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S 4 : Ep 58

Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Tom Cotter and the Barn Find Hunter crew are back in North Pole, Alaska, for their 58th installment. Their previous trip to the town was quite the success, but now they’re following up on a different tip. First they visit Robby, who has a field filled with classic American iron.

Robby admits that he’s an indiscriminate collector, buying up any old car he comes across and that he’s been doing it, he says, “as long as I can remember.” One look at the yard that has ‘50s and ‘60s trucks, convertibles, and muscle cars tucked everywhere, and it’s clear that Robby wasn’t kidding.

The first car Tom lands on is one he’s very familiar with, a 1962 Ford Galaxie convertible equipped with a 390 V-8 and a column-shifted automatic.

Among the mid-century treasures on the property are a 1956 and 1957 Pontiac, a 1957 Oldsmobile with its distinctive rear quarter windows, and a 1959 Oldsmobile Super 88 Holiday Coupe with its long, low fins ending in oval taillights.

The two don’t spend much time on any one vehicle in particular; there are just too many cool rides to stop at each of them. In fact, Robby and Tom walk right past what looks to be a 1970 Nova SS en route to a 1959 Ford Skyliner with a retractable hardtop and barely mention a 1968 Mercury Cyclone before pausing at a 1955 Ford Crown Victoria.

We won’t mention every vehicle we noticed at Robby’s property, but we will tell you that if you keep your eyes open, you can spot two flavors of Mopar pony car before the two stop at a ’68 Camaro and a massive Cadillac.

Tom’s next stop is also in North Pole, this time with Carl, who has a fleet of Ford Broncos outside. Some better-preserved projects are located in a garage, where Tom checks out another first-gen Bronco that’s being rebuilt. For Carl, Fords run in the family. “Everybody has Jeeps and go off-roading, but I like Fords and my dad had Fords, so that’s what I wanted,” he tells Tom. “Those Broncos are good winter cars and had better tops than the Jeeps.”

There’s a special find for fans of Japanese imports at the final stop: the first-ever appearance of a rotary-powered vehicle on Barn Find Hunter. Tom spends more time with Bonnie and her Mazda RX-4 than any other car this episode, listening to a fantastic tale of how the car was beloved, ruined, and then left to rot amidst a dense thicket of overgrowth.

Bonnie loved her RX-4—a six-speed car with 77,000 miles. “My husband hated it, my father called it a Japanese POS, but they always wanted to drive it,” she says, recalling what a blast it was to drive at high speed on the highway. Unfortunately, her husband one day put diesel in the tank and the car never ran right again. Bonnie parked it behind the house, and at some point, the roof got crushed in by a pole barn.

Before any of you say it, yes, we think it would make a perfect candidate for an LS engine swap.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

After scouting around Utah, seasoned Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter finds his way to a gate. When he takes a peek over the top, he sees a veritable motherlode of vintage metal. Locals told Tom he would never get behind those walls. But after calling a phone number he found on the gate and leaving a nice voicemail, he gets a call back with an invitation to poke around. Sometimes all you have to do is ask—but it doesn’t hurt to be a well-known internet car sleuth.

So, bright and early the next day, the woody wagon arrives outside the walls of the car-packed lot. Tom is still slightly skeptical that he will get the chance to look around inside. Sure enough, not only do the doors open up, but someone familiar with the story spares the time to walk with him and offer up some history on the cars that—over many years—found their way onto this nearly 20-acre property.

Jim McEwen takes Tom on a rusty, crusty journey through the lot. Jim isn’t the owner—that would be Red—but he is intimately familiar with the situation at hand. Some of the vehicles appear more complete than others, but the Utah desert climate was fortunately kind to the sheet metal of most everything. The interiors, less so.

“You come to the Southwest for metal, and go to the North for interiors,” quips Jim. “‘Cause there’s no interiors here that made it through the hot summers.”

As Jim says, hundreds of ‘60s-era cars sit with metal exposed but nothing worse than surface rust to show for it. The paint just baked off under the sweltering sun as the years wore on. A prime example is a 1966 Chevrolet Impala Jim points out. A two-door Impala might not be anything to write home about on its own, but with options including a big-block, air conditioning, and power steering—but not power brakes—it’s suddenly an intriguing car.

The lot looks like a pile of abandoned body shop projects, because Red spent a number of years spraying paint and slinging filler, according to Jim. Many cars became donors for better-condition vehicles, as several missing quarter panels indicate.

Tom probably could have walked the yard for a few days, with an endless supply of interesting cars to enjoy, from big-block Ford Torinos to an ex-Yellowstone tour bus. It just goes to show that keeping a keen eye out for cool cars can yield great results, even when the doors seem like they’ll stay closed to you.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Tom Cotter loves driving his woody wagon, but sometimes the driving enjoyment takes a backseat to the doors it opens and conversations it starts. Case in point: the latest Barn Find Hunter in Utah. Starting the day with no leads and looking a bit like it might be a bust, one conversation in a gas station sparks a chain reaction of finds.

While hunting for a place called Washington, Tom finds himself aimlessly wandering Utah. A stop for gas shines a light in the dark tunnel, however, as the woody wagon sparks a conversation that results in Tom following the gentleman home to talk about his 1964 Volkswagen Squareback. An off-and-on project, the VW has been driven only 300 miles or so since 1988.

From there, Tom follows a chain of cars spotted in driveways, each having its own interesting story. Showing why he is the Barn Find Hunter, Tom backs out of a driveway and spots a VW bus on a hill in the distance. He finds his way there and is lucky enough that the owner, Mont, is pulling into the driveway at the same time.

Mont shows Tom around his property, noting that the green pop-top VW is owned by his son. Driven while his son was stationed at Yellowstone, the van shows at least one trip to Mount Rushmore. The garage hides a five-window 1948 Chevy pickup and a Buick Skylark packing a high-compression, 350-cubic-inch engine.

These were all the easy finds. By looking around and chatting with people, Tom turned a day that was looking like a bust into a day talking about great vintage iron. Just goes to show that sometimes what you’re looking for is right under your nose—or on a hill.

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Tom Cotter continues his search for the lost cars across the U.S. and finds himself in a giant chicken coop packing some Oldsmobile muscle. From parts to complete cars, this stash of ‘60s muscle represents a classic barn find. Covered in dust and sunk up to the rims in dirt, these cars are just waiting to be rescued.

With the northern states still under the cold spell of winter, Tom heads to NASCAR country based on a tip from a social media post asking for leads on cool cars. When he arrives, he finds a chicken farm that no longer holds chickens and instead houses all types of machinery.

Deep in the chicken coop hides a Buick GS Stage 1, one of the hottest muscle cars Buick produced in the era when horsepower was king. The GS 455 was rated at 350 horsepower and a ground-pounding 510 pound-feet of torque, and the GS Stage 1 also came equipped with a 455 cubic-inch V-8, this time with larger valves, higher compression, and a lumpier cam that was rated just 10 horsepower higher. Many tests of the era concluded this was a gross underrating as the full-size car could rip off a 13.38-second quarter mile at over 100 mph.

These rare pieces of muscle car history were in hiding, but it didn’t take much for Tom to find them. All he had to do was ask. Are you looking for a particular car? Leave a note in the comments below. Another reader just might have the lead you need.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

On the hunt for long-forgotten cars? Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter is the expert, but as he’ll tell you, developing a nose for vintage metal is all about practice and good habits. During his search in Utah, Tom loads up his yellow Ford woodie wagon and explores St. George, but he knows better than to just drive down every street with no plan. So what does he do? Consults the local specialists, of course.

Tom figured if anyone would know where the old cars are, the local restoration shops would. The first spot he drops into comes up bust, but in the process he learns about another possible lead. On the drive across town, Tom notes that the area has a lot of new construction, which is not typically conducive to finding forgotten cars. This might be an uphill battle.

Steve’s Hot Rod Garage, however, is proof that Tom is in the right place. With projects in varying degrees of completion filling the lot outside the shop doors, there’s everything from a chopped VW Squareback to the shell of a 1957 Ford Country Sedan in the process of being parted out. Shop owner Steve Nielsen shows Tom that the really interesting stuff is hidden away in his storage units.

Behind storage door number 16 is a piece of hot rod lore, along with a bit of Nielsen’s own history. It’s a wicked cool Chevy van with “Delirious” lettered on the side and a custom tufted red interior Nielsen did himself. It’s really a time capsule to an era when the boxy customs were all the rage.

“It was my high school van. I’ve had it 42 years.” Nielsen says. “I used to work at Custom Vans of Utah back when vans were the thing. I did all the upholstery and paint work.”

Behind the van sits a car with its own hod rod history, a fiberglass 1932 Ford coupe with pinstripes laid by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth—the name synonymous with the eye-popping style of hand-painted custom work that was prevalent in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. The Rat Fink logo is Roth’s most famous creation, a character that made it onto cars as well as endless merchandise. The Deuce coupe has no Rat Fink, however—just a subtle pinstripe job on the deck lid and tail panel, which still looks badass today.

All these great finds (plus a Corvette-powered Volkswagen) and all Tom had to go on was a thin lead from a local shop. It just goes to show that even in far-flung places, it isn’t about looking everywhere, it’s about looking in the right place with the right attitude and approach. Next time you’re searching for a special barn find, remember that.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Tom Cotter has a knack for finding cars, but it’s not all raw talent. The magic behind locating hidden treasure comes down to persistence and talking to as many people as possible. In the latest Barn Find Hunter episode, Tom decides to test his skills by searching out cars in Le Claire, Iowa. Better known as the backyard of American Pickers Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe, Tom is out to prove there are cars to be found in even the most over-hunted areas.

Expecting an uphill battle, Tom makes it just three blocks from American Pickers headquarters before he is out of the rental car to talk to some locals. After a quick exchange he’s standing next to a Ford Model A, in pieces, that the owner drove in high school. Next to that is also an interesting piece of kit: a Ford Model A engine with a cylinder head swap to turn the center cylinders of the four-banger into an air compressor.

From there, another conversation results in a new lead. Tom knows where to look, but that doesn’t mean there’s anyone there to show him around (and trespassing is generally a bad idea). After no response to a knock on the door not once or twice, but three times, Tom and the crew choose to just wait it out, sitting in the rental car and hoping the resident of the house would come home while they wait.

An hour and half passes, but the plan worked. Except Rick Riley didn’t come home, he just woke up. Headed out the door for his night shift job, Riley gives Tom a walk around his modest and eclectic collection of Pontiacs and Fords. The collection ranges from a 1950 Crestline parked out front of the house to a LeMans-turned-GTO in the back garage, with conditions ranging from parts car to driver.

It just all goes to show that by getting out and talking to locals, Tom found dozens of cars in a small town that is best known for finding the undiscovered. Or as he would put it, “persistence pays off.”

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Throughout Barn Find Hunter host Tom Cotter’s adventures in Alaska, he’s uncovered several Mustangs, Broncos, a sweet Chevy Sedan Delivery, unique Pontiacs, and much more. The road to discovery isn’t over yet, though, as Tom’s next lead brings him to John McDonald’s place, in the forests around North Pole, Alaska. There he finds a wildly eclectic grouping of vehicles, all with a delightful patina. And each with a price tag.

John’s place is nestled into a dense collection of spruce trees, down a gravel lane that juts off from a single-lane road. As soon as you come through the gate and up the gentle hilltop, there is a baffling variety of American metal parked in the yard to greet you—old Ford hot rods, Studebakers, a crazy-looking ambulance with a set of antlers on top. When Tom and I arrive, John is there waiting for us, along with his new puppy, Banjo.

Donning a Rat Fink hat and a “Surfink Safari” t-shirt, John is obviously in his element surrounded by his various hot rods and custom projects. He’s thin, looks to be in his sixties, and sports a gray goatee. He tells us he’s lived at this location in North Pole for 31 years.

Barn Find Hunter Alaska cars in the woods — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska 56 chevy — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska old barn couch in pickup bed — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska 3/4 rear hot rod pickup — Jordan Lewis

“I’m into everything—I have a bucket list and it changes every week,” John says, admiring the collection he’s cultivated. He spends a lot of his free time browsing eBay Motors, clicking around and finding new projects to get shipped up to Alaska for him to sink his teeth into. “If I’m attracted to it, I’ll get it so I can enjoy it.”

But as his projects pile up, John realizes he can’t do it all. “I just don’t have time to deal with all of it,” he says. Pretty much everything out in the yard is for sale.

Tom’s eye first catches the lovely red and white paint on a 1957 Ford Ranchero, packing a 312 V-8 under the hood with dual carburetors. John says he bought it for a birthday present, and Tom prys a little, asking if it was a gift to himself. “Why not?” John quips, with a laugh. “I’ll drive it til I wear it out, and then I’ll sell it. I’ve been driving it every day this summer,” he says.

Sure enough, the Ranchero starts right up. John says he’d part with it for $20,000, but he doesn’t offer road trip insurance for the maiden voyage off his property. “I don’t guarantee anything past that gate at the end of the driveway,” he makes clear.

Barn Find Hunter Alaska old goggles — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska yellow speedster — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska hot rods under roof — Jordan Lewis

Nearby, John’s red 1960 Studebaker Champ truck offers a much different flavor of utility. It’s a one-ton model with a V-8, three on the tree, and 53,000 miles that may or may not be original. For $6000, it could be yours.

If modified 1930s Fords are more your flavor, John’s got you covered. His 1932 Ford 1.5-ton dualie has a flathead V-8 that starts right up, or if you prefer a ‘33 pickup, he’s got one with a V-8 and aluminum heads. He built that one back in high school—now he’ll part with it for $18,000.

There’s more Studebaker goodness afoot, too. John shows us a huge truck he drove up from Oklahoma, and he claims that in the process he burned through 15 gallons of oil in the 500-cubic-inch Cadillac engine it used at the time. As soon as he got home he tossed that old monster into the junkyard and swapped in a 390 Ford instead. These days he mostly uses it to haul firewood.

Want to make a real statement? Show up to cars and coffee with a 1943 ambulance, complete with an official plaque indicating it was purchased with World War II-era war bonds. John suspects it never saw official service and likely was a support vehicle of some kind in the U.S., as the roof rack and big winch up front indicate. Under the hood is a flathead single-carb six-cylinder. For $8000, it’s up for grabs. The antlers on top come with it for free.

Barn Find Hunter Alaska Riley two port intake — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska low suburban on blocks — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska 3/4 rear speedster hot rod — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter Alaska studebaker badge — Jordan Lewis

After a few more trucks and assorted hot rods, John pulls a glorious 1937 Studebaker Dictator out of his garage. It has a 283 Chevy small-block in it with a three-speed transmission, along with a new rear end to replace the insanely short gearing it had previously to handle the hills in San Francisco where it lived. This thing looks straight out of Frank Miller’s Sin City, and John already posted it on the local Craigslist for $18,000. Also in the garage is a sweet Model T speedster hopped-up with a Model A crank, 351 Cleveland valves, electronic ignition, and a bigger carb. There are more Model Ts around as well, including another speedster from 1926 that was brought up from Minnesota many years ago for Alaska’s centennial celebration.

What’s crazy is nearly every single one of these vehicles starts right up when John turns the key. The uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking this weird roster of aging metal was just a decaying scrap pile, but there’s no doubt the man puts a lot of care and effort into running and maintaining all of his cars. He loves to drive them, too, especially if they have a bench seat. “Nothin’ beats the bench, because I can take along Banjo for a ride,” he tells us.

Out in the fresh air, breathing in the smell of sprucewood, gasoline, and exhaust, going for a ride with a new puppy in an eight-decades-old machine you’re keeping alive—sounds like a pretty good way to live to us.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

When searching for forgotten old cars, there are a few things you can do to maximize your chances of success. Barn Find Hunter extraordinaire Tom Cotter always suggests arriving to a potential find in a classic car, which helps break the ice and establish that you’re one of the vintage-loving tribe. Tom couldn’t manage to get his Ford woody wagon up to Alaska from his home in North Carolina, so he borrowed a friend’s green Shelby GT350 for his car-searching needs in America’s 49th state. I was along for the ride, and there’s no doubt that the pony car worked like a charm wherever we went.

Tom visited a local car show, made some friends, and got some leads on where old cars were hidden in the Fairbanks area. One of those new contacts was Willie Vinton, curator of the Fountainhead Auto Museum, who has his own kooky personal collection of dusty metal hiding in an old wooden airplane hangar. Like beloved auto journalist Peter Egan said, airplane hangars are great places to look for old cars, because there’s always space under the wings for storage.

In Willie’s case, the hangar he shows us is so full of cars that he doesn’t even have room for a plane. Willie is a cheerful guy who looks to be in his mid-50s, with a baseball cap and a bristly white mustache. He’s excited to lift the curtain on the hangar door so he can show us his collection, and in the light of day, Tom declares it quite an eclectic collection. Staring at us is a vintage pickup with generous patina, a yellow AMC Gremlin covered in dust, an early Model A Ford, and the remains of an old midget race car.

Tom is immediately drawn to the 1947 Mercury one-ton pickup—a Canadian market truck that was just like the Ford equivalent but with a little bit fancier trim and detailing. The pickup is a real survivor, and despite some body rust in the bed area, you can tell Willie is proud of it. He found it nearby in Fairbanks. “I chased this truck for 25 years before I got it,” he says. “It had an awful rough life.” Apparently the truck sat dormant for years, and the owner’s wife wouldn’t sell until she passed away and her daughter sold it to Willie.

The Mercury’s flathead V-8 fires right up when Tom turns the key. Willie wants to keep it mostly original, but when he rebuilt the engine he added aluminum heads and a six-volt alternator. He tells Tom to take it for a spin around the airfield. Tom does not need to be asked twice, giddily shifting the four-speed manual into gear and puttering around the empty roads with obvious enjoyment. “This is just my kind of vehicle,” Tom tells me. “Willie’s done a great job of maintaining its authenticity. It’s mechanically sound but far from restored. Nature has a way of making both people and cars softer and more worn with age, and I think this Mercury is honest to that fact.”

Once back in the garage, Tom and Willie turn their attention to a Ford Model A, built in December 1927. Willie says it was originally bought new in Dawson City, Canada, just across the border, as a mail carrier with no back seat. It’s an early AR model from the last year of the Model T, evidenced by the left-side handbrake. The engine isn’t the original, but the rest is. Willie wants to give it a full restoration. “I love when they haven’t been molested,” he tells us.

That’s definitely true of the dusty yellow 1975 AMC Gremlin in the corner, which was Willie’s dad’s car from Montana. It has 62,000 miles and has been in Alaska for 20 years now. It’s an automatic with a bench seat and a six-cylinder. In front of it is an old midget race car, which Willie claims is the last known example in Alaska, retired from competing on dirt tracks. It has a stamped aluminum frame, runs a 60-hp flathead engine with no transmission, and uses a Model A rear end along with a lot of other Model A parts.

We say thanks and part from Willie, only to exit the airfield, drive around the edge of it around to the other side, and pull up to an airport rental car lot with a nondescript warehouse next to it. Another contact of Tom’s, Peter Lundqvist, is there to greet us, stepping down from his mud-caked Toyota Land Cruiser with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He drops the gun in the trunk and shakes our hands, motioning for us to follow him inside his warehouse full of automotive delights.

In the corner of the building, next to a sweet-looking Jaguar XJ12, is a faded ’57 Chevy. Tom immediately notices, however, that this is no ordinary ’57 Chevy. It’s a rare government-issue Sedan Delivery, which looks like a wagon except that it has a different rear end with a glass window and a single-piece hatch. It’s like a panel wagon in that it has no back seat, but it has windows. How did it end up in Alaska? Peter tells us it was his brother’s vehicle, which he bought for $500 in 1975 in Tacoma, Washington, while attending law school. His brother often drove it back and forth from Tacoma to Fairbanks.The story makes Peter a bit emotional, his voice faltering a little as he tells us that it wasn’t long after that his brother was killed by a drunk driver.

Peter can’t sell it—the Chevy means too much. He tells us the wagon has been sitting idle for 12 years. It’s dirty and covered in primer, and the tires are all flat. There’s a sticker inside that indicates it was a Department of Agriculture service vehicle, and judging by the one-piece bumper, it likely operated in California. Like you’d expect of a government work vehicle, it’s the most basic spec you can imagine—base 235-cubic-inch straight six with a single carburetor, three on the tree, spartan steering wheel, no armrests, no clock, no radio, and no additional trim whatsoever. The odometer shows 99,636 miles, and the glovebox reveals two blasts from the past—a logbook documenting oil changes and inspections, alongside a government-issue book recommending service-station procedure.

The Chevy fires up fine and can even drive, but the long-term plan is to restore it to stock condition. Peter has all the parts, although he admits the Chevy’s time on unpaved roads means the body has suffered from a lot of dirt and silt, so it will probably need some attention.

Another family heirloom sits on the other side of the warehouse, this one a lot older. Peter walks Tom over to a rare 1914 Model T Town Car, passed down to him from his father. These were the elite-level Model Ts of the time—coachbuilt, extremely expensive, and largely intended for chauffeuring. As you might expect, the interior was very luxurious and there was a glass partition between passenger and driver. It was bought new in the Lower 48 and barged up to Fairbanks to join a taxi company, but Peter said that it got into a collision not long after and was junked for scrap. His father bought it in 1954, and it’s been in the family ever since. Peter shows us all the parts for it and says his goal is to restore it, but he needs to find both the time to do some work himself and the money to pay someone else for the tougher restoration jobs.

Boss 302 mustang under a car cover — Jordan Lewis

Lastly, Peter leads Tom over to a pony car hiding under a car cover, walking straight past his shiny red C4 Corvette ZR-1. Tom lifts the cover and reveals an original-paint, blue 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 302 with a shaker hood. The car belongs to Tom’s friend David, the same guy who loaned us his GT350 for our time traveling through Alaska. David found it in Anchorage several years ago, and it shows just 22,000 miles. Inside Tom notices the Hurst four-speed shifter and 8-track player. It’s in good condition overall, and according to our valuation data probably worth about $66,000–$70,000.

It’s hard to believe, but there’s more to come from Tom’s travels in Alaska. We met even more car geeks, investigated more backyards, garages, and junkyards, and peeked under more dirt-caked covers. Alaska is truly a vast land full of undiscovered potential. Stay tuned—and happy hunting.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter is always offering tips to anyone with an interest in discovering hidden old cars. Some of his greatest hits: Go to local shows and meetups to make friends; keep an eye out for cars in driveways, yards, and open garages; and when meeting a potential seller, it helps to show up in an old car to break the ice and let them know you’re not just a looky-loo.

[Editor’s note: The video above, and a previous version of this story, incorrectly refer to the Jim Wagners Pontiac as a Ram Air IV. As some of our readers pointed out, the car is a Ram Air III. The story has been updated.]

Some people, however, are just born naturals. Father-son barn-find team Terry and Preston have turned up some fantastic vintage metal over the years in their town of North Pole, Alaska. Tom met the duo at a car parade in Fairbanks, heard that they had a few trophies to show off back home, and paid them a visit to see for himself.

I’m riding with Tom down a small lane off the main highway through North Pole, about 14 miles southeast of Fairbanks. The guys are sitting outside, in front of the house, waiting to greet us. There are several crates of stuff in the front yard. With his white goatee and a bandana tied around his head, Terry looks like a former biker. He tells us he moved to Alaska from Minnesota about 40 years ago to work on the pipeline. His son, Preston, is clean-cut and ready with a handshake to welcome us and show off their cars.

Classic Muscle cars found in Alaska — Jordan Lewis

We walk right past a pair of gorgeous muscle cars—which are shiny, and therefore not what Barn Find Hunter is all about—and Tom sets his sights on a sweet 1969 Ford Torino Cobra. According to Preston, he and his father found it in someone’s yard seven years ago, buried under a few feet of snow, during one of their usual cruises looking for cars around town.

Wearing its original green paint, black interior, and SportsRoof fastback, this Torino came from the factory with an uncommon combination of options. It has factory hood pins, air conditioning, an automatic transmission, a clock, and yet no gauge package, which would have added a tachometer. The Marti Report shows that it sat on the lot at a dealership in California for about a year, which Preston thinks indicates it might have been a display model. Today, the floors and panels are all totally solid, and the odometer shows 78,000 miles.

Tom is really into this car, remembering how it was exactly the imaginary spec he built out as a kid in one of Ford’s advertising inserts in many car magazines. A big smile appears on his face when Preston offers him the chance to fire up the big 428-cubic-inch V-8.

Tom Cotter checks out the first TA built — Jordan Lewis

1st Pontiac TA found in Alaska — Jordan Lewis

Next, under a pair of covers wait two other Fords—a pair of Mustangs. First is a 1967 fastback with 51,000 original miles, which Terry and Preston found three years ago in a warehouse. The original owner was a parts runner who’d run into some health problems and had to sell of the candy-apple red car. It’s a choice example of a ’67 Mustang, complete with its 289 C-code V-8 and two-barrel carburetor, four-speed manual transmission, styled wheels, heavy duty suspension, and rare blackout rear panel. The same seller also had a 1965 Mustang convertible, painted to match, which was his aunt’s car. It’s also a C-code V-8, and Preston notes it’s a little freaky to drive given the lack of standard seat belts.

Around back, amidst a bunch of bramble and tall grass, and past a 1971 GTO the duo also discovered in North Pole, are several cars in proper barn-find condition. It’s a real graveyard of Pontiac metal, including a 1967 LeMans “Post” coupe with the overhead-cam six-cylinder engine (standard hardtops had no B-pillar). Preston freely admits he uses it as a parts car, which makes sense given the condition. The car looks to be sinking into the earth, and vegetation is growing up through the engine.

A few feet away, Tom, a lover of vintage wagons, admires a crusty 1967 Pontiac Bonneville with a big 428. It’s a project Preston started, meant to be a competitor to his friend’s hot-rod Oldsmobile station wagon. When Terry and Preston found the old Pontiac wagon, the owner offered it to them for free.

We make our way out of the tall fireweeds and back into the driveway. Terry and Preston have a treat they want to show Tom. It’s not a barn find, but there’s no doubt it is a fantastic car with an even better story. In their garage is a beautiful-looking 1969 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 400 Ram Air III, which the father and son bought from none other than Pontiac executive Jim Wangers. A longtime champion of Pontiac’s performance efforts, Wangers sent the car back to Pontiac for restoration and repainting, adding to the car’s mystique and legitimacy. It even still has Wangers’ Detroit plates, and on the passenger-side visor is a note written from Wangers in silver Sharpie, telling Preston he’s happy the car is finding a good enthusiast home.

Tom lights up when he hears this story and sees the car up close. He remembers when he was a kid and used to hitchhike home from sports practice, he once rode in a Trans Am and remembered the experience for the rest of his life. When Preston offers him to take it for a ride, Tom hesitates, as if he isn’t sure he should alter that childhood memory. His curiosity wins out. After gingerly backing out of the driveway and accelerating out of the neighborhood, he finds an empty stretch of road to lay down a little patch like it’s 1969.

I can’t help but be amazed at how a group of perfect strangers, from complete opposite sides of the country, are so quickly united by something simple as a love of cars. Truly, it’s what the hobby is all about. When you hunt for cars, you often find new friends.

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Tom Cotter stops by a friend’s property on the latest episode of Barn Find Hunter, hoping to catch a glimpse of something new.

When the opening shot reveals a clearing filled with at least 80 classic cars, you know this is going to be a good find, but that’s not the half of it. The vehicles outside, which include a late-production C3 Corvette, an early second-generation K5 Blazer, and a whole lot of ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s American iron, are in various states of rot and disrepair. Tom has already braced us for this, warning earlier in the episode that, “They’ve kind of deteriorated down to a point where I’d call them sculpture.”

It’s a rainy day, and the big field behind the shop where this stash is located is more or less a marsh. As the mud and wet grass squishes under his feet, Tom walks past a ’69 Camaro, a ’69 Impala, and a ’57 Ford two-door wagon on the way to his first talking point, a ’63 Ford fastback with a 390 that seems to be a good candidate for a restoration. Next up is a ’72 two-wheel-drive Chevy K5 Blazer and right next to it, a 3/4-ton ’72 Suburban.

The sheer number of cars keeps Tom from seeing everything at once, which means he skips right over a wood-grained Vega wagon to scope out a big-block Impala and a trio of Corvairs. We’ll forgive him for that, as there’s much cooler metal ahead. For example, as he opens the hood to discover a ’66 Impala’s big-block V-8 is not entirely intact but still in place, he’s standing by a different 1969 Camaro.

Out in the back of the field, in more the mud, the remains of a 1963 Ford Galaxie represent an automotive tragedy for Tom. What was once an R-code 427 four-speed car has been cut up and cannibalized for parts. Hopefully its powertrain is back on the road in another R-code somewhere.

We’re able to spot a ’60 Impala, a Kaiser Henry J, a ’66 or ’67 Pontiac Tempest, and an early ’70s Pontiac Ventura Custom as the Barn Find Hunter film crew heads toward a car that was stored in slightly better conditions, an early De Tomaso Pantera. A little bit of cover and some breathing room between it and the damp ground didn’t save this mid-engine Italian marvel from a fate that often claimed cars of that era: rust. Still, the inside of the car is a time warp to the late ’70s, complete with an 8-track player and massive car phone. Still, the car’s yellow paint and lovely shape are a sight for sore eyes on this rainy day.

Just so you’re not too sad about the derelict R-code, this episode concludes with a nicely-preserved 1963 R-code Galaxie 500 XL nestled among a ’69 Mustang and early Thunderbird. Located way in the back of a large storage unit, the R-code Galaxie looks like it might have been the first car stored there before dozens of others boxed it into a corner. In recent years it looks like it’s been used more as a shelf for junk, than anything else. Tom pops the hood to reveal the dual-quad 427 that was used by many of NASCAR and drag racing’s most notable teams in the early ’60s.

Most of these cars weren’t visible from the road, but to a savvy car spotter willing to ask a few questions they weren’t totally hidden, either. As Tom reminds us, keep an eye open, because finds like these could just be a backroad drive away.

Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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Enjoy Season 4 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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