Announcing the Barn Find awards

The submissions for our barn-finds requestrestored our faith that there are still some automotive treasures to be found out there.

There is something about clearing away junk that has piled up on and around an old car or truck covered in a couple of decades’ worth of dust, hoping to find something worth saving. So in hopes of hearing some of those stories, we asked Wheels page readers to send us photos of their best barn finds, whether a barn was involved or not. Some of this stuff has sat outside for so long that it’s just kind of blended into the background scenery and nobody pays much attention to it.

David Rogers of El Dorado sent two photos and this account: “After completing my first ever car project (’67 Chevelle SS 396 frame off restoration) I was looking for another project. I mentioned to my uncle who is a farmer in central Kansas that I was looking for an old pickup to work on.

“Several months later I received a call from him saying that he had found one. It had been in a hedgerow for 30 years or more. I was shocked when I saw it. I couldn’t refuse it, as he had already paid for it, dug it out and moved it to his place.

“We rolled it off his trailer and onto mine. It was Feb. 20, 1998, when I started on it. Five years later my wife (Sandy) and I drove it to Lincoln, Neb., to an Americruise show, where it won an Award of Excellence.”

David’s find was a 1936 Ford farm truck. He removed the old wooden bed and replaced it with a low-profile pickup box, chopped the top two inches, installed air suspension on the front end and powered it with a GM 383 stroker engine, a 700R4 automatic transmission and a 9-inch Ford rear end. He even painted the truck himself.

“I worked on it every night and every weekend,” Rogers said. For his hard work, he will receive a copy of “Barn Find Road Trip: 3 Guys, 14 Days and 1000 Lost Collector Cars Discovered” provided by Motorbooks

Some readers will recognize Tim Bonnell as the owner of a beautiful 1970 HemiCuda that was featured on this page back in December 2010. Well, there is another 1970 Barracuda in Tim’s life. Here’s his account: “My 1970 Barracuda ... was not in a barn, but sitting outside in the country north of Wichita. I bought it new in 1970. Sold it in 1983 and then found it again in disrepair in 1992.

“I bought it back and restored it to show condition. It was a 318 automatic, 2-barrel with single exhaust. Now it’s got a 4-barrel and dual exhaust. It had an AM radio and was a hubcap car. I had added Rallye wheels and when I restored it, I put a hockey stripe on it.

“I went to college in that car and on my first honeymoon in that car. It’s the only thing I have left from when I was 18.”

Tim will be getting a copy of the graphic novel “Steve McQueen: Full Throttle Cool,” also published by Motorbooks.

And finally, we received photos of a dusty old 1956 Ford F100 pickup with a long family history from Gordon Schmidt.

“It’s not a completed project, just getting started. My grandpa bought it back in ’56 as a work truck ... (he) gave it to my dad. Dad drove it to school and ran around hot rodding it a little. Then when Dad got drafted to Vietnam, his younger brother started driving it.

“Somewhere in the mid `70s it got parked in the shed and left. I remember as a little kid crawling around and playing on that truck when we went out to the farm.”

Gordon’s wife arranged the purchase of the dusty old Ford last winter and it is currently being torn down and restored.

“My first goal is to get it running and driving asap, so me and Dad can take his grandkids for a ride to get ice cream in it,” Gordon wrote.

Sorry, we only had two books to give away, Gordon. But it sounds as if you already have your prize.

Thanks to all who took time to send us photos and barn find stories.

This story was originally published February 4, 2016 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Announcing the Barn Find awards."