- [Mike] I consider this car delivering as much fun
as you can have in a car without having sex.
If you are not smiling while you're driving this car,
there's something wrong with you, not the car.
- You know, we're only a half hour outside of Nashville,
and already I think we're in barn find hunting country.
All right, so Columbia, Tennessee,
just back roads here and there looking for cars like we do,
and a 928 Porsche sitting over there got my attention.
Bingo.
All right, we found a spot.
Michael answers the door.
He says, "I know you."
Yes, and he said, "Nah, the Porsche's not mine,
but I got something in the garage you might wanna see."
What do you got here?
- Okay, this is a 1955 Cadillac '62 series,
and it has factory air and I've had it probably 20 years.
- [Tom Cotter] And it has a great body.
Holy.
- Yes, it has a great body
- [Tom Cotter] Man, so you had it 20 years.
Have you driven it?
- [Michael] Yes, it runs right now.
It has power disc brakes, the chassis been done,
the front ends had been completely redone.
- [Tom Cotter] And it was originally,
I guess it was originally blue.
- Yes, it was originally blue.
- [Tom Cotter] With a white top or?
- With a white top.
- Is that like a 331?
- Yes, this is a 331 engine.
- With air conditioning. - With air conditioning.
- Check out how big this air conditioning was.
I mean, these are the early days of air conditioning.
If you think about air conditioning now on modern cars
or those street rod units, they're little tiny units.
But they didn't have to be tiny back then
'cause the cars were huge.
So where did you find this car?
- This car was originally from Summertown,
and it was sitting in a barn when I got it.
- In a barn?
- Well, I was just out riding one day
and looking in barns and I found it in a barn
- Like we do. Wow.
Maybe we could deputize you.
You driven it, it shifts well, the brakes work well.
- [Michael] Well, yes.
In 1987, it was my daily driver.
- Wow. - Yes.
- So I noticed under the carport
you've got a Mercedes Roadster.
- Yes, that's a Mercedes Roadster.
That's an '82 380 SL under there.
- [Tom Cotter] A 380, that's an unusual one.
It doesn't have a manual gearbox, doesn't it?
- [Michael] No, it has an automatic.
- [Tom Cotter] Okay, is that a running, driving car?
- [Michael] I'm gonna say it probably does not run.
- [Tom Cotter] Because it's been a while?
- [Michael] Because it's been 20 years,
probably 10 years since it's been started.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You know, we don't have to take the whole cover off.
- [Michael] The interior's rough in it.
That's what it is.
- [Tom Cotter] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So there's nothing mechanically wrong
with this car, you think?
- No, it's basically cosmetic.
- Yeah, you know, these old Mercedes
people don't appreciate these yet,
but I think they're that close to becoming-
- Well, that's what I think that one day,
that they're gonna become more popular,
more people gonna want 'em, and I'm gonna have one.
- You didn't know you were gonna be a star today
when you woke up I bet?
- [Michael] No, I didn't.
I had no idea.
- [Tom Cotter] But you'll have agents
calling you in Hollywood and all sort of stuff.
Are those all your vehicles?
- [Michael] Yes.
Okay, the car line is a 1963 Ford Econoline,
and it has a 289 with the automatic in it.
- [Tom Cotter] Most of 'em were six cylinders.
- I know.
It was a six cylinder, but I changed it to 289
probably 20, 30 years ago.
- Did you have to put the engine from the bottom
or through the door?
- I went through the door.
- [Tom Cotter] And rusty floors.
- [Michael] Rusty floors.
- Well, rest in peace.
- Yes. - Rust in peace.
So what year is this one?
- [Michael] 1969 Mercedes 220 D.
- [Tom Cotter] How long have you had this one?
- [Michael] I've had that probably five years.
It's rusty, but I like the rust in it.
- Well, that's the trend.
- Okay, mechanically, it's been redone underneath.
- [Tom Cotter] You did it?
- Yes.
Well the engine already did have something
like maybe 30,000 miles on it,
but I redid suspension, brakes, everything, differential.
- Uh-huh, so it seems to me you buy cars easy
and sell them hard.
In other words, you acquire them
but you don't wanna get rid of 'em.
- Yes, that's what it is.
- Yep, yep, yep.
Michael, thanks.
I mean, you know, and what a pleasure.
Well, now I know who you are too.
- Good.
- Thanks so much for allowing us to look at your cars.
- Okay, you're very welcome.
- Thank you.
(soft bluesy music)
I assume that this garage this barn
and is attached to that house,
and there's a Chrysler inside there.
Nobody was home, but at least, you know,
we're only a half hour outside of Nashville,
and already I think we're in barn find hunting country.
Riding down the road and like
I'm like a radar beacon looking back and forth,
and I saw an El Camino at that house over there.
Oh, let's go check it out.
The guy said, "Ah, I don't want you really
looking at my car."
Okay, that's fine.
But I look across the street and there's another El Camino.
I mean, what's the deal here?
- They're rare.
Especially that was the last body style.
They ran from '82 to '88 and they don't make 'em anymore
so they're very rare.
- So I knocked, well, I didn't knock on the door.
He's right in the driveway.
So Brian, thanks for allowing us to come in here.
- Yes sir.
- So tell us why you have it and how long you have it
and all that good stuff.
- It was a one owner, needed a motor
so I put a motor and transmission last summer.
It's an HO 305.
- [Tom Cotter] It seems to have a good body.
Wow.
- The body is excellent.
There's no damage to it at all.
- [Tom Cotter] Have you driven it?
- We've driven it, yeah.
It's been sitting here about two months now
because of all the snow we had.
- That's as straight as an arrow.
So how long have you had this one?
- [Brian] About six years.
It's all original except...
I think it's all original.
Even the hubcaps are original.
- So this has got, I mean all the deluxe trim
the deluxe hubcaps, two tone paint.
And this has got all the options.
- [Brian] This is the Conquista,
which is the top of the line at that time.
- [Tom Cotter] Okay.
- I had people all the time stopping.
- No kidding. - Oh yeah.
- So we're not the first? (chuckles)
- [Brian] No, and supposedly being two tone.
- [Tom Cotter] Is that original paint do you think?
- [Brian] Yep, I bought it from the original owner.
- [Tom Cotter] How many miles you figure?
- It had 78,000 miles on it.
- So it's not for sale?
- Nope. I'll never sell that.
- How do you find one owner cars?
- I do home repairs for people so I'm all over Tennessee,
and a lot of times I'll do work
and I'll just trade the vehicles out.
- So I just wrote a book about barn finds,
and one of the things I recommend
is make friends with somebody
that can go on private property legally like you can.
You can go to some place that I can't get to,
and look inside the garage and find stuff.
So can UPS people, police officers, landscapers.
So you got the ideal job, man.
Well, thanks for letting us barge in
on you and Mocha's private time, man.
Thank you.
It's a pleasure, man.
- Thank you. - Thanks.
(soft bluesy music)
We spent a good part of the morning
driving around south of Nashville,
Leipers Fork, Franklin.
I got a lead on the phone.
He said, "you gotta look up this guy Mike.
He's got a bunch of cool cars in his building."
So here we are, and Mike,
thanks for getting up off the couch
and opening the garage door
and showing us what you got here.
- Not a problem.
- I love the stories about cars,
and I think you have some stories about the cars.
- Anybody who's got this crap has stories. (chuckles)
- [Tom Cotter] So you told me that this was
the first car you bought?
- Yeah, I bought that car 62 years ago
when I was 13 years old.
Paid $30 for it and drove it to high school
and drove it to college.
- So this is a 30?
- It's a 30, 30 rumble seat deluxe coop.
- [Tom Cotter] No kidding.
So was it in this condition or have you ever-
- No, no, it was another guy's parts car.
My dad and I have restored this car.
I just don't know if I can bring myself to sell it.
He's dead now and that car is my dad, you know, to me.
- [Tom Cotter] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It seems to me you have a British car passion.
- Well, yes, in the 1970s,
there was a lot of stuff happening with MG TCs,
and I knew somebody that had a TD
and I started to fall in love with TCs.
- These are the first Rileys were featured
on "Barn Find Hunter," by the way.
- Riley, they're pretty rare.
My friend who was my main guy who sent me
an engine, a transmission, and copious information
and he said, "Mike, you're a family man.
You need a Riley link."
So I ended up buying a Riley Link
site unseen from California, and this is it.
A lady contacted me through my Riley club
who used to own this car.
She raced it in the Singapore Vintage Grand Prix
at the age of 17 in 1972. (chuckles)
So suddenly, I have a car with a history.
- [Tom Cotter] Yeah, and what year is this?
- It's a '37, and that's a '37.
There are only about five of these,
five of those, and four of the Sprites in America.
- [Tom Cotter] Well, how long have you had this one?
- [Mike] 2007 I think.
- Is that aluminum body?
- Yeah, it's aluminum over ash.
All of 'em are.
They have steel fenders, wings.
This was a delightful car.
You can see the fast back styling.
It's very art deco.
It's got amenities you won't believe for 1937.
I mean, it's got wire wheels, it's got a sunroof.
It has a semiautomatic transmission, magneto ignition,
a Hemi engine.
- [Tom Cotter] So how many cylinders is this?
- It's a four.
- So double overhead cam?
- No, double cam.
- [Tom Cotter] Oh.
- But they're down in the block.
- So it's a double cam
in the block. - In the block.
- No kidding.
- Triumph motorcycles are very similar to that.
- [Tom Cotter] Is it cast iron block and head?
- Iron block and head.
This engine would've been a 61 horsepower engine.
The standard engine was around 50.
These cars all have what's called a preselector gearbox.
- [Tom Cotter] Yeah, yeah.
- That's what a preselector gearbox looks like.
So it is an aluminum case, but there are a lot of internals.
The internals are sets of gears, planet and sun gears,
that are in different rotation.
There's three forward and reverse.
Those gear sets are brought in by a pedal,
which is positioned where the clutch pedal usually is.
So you preselect one, hit the select pedal,
and when the clutch picks up RPM, you take off.
And you know the next thing you're gonna need is two
so you preselect two.
And when you want it, you just push the clutch pedal.
Among their most serious users was London buses,
because you don't make the shift, you can't miss the shift
and they could hire any idiot to drive the bus
and not blow up the engine.
- Isn't that something?
Well, I've learned about Riley's today.
All right, well, we're standing next to a car here
that's near and dear to my heart.
So originally, these came
with a 260 cubic inch Ford engine.
It was a sunbeam alpine but it was called a tiger
because it had a Ford 260 in it with a two barrel.
But this has been modified beyond that.
Is it four speed?
- Yeah, I think it's top loader.
The original trans.
It's got a positraction unit.
I've got the paperwork on when that was added.
- A luggage rack.
I love it.
So let's take a look at your TC.
- [Mike] Yeah, okay.
- [Tom Cotter] So you bought the TC as is,
you still haven't driven a TC?
- That's correct.
A friend of mine had this in Ohio.
It had at one time been a show car.
- [Tom Cotter] Wow.
- The engine was seized, the paint was terrible,
it had lived under mouse shit for 25 years.
And so I said, okay, it's gotta come apart.
I've got the engine machine work done,
and the dash is real nice,
the seats are pretty decent leather.
- [Tom Cotter] So this is your ongoing project?
- Yeah, along with all the other ones.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And what about the bugeye here?
Oh, wire wheels.
Look at that.
- [Mike] It's got wire wheels, later disc brakes,
it's got the 1275.
- So I've seen in several of your cars,
you make these custom cup holders.
- [Mike] Well, if you're gonna use em
you gotta have a coffee cup holder. (laughs)
- [Tom Cotter] Is this a 1275 in here?
- [Mike] Yeah, yep.
- So 1235 makes this a big bore.
There was a little 948 engine that was weak
and somewhat troublesome,
but when you put that 1275 in here
out of a later model Sprite,
it turned this car into a baby Cobra.
- It is like having a roller skate,
and I tell a lot of people that I consider this car
delivering as much fun as you can have in a car
without having sex.
If you are not smiling while you're driving this car,
there's something wrong with you.
Not the car.
So that's my cars.
I love 'em, and here they sit.
- You never know where you're gonna find cars.
Sometimes they're in a basement garage on a golf course.
Who would have thunk it.
Mike, thanks.
You are a car guy. - You're welcome.
- And I know you love these cars.
It's so obvious.
You know, there might be a Mike
in your town or your neighborhood.
Get to know 'em.
Happy hunting.
(upbeat bluesy music)