a 1950 Plymouth Suburban two-door, both California survivors. Talking with Shelby, the owner, Cotter learns of Dwayne Bower who describes himself as a guy who “doesn’t collect cars, but has never sold one.” And he isn’t interested in selling his ’57 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, Jaguar XK120, 1974 Plymouth Roadrunner GTX, the tow truck featured in The Fate of the Furious (aka Fast and the Furious 8), or any other cars now, either.

Cotter arrived in SoCal on a viewer’s tip about the million-dollar find without having any plans. It shows how much you can find just by chatting and listening to locals’ suggestions.

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

“Slow it down,” you said. “What’s going on?” you asked. We listened, and Davin Reckow, who rebuilt the Ford automatic transmission, sat down with Larry Webster, Hagerty’s VP of Content, to explain the Redline Rebuild and answer questions on the process. Reckow also discusses issues he faced while getting the Ford tranny back to running well again. Want to know what went right and what didn’t? Here it is: a very slowed-down Redline Rebuild, automatic transmission edition, with the process explained…

Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 2 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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