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S 3 : Ep 21

Enjoy Season 3 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

Strap in for one hell of a ride, as the Redline Rebuild crew got their grimy hands on all the parts to build an 840-horsepower Dodge Demon engine.

The Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is to blame for more than a few daydreams. Hagerty’s resident wrench Davin Reckow is one of the many gearheads with greasy hands who wanted to know just how SRT engineers extracted 840 horsepower from the supercharged 6.2-liter V-8 under the Demon’s square hood (provided it’s burning 100-octane race fuel). And after taking it from a pile of parts to a fire-breathing monster, now he knows.

Dodge sent the engine in pieces, and the whole shebang arrived at our shop looking like a model kit from a drag racer’s fever dream. Except with a lot less glue. Davin certainly needed his torque wrench, though, as well as a special tool for the torque-to-yield bolts used throughout.

This modern powerplant differs from the classic engines that Davin usually assembles due to the use of these torque-to-yield bolts. In the video, you can see a special tool attached between Davin’s torque wrench and the socket to drive the bolts. Each fastener is tightened to a specified torque, then turned a set number of degrees further (example: 85 lb-ft plus 90 degrees).

“It was certainly different from the other builds we have done,” says Davin Reckow, Special Project Editor. “It was fascinating to see just how far modern engines have come, yet so much of the concepts are essentially the same. Especially when comparing parts against the Hemi we rebuilt in 2016.”

The pièce de résistance, of course, is the Demon’s monster supercharger. Is that what accounts for the sizable bump from the 707-hp Hellcat? It’s certainly part of the story. Seeing how the airflow comes from three intake sources the supercharger is now 2.7 liters versus 2.4 liters in the Hellcat, boost pressure is up to 14.5 psi from 11.6 psi, and the system includes two small chillers that use the air conditioning system to lower intake air charge temperature. The upgraded blower definitely makes a difference. But on top of that, the Demon revs 300 rpm higher that the Hellcat, uses two dual-stage fuel pumps rather than one, and contains stronger internals that make it capable of enduring the considerably higher power output.

Sit back, grab something cold to drink, and watch this speed Demon go together in record time. At the end, there is the bonus of hearing that massive supercharger at full whine. There is also a bit of tire smoke. OK, a lot of tire smoke.

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Enjoy Season 3 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

There are barn finds, and then there are barn finds. This, my friends, is the latter. Longtime fans of Barn Find Hunter know that Tom Cotter has turned up some unbelievable treasures in the past, but I can honestly say this very special discovery is one of the most spectacular automotive experiences I’ve ever had. Come with Tom and me into the deep woods, somewhere in the Carolinas, where a hidden motherlode of barn-find classics slumbers in scattered buildings amidst the poplars, sweetgums, and hickories.

You’d never know that down an unmarked, unpaved road lives a barn-find collection that would melt any car enthusiast’s face off. And when you meet Billy Eubanks—a friendly, soft-spoken old-timer dressed in plaid—you’d never guess he was the caretaker for an automotive goldmine easily worth several million dollars, if not more.

Before you even get to Billy’s house, cars start appearing in the woods. A headlight poking out from behind a tree here, a rusted fender breaking up the forest of green there. It’s raining hard, so near the first gaggle of cars we can hear the rain’s gentle pitter patter on the old metal. A good omen.

When we finally find Billy, he’s sitting in an armchair next to his father, Walter “Bicket” Eubanks. “I’m proud of my cars, but I learned everything about how to work on ’em from my Daddy,” Billy says, motioning to the man in the next chair. “He taught me a lot at NASCAR and dirt-track races, although he mostly worked on old school buses. I learned to weld when I was 14, and at 16 I built a ’34 hot rod with a Hemi that won its class at Charlotte Coliseum.”

The room is dimly lit, but all the shadows are full of automotive signage, trinkets, and memorabilia. There’s stained glass with the Ford blue oval, plus models, posters, and toolboxes in every corner. But center stage in this first room is a Hudson Hornet Special that the Eubanks bought new in 1957. It’s very well kept. Billy explains that he enjoys doing the restoration work himself, and remembers fondly his days teaching auto restoration at his local community college.

But once you start walking the vast, wooded property, anybody with a pair of eyes can see that as much as Billy likes restoration, he’s deep down a dedicated collector. First we see a 1929 Stutz, one of two Stutzes he owns. It’s gorgeous. Next is a 1940 Lincoln Continental with supposedly factory handmade rear fender skirts. There are Corvettes, Mopars, Jaguars, Cadillacs, and more. There is no rhyme or reason to what fills the rooms—if Billy liked it, he got it and fixed it up. Some he drove more than others, but he never got rid of his cars and never even thought about flipping them for profit.

Maybe that’s brought good fortune from the automotive powers that be. Case in point, Billy’s white ’63 split-window Corvette, which was stolen from him once. Billy wanted it back real bad, so he “prayed to the Lord to get it back to me by the weekend.” That Friday night the police in the town nearby called him up and said they’d found it in the woods and it barely ran—the thieves had apparently ripped a burnout so fierce it broke a motor mount and mangled three spark plug wires. He drove it home on five cylinders.

“I got into Chevys because they were easy to work on and get parts for, especially when I was young,” Billy recalls. “I wanted to show them boys at school I knew how to build a car.”

There are buildings and buildings full of dirty, flat-tired but generally well-kept cars at this place, and they’re parked bumper to bumper, as if he filled one structure up the best he could and just decided to start filling up the next. “You get in a rhythm liking one kind, but then you start liking something else,” Billy says. After a 440 Six Pack Charger, a lovely red Daytona (one of three he owns, all purchased because they were banned in NASCAR).

The next structure over is a garage six lanes wide and about three cars deep, filled with a totally eclectic mixture of stuff. Tom immediately gravitates to a pair of rare Fords—a ’69 Torino Talladega with a 428 and a Dan Gurney Mercury Cyclone. Nearby is a ’57 Chevy Nomad, one of several we’ll find today. Next over is a black Lincoln Mk II, another Hudson Hornet, a Chrysler 300, a ’58 Chrysler Imperial that Billy drove to high school (!!), a 1960 Rolls-Royce, a 427 Chevy Impala convertible, and more.

In a shed across the way we find a pair of Chevys, red and green, the latter a ’55 four-door with 36,000 original miles. Behind another door, two old Jaguars, also red and green, plus an E-type.

“We’re walking past stuff here that we’d normally spend an entire Barn Find Hunter episode on, salivating over it, if we found it anywhere else,” Tom says. “Really, there’s just too much to even wrap your head around. I feel guilty about not paying attention and giving credit to them all.”

It’s overwhelming, but for Billy’s wife, Carol Lee, it’s just another day. “When we first got married, he only had a car or two,” Carol Lee remembers. “After our daughter was born I was in the hospital and he came and told me to look out the window. I thought he was just so happy about our little girl, but he actually had just bought another car and it was out in the parking lot and he wanted me to see it. And my life has been like that forever more.”

It is her birthday, and she still has the kindness to show us around what she considers her husband’s life’s work. She concedes that it’s possible she could even discover a car she never knew she had—one time her grandkids counted them all, and there are more than 100 if you include everything in the woods. She takes us past another big-block Chevy convertible, a Camaro Z/28, another ’50s Chrysler, and finally a Lincoln Cosmopolitan.

We stumble upon a black ’40s Lincoln cabriolet with a great story and a trophy to prove it. Billy entered it into a car show and registered in his daughter Tammy’s name, while he hung out in the parking lot to swap car parts with all the other guys there. Sure enough, the car won its pre-war class, and they called out “Tommy Eubanks,” incorrectly, and still Tammy ran up and snatched the trophy so fast to show her dad outside that Carol Lee couldn’t even act quick enough to snap a picture.

Barn Find Daytona wing car — Jordan Lewis

In the same building, just around the corner, things start to get even more interesting (if you can believe it). Yes, it’s yet another Dodge Daytona, this one extensively modified with a 426 Hemi, big rear wheels and tires, and likely a drag racing pedigree. Billy explains that the previous owner took it to the Chelsea Proving Grounds in Michigan, where Chrysler to this day does its testing, and ran it to 190 mph. The owner and the Daytona were promptly kicked out and banned from the premises.

And right nearby is a sibling to the Daytona, a white Plymouth Superbird—the 43rd to roll off the production line. Just a reminder, prices for these range from $91,000–$216,000 depending on condition. Tom is confident that although the car hasn’t been started and run in a while, it wouldn’t take much to get it in fantastic shape, and it has the benefit of being totally original. My head hurts. The scale of it all is absurd.

But it doesn’t let up. A dusty Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz with the most wonderful taillights. Outside, under cover, is the actual ’41 Lincoln Continental that was shot up in The Godfather. Next to it is an Australian Ute from the mid-1950s. A super-clean Chrysler Airflow.

It. Never. Ends.

Garage with hidden treasures — Jordan Lewis

abandoned cars in the woods — Jordan Lewis

We head down to yet another building maybe a five-minute walk away, as I’m chased by a pack of tiny Pomeranian-looking dogs. They’re all bark and no bite. But they’re apparently guarding one of Billy’s favorite cars, a 1957 Dodge D500 with a high-performance Hemi engine, one four-barrel carb, and a stick-shift transmission. Bicket bought it new, and Billy eventually freshened it with new paint.

Honestly, I’m skipping over a lot here. Watch the video. Like Tom said, there’s just too much. And don’t forget to notice that in just about every building there is a complete set of tools, many made by Snap-On. But I can’t skip over the metallic blue 1968 Corvette with the Tri-Power 427, four-speed, air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, and side exhaust. This thing was optioned like crazy, and Tom confesses he’s never seen one quite like it. “How you can have cars like this and never got a speeding ticket, I have no idea,” Tom tells Billy.

There are even nicer, cleaner cars in other buildings, including three ’57 Ford Thunderbirds and several Corvettes. Most incredible among them is an L82 Corvette from 1980 that Billy bought new and then drove straight home from the dealer and has never driven again. It has 9.2 miles and all the original plastic. A few cars down is a 1971 DeTomaso Pantera with 14,500 miles. In the basement is Tom’s favorite, a very elegant Jaguar XK120 coupe in dark blue with original brown interior.

Even with an injured knee that makes it hard to get around, Billy is still busy restoring cars. He shows us (in yet another building) a ’59 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz he’s actively working on, complete with factory bucket seats, Tri-Power, and a beautiful red paint. Fair, #4-condition Eldorado Biarritzes command $101,000 and go all the way up to $260,000 for the best examples in the world. It’s absolutely massive and totally impressive and I’m still not convinced any of this is real.

“After hours and hours, I think this is the finest collection of unknown cars I’ve ever seen in my life,” Tom says. “In all the years I’ve been doing this, since I was 12 or 13, I’ve never found a collective group of cars like this. Not ones that so fit the definition of a ‘barn find’ like this. And cars that are so desirable—not just a Superbird, but #43 like Richard Petty, and not just an old Lincoln, but the one from The Godfather. Billy has a real taste for what’s great. And to think he didn’t do it for money, but just because he loved it and to preserve the cars.”

Before we leave, Billy shows us his daily driver, and Tom and I just about burst out laughing. We couldn’t have written the script of the day better if we tried. It’s a red Toyota Prius.

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Enjoy Season 3 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

When it comes to searching for old, forgotten cars, nobody likes to go off the beaten path like Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter. But this time Tom’s taste for adventure takes him way out in Alaska, where classic car culture is alive and well. You might remember Tom’s previous visit to Alaska with his 289 Shelby Cobra resulted in an unexpected encounter with a bear, courtesy of Fig Newtons. Would Alaska be so welcoming this time around? I joined Tom’s hunt to find out.

If there’s one thing I learned while bumming around Alaska searching for old cars, it’s that Alaskans love Mustangs. Regular Barn Find Hunter viewers know Tom usually hunts in his Ford woodie wagon, but being that Alaska is incredibly far away and the threat of rain is something woodie owners have to take seriously—plus the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive to ship—we sourced a very special Mustang as a stand-in. No doubt the green 1966 Shelby GT350, which we borrowed from a local friend of Tom’s, opened a few doors along the way.

Of course, opening a garage door to find a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 with a rare and desirable list of factory options was a hell of a way to kick off our adventure in Fairbanks. The prize pony is hiding just outside of downtown Fairbanks in a garage next to the home of Tracy McLeod, whose late husband, Ray, was a lifelong Mustang aficionado. “He could never turn a Mustang down, as you can see,” Tracy says, motioning to the lot next to her house. Parked there are three vintage Mustangs, two in major states of disrepair and one black 1971 Mach 1 hot rod that was Ray’s favorite driver.

Barn find hunter alaska tom in car — Jordan Lewis

Barn find hunter alaska mach 1 side — Jordan Lewis

Barn find hunter alaska Mach 1 under pile — Jordan Lewis

Ray, who passed away recently, built the black Mach 1 hot rod for drag racing at the nearby Fort Wainwright military base. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, drag racing at the base ended. But Ray continued to drive the Mach 1, and taking rides in the car inspired his granddaughter’s love for Mustangs. In fact, she loves to play “Pony1” a game for car-spotting Mustangs. The license plate on her grandfather’s black Mach 1? Pony1, of course.

Also on the property is a first-generation Mustang, which Tom pegs as maybe a 1964.5 or a ’65 with an automatic transmission. It’s fairly rough, in need of a major restoration, and by the looks of the brand-new floorpan next to the car, that might have been Ray’s plan. Next to the first-gen is another forgotten pony, this one also with an automatic. It has a V-8, but it’s probably a parts car given the condition and various paints used throughout the body and interior. Last is either a 1970 or ’71 Mustang in blue, with a big-block engine and Holley carburetor, high-capacity ignition, and automatic transmission. It too has suffered from sitting outside, and the vegetation on the lawn is starting to grow through holes in the floor.

It’s clear that of all his treasures, Ray was most fond of this last car—the one he called the “Big Car” and loved so much that it was the only Mustang he kept under cover. When Tom raises the garage door, the taillights betray that this is yet another Mach 1 Mustang, this one also a 1971. It’s under a pile of stuff and surrounded by even more.

Barn find hunter alaska mach 1 v8 engine — Jordan Lewis

But this blue barn find is even more special than the black hot rod outside, particularly because of its rare combination of factory options. A 429 Cobra Jet engine? Check. Air conditioning? Check. Four-speed manual transmission? Well, that’s odd. Tom was told this car was a manual, but inside you can clearly tell it’s an automatic. In a flash, Tracy’s daughter is outside with the documentation that provides answers: a Marti Report, a data sheet produced by Kevin Marti, who inherited a trove of Ford archives. Based on the VIN, a Marti report reveals all of a car’s original factory equipment, date of production, the dealer that took delivery, date of sale, and more. It also provides an analysis of how rare the vehicle is, based on the number of vehicles just like it.

According to the report, the “Big Car” did indeed left the factory with a four-speed manual. Ray bought the car many years ago from a friend in California and trailered through Canada to Alaska.

As it sits, the car is in true barn-find condition, with several parts in boxes and the interior disassembled. But there’s no doubt the body is solid and straight as an arrow, and Tom points out that if someone had the time and inclination to do a lot of the work on their own, this could be a fun restoration project that would more than pay for itself if you ever wanted to sell.

Right now, that’s Tracy’s plan. With Ray no longer around, her hope is to sell everything to someone who could provide a good home—that is, everything except the black hot rod Mach 1. That car is not for sale. Too many good memories were made in it, and there is a certain Mustang-loving granddaughter who will one day take up the mantle. And that’s how it should be.

Barn find hunter alaska mach 1 inside barn — Jordan Lewis

Barn find hunter alaska tom behind the wheel — Jordan Lewis

Barn find hunter alaska mach 1 interior — Jordan Lewis

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Some of Tom Cotter’s tremendous barn finds have come by way of association, word of mouth from someone who knows the kind of things Tom is looking for. Other times Tom stumbles upon the treasures himself as a part of his travels across America. The latter was certainly the case for this particular collection of American muscle.

This episode of Barn Find Hunter brings Tom to Virginia to visit Snowball Bishop, an acquaintance he’d met years ago when he spotted Bishop’s collection from the highway. Snowball is an older guy, maybe in his mid-80s, with a fast-talking drawl and endless stories. He takes Tom around to see a handful of his favorite cars, habitually tapping on the tires with his cane to punctuate key points of his narrative.

The property is a vast swath of land, dotted with maybe 50 or so cars in various states of disrepair. Some of these cars have been parked so long there is an entire ecosystem thriving inside their rusted or rotted husks, and in two cases there are trees growing straight through the engine bays of two cars. In fact, Snowball tells Tom, the property is actually divided in half by the interstate, which he watched get built as a much younger man. Snowball’s place was a communal gathering spot for his car-loving friends, and there were many long nights in the garage with his friends that devolved into poker games. Eventually they’d be cut short when Snowball’s wife would yank the extension cord running from the house to the garage.

Barn Find Hunter car through windshield — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter stock car max wedge — Ben Woodworth

Barn Find Hunter big tree up close — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter moss lichen growth on car — Jordan Lewis

He shows off a pair of 1964 Ford Galaxies in a garage, one nicely restored with a 390 and four-speed, while the other is completely original and unrestored, purchased for $250 in 1968. A housecat dances around the two cars as Tom and Snowball chat, jumping on on the restored car and leaving tiny paw prints in its wake. Across the path on the property is an older house that Snowball just uses for storage, and amidst the piles of hubcaps, manifolds, body panels, grilles, and bumpers, Tom finds a carburetor he likes and convinces Snowball to sell it to him. Who says you can’t mix business with pleasure?

There’s plenty of preserved Ford trim and bumpers among Bishop’s buildings, but it’s the shell of a Ford modified stock car outside that steers the conversation towards the highlight of the episode. Bishop had raced the modified with a Ford flathead V-8, but it didn’t have the power he needed to compete. A trip to Lee and Richard Petty’s shop, along with some intense negotiation, had him leave with enough parts to build a 426 Max Wedge, and just enough gas money to get home. Snowball recounts the story like it was yesterday, and amidst the dreary weather and drops of rain, you can almost picture the old Max Wedge burning rubber and taking names in its prime.

Barn Find Hunter tom cotter in barn — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter big tree through hood — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter galaxie cows — Jordan Lewis

The 426 Max Wedge was Mopar’s biggest and baddest street engine prior to the 426 Hemi and was offered in 1962-1964 Dodge and Plymouth B-bodies. For the Pettys it was obsolete once the Hemi was introduced, but it was a huge step up in power compared to any small-block of the era, let alone a flathead. The brutish mill pushed Bishop to several wins in the car.

Tom also inspects a 1963 Galaxie convertible that Bishop has for sale. After just a bit of tinkering, they get the car to fire up. You might be lead to believe that Bishop drives a hard bargain considering the seemingly impossible deals he’s snatched up, but he told Tom he’d be willing to part ways with the Galaxie for just $3500. And if you head to Virginia and take Snowball up on that, you’ll probably get some great stories for free, too.

Barn Find Hunter small tree through car — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter spider web — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter ford country squire — Jordan Lewis

Barn Find Hunter trees through cars in yard — Jordan Lewis

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In Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter’s first book, The Cobra in the Barn, he wrote about an oddball car carrier that was almost forgotten by history. Known as the Cheetah Transporter, the funky-looking race car hauler was a kind of American hot-rod take on the 1954 Mercedes-Benz Rennabteilung transporter that brought the 300 SL to various races without needing a trailer.

When Geoff Hacker read about it in Tom’s book in 2006, he scrambled to buy the Transporter, which he has now owned for 12 years.

As detailed by Hemmings, the wild cab-forward beast was the brainchild of a man named Norman Holtkamp, who wanted to build his own version of the Mercedes hauler. He started with the chassis from a crashed Mercedes 300 S, which Hacker and Tom see clearly as they poke their heads inside the Cheetah Transporter’s innards in the newest Barn Find Hunter video. Holtkamp apparently valued the chassis’ self-leveling suspension, which he kept stock, but he quickly got to work dramatically slashing the wheelbase from 110 inches to 94 inches.

Cheetah Transporter and mercedes scale models — Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter on track mooneyes — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter with race car hauling — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter interior vintage — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

From there he envisioned the cab, extending the frame ahead of the front axle and attaching the front end of an El Camino body-in-white sourced from GM. Custom aluminum panelwork by Dick Troutman and Dick Barnes, based on designs by Dave Deal, were hammered out and used to fashion the nose and rest of the body behind the cab. Holtkamp swapped in a 283-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 and three-speed manual transmission, mounted behind the driver.

As Hacker tells Tom, the Cheetah suffered from weight distribution issues, particularly with no car on the bed. Under braking, the front end would tip forward and the rear would lift right up. The original solution was to add a pair of heavy-duty water tanks as ballast, which actually fixed the problem pretty well. The Cheetah Transporter appeared on the cover of Car and Driver in 1961, and Holtkamp drove it here and there until he decided to continue tinkering with it in the late ’60s.

Hoping to improve the stability issues, Holtkamp had the idea to lengthen the car’s wheelbase to 124 inches, widen the track to accommodate bigger race cars, and move the drivetrain farther back. Nevertheless, before Holtkamp’s handiwork was finished, he sold the Transporter to Dean Moon, a well-known aftermarket parts maven. As Hemmings explains, Moon wanted to switch to disc brakes, but while it was in the shop the February 1971 San Fernando earthquake brought the facility down on top of the Transporter.

Cheetah Transporter on trailer going home — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter rear body removed — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter loading race car — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

It miraculously escaped with just a minor dent, and then Moon’s plans evolved into including a big-block ZL-1 engine to make the Cheetah the world’s fastest car hauler. Alas, that never happened. And when Moon passed in 1987, collector Jim Degnan bought it and managed to swap in an automatic transmission and 350 V-8 to finally get the old thing running and driving.

That was the end of the story until Hacker bought it from Degnan in 2006. And since Tom’s visit, the Cheetah Transporter is finally on the verge of restoration.

“My goal is to really get the look right and return it to the original design, including the short wheelbase,” Hacker says. “It’ll probably be an 18-month job, and we’ll keep the water tanks for sure. Even if we use disc brakes instead of the original drums, we’ll keep the Mercedes hub caps so it looks right.”

As for the motor, Hacker is thinking either a 283 or 350 V-8 paired with an automatic transmission.

“And once it’s done, I even have the wooden molds, or bucks, for the long-wheelbase version,” Hacker says. “Who knows, we could follow the original up with the longer one and have a pair of Cheetah Transporters.”

Cheetah Transporter scale model with car — Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter rear ramps down — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter engine and trans — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

Cheetah Transporter covered race car hauler — Cheetah Transporter Courtesy Geoff Hacker

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Tom Cotter has found plenty of vintage sheet metal in his Barn Find Hunter adventures, but this trip he finds his way into a field where sheet metal is tougher to come by. What does that mean? Fiberglass. And there is plenty of it.

Tom visits Geoff Hacker, who is an expert on fiberglass and kit vehicles. Geoff’s outdoor storage plays host to a plethora of colors and shapes. With kit and fiberglass vehicles being generally low-production, Geoff’s yard plays host to multiple cars that are one-of-less-than-a-dozen. If weird and uncommon is your taste, then buckle up.

Just such example is a one-of-three car built by Carl Luckenbach in 1954. The European inspired front-end catches Tom’s eye first, but the Lincoln engine under the hood tells the most interesting story. Hacker claims that there are only a few miles on the brand-new Lincoln V-8, but poor storage has locked the bottom end of the engine. Pulling one valve cover shows a very good condition valvetrain, though looks can be deceiving.

Just roaming the yard reveals many stories of one person’s vision for a car, along with their effort to build that vision. Tom got a few of the stories, but there are many more out there. He’ll keep hunting for the next one, as always.

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By now it’s downright difficult to impress Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter, who in his many travels pulling back the cover on old cars has just about seen it all. But there’s no mistaking the absolute joy Tom feels when he wanders into Randy Carlson’s goofy menagerie of cars, none of which would ever be mistaken for a garage queen.

After a handful of tipsters mentioned Carlson’s place in the desert outside San Diego, Tom is under the impression there will be just a couple of cars to see. Upon arrival he is disabused of that notion as Carlson points out a strange version of a Crosley—dubbed the Crosmobile—that was made for the export market. Right behind it is a 1968 Volkswagen van with a particular accordion-style Dormobile pop-top that Carlson previously owned and sold. Of course, when he saw it listed online several years later, he had to buy it back.

Next is a pair of Ford Model Ts with the original interiors. The cars, which have a few improvements installed like a two-speed Ruckstell rear end and better brakes, had long been sitting before Carlson ushered them into his collection. Tom is soon fascinated by a ’32 Packard with a straight-eight, which have been kept in Carlson’s family. Sure enough, the plot thickens, as Tom learns that the car more than held its own competing in a beach race at The Race of Gentlemen.

Then things start to take a turn for the weird, starting off with a bizarre Honda Civic with two drivetrains, two steering wheels, and two opposingly-driven axles. Carlson traded for the car with odd-car king Jeff Lane of the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, and he assures Tom that it is a hoot to do donuts with two drivers wrestling for control. “There’s no going back in this car,” Carlson says with a chuckle.

After glancing at a worn-looking Porsche 356B that belonged to his father, Carlson moves on to a Lincoln Premiere with a clean body, followed by a pair of vintage two-cylinder air-cooled Hondas that were built on the same day. But Tom really enjoys the ratty-looking, rusty 1960 Volkswagen Beetle in the yard. It apparently runs great, despite the aesthetics, which really give VW fans something to marvel at when it rolls up to car shows.

Tom spends a good bit of time getting the scoop on the crusty old Packard and Model A hot rod decorating the property, but he is dazzled by what Carlson reveals under a car cover. What looks like a ’50s Porsche coupe is in fact much more of a mystery—best Carlson can figure, the car is a one-of-one coach-built Frankenstein put together at a German design school in the early 1960s. The school, the Meisterschule für Handwerker in Kaiserslautern, is still in operation, and has a history of automotive and industrial design.

It seems that the car was a class project, with much of the car hand-built to the quality and engineering standards of a production car. The steel body has a cloth sunroof, features a 1960 Porsche 356 engine and brakes, Porsche taillights, and the chassis from a ’58 Karmann-Ghia. As Carlson explains in his Petrolicious feature on the car, he is still trying to get the school to confirm its origins with any contemporary blueprints or drawings. But what he knows for certain is that the car is unique and a total jewel of Germany’s design and engineering history.

Also taken with the rare find, Tom can’t resist asking Carlson to swap in an old battery, drop in a little gas, and let the old relic sputter to life. The sound is as clattery and mechanical as an old Porsche should be, and that’s about all it takes for Tom to declare that this was one of his most enjoyable barn find adventures to date.

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Still chasing leads from a lunch stop in Midland, Texas, Barn Find Hunter Tom Cotter follows a gravel road to Rolands Customs, where he is treated to a smorgasbord of vintage metal. Before he parks his Woodie wagon, Tom marvels in a view that includes everything from panel trucks to an airplane.

The stash of cars is full of unique pieces, but one immediately caught Tom’s eye: a 1939 American LaFrance fire truck. Roland tells the story of the 10-year hunt to purchase the massive rig. The doors appear as though they were lifted from a bank vault, and the hood reveals an engine that stumps both Tom and the owner as to what the cylinder arrangement might be.

Tom also takes a minute to talk about the wild custom bus that Roland and his family built. A late 1920s school bus body sits atop a 1994 Ford F700 chassis and running gear. Built in just 30 days for a local church function, the bus then embarked on a cross-country trip to the SEMA show in Las Vegas. No small adventure, but the crazy build made the trip with minimal trouble.

Tom is off in search of more classic metal. Will he find more radical customs in the next Barn Find Hunter? More hi-po Fords? Stay tuned to find out.

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You might tell Tom Cotter “there are no cars left out there,” but he’ll just take that as a challenge. Still working his way around Midland, Texas, Tom follows a lead from a gentleman he met while taking a lunch break a few days earlier.

Having no idea what’s in store, Tom turns his Ford woodie wagon into the driveway of a shop full of custom metal. Parked side by side are a 1947 International fire truck and a ’30s rat-rod sedan. The fire truck body sits on a 1985 Ford E350 ambulance chassis, giving it a big-block powertrain along with power steering and brakes. Plans to turn the long utility box into a bar for relaxing at car shows are still in the works.

Out on the back portion of the property rest a handful of projects in waiting. A rough T-bucket project sits between the body and a new chassis. A 1940 Pontiac Silver Streak deluxe, purchased from an owner in a previous Barn Find Hunter episode, is still stock and could be purchased for the right price, according to the owner. There’s a lot of potential out there, if you know where to look, and the owner is loud and clear that everything is for sale.

Still uncovering cars, Tom has a lot more to share from his never-ending tales of discovery. A preview for the next Barn Find Hunter shows lots of custom metal and reveals Tom saying things like, “We’ve got to see the helicopter,” “I want to buy this one,” and, “Do you have any idea where this K-code is?” After all, there’s always more out there, no matter what you’re told.

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Enjoy Season 3 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

If you tell Tom Cotter, “Don’t expect to find any more cars in Midland, Texas, because they’re all gone,” be prepared to be proven wrong. In the newest episode of Barn Find Hunter, Tom heads back to rattlesnake country to show you just what can be found just by driving around and looking.

The first stop is to check out the shell of a Ford Torino at the end of a driveway. The stripped-out hulk leads to a conversation with the car’s owner, Ron, who opens the garage door and reveals a 1970 Dodge Charger. Solid sheet metal, 727 Torqueflite transmission, air conditioning, and a set of Cragar mag wheels make for a great start to a cruiser muscle car.

While out for lunch, Tom’s Woodie Wagon catches the attention of a local and sparks up conversation about old cars, and the man points him down a dirt road. Soon enough a Ford Falcon Ranchero catches Tom’s eye, and he decides it is worth a look around.

Project cars await. First is a ’57 Thunderbird drag car with a fiberglass shell draped over a fabricated chassis. The next building houses a hot-rodded Pontiac that is set up with a two-key start in order to thwart any attempts to steal the car. Out back sits a VW Type 1 that seems to be a Beetle only in shape and front suspension; a small-block Ford engine sits mid-ship under a fiberglass front end, with a sheetmetal firewall protruding way back into the interior.

The final project that peaks Tom’s interest is a Chevrolet Blazer with mismatched-color body panels. A small-block V-8 settled in the engine compartment and a registration showing it was last on the road in 2010 makes it a good tow vehicle or unique cruiser.

It just goes to show that cars are indeed out there, even when they’re “all gone.” It just takes time and determination. As Tom says, “happy hunting.”

Enjoy Season 3 stories, opinion, and features from across the car world - Hagerty Media

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