“Cars in Barns”, Field cars and other “Treasure”. This diamond in the rough has been sitting in Brian Wilson’s neighbor’s backyard since 1973.
 |
Originally it was his grandfather’s car which he bought new in 1939. After he passed in 1971 he left it to his daughter (my neighbor’s mom). Needless to say, she never liked to drive it because it was “OLD”. After about a year of grocery getting, it was parked in the backyard and laid to rest. Well, this lady passed away a few years back and the car was left to her son. Luckily, he has no passion for old cars. I have been trying to buy it for about five years, but he couldn’t sell it due to arbitration issues with his mom’s will. |
 |
Finally… a couple of months ago, I got a knock on the door from my neighbor and he told me that the lien was clear and it was time to let her go. After some easy negotiations, I gave him $1,000.00 cash for the car. I rode my Cycle truck bike filled with some tools, jack stands and a pick and shovel. I had to literally dig the cars wheels out of the ground. I took the wheels off and had some cheap $10.00 tires put on by a local used tire shop just to get it rolling. To my amazement, the car had no squeaks or groans while pushing it down the street to my garage. It was as easy to push as a lawnmower. |
 |
When I started cleaning up all the dead bird carcasses, cat bones, dirt and LOTS of cob webs, I pulled the seats out and underneath were some old Lyndon Johnson bumper stickers, old matchbooks and some other neat little time capsule items. I’ve slowly been working on it and actually got the original 216 C.I. straight six started. It was kind of funny really, when it fired the car puked out a dirt and carbon bomb out of the tail pipe that would make Mt. St. Helens proud. So now comes the fun of gathering very few little parts it will need along with some bloody knuckles to make it drivable. |
 |
My plan is to get it running (smoothly), replace the glass, seat upholstery, brakes and drive it, at least close and around home. Eventually, I might straighten out the body (very minimal work there) and have it painted, possibly put a V8 in it. Maybe I’ll just do a straight restore on it. Not really sure. All I know is, it’s 100% Original now and it’s in my garage. That was the most important thing to take care of. Brian Wilson |
