Classic Cars Magazine: Cats on a Hot Tin Challenger (not really hot) and a Charger in a Swamp

You never know what the cat dragged in, or your friends. I visited a friend in Wisconsin last year and he showed me some cars he had bought recently, a 1959 Chevrolet Impala and a 1970 Dodge Challenger pulled from a barn. He said when opening the door, “Be careful when you get in here though, they're rambunctious”. I had no idea what he meant... until we opened that door and there at our feet were a bunch of cats! Apparently the Mama was killed, so my friend started to take care of them. So they run the storage building now!

The Impala was the nicest of the recent acquisitions. It had been restored in the not too distant past. But my friend said he got it at such a good deal he could not pass it up. The cats liked it too. It was a basic in-line 6 cylinder car I believe, white with a red interior. Eventually his son would like to drop a modern suspension, brakes and engine in the car.

With the Challenger, it had been sitting in a barn for a many years he said. Someone had started to restore it about a decade ago, then lost interest, and it sat. A small block 318 car with a vinyl roof. I could not pop the engine bay to see what was in there now or what the tag said. But it is a fairly solid project for someone eventually.

But at one time he had other cars stashed at the same location and some really interesting parts. The owner restores mostly Model A's and the like. The son is more into the Muscle Car and Hot Rod scene. So there is a combination of everything hanging around. Here is a few of the cars over the years that have been around the shop.

After parting ways with my friends, I made my way over to a large classic car junkyard in the area to see if anything new had come in or if they had anything I needed. At the time the torrential rains, the pond at the back of the yard had overflowed into the yard, causing it to become partially a swamp.