Mods can move to other cars sec of forum if not appropriate here.

I have owned a C5 FRC now for over 10 years. It sits at about 50,000 miles and I’ve always enjoyed driving it a lot. But it has sat in another garage 25 miles away now for over a year and a half without me driving it. I did get down this past summer to start it up. But now the gasoline is over a year old. Not good for the car! Disconnected the battery so that the computer didn’t drain it down to nothing. And the car started up and ran pretty well..

Nearing 74 years of age now. I grew up and came of age in the late 60s early 70s. And my assessment would be that the muscle car generation died at least for the GM cars in about 1972. Others may disagree with me, but that’s my assessment anyway. So my wife has a friend of hers that had a 1972 Oldsmobile cutlass convertible. I’ve had my eyes on that for a long time, and once she finally decided that no one in her family wanted it she offered it to me. And I paid her a good price for it as well. The car isn’t one of those W versions with a big engines lots of horsepower all the goodies that would really make it valuable, but I’m still having fun with it.

I was doing pretty well with the car going around to all four corners and repairing sheet metal that was rusted away. Actually, I got both quarter panels replaced, went through the passenger door, passenger fender, starting to turn the corner and head for the driver side door and fender. And then get it to a painter. Then things kind of collapsed for me . First back surgery starting in September and then cancer treatments starting in October. Has kind of left me in a state of perpetual fatigue.

So I’m starting to understand how these barn storages and finds can happen to people. Things just get away from them in a hurry and then they never get back to the car. If you have barn find stories, jump in and tell the tale.

You all know what a FRC looks like, but here is my 72 Cutlass as it sits today.


I didn’t look the car over as well as I should have when I bought it. But it turned out that the wheel rim areas of the quarter panels were all rusted away as were the wheel houses. So I’ve replaced all of that sheet metal.



Likewise, the front fenders were both rusted out in the typical areas right behind the front wheels. So I removed the fenders and put in a patch panel.
Epoxy prime things as I go. I am too old to do the painting, so will pay The Man.

 

Good project to have and hope you can get back to it full speed soon. I don't have a barn find story unfortunately. I do have a good friend that has an old 1920's or 30's, I think, dodge pickup I've been trying to get him to get it running again though. No luck yet on that.

 

Nice Cutlass project. Everything you described is typical problem areas on them. When you feel better, you can get back to it.

I chuckled a bit bc I had those very same hubcaps on my '71 way back when.

 

I think there are different levels of barn find. For me, the true barn find would be a vehicle older than probably around 1990 and in a legit barn, that may or may not fall over at any minute and the vehicle is either covered with a car cover or not, but also covered with true dust and debris, like hay or bird ****, etc.. If the same state of vehicle is found in a dilapidated garage, then it’s a garage find I would say.

I say different levels, because I found my 90 ZR-1 in a barn, but it was an active barn. There were other pieces of equipment and workbenches, tools, etc. and the ZR-1 was clean. So is it technically a barn find? I would say so, but maybe more a soft barn find.

I think barn find is thrown around a lot. And that’s ok, because when us car guys here the barn find designation, you have our attention.

 

Barn find is a generic name for a car parked and lost to time.

Most are cars that were used and parked when they needed work. Others are projects that people say they will fix it up someday on a stalked project.

On a rare occasion it is where an owner passes away. The family just leaves the car and stacks things on it.

Rarely sre these cars in great shape. Mist need a lot if work and depending on what it is and how rare is if it is worth the restoration.


These cars can be in a barn, trailer, garage, bricked off room -it has happened}. We has a 60 Corvette here crashed in 61 that was parked in the back room if a gas station behind the local pizza shop. I had always heard the story but never knew if it was true. Well it was as it came out a couple years ago.

 

So many of these barn finds are cool cars but in such bad shape the cost to bring them back is astronomical if you cant fix yourself. I'd like to get an early 70's Corvette but it's expensive to buy one already done and way more work/time/cost then I want to get involved. Was watching a show on a restoration shop and the price for a frame off resto was between 300-400K! Body guy said he had like 400 hrs into that alone. Of course that's an exception but shows what shop rates are these days.

 

Barn Finds

1 - The husband dies first, wife keeps the car as a memory of him, estate sells it when she passes.

2 - Husband ages out but keeps car, doesn't sell it until his wife gets sick so he can pay some medical bills

3 - Kids turn out to be little Greta Thunberg losers, dad sells car to spite them when he can no longer get into it

4 - The junker gets parked for sixty years and forgotten, the next generation or two move on and move to the other side of the country, from afar the estate is settled, new owner discovers car and sells it

5 - Word of mouth. Didn't Old Man Burns have one of those jalopies with the special order tag on it? Someone blabs online. Evil, despicable, trash personality car flippers swoop in and sweet talk someone out of it promising to take great care of it like their newborn child as it was the car they always wanted and sought after..... ship it straight to Mecum once it gets on the truck.

 

Yea, the older men get the less desire remains to finish off what we would like to accomplish. That Dodge would be a one of a kind at most any car show.

 

Yea, the wheels suck big time. I am planning a set of 15 X 7 Cragar chrome mags, with the traditional raised white lettering. Learning about how the car factories approached new car production in that era. They built a car to last 10 years. Anything beyond that especially with salty roads is just luck.

 

Cars today in the salt can go about 12 year with no rust through.

My father’s new 72 Chevelle went 4 years with weekly washes. The 1973 went 4 years on the door seals rusting.

GM was better than most. I recall working after school in a gas station where cars less than 10 years with bad frames, even no floors.

Sadly the old cars are not always like we remember.

 

Good points! My fear or at least suspicion is that unless I have a plan, the FRC will fit into a barn find category some day. Got a pic of the ZR? I had a 1991 Zo7 that was lots of fun to drive.

I agree. Usually if a car runs and drives, it lives on. But not always. The Olds was about a $3500 car when new. New old stock quarter panels delivered to my home are in the $5000 range. Costs to restore are substantial.

A 1960 Corvette was such a beautiful piece of artwork.


The bolded is what I could see happening to the FRC

 

Yea, pro restos are crazy expensive, and then you have a car you are afraid to drive. For me, the Cutlass was and I hope still is a fun project. Won’t be a pro level for sure, but something I’m not afraid to drive to a car show. Hope I can complete the work and post pics when done.

 

Yea, nostalgia can make me think expensive thoughts sometimes 😀. My first car was a 1960 bubble top Chevy Bel Aire. When I was done with it, gave it to younger brother. He was ripping along and speeded over a set of railroad tracks that were noticeably above rest of roadway. When he bottomed out on other side the whole front bench seat went through the floor, and he was viewing roadway through the spokes of the steering wheel. He welded in steel patches and continued to drive car.

 

Sadly true. In my head, I would really like to find another mint 91 Z28 to build. The reality, even with a 6060 or a nice 8-speed auto is that the cars remain, basically, a crap box. Even knowing that, the nostalgia for what had been remains a powerful intoxicant.

I did get lucky with my Ram. Another nostalgia build idea which is yet another unfinished project of mine. I pulled my dad's 94 Ram out of the woods two years ago expecting it to be rotted through. To my surprise the frame had only minimal surface rust up here in the rust belt of the northeast with our salted winter roads. By chance, when he bought it he had opted to have the underside coated with Ziebart. Even two years ago with a grinder that stuff was not easy to remove. We coated everything with Por-15 after, even the suspension pieces. Later **** the under side and reverse side of panels with Fluid Film. The hope is it can go another 30 years without issue. The interior and paint have yet to be done, so while it drives like a brand new car it has a fully surface rusted hood, peeled clear coat all over, and faded green metallic paint. Patina! I do love driving it. My old date night ride when I was 16. Lots of mischief and memories. Running from the cops. Off roading. Jumping it once or twice. And just stupid times with friends too when we were still kids basically. That, and it is nice to drive a proper pickup and not some over tall quad cab 'truck' with more amenities than a Cadillac.

 

A friends mother still has his brothers 67 Mustang in the garage. His brother was killed in Vietnam and even his bed room looks like the day he left for the army.
My friend had cancer a few years ago and almost did not make it. There are no other kids. If he had passed ?


When my aunt passed at 98, still in the same house from her marriage. There was a bed room that had her sons high school jacked on the desk chair, a Lionel train set up and his college books on the desk. He was killed at 19 in WW2 .

This is how barn finds and collectables are found.

 

Olds, HELL YEAH! Here's a pic of my '71 that suffers from a pretty heavy dose of Midwestern salt patina but it's been in the family since '78 (Dad) and been mine since '88.

 

^^^^^^Nice car! With the factory SS wheels. Are they 14” or 15”? Really hard to find 14” tires in some sizes. Whatever salt damage you speak of looks minimal at least in that pic.

 

Much as this is a chevy page, I always dig the brother and cousin models. Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles were my thing in my teens.

 

The wheels are 14". 215/70/14 BFGs. You are correct, not a big selection of tires but the BFGs do what I need them to do. Not sure if you've jumped on board yet but check out ClassicOldsmobile.com. Great forum with plenty of info and a similar format like this one.

 

I'll share a story I know I've told on here before elsewhere. But it is germain to the thread topic so I will retell it once more to breathe life back into the memory.

Hit the wayback machine and dial it back to 1995. Internet still sounded like a failed science experiment when you connected and looking at **** took 5 minutes for a grainy picture to be drawn line...... by line...... by line..... painfully slow. Hahaha!

My best friend's uncle lived a few miles away and we'd go help him do yard work and he'd kick us a few bucks. By the time we were newly licensed drivers I had known him a few years. He was the first owner of a white with blue stripes 1967 Shelby 350 S.C. Most car guys' wet dream. Even if you don't like Mustangs, everyone knows what the Shelby cars were and the SC model was a rare one. The car lived in the garage, parked after only a few years of driving with something like 20k miles on it. He had bought the car, gone to war, come back and started a family. He never let the car go despite constant pressure from his wife. But he never drove it either. It was parked with several covers on it and blankets over that, but then surprisingly also a ton of storage and boxes and junk over all. The tires were rotted and dead, though the car was up on jacks. The Shelby was dirty from age but for all that it looked like you could put an afternoon into it and have it roadworthy again. Let's go back to the era. 1995. There were no major websites for car sales. No online registries really. Forums had yet to take root in any major way. Cars were sought, found and sold by word of mouth, knowing who to call, and in small print ads at the back of magazines.

Dave (I forget his name now so I'm substituting) had several occasions where a random agent representing a buyer would show up to the house unannounced. They came to the door well dressed. At least one wore a suit as I remember that detail. But they all had briefcases as a visual. They would introduce themselves to Dave or his wife, explain that they were there to inquire about the Shelby and to make a firm offer contingent on verification of its condition and miles, etc. When you're living in a post-WW2 ranch with a mortgage, two kids and bills the visual of a briefcase full of cash is a strong one. The last experience I heard about was in 1996 where a man had arrived and offered $50,000 in the briefcase with the option to wire more. This is a fun and unique or amazing story to us here 30 years later. But for Dave it drove him nuts. It was the biggest pain in the *** and invasion of the peace and sanctity of his home. He just wanted to keep that car and hold onto it. The same someday plan we all have for such things, his plan was to make it his retirement cruiser. But here came these uninvited problem starters who lit his wife up. They got calls too from similar agents and from buyers or hunters directly. So the topic came up semi regularly in their household. And always his wife would be on him about it. But it was ten times worse for Dave when they dangled the cash in front of her. That was a pushy move and they knew it, trying to put the pressure on him. He never caved so far as I know, so through at least 2001 or so he still had the car when my friend and I went different ways in life. My second to last time seeing Dave was a few weeks after that $50,000 cash offer had been made and he was steamed about it but kept a wry humor to it all the same. Me, being probably a 17 year-old punk, heard his sob story about his wife being up his @ss about it, I made him an offer he couldn't refuse. "Dave. I'm doing to do you a favor. I'll give you five bucks for that old clunker. I'll have it gone today and you'll never have to hear it from your wife again!" HAHAHAHA That's just who we were. But it remains a fond car memory for me. Yes, I do wonder what happened to it. I ought to make my yearly or bi-yearly call to my buddy to catch up and see if he knows. He, himself, has a 70 Mach I which we worked on probably in about 2002 or so but which I know he has had parked in storage for two decades now in pieces.