VIDEO: If YOU Were To RESTORE A Barn Find, WHICH Make And Model Would It Be?

Something simple that you could have parts made but not have to put too much into but still worth a lot of money. Maybe an early Porsche, Hemi Cuda, C2 Vette (63 fuelie or 67 L88). Most of the other neat old European cars can run into major money to restore. If money were no object and I was restoring it only for me, I would go with a BMW Alpina B12 5.7 e31 or an Alfa Romeo Montreal, or a BMW 3.0 CSL or...

Early Porsches--Porsches in general--are usually money pits. Early ones usually have massive rust issues.

Wow, a Montreal!?

You must be a glutton for punishment!

I can only imagine the rust on a Montreal and the impossibility of getting parts.

Montreal = money no object comment.

Old Porsche, if it is unique enough and worth it, then the rust repairs may make sense. Of course rust is the enemy of almost every old car before thorough rust proofing became more common roughly in the 80s.

Since this is DREAM category - may as well Shoot for the moon.

How about a 1935 Duesenberg SSJ Coupe Convertible.

I cannot imagine any other car offering More Prestige than that - ALthough I suppose I might "settle" for an SJ if I really had to!

The is a plan afoot to build replicas.

Slap in a modern motor, what a car!

Barn finds are the stuff of fantasy, but they are also the cause of nightmares.

Flipping old cars can be lucrative or they can be a money pit.

My money-pit barn find was an Iso Grifo I found in Georgia. I flew to Atlanta with a buddy and we drove a spit box to Alpharetta to see it. It was dirty but looked OK. The paint was faded. The engine was no concern because it was a standard Chevy.

A week later we drove a flatbed from California to pick it up. The amount of rust that car had was well hidden. Varmints had destroyed most of the wiring. It was one of those "but wait...there's more" kind of restorations.

The idea of being faithful to originality in the restoration quickly went out the window. In went a Corvette wiring harness. In went an LS V8...the original one had a broken connecting rod that had jammed the works. We cobbled in a Corvette rear suspension.

To restore it would have likely run an easy $100K, thus we went the route of not worrying about absolute authenticity and it still cost too much.

While I loved the result, what it taught me was that just because a car is rare does not mean it is worth restoring. In fact, the rarer the car is the more likely it is NOT worth restoring if it is in ratty condition.

Patina is in these days, right? ;)

Indeed one trend is to clearcoat the patina. The Grifo was a total failure for a flip, but I love driving it.

“While I loved the result, what it taught me was that just because a car is rare does not mean it is worth restoring. In fact, the rarer the car is the more likely it is NOT worth restoring if it is in ratty condition.” Tell me about it, sing it... restoring an 850i 6sp because I just couldn’t let it go to waste and/or a crusher. Fortunately no rust, just everything else!

@valhallakey I was 19 when I bought the Grifo. My benefactor allowed me to purchase it to teach me a lesson. he owned 6 body shops in town and let the men there laugh at me and school me well. I can now see a heartache at 10 paces.

Your 850 project has to be a nightmare of finding parts that are specific to the 850. How long have your been in the process of restoring it and what are the hurdles in the way?

And I have not completely learned my lesson because if I can find a Jensen Interceptor, I'll buy it. We've done several.

Well Matt I am 1yr into it. So far the most difficult items to find have been 1) The drivers side door handle which everyone wanted $450-$500 for a used one. I ended up getting a machine shop make the piece, still wasn’t cheap. 2) The rear window. I have only found a couple and they were close to $1000 and both were a long way from here so it would have to be shipped and who knows if it would survive the trip. I know you should never be sentimental or let your heart get in the way when it comes to cars, but the 850 is just such a nice looking car and most are ending up scrapped as they cost so much more to fix than they are worth. I think it will be a car I will just keep, kind of personalizing it with an Alpina hood, stripes (no Alpina badges or name though), nice BBS M5 wheels, need to get a 3.64 LSD for it, just got a nice Euro steering wheel and a Pioneer double din radio/nav unit for it. It is at the body shop for paint right now. I know I should keep it the original color (diamond Schwartz) but I am getting it painted carbon black instead. Not going to pull the engine for the paint job, but everything else will be painted. I have noticed under the hood of carbon black cars it appears kind of diamond schwartz in color so...

Maybe this is my lesson, except I have no benefactor:). I suppose since I don’t intend to sell it maybe it doesn’t matter?

P.S. Always enjoy your posts even if we disagree on politics and the Giulia platform, we both have that car fever that binds together the craziness around car aficionados.

Unless it were an Mercedes Gullwing where you know a condition 1 brings well over a million dollars one needs to be very careful. I'm emotionally prone to the 1963 to 1971 Mercedes coupes. However I can just imagine the hidden rust in one of those.

That's exactly the issue with them.

Gremlin, Pacer, Javelin (maybe just Javelin ! )

AMCs and Slant Six Darts and Valiants are surprisingly lucrative.

I know its not fancy but a 240Z.

And that is an incredibly EASY restoration for a tremendous car that will remind you how terrible the 370Z is.

Schwinn 5 Speed Krate >>> Any Flavor Will Do

Trabant 601 S DeLuxe