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- We've been invited to observe
what might be the largest automotive collection
maybe in the world.
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This is why people come to California to buy cars.
Oh, look at that, Datsun 510, my baby.
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Hi, this is Tom Cotter,
I've been hunting down cars since I'm 12 years old,
and I'm still doing it today.
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Follow me in this series
as we hunt down hidden classics all across America.
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We've been invited to observe
what might be the largest automotive collection,
maybe in the world.
It's not known as a car collection, though,
it's known as an art installation.
This was built 20 years ago by a guy named Tom Merkel,
his parents were artists and he wanted to be an artist,
and his medium was cars,
so on this site is between 1,200
and 1,800 cars set up in themes,
and I'm not sure what those themes are,
I think the largest theme is like, traffic jam, it's called.
Interesting guy, he was heir to the White Motor Company,
I guess his grandfather
or great-grandfather built White Cars and Trucks,
and so he had an inheritance,
and this is where he invested it.
Here's a sign that explains his mission.
"The Cuyama Historical Car Garden.
"A creative preservation project based
"on the oriental rock garden concept
"of balance between form and nature,
"a memorial to the men of machines
"and the machines of men, a sanctuary of form,
"time, and witness, please be respectful,
"by invitation only, no parts sold,
"estimated completion 1995,
"TM Merkel, creator and timekeeper."
Complex individual who is unfortunately not around
for us anymore, he passed away recently, for us to talk to,
I'd love to talk to this guy and find out, what was his,
what was in his mind about doing this?
But we're just gonna walk around for awhile,
until we get tired of walking,
and I'll carry my rattlesnake stick.
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An Isetta, and this Isetta is known as the limo,
it had a 600 CC motor, it had a door in the front
and a door on the passenger side,
so this door opened up, I'm afraid
what might jump out on me if I open it up.
Santa Inez Airport, number 25.
Apparently he would go see old vehicles
in commercial businesses, like the airport,
and make an offer to buy,
"I'll just take all of them from you."
Nothing here is for sale,
no cars are for sale, no parts are for sale,
but if I could take one car out of here,
it would be this.
It's a Jaguar XK 150 coupe,
it's not in the worst condition I've seen,
it's got some rust around here,
but I've seen worse that have been restored.
This one does not have the original motor,
it's got an Oldsmobile engine in it,
and it looks like an automatic transmission,
probably some kind of turbo-hydramatic,
but I think this car could be restored.
At one time, I'm told, he had a couple of these back here,
E-types, XK 120s, even Porsche 356s.
This seems to be the only kind of exotic car left,
so if I could tow one car out of here, that would be it.
Well, enough with rattlesnakes and '58 Chevys
and 1,800 cars sitting on a mountainside, let's go.
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Most of the people I meet
on Barn Find Hunter I've never met before,
and most of the people, I just knock on doors,
'cause it's cool cars in their driveway or whatever,
but this guy I happen to know,
I'm thinking for 32 or 33 years.
- Yeah.
- Skip Hart, he's a friend of mine.
Skip knew I was a hot rodder, and he said,
"I got a hot rod at home."
And so I haven't seen this hot rod probably
in 30-something years, 31, 32 years.
Well, would you show us this car again?
- Yes, yes, I definitely would.
- [Tom] Cool.
Oh, there we go.
Oh, that's a sweetheart, man.
What'd you pay for the Model A?
- [Skip] $200.00 back in 1964.
- You modified it with Chevy parts, where'd you get those?
Did you buy a parts car?
- No, I had a '58 Chevy and it caught on fire,
and I thought, well, I'll just take the motor and trans
and the rear end, and I put it in the roadster here,
and then the friend of mine,
he had a '64 Chevy Lumina two-speed powerglide,
and I took the '58 transmission out
and put the powerglide in this.
- [Tom] No kidding.
- [Skip] Just to, for lighting--
- [Tom] So what'd it cost you to build this whole car,
do you figure, back in the day?
- I probably got, probably $800.00 in it.
- [Tom] $800.00?
- Yes.
- [Tom] Well, would you consider selling it?
- [Skip] Oh, yeah, I probably would, Tom.
- [Tom] So you've got another
barn find sitting out in the driveway?
- Yeah, a '65 Ford Falcon, two-door hardtop Futura.
- Oh, well, let's take a look at that.
So how long do you think you've had this?
- [Skip] I've had this probably between 12 and 15 years.
- [Tom] That's a pretty darn solid body on there.
- [Skip] Yeah, this is all original.
- [Tom] Man, look at it, there's no rust.
- [Skip] And the body is very straight.
So it's got two-speed powerglide on the column.
- Oh, man, it's still painted factory color.
Look at that floor, this car is solid.
(both laugh)
Animals seem to follow me.
So it's got power steering, two barrel, I guess.
Two barrel, yeah, two barrel, yeah.
Boy, that's a solid darn car.
This is why people come to California to buy cars.
- [Skip] And I'm the third owner on this one.
- [Tom] No kidding?
- [Skip] Yes.
- [Tom] If you're asking me what I think this is worth,
a car this solid, I mean, somebody in New England
or the North would love this car,
'cause look, look at how solid the quarter panels are,
rocker panels, I would guess six grand?
I mean, what an easy restoration this would be, you know?
- [Skip] Yes.
- [Tom] Wow.
- [Skip] No, the body's really straight, you know,
and I think I've got an extra windshield in the trunk.
'Cause the windshield's broke, yeah.
- Yeah, that's a great car.
On our way over here we passed another place
that maybe is a junkyard or a towing yard.
We're gonna go over there right now and check it out.
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So we're in Bernard Long's yard,
and he's been collecting cars since
he was just a little kid, and had several yards,
in fact, lived right across the street from here,
grew up across the street
and has had several yards with old cars.
So do you sell these cars or just hold onto 'em?
- [Bernard] It don't make any difference.
- Mm-hmm, so you got lots more outside, too?
- [Bernard] Yeah, two more places full of stuff.
- Geez.
How long have you known him, since you were a kid?
Which is how you old are?
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Oh, look at it, there's another white truck.
They're getting larger.
- [Bernard] Yeah.
- [Tom] Yeah, we saw the car, and a truck,
and now we're seeing a big truck.
So this is like a '39 Ford, I think.
- [Bernard] Yeah.
- Franklin, you know, this is an air-cooled engine,
we've seen one of these before in Detroit,
this is an air-cooled straight
six, I guess.
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And when I asked Bernard if anything was for sale,
he said, "Well, I guess so."
You know, when was the last time
you saw a crashed 1957 Thunderbird?
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Oh, look at that, Datsun 510, my baby.
Now, I've got a soft spot in my heart for 510s.
Stock motor, it's got a single downdraft two-barrel Hitachi.
So what year is this, I would say '72,
I think that was the year they sold the most.
It's a four-door with a stick shift,
and it looks like something lives inside it.
I bet it's a solid car, if you wanted to restore a car,
or a 510, there's a west coast 510.
I just get the feeling there's more cars around here,
it seems to be very fruitful, so let's see
what else we can find while we're in the neighborhood.
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I was driving down this road and I saw
gas pumps and street signs
and car-related stuff, but I looked really carefully,
I didn't seen any car stuff.
So I pulled in the driveway
and Joseph made a pretty strong statement about,
"You don't pull in my driveway unless you have permission."
So I had to pull out of the driveway,
but he, we wanted to become buddies,
I said, "I'm into old cars," and he said,
"Well, I've got old cars, and they're in the back."
So you can't see them, they're very well hidden,
but he's got cars in the back which I have not seen yet,
so lead the way, please.
(Joseph mumbles)
What year is this?
- [Joseph] This is a '56.
- [Tom] Is this your driver?
- [Joseph] Yeah, this a driver, oh yeah,
she's insured, she's registered and insured.
- [Tom] It's automatic,
what have you got for a motor in there?
- [Joseph] It's a two, everything's stocked.
Stock 223, Ford automatic--
- [Tom] 223-6, so how long have you had this truck?
- [Joseph] Since 1984.
- What did you pay for it?
- 2,800.
- That was a good buy.
- I can show you a picture of how clean it looked,
and cherry, but it's been out here all these years
with no cover, so all this aging is since I've been here,
since '88.
- But it's still solid, right?
You don't get much rain out here, right?
- [Joseph] Not a lot, a lot.
This is all the weathering that's happened to it,
I can show you a picture when it looks really--
- [Tom] So in other words, this was all blue on here?
- [Joseph] Everything's blue,
I can show you a picture on my phone, what it looked like,
but you won't even believe the difference,
but this is where it's come all these years.
- [Tom] That's a pretty one, and you drive it around, no--
- Oh yeah, oh yeah.
- [Tom] I see an El Camino over here,
I have seen more El Caminos
in California then I've seen in a long time, '66?
- [Joseph] '64.
- [Tom] '64, okay.
- [Joseph] Yeah, '64, 283, I've had it,
I work with a gentleman and for 20 years he kept telling me,
"Hey Joseph, I've got this El Camino."
I never saw it, and after he retired, he called me up
and asked me if I'd give $400.00 for it.
I couldn't get my trailer together
quick enough to go get it.
- [Tom] So how long have you had it?
- [Joseph] Oh man, this one I've had
about 10 years right now, the weekend I bought it,
I saw it pitted on the hood, there's a ding in the back,
and I was able to, that weekend,
to find another hood and another fender for this one,
and a real tailgate, all the same weekend,
all the parts that I would need
for the body to be (mumbles) cherry.
- [Tom] Are you interested in selling any of these cars?
- [Joseph] It's possible,
it's possible, I haven't in the past,
but maybe it's time to consider that, you know.
- [Tom] Now this is one of my favorites.
- [Joseph] '68.
- [Tom] I have a '68 Cougar.
- [Joseph] Oh, do you?
- [Tom] So it's a 302?
- [Joseph] Yes, 302.
- [Tom] Air conditioned?
- [Joseph] Mm-hmm.
- [Tom] Two barrel air conditioning.
Did you ever drive this?
- [Joseph] Yeah, my son did,
my son drove for a number of years.
- [Tom] Did he put the dent in it?
- [Joseph] Yes, he did.
(Tom laughs)
Yes, he did.
- [Tom] And that's a '66 Ford?
- [Joseph] This is a '68, '66 Galaxy, man.
- [Tom] '66 Galaxy with a 352--
- [Joseph] I used to have the seven liter.
- [Tom] Oh, did you really,
was it a four-speed or an automatic?
- [Joseph] It was automatic.
- [Tom] So this is a two-door hardtop,
peel all this, drop the windows, wide open.
So if I wanted to buy the El Camino,
what would you ask for that?
- [Joseph] Wow, I don't know, but I guess
at this point I'd be willing to negotiate.
- [Tom] Okay.
- [Joseph] This is a '72 Grand Torino from,
again, from the front seat forward,
it's exactly like the vehicle.
- [Tom] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Joseph] Like a sedan.
- [Tom] Was this in a fire, or is it just the way it rusted?
- [Joseph] I don't know, Grandpa bought it this way,
I think it's just the way it rusted, to tell you the truth.
- [Tom] Yeah.
Alright, that's the vehicles.
I think we could spend a whole season
of Barn Find Hunter just finding cars in California.
Four days ago we didn't have any idea where cars were.
We met people at a Cars and Coffee,
they gave us some ideas, if you live in California
and don't think there's any cars left,
you're not looking hard enough.
And if you don't live in California,
get there as soon as you can,
because they're gonna go quickly, happy hunting.
(car tires squeal)
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