Tom Cotter is out in the wide-open spaces of Montana, but just because there’s space to roam doesn’t mean he is looking far and wide. In fact, Tom locates a 1970 Oldsmobile F-85 and 1966 Volvo 122 wagon with great stories just down the street from each other. Here is the final episode from the Barn Find Hunter’s trip to Bozeman, with Cotter’s renewed love for often-overlooked cars in full display.

“If you think of this car hobby as a big ball, most of that ball is consumed with people who enjoy Chevy, or Ford, or Mopars—common cars like that,” Tom says as he wraps up the epic trip. “But there are these subcategories that shoot off, and people that specialize in cars that are less common but just as cool.”

Cotter’s analogy is designed to show that no matter the type of car you love, there’s a spot for you in that big automotive ball. By searching out those specialists of the lesser-loved and niche brands, we can all help keep the history of our passion alive for a long time—and learn a thing or two in the process.

These videos offer a kick of encouragement to go out and find interesting pieces of history yourself. As Tom says in each episode, all of these vehicles have stories. He isn’t able to tell each and every one, so it is up to us to go out and learn the stories of cars in our area and retell them to others.

The Barn Find Hunter series has shown time and time again that a conversation about the rusty car in the yard often leads to a discussion about other cars, and before you know it, you have a new friend. Sure, the cars are great, but the people are often better. So, as Tom says, “Happy hunting.”

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Missing out is part of the game when it comes to hunting barn finds; Tom Cotter knows this better than most. He follows a solid lead in Bozeman, Montana, and arrives at the resting place of a long-stored GT350 only to find that the owner is out of town, and he can’t see the car. What does he do? He keeps hunting.

The next lead he decides to chase takes him down the recommended roads for those in search of old cars—dirt, rural, and dead-ended. A quick question posed to a local gives Tom the extra information he needs as he follows a tip on a fleet of Dodge Power Wagons stashed in a nearby field.

Owner Matt Ely has a passion for the utilitarian beasts of Dodge’s extensive truck lineage, and it shows after just a few seconds with Tom. Ely’s collection spans decades of the same truck, with conditions ranging from a solid start to a restoration to “multiple broken welds on the cab and the frame.” That doesn’t make the history of the trucks any less interesting, and Ely seems to know the backstory of each truck. Spoiler alert—the Yellowstone graphic on that truck doesn’t mean it came from Yellowstone. Bummer.

Tom then heads to the home of the man who’s helped him during this Bozeman trip—the man behind the entire hunt, so to speak. Lyle was Tom’s eyes and ears leading up to the trip, sending messages with lists of cars, locations, and phone numbers. Lyle also has his own stash, and Tom is curious to peek in the outbuildings and see what’s lurking in the corners.

It’s a Ford-heavy garage for sure, with a ’66 Mustang coupe mid-restoration for his son and a ’69 Mustang convertible for his wife. In another building was a Cougar XR7 with green paint and a 302 under the hood. Next to the Cougar, though, sits an unassuming, sun-faded blue ’69 Mustang. With no hood scoop to give it away, Lyle reveals to Tom that the relic lying dormant before them is in fact a factory 428 Cobra Jet. It’s an oddly optioned coupe with quite a story to tell.

That Cobra Jet find serves to reinforce a common theme in this episode of Barn Find Hunter: it takes persistence to find the good cars. Regardless of where you look, taking the right steps will lead to something with an interesting story; you just have to suss it out.

As Tom would say, “happy hunting.”

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The search for classic cars has taken Tom Cotter all over the country in the course of the Barn Find Hunter series. That said, going back to a previous location can yield new results. Tom knows his way around Traverse City, Michigan, by now (it’s home to Hagerty HQ), but evidently there are still plenty of sweet cars waiting to be discovered. Every time he opens up a garage or barn door, he hopes its a Jaguar XK roadster. Is today his lucky day?

On Barn Find Hunter’s first trip through town, Tom was chasing leads left, right, and center. Despite his success, he had to head home before he could investigate them all. It’s time for some payback. In his words, “We left some meat on the bone last trip.”

The first stop on this second lap of Northern Michigan is a fifth-generation farmer, Denny Hoxie. When Denny leads Tom to a mystery car in a cinder block building, naturally, Tom engages in his favorite game—guessing the car hidden under the cover. Lo and behold, it’s a Jaguar XK120—a car Tom has been hoping to find for years.

Tom and Denny regale each other with stories of their love for the XK-series Jags. The Old English White roadster has been in Denny’s ownership since 1977; the engine was pulled for some repairs that never happened, and now the car sits awaiting a rescue that will hopefully one day return it to the road.

From the cinder block garage, Denny leads Tom to some other buildings on the property. The range of vehicles is wide, but the pair focus on a collection of work trucks, including a Ford AA pickup and twin International flatbeds. It’s a solid reminder that even 50 years ago, humble agricultural tools could still have lasting style.

As Tom admires his XK120 find one last time, Denny takes a phone call. Serendipity. Jim, a friend of Denny’s is right around the corner with another classic Jaguar. Field trip!

Not a quarter-mile from Denny’s, deep in the back of a small warehouse is a Jaguar XK150 that has been under cover since 1985. The yellow coupe was bought from a local auction and was a plaything for some years before being placed under cover. And then, life, we guess, just moved on without it.

As the three men are closing the door on the Jaguar coupe, Tom mentions that they can head back to work now. “I don’t work too hard these days,” says Jim. “I don’t work too hard either,” Tom agrees. It might not be hard work, but it’s a labor of love I think a lot of us out there love to see unfold. Naturally, Tom is happy to give Denny a ride home in the woody, complete with tire-roasting enthusiasm. Because when you love cars, they make you feel like a kid all over again.

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Tom Cotter is insatiable when it comes to finding cars, and that is for all of our benefit. His latest hunt for the dustiest and most interesting hidden cars took him to Montana, where one gentleman has all manner of interesting four-wheeled oddities from very early Model T Fords to a smattering of Oldsmobile Toronados.

Continuing his adventures in and around Bozeman, Montana, Tom is out to find a man named Bob. Just about everyone the crew has talked to thus far in the trip said, “You’ve got to talk to Bob.” Curious as to what this well-known local might have, Tom goes hunting. The giveaway that he arrived at the right house? A trailer full of Model A parts. Don’t worry though, it gets better from there.

Behind the garage door was a very early production Ford Model A. Bob states it is one of the earliest with the original engine still in the frame rails. After a lesson in the intricacies of early Model A production (hint: it can get pretty geeky), Bob hops in Tom’s wagon and they head for the larger stash of cars that Bob keeps away from home.

That stash consists of a wide cross-section of cars. From the 26 Oldsmobile Toronados to a Berrys Mini T, the collection contains just about anything that catches Bob’s eye. Many of the cars are original and worth preserving. Even with boxes stacked atop most of the cars, it’s easy to see the potential in the old iron parked beneath.

The deepest corner of the shop reveals a hidden Corvette gem. Tucked away so tightly that Tom has to climb through an Oldsmobile to get to it is a C4 convertible sporting the Doug Nash 4+3 transmission. Bob states that while he didn’t order the car, the dealer took it upon itself to order the car exactly as Bob would have ordered it. Upon seeing the ’Vette delivered, Bob took it home. Talk about knowing the customer!

Leaving the big horde of cars, Tom and Bob head to a storage unit just outside of town. A 1912 Kissel sits just inside the door, looking quite dusty but holding the promise of a rewarding restoration. The car began life with a circuit court judge before going through a chain of owners, each of whom Bob seems to know.

To show that pre-war cars are the best cars, Bob lubes the leather clutch and goes about cranking the Kissel over—by hand. No electric start available on the 1912 model. One spin and the inline-six sets into a mellow idle.

Before leaving Bob for the day, Tom goes for a tour of the Montana countryside in that big red Kissel, a reminder of what these vintage machines are made for. That small amount of oil and attention took that dormant car and put it back on the road—right where it belongs.

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When Tom Cotter saw a yard full of cars two years ago in Bozeman, Montana, he knew he wanted to check it out—unfortunately, he didn’t have time to do it right.

Now, Tom gets the chance to make good on his promise to do the yard justice. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, he scours the property until he’s investigated as much metal as he (and the crew) can handle.

Even as Tom walks up the driveway and feasts his eyes on a few old rides, the sights prove quite eclectic. Big American cars, sporty British sedans, Japanese econoboxes, and pre-war iron lurk around Marty’s property in various conditions, and almost everything is drivable. After he and Tom discuss a Ford Model A pickup the first day, Marty proves it’s not just yard art. When Tom comes back the next day, Marty and his son are trundling the pickup around the yard, happy as clams.

Highlights from the yard include one of the first handful of BMW 2002s imported to the U.S. Though buried, Tom can easily spot the signs confirming its early import status: round taillights, slender bumpers, and solid steel wheels. Over 50 years later, the door closes nice and solid.

Barn Find Hunter
Jordan Lewis
Barn Find Hunter
Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter
Jordan Lewis

Rather than just talk about cars, though, Marty takes it one step further. He declares he could probably get a 26K-mile 1951 Nash Deliveryman running by the end of the afternoon. Bold, Marty. Once the hood is up, he and his son go to work. It’s not long before the flathead-six is cranking over, and before Tom can believe it, the flathead is puttering along smooth and quiet. Bozeman is indeed full of surprises.

Before Tom leaves, he answers a question he asked himself when first walking the expansive collection: How many cylinders could this guy own? Turns out the answer’s 842—not counting 69 rotors and one steam car. 

Seeing the Nash come back to life reminds us that even some of the roughest-looking cars are worth saving. Sometimes they’re even better than we expect underneath the debris. You just have to get out there, find one, and put in the work.

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The plains often get dismissed as fly-over country, but Tom is out to prove that great things are happening in the wide-open spaces of Kansas. He is continuing his trip from Midland, Texas, to McPherson, Kansas, and this is the final leg of the trip. As he crosses through Kansas, he sees the range—both literal and figurative—that the classic car hobby has to offer.

Tom and the wagon have already covered hundreds of miles, but this is a man who is insatiable when it comes to talking about the cars in yards, barns, fields, and storage units. The 1962 Ford Country Sedan wagon has been a good partner this trip, rumbling along without so much as a hiccup. Tom is looking forward to handing the keys off to the students at McPherson College; but first, he has some cars to find.

The weather has a different plan, though, as Tom talks with a farmer in Dodge City about his custom panel truck before the sky opens and unleashes a midwestern spring storm on the crew. Tom decides to pack it in and attempt a run north out of the storm, aiming to escape the hail set to fall from the clouds.

The dash to McPherson pays off. Tom’s first stop in the Kansas town is a shop to drop off the wagon for safe storage for a few days. Then, he hops in with the camera crew to venture across town where students of McPherson’s automotive restoration program work on their personal projects. It’s a goldmine of stories—everything from piecing together a custom bosozoku Datsun 510 to building a Sebring-style Bugeye Sprite for a mother. These young car lovers are taking the skills from the classroom and applying them to an even wider range of metal than the professors could imagine.

McPherson is a happy place for Tom. The halls and quad brim with potential and enthusiasm for the vintage cars we all love so dearly… which is why he is heading home without the wagon he worked to rescue. It is going to the program to become a parts runner and project on which the students can hone their skills before entering the classic car workforce.

This will be the wagon that keeps on working, even when it isn’t.

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Recently, Tom Cotter put a fresh spin on the Barn Find Hunter series by not just finding, but rescuing a Ford Country Squire wagon. The wagon got a remarkable refreshing to respectable  condition, which is pretty amazing considering not long ago it was more or less rotting in a yard. Tom’s master plan from there is to pilot the reborn wagon on a road trip to hunt for cars, before finally handing off the wagon to some deserving young automotive restoration students at McPherson College, in Kansas. In his latest episode, Tom motors past Cadillac Ranch in North Texas and into Oklahoma, where he turns up a few classic Chevrolets—and a Pontiac.

If you haven’t watched the first two episodes in this series, it is worth catching up on the revival of the Country Squire, along with Tom’s first couple finds of the adventure, including a GTO Judge. Now Tom is primed to cover ground on his way to the annual C.A.R.S. Show at McPherson College, where he’ll hand the wagon’s keys to its young new owners. Of course, Tom can’t just simply put the shifter in drive and motor down the highway. It’s just not in his nature. He hunts out cars, even in the wide-open spaces that so many folks (incorrectly) refer to as fly over country.

After a quick pass by Cadillac Ranch in Texas, is isn’t long before Tom is scuttling around Guymon, Oklahoma, where a 1959 Chevrolet Impala catches his eye. So he knocks on the shop door to find out more.

“It had been in a field for 14 years, out in the wide open,” Roy Taylor says. “Then a friend called me and wanted to know if I wanted to buy it.”

And buy it, Roy did. Now he is waffling on whether he will re-power it with a modern Chevrolet V-8 or keep the rarer 348 mounted in the massive engine compartment. Roy’s other car has been with him much longer than the Impala. In the back of his shop hides a dusty 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu sporting a factory four-speed and Positraction rear end. After looking around a bit more, Tom gets back on the road.

And then, just 10 minutes down the road, one of the shops that Tom had visited gives him a call and says, “I got this Pontiac in the back you might like. I had forgotten about it.” So back to the shop Tom goes, of course

Turns out it is a late-1940s Pontiac that sports a straight-eight engine. The body shows some damage from its almost 70 years of existence, but it also appears complete and quite savable—a point which Tom underscores by comparing the dusty Poncho to the wagon he left cooling in the parking lot outside the shop. Tom returns to the trail for a spell before finally calling it a day. 

The next episode of Barn Find Hunter promises more finds and more stories from the road as Tom crosses into Kansas en route to the Country Squire wagon’s new home. Be sure to subscribe to Hagerty’s YouTube Channel to receive notifications when each video goes live.

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In the last episode of Barn Find Hunter, we left off with Tom Cotter heading up the road to McPherson, Kansas in the Ford wagon he found last year and rescued. Of course, Tom can’t just drive down the road without getting distracted by dull sheet metal he spots out of the corner of his eye. As usual, his instincts prove fruitful, yielding two big finds.

From his starting point in Midland, Texas,Tom and the Ford wagon cover solid ground and make it to Lubbock, Texas before a grouping of cars held captive behind a chain-link fence capture his attention. He interrupts the owner, Mike, who was mowing the grass, to talk about the aging metal. Interestingly, the cars are all for sale at $500 each. Tom picks out a few good projects and takes a moment to remind us that the wagon he is driving cross country was in a similar state not so long ago. Something to think about, for sure.

Leaving that yard full of potential, Tom doesn’t make it far before he veers off toward another point of interest on the roadside. Don’t forget, cars in varying states of disrepair, becoming one with the earth in an overgrown yard, is like catnip to Tom. Sure enough, the property’s owner happily obliges Tom with a tour of the grounds—and more.

In 61 episodes of Barn Find Hunter, you would by this point think Tom had found it all. Yet, he admits, there was one car that had deep down hoped would turn up eventually—a Judge. A Pontiac GTO Judge was high on Tom’s list, especially after finding cars with lower production numbers and higher attrition. There in the weeds was an honest-to-goodness 400/four-speed Judge. The hood was stuck closed, but it’s the culmination of a long search that Tom still counts it as a victory.

Does crossing the Judge off his hunting list mean Tom is hanging up his hat? No way. To learn what is next on his must-find list you will have to stay tuned. Be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube page to receive notifications with each new video that gets posted.

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If Tom Cross hadn’t produced a can of rubbing compound and a shop rag 18 months ago, this episode wouldn’t exist. In this episode of Barn Find Hunter, Tom Cotter gets to carry out his childhood dream by reviving a desert junkyard car. Follow along as Tom walks you through the restoration process of a 1962 Ford Country Sedan he found in episode 34.

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Tom Cotter has turned the practice of finding classic cars into an art, but he still has to do the legwork to gain access to the great finds. In the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter, Tom teams up with Davin Reckow of our Redline Rebuild series to uncover some iron in northern Michigan.

With a nickname like “the rustbelt,” northern states like Michigan don’t exactly provide prime pickings for vintage cars and trucks that haven’t been properly stored. With some digging, however, there are cars worth finding, and Tom is all about exhuming anything worth finding. And digging is exactly what he had to do.

Tom has searched near Hagerty’s home office in northern Michigan before, so coming back and hunting for new cars and stories is a big ask. Yet when presented with the challenge, Tom leapt right to it, finding a yard brimming with cars that the locals didn’t even know about. Just one problem: there wasn’t a clue of who to talk to about these cars. Cue the investigative work.

Davin Reckow checks out forgotten cars
Jordan Lewis
Barn Find wagon
Jordan Lewis

Thanks to some well-pointed questions to a few locals, Tom manages to find the name of the daughter of the land owner. Then her phone number. A few unanswered voicemails later, Tom is becoming a bit discouraged as the clock is ticking and the film crew knows he’s running out of time—and daylight. Then the phone rings and an invitation is extended.

The opportunity also piques the interest of Redline Rebuild star Davin Reckow. He hits his own goldmine while scouring through cabinets of new-old-stock in the hopes of finding some Chevrolet SS parts, or some bits and pieces for Tom’s Cobra.

It all stands to show that there are cars to be found everywhere, and even in the worst environments there are cars worth saving. Take the time and find the owner of that one you spotted on the side of the road a while back—you know the one—because that connection might lead you somewhere even greater. Just be prepared to repeat the story, even if your drinking buddies don’t believe you.

Barn Find Thunderbird engine
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Automobilia
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Barn Find
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