Goat for breakfast and a Camaro for Dinner

This past spring, time off has been fleeting. On weekends that I didn't have to be somewhere I would do day trips out on even the smallest of barn find tips. And almost every time, even if I didn't find the car in the tip, I would still find something that made the trip worth it.

Out west of Chicago, where the suburbs start to melt into the countryside there is still a few hidden gems sitting around. I had seen a 1968 – 1970 Dodge Charger sitting outside a guys garage and followed up on this trip, unfortunately nobody was home, so I didn't go and trespass into the guys driveway and just kept heading west. Hoping to score something else.

Pulling into St. Charles I began hitting up the places where people would know of cars hiding at would be. I try to find the oldest parts place in town and start there. The guys there the longest would know about just about everything in town. And that is what I was hoping for.

That didn't happen, there was one older guy at the counter, and he didn't know of anything. But one of the younger kids said that down the road at a repair shop they had just gotten in a few project cars I might be interested in. So I hightailed it to the other side of town to see what was hanging around.

I made it to the shop and it was not a disappointment. The guys were super nice and talked to me for a while. Told me about the project cars a little bit.

A cool 68 Mustang fastback that they are going to make into a Shelby Clone.

They had a cool 68 GTO that was being freshened up and made running after it had been sitting for a while in the owners garage.

A 66 or 67 Chevelle SS supposedly that was I believe the owners project car that they were completely redoing.

At the end of the shop was a customer car, a 67 Mustang Convertible with a mean engine and dressed up like a Shelby. They were getting it ready for the coming summer.

Talking with the guys bit longer, I parted company with them and headed back home. 

That evening I had dinner with a friend of mine (below in shot from last year) and her boyfriend while she was in town. Somehow the conversation came up about Barn Finds and the boyfriend mentioned that his father had an old Camaro buried in the garage. 

Not to miss an opportunity, when I dropped them off at the house, I was allowed to do a quick once over on the car. A late 1970's Camaro, I believe it had a V8 the kid said. Needed a bit of work, the doors had some rust. But definitely a good project car. He said that his dad plans on fixing it up one day.

The evening had come to an end, and we said out goodbyes. I headed home to rest my head upon my bed and think about what all was to come.

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 

Myth and Legend... the 1972 440-6 Plymouth Road Runner... 1 of 1

There are some cars that are wrapped in myth and legend right out of the factory. And I don't mean Daytona Chargers or Ford Talladegas. I mean really rare cars, the ones that were suppose to not exist, yet pop up from time to time. This is story of one of those cars.

I've read all about the 1972 Dodge and Plymouth vehicles that slipped through the factories fingers with the legendary 440 cubic inch V8 and triple two barrel setup. A setup that was canceled just a few days after production on 1972 cars started. Only 2 Dodge Chargers and 1 Plymouth Road Runner are known to have gotten through before the cancellation order. The Chargers are well documented, one was once owned by Ron Slobes of R&R Salvage, the other tucked safely away in a garage in the Midwest and last seen in Mopar Collectors Guide magazine. The Road Runner though has been out of the public’s eye for almost 20 years.

There was a large discussion going on over at www.Moparts.com with the owner of the Road Runner, about how he was thinking about selling the car. He had some small, old pictures of the car, but nothing recent. Inquiring about the car, I was shocked to discovered that the car was only a half hour from my home! I made arrangements to see the car with the owner.

Meeting up with the owner at his shop, we walked over to where the car was stored at. He opened the door and the first thing you saw was not the 72, but his 71 Road Runner drag car and Sons 71 GTX tribute car. The son's car has a warmed over 440 and the drag car has something a bit more potent waiting for it! But there against the wall was the reason I had traveled all that way, the 1972 440 Six Barrel Plymouth Road Runner. Only documented one in the world!

I walk over to the car, and it is not what I was expecting. It was a storage shelf in the garage. It was in decent shape, but covered in general garage stuff. Some rust here and there, but not too bad. There was a large hole in the roof... for the factory power sunroof! The interior was out, the engine was long gone. But the body is plenty solid, and being such a rare car, the restoration should not be that difficult. There is a reason this car is special though.

Back in 1972 the gas crunch was in full swing, insurance rates were going through the roof for muscle cars, and there was now emission regulations for cars across the whole country. The muscle car was dying. Ford and GM had already started de-tuning their engines in 71. Mopar held off one extra year. But by 1972, there was no more Hemi, and the 440 Six Barrel option was dead a few days into production. This was the last of the true muscle cars.

The full story of this car is not known, all that is known before the current owner had it is the car ended up with a guy who lived on the East Coast. The way the current owner got is pretty interesting. After talking to Galen Govier at a show, he mentioned he was looking for a 72 Six Barrel Road Runner. Galen told him there was only 1 known car, and it wasn't for sale. But he gave Galen his information just in case.

A few years past and one day on the answering machine, there was a message from some guy about a Road Runner for sale, he didn't think anything of it until the guy mentioned it was the Six Barrel car! He couldn't get out to see it, a friend who is a pilot flew out, took a ton of pictures and then flew back, all in a day. Talk about being a good friend! This was back when it would still take a day to process pictures. So the guy waited for the photo place to open and get the pictures And once he got them, took one look and his friend said to him, “You gotta get this car!”.

So he sent the owner a money order, and drove out there with his friend as soon as he could to pick the old girl up. By the time they got there, the guy had been getting offers of more money from all over the country, but he was true to the guy and sold it to him. They loaded it up and brought it home, safely tucking it away. So one day it could get the restoration it deserves.

For the past 20 years the new owner has collected parts from everywhere to put the car together correctly. In the basement of his building which he owns and runs his business out of, he has an original 1972 440 engine, a correct 72 style Six Barrel setup, interior, rims, tires and almost anything else you can think of. When the time comes for this car to be put back together, it will have everything it needs, all original NOS items. Sitting on the floor, being used as a door stop, was the Six Barrel intake for the car.

The car will be coming out of storage for a short while though, it will be seen at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (www.mcacn.com) this coming fall. See it there at the best Muscle Car show in the country. I will be there as well, helping put on the “Found as is” category! November 17^th and 18^th, 2012.