The term “barn find” is played. Used and abused. Rode hard and put away wet. Ick, I hope not wet. Dehumidifiers are your friend people. But I’m here to set the record straight to all those Face-novel-ors, Instas, Clock Tikkers and my beloved old-school Craigslisters, much respect!, who think their “barn find” click bait helps their cause. It doesn’t.
- If your car was in the garage for five years because you got busy, it’s not a barn find.
- Vehicle outside under a tarp? A chipmunk’s storage-baby-shed but not a barn find.
- Oh, I know, I know, how about my mom’s ’77 Buick with 30,000 miles?
Well, that one ticks a lot of boxes. But my point is that Rush didn’t write the song “Red Barchetta” so we could celebrate your dirty, neglected, flat tire jalopy (FYI – I’m hip to the fact that Larry Webster recently quoted that song in a Hagerty article, great tune, great story by Larry. I’m a huge fan of the song too). Barn find is reserved for those unique vehicles with an air of collectibility. Cars or trucks that are old, that deserve a second chance. The site dedicated to them, Barnfinds.com does a solid job celebrating their existence with hopes to move them on to the next steward. I appreciate you.
So all this being said, I don’t throw the words around willy nilly. My buddy Don and I rescued this 58K mile Celica last year. And it was a barn find. It was dragged out of that pole barn in the photo after being parked there in 1994. See the skid marks? 25 years. Cue the act of intentionally dropping one’s microphone at the end of a speech or performance, displaying a bold confidence that it has been very impressive or cannot be topped.
Spoiler alert. I already have it back on the road. I just never wrote about it but more about that later.
[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAvQSkK8Z8U” ]
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