(dramatic music)
- We're on the Mexican border, that far away.
Half mile to the U.S. Mexican border.
But, we're on our way to meet a gentleman who's older
and has decided to let his collection go
to somebody that can appreciate it,
cars that he's had for a long time.
So, we're gonna go over and see what this gentleman has.
This is exciting.
(dramatic music)
Hi, Tom Cotter, how are you?
- Good, doing fine, yourself?
- Alright, well we're gonna follow Joe
into these sheds here.
- This is, I should've, I thought I,
I would've cleaned everything out.
This is a Volvo Station Wagon, handmade,
- [Tom] Aw, look at that.
No kidding, so it's a station wagon cut to a truck.
- [Joe] Yeah.
- [Tom] Oh, that's excellent.
I like this, wow.
You made that?
- [Joe] Yes, we made it.
It used to be a station wagon,
hit in the back, so we fixed it.
And this, gee this is gonna be a tough one here,
this is a '51 Pontiac, Packard, it's a '51 Packard.
- Wow, what a big car, look at that door, geez.
Now, how long have you had this Packard?
- [Joe] We've had it about 15 years.
- [Tom] Did you drive it?
- [Joe] Yes I did.
- [Tom] And, you painted it and you restored it?
- Yes, yes, yes.
I bought it at an auction, and it was all rotted out,
and we fixed it up, everything completely.
And, I had this one and another one for spare parts.
I have two Packards.
- Two '51's? - Yes.
- So, it runs well?
- This one, yes, this one runs well.
- And it's got--
- Yes.
- Straight eight?
- Yes, flathead eight.
- [Tom] So, you're selling these cars?
- [Joe] Yes, they're all for sale.
- [Tom] Wow, do you have prices on them?
- [Joe] Yes.
- [Tom] How much would you ask for this?
- [Joe] I'll give two for $7000.
- This plus the parts car for seven grand.
- Yeah.
- And this is a running car?
- This was a running car when I drove it in.
- Which is how long ago?
- Oh, about seven or eight years ago.
- Okay.
Two for seven grand, that's a deal.
- Yeah.
- So, you're a life long car enthusiast?
- Well, maybe.
For a while actually.
- Yeah.
- Now, here I have a 2002 Dodge truck
that we made into an El Camino.
- Boy, you like converting things.
- [Joe] Yes.
See this is the only one--
- Oh, look at that.
So, how'd you do that?
Was that a four door?
- It was a king cab, and it was rolled,
so we put a regular cab on it and then combined it.
- And you fabricated this?
- Yes.
- Ooh, boy that looks sharp.
- It's the only one in the world.
- [Tom] It's the longest.
- [Joe] Yeah, it has a real long bed.
- [Tom] Yes, it does, man.
- [Joe] We put everything on it.
- [Tom] That's gotta be eight, nine feet long, wow.
- [Joe] Yeah, yes that's right.
- So, you're selling these as well?
- Yeah, they're, everything's for sale.
- Well, somebody might, you know, watch this video
and fall in love with that.
- Okay, back here, I have a 1939 Buick that's been restored.
- [Tom] So, what would you ask for this one?
- [Joe] I don't know, I think about 12 maybe.
- 12,000 yeah.
All right, that's all right.
- And the body's all taken care of.
- Yup.
So, the body, are you a body man?
'Cause, I mean that work you did there.
- Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- Okay, that work you did there
was pretty darn nice.
- And here's a 1930 Plymouth.
- And you restored this car?
- No, this one was bought pretty much the same way.
I bought this off a collector in San Diego.
- It's says, what does it say here.
12/16/97, is that when it was last run?
Run, or so I guess you parked it then, huh?
New oil pump in 2000.
- Yeah, we repaired the engine.
And this was featured in a Hemmings.
- [Tom] Hemmings, oh right on the cover.
Oh, that's a convertible, okay.
- [Joe] Yeah, this one's a little different, yeah.
The same car.
- [Tom] No kidding.
- It has a little plaques here where previous awards here.
- [Tom] And this is a '31.
Six cylinder?
- [Joe] Four I believe.
- [Tom] Four cylinder, really?
I'm not a Plymouth guy so I don't know.
- And, here's a Mercedes pickup that we made.
- This is your thing huh?
So, what'd you use here as a back window?
- That was a Ford window.
The tailgate was half of a Mercedes,
we made a tailgate on it.
And this is from a restaurant.
- That's pretty smart. - [Joe] A refrigerator.
And, it runs very well.
- [Tom] Is it diesel?
- [Joe] It's a diesel.
- [Tom] What would you ask for that?
- [Joe] I don't know, offer.
The only one in the world.
And, this is that other--
- Okay, that's the Packard parts car.
- [Joe] Parts car.
And here I have a '56 Buick.
- [Tom] It's a V8.
- Yes.
- So, there's a nailhead, the vertical valves.
Was this a driver as well?
- Yes, this was a driver.
- I wanna show you something up here.
All right, how do you know this was a '56 Buick.
For a couple years, Buick--
- [Joe] And besides that it's written there,
it's written, 1956 Buick.
- [Tom] 1956, yeah.
- [Joe] No denying that.
- [Tom] Right.
So, when you get rid of these cars,
what are you gonna do with all this space?
- [Joe] Well, I'll worry about that when I have it.
- [Tom] So, this parts car is--
- Yeah, this has a pretty good engine in it,
and transmission, this could be restored,
but it'll take quite a bit.
- Yeah, okay.
This is the parts car to the other Packard we saw earlier.
And, this could be restored, I mean,
if you look at this it's massive.
But this car clearly has some
little rust bubbles going out here and there.
So, he's gonna throw this Packard in
with the first Packard we saw back there, the red one.
And the two are seven grand.
That's like a no brainer.
I mean, I don't know, you could
probably get half that money back
just for this parts car.
And wind up owning that running Packard for 3500 bucks.
So, that's a good deal.
- Okay, here we have a 1948 Chrysler.
- Oh yeah.
- These were used as taxi cabs in Los Angeles and New York.
- [Tom] Does it have a fluid drive?
Oh, it's a manual gearbox.
- [Joe] No, it's a fluid.
- [Tom] Okay.
- [Joe] Fluid, fluid drive, it has a clutch
but you don't have to use it.
- Use it in first gear.
This is a 1948 Chrysler New Yorker.
And, I'm not a big old fan of these cars
but, boy they have a presence.
And, I guess the reason I'm not a big fan of them
is that they have, you know, a slush-o-matic transmission,
it's kind of a fluid drive type thing.
It's got a clutch, but the clutch is only used
to go in reverse or first gear.
The rest of it you can just shift on it's own.
So, you can never burn rubber in a car like this.
But, as far as having a smooth ride,
this would be it, it's like a limousine or a taxi cab.
It's got suicide doors in the back.
If you look at this hood, I bet this hood
is more than six feet long.
I mean, let's pace it out, I'll go from here.
One, two, three, four, five, that's a six foot hood.
The engine is right here, it's a flathead six.
So, the radiator is back here.
Look at the size of that hood, man.
So, it's a flathead six cylinder.
I bet it runs smooth as glass.
But, not a lot of power.
But, all that being said, this seems to have
a nice paint job under it, and you know,
a couple of hours with a sponge, and a soapy pail of water,
and a hose, and you could really have this thing
looking really sweet.
- [Joe] Now here, I have a '53 Oldsmobile.
- [Tom] Did you paint it?
- [Joe] Yeah.
- [Tom] You had it painted.
- No, we painted it, it was the same color.
- Oh, okay.
- We painted it about 20 years ago.
- Oh, so it's an Olds 88.
- Yeah.
- It's got a V8 Rocket 88?
- Right.
- Now, that's a, what body style is that?
It's a two door sedan?
Oh, it's a four door. - It's a four door.
- Four door, okay.
And, that's an automatic in there?
- [Joe] Oh yes.
- [Tom] Okay.
All right, how much is that one?
- [Joe] I'll take about 10 on this one.
- Ten grand.
And that was a driver, runner driver when parked, okay.
- All these cars in here were
running and driving when I parked 'em.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
- Here's a '30 Chevrolet.
- [Tom] A '30 Chevy.
So, that had a straight six overhead valve I guess.
We have instructions on there how to start it?
Yeah. - [Joe] Yeah.
- [Tom] Oh parts, I guess parts you needed.
- [Joe] Right, and the maintenance we've done.
- [Tom] So, you did the interior, the paint?
- [Joe] No, no, it was,
I didn't paint this one or the interior.
There person who had it--
- [Tom] You bought it like this?
- Yes.
We did do mechanical work to it.
The brakes, and it had a bad valve,
and I rebuilt the head.
And we did the breaks, these are mechanical breaks.
- Right.
- They're not fluid, so it had to take
quite a bit of pressure to stop 'em.
- [Tom] So brown fenders, orange wheels, and yellow body.
- [Joe] Yeah.
- And it's got the orange pinstripe up here.
Yeah, it's a overhead valve six.
So, if you think about, you know, Ford in 1930
had a four cylinder flathead L-head motor
in the model A, how much more advanced Chevrolet
was at the same time.
- [Joe] Right.
- And Edsel Ford, wanted his father
to start modernizing the mechanics of their cars,
and Henry didn't wanna hear it.
These cars are good enough,
they're gonna stay the way they are.
And so, it was a constant headbanging between
Edsel Ford and Henry Ford.
And, ultimately, two years after this,
1932, Ford came out with a flathead V8.
- [Joe] Oh, yeah.
Here's a '64 Ford, original.
This one's a driver.
Belonged to my--
- [Tom] With Chevy hubcaps.
- [Joe] My, it belonged to my tenant,
he died and he left it,
he left it here about six months ago.
- [Tom] Is it, what a 289, or a 352?
- [Joe] 289.
- [Tom] Boy, this thing is solid.
- [Joe] Yeah, it is, it's a good car.
- I'm gonna clunk this door here.
Nice seam going on there.
Wow, must be low mileage or something.
It says 46,000 miles.
46,000, could that be original?
- [Joe] I don't know.
I don't think so, but I don't know.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Joe] He used to go to work with it every so often.
- [Tom] So, he drove it, yeah?
- [Joe] Oh yes, yes he drove it.
- When you sell all these cars
are you gonna buy one old car for yourself again, or?
- Oh, I don't know, (mumbling) I think about it.
Really, I don't drive to much anymore,
I'm getting too old now.
- Okay.
Well, you sure have a lot of cars for not driving.
- Yeah, that's the trouble, that's the trouble.
- We just finished looking at Joe's cars.
A friend of Joe's is here, and he says
I know where there's some cars up the road.
And, maybe we can go up there.
There's a yard where people rent out space
to store their cars.
So, it sounds to me that it could be interesting.
So, let's take a look what's up there.
Ishmael?
- Ishmael.
- Ishmael, nice to meet you, Tom Cotter.
- A bunch of old projects here that.
- All right.
No big dogs in here?
- [Ishmael] Oh no.
- Always afraid of that.
- [Ishmael] Only me.
- Okay.
- [Ishmael] This is another project,
that I was working on, this El Camino.
It's kind of a rare one.
- [Tom] Is it?
- [Ishmael] Yeah, it's got bucket seats, a console.
And then one time they ordered it with everything on it,
they had cruise control and everything for a '78.
Had the engine rebuilt and the transmission rebuilt.
- [Tom] Is it a 305 in there?
- [Ishmael] No, it's a 350.
- 350, okay.
So, you drive this?
- Yeah, every now and then.
It's registered and everything.
- [Tom] Okay, and this is your Roadrunner.
So, '69 Roadrunner, is it automatic?
- [Ishmael] It was a four speed.
- [Tom] Four speed 383.
- Yeah, and the guy that had it,
converted it to a automatic.
'Cause the guy that had it was running it
with a 5,000 stall, with 513 gears in the rear.
It's old school tub.
- So, this is a '69 Roadrunner,
it was a drag car, it had a 383,
and a four speed from the factory.
You don't have an engine for it now?
- No, the guy that had it converted it to a 440.
- Okay, and an automatic.
- And automatic.
- And you have a grill, the bumpers.
- [Ishmael] Oh yeah, I have everything.
- [Tom] Everything, okay.
Do you have any idea what you'd want for this?
- [Ishmael] Well, I'll tell you how much I'm into it.
Right now, it's about 13.
- [Tom] 13, so what would you want
to get out of it, that much?
- [Ishmael] Yeah, or better.
- Like 15?
- Yeah, about 15.
- [Tom] Is that a Shelby?
- [Ishmael] That one is a GLH.
- GLH, okay, I know all about GLH.
- [Ishmael] You know what GLH stands for right?
- I know exactly what it stands for.
This was a little hot rod that I wanted to buy a new one
in like 1986, or '87, this is a Dodge Omni GLH.
And the GLH stands for go like hell.
That's right down here, GLH Turbo.
This was build during the days
when Volkswagen Rabbit GTI's were the hot little econobox.
So, Chrysler came up with their own version of it.
And, they made a very powerful four cylinder motor.
It had a lot of torque steer though.
When you nailed that throttle,
it steered where it wanted to go,
independent of where you'd aim the steering wheel.
But, Caroll Shelby designed and built these
for, you know, he designed it for Chrysler Corporation.
Built the prototypes,
and then Chrysler made 'em beyond that.
You don't see these.
- No.
You know, this was running when I parked it.
- So, we have fuel injected, turbo charged, overhead cam,
four cylinder, and I forget what the horsepower was.
But, it was a little rocket.
But, it was more of a straight line car,
than it was a handling car.
- [Ishmael] This was one of the fastest production cars
when they came out.
- Yup.
- [Ishmael] It was running what, under 12 seconds.
- Oh yeah, amazing.
So, you can see these wheels, these were,
the GLH wheels, they were in the day,
this was a tall wheel, it was 15 inch.
So, it's 185, 50, 15, alloy rim, five bolts.
They were low profile, I mean, that was low profile
and that was a tall tire back in the day.
But, looking at the way this rust is up here,
you'd be better off buying this
and buying a cleaner body and put these components
on another Dodge Omni, because this is severe rust.
That's too bad.
But, it's got, you know, the right seats,
it's got the right steering wheel.
You know, all the other, it looks to be a very complete car.
So, I see two MG Midgets here.
So, they're pre '74, because they have
the small bumper guards.
That looks like a parts car.
But, that looks like a pretty nice one.
So, these had 1275 engines.
But these are great little cars.
I had one for many years, and great little car.
The problem I had was that my legs are just too long
to have an MG Midget, so an MGB, the bigger brother of this,
for me is a better option.
This looks like a nice clean car.
Looks like a good body.
Nice.
Some of you may have seen an earlier episode
where I was driving a car that I actually
found on this program a couple years ago.
A '67 Ford Country Squire station wagon
with a 428, and a four speed factory floor shift.
In a wagon, a four speed.
Bucket seats and a console.
Well, this is not that car.
This is a 1970 Ford, it's not a Country Squire.
I'm not sure what model it is.
But, it's a wagon.
Small hubcaps.
Similar nose, exactly the same size.
Probably 302, it's got power steering,
manual breaks, no air, and a fair amount of rust.
So, this car would require a fair amount of rust.
But, one unusual thing about this car,
which will get your attention,
is that it's a factory manual gearbox.
Originally had a three on the column,
and it broke, so now it's got a per shifter
on the floor, three on the floor, original clutch pedal.
So, these wagons are unusual to begin with
because most of them have rusted away.
This one's trying to do that.
The floor shift's not original,
but it would be on the column.
I mean if you look at the dashboard on here
it's pretty unusual, the radio's way over here
on the left side.
You couldn't have your kids on the right side,
or your wife, reach over and fool around with
the radio dial because it's way over here.
And only you can correct that.
So, Ishmael said he was sell this.
I'm not sure what it would go for.
But, you'd have to be a pretty good fabricator
because it's got a fair amount of cancer
back in this area here.
Probably as a result of dirt, and water, and stuff
being thrown up, up into here.
There's probably cracks and crevices.
Because they didn't care about rust control
back when they built these cars.
They built 'em, they realize people sell cars
every five or six years.
It's got the two way tailgate.
One that opens like a door,
and then opens down like a traditional tailgate.
Roof rack, it's got the traditional hubcaps on there.
This could be bought for probably not a lot of money.
But, only the brave need apply.
Well, thank you sir for your time.
- Sure.
- We really appreciate it.
And it's been a good day for us.
Is this your stuff here as well?
- The properties are mine are rent back here.
- The Volkswagen?
- [Ishmael] Yeah, that belongs to the owner of the property.
- [Tom] Oh, okay.