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.

After not finding anything to save at the yard, I headed back to enjoy the rest of the evening. Have a little peace and quiet.

BIG UPDATES WITH THE NEXT BLOG POST. SO STAY TUNED.

Ryan Brutt

The Automotive Archaeologist

TheAutoArchaeologist@yahoo.com

Fords and Fun in a New Year

The new year brought a new sense of adventure. Instead of going on these Automotive Archeology Expeditions on a whim or doing day trips, I would try to plan out more detailed expeditions and going further. Meeting up with people and going to see cool Barn Finds rotting away. And as of January 1st, 2012 I did the first one with a friend Bob and some cool cars he knew about west of Chicago. So we met up at a McDonald’s on North Avenue. Ironically, sitting there in the parking lot for the technical college was a very rough 1972 Plymouth Fury. A good way to start off a day.

We went and dropped Bob's car off at his friends house just down the road. The friend had gotten a cool GTO for a decent price after the last owner had a carb fire and a few other issues they didn't want to deal with. A 400 Cubic in Pontiac V8 under the hood and an auto on the floor. Still a good project that Bob was sure would be out cruising by summer.

Our first stop was another friend west of the city that had a few cool cars that had been sitting for a while. A cool Mercury Montego MX convertible and a Mercury Cyclone GT. The guy had gotten the cars years ago and had them tucked away. He worked on them when he could, which is better then nothing happening at all. But both cars needed some serious work.

The Cyclone was main project at the time. He said he had rebuilt the engine recently after a fire and was putting everything back together after cleaning up the engine bay and repainting it. Hopefully the old girl will be out and cruising, rather then sitting rotting away in a garage. The Montego was suppose to run and drive, just needed to be gone through and cleaned up.

With daylight running out, we headed over to another friends who was a diehard Ford guy. After getting lost and ending up in the middle of nowhere, we made it to his friends new/old shop. Sitting outside was two Ford Torino fastbacks. The friend mentioned that the first one was supposedly the very first Cobra Torino Fastback produced. He would prefer I not open anything on the cars, so I didn't push it.

Inside the garage was another cool project, a Ford Fairlane the guy was slowly working on. Had some pretty sweet engines lying around. He said one was a 429, but I couldn't tell and didn't want to get messy so late in the day.

We left the garage and made our way back to Bob's friends home. It ended up being a Ford day, but still some really nice cars just hanging out, waiting for their time in the future.

If you know of any cool cars sitting anywhere in the mid-west.  Let me know.  There are big things happening with the Automotive Archaeologist!

Ryan Brutt

TheAutoArchaeologist@yahoo.com