(rhythmic guitar music) - Welcome to Le Claire, Iowa,
with the Mississippi River as a backdrop, and we're
pulling off Main Street. We're pulling right over here to a place called Antique Archeology. And you may know that if
you watch American Pickers, this is the headquarters
for American Pickers. Le Claire, Iowa. And we just thought that it would be fun to come searching for old cars in the town that American Pickers is based in. Wouldn't it be something if
we found something really cool just a block or two away? These guys are scuttling all
around the United States, and we find something in their backyard. So wish us luck. Okay, I'm gonna show you how simple it is. You pull out of the parking
lot, and you go up the hill. One block, two blocks, and as we come up to
the third block, I say, whoa, what's that? It's a Model T chassis. There's somebody here
that's got a Model T. So we're literally three
blocks from American Pickers. I'm gonna knock on the door. (knocking on door) Well, it doesn't seem like anybody's home, and it doesn't seem
like anybody lives here. But we're gonna continue
to drive around Le Claire, and see if we can find other
things right underneath the noses of our American Picker buddies. (rhythmic guitar music) Should I go in the front
door or the back door? (door closes) Hello, I noticed your old
truck in the driveway. This is a crazy thing. - A car find hunter. - Right, I go around the
country looking for old cars - Yeah. - And just, reporting on it. And I figured, wouldn't
it be funny to come to Le Claire, home of Pickers, and find cars in their own back yard. So we just saw a Model- - There's a lot of them in Le Claire in people's back yards actually. - Really? - Yeah, yeah, there's
a man right down there, he has parts to an old
one, I think a roadster, I see him out there now. - Alright. Well, my name's
Tom Cotter, thank you. Thank you very much! - Bye. - Did you hear that? Okay, now we're cooking. (rhythmic guitar music) (knocking on door) - Hello, my name's Tom Cotter, and Rich Boyer's wife told
me to come down here. We ride around the country
looking for old cars. It's called Barn Find Hunter- - Oh yeah.
- It's a program? Just looking for old cars, and she said, well that man, and she
says, right over there. And I said, in the town
of American Pickers, how can there be any old cars left? (laughter) But there is, obviously is. - Yeah, I've had that a long time. - Can we use it, can we
take pictures of this stuff? - Yeah, sure, if you want to. - We're literally four
blocks from American Pickers world headquarters, in Le Claire, Iowa. And our idea is to go to
American Pickers' home town and see what we can find that
they haven't picked already. And we're just a couple of blocks away, and we meet Ron Voss, and we drive by and there's a Model A
coupe body in a driveway and a chassis right here. Are you restoring this car,
what are you doing with it? - Well, that's my intentions, yes. I've had this car since 1963. - Whoa! - (laughing) - It was your high
school car, or something? - Yeah, yeah, it was.
- No kidding. And did you drive it to high school? - Oh, once in a while I did, yeah. - No kidding, and it wasn't
a hot rod, it was original. - No, it's all original, yeah. - No kidding. So here
you've got the chassis, here you've got the body, it's a coupe. 29, do you have all the pieces to it? - Yeah, I got a storage building that's completely full of all the fenders and all the rest of the sheet metal. - No kidding, wow. 1963, so what did you pay for it in '63? - A hundred and seventy-five
dollars. (laughing) - And it was a running car? - Yeah, it was a running car at that time. - What a great story. So, what color was this
car when you had it? - It was black. - Black, would you paint it black again? - I don't know, I was thinking about maybe a two-tone color of some kind. - Got your, still has a soft top on there. - Yeah. - So you have the engine
for it, interesting-- - Yeah it's pretty much all complete - No kidding. - Except for the stuff that
I need for the restoration. - When did you take it apart? - Oh, that was probably back in, probably about '84? - '84.
- Yeah. - Oh, it's coming up on quite a few years. - Yeah, it's been sitting,
for quite a long time. - So the chassis is out
here, but I was curious about what's in front of the chassis. So, this is, this is a what? - I'm not sure what year it is, it's a Model A motor. - Not on a Model A frame, though. - No. - And this is an air compressor. - Yeah, there was a kit
that you could buy through, oh there was many different
places that sold the kit. It was a special head, you had the two outside cylinders were the power. And the two inner cylinders
were the compressor. - So if you think about this, this is a four-cylinder motor,
it runs on two cylinders, and the other two cylinders
are used as an air pump pumping air into this
container, I suppose, right? - Yeah, that's the gas tank there, the air tank is back behind.
- Okay, this is heavier steel. - Yeah. - Did you get it for a
curiosity, or did you get for the motor to put it in the other-- - Oh, just mainly for curiosity. (laughs) - Now it's on some other
kind of chassis, I would say. - Yeah, I think it's probably a GM. - Yeah, leaf springs. - Running gear underneath there. - Would you consider selling
this, or it's not for sale? - No, it's not for sale. - Well, good deal, I mean
your high school car, that's pretty sweet.
- Yeah. - Alright well, Ron,
I thank you very much. - Sure, yeah. - Thanks for having us
on this 28-degree day. - (laughing) (bluesy rock music) - We made our first connection
with a car guy in town. Ron showed us his '29 Model A. And he told us of another
couple of cars around, but they were restored,
Auburn, another Model T. We're not looking for restored cars, we're looking for forgotten
and neglected cars. - We're just gonna keep
driving around town with our eyes open. (bluesy guitar music) - That's a good-looking one, huh? (car door thunks) - This sports car looks like-- - Not that one. - That one. - That's pretty low. - That sports car looks pretty wide. (bluesy music) - We stopped at a repair
shop, and the woman who seemed to be in charge,
she scratched her head, I don't know of any old cars, oh! Yeah, right across, oh look it, there's one right there, 51 40. She said, right across the river, which is the Mississippi River, there's somebody with some old cars, right across from Brothers Restaurant. - And there's Brothers Restaurant. - And I'll knock on the door. Nobody's home, but this is a good place. We need to come back. Obviously they're at work, but not only the cars you
see in the driveway here, but in the back, there's cars
stored against the fence, and another large garage
behind this front garage. There's worthwhile things
here, I'd say, so... We need to come back here later. Yeah, see all the stuff back there? - Oh yeah, jeez. - And then, behind there, see
that big garage back there? There's some good stuff here. There's no doorbell but
I knocked several times. (bluesy guitar music) Alright, I'll get Chad to
tell my wife I loved her. (car door clunks) So your name is?
- Dave. - Dave, I'd shake your hand
but I know you have a cold. So, I saw something in
the back, under a shed? You got something, like
an old sedan or something? - That is, that's a 1941 Nash. - Oh, wow. - And then I have another
one inside the building. It's pretty close quarters in here. - Coe College. I've never
heard of Coe College. So a Plymouth, wow. - It's a 1936. - Have you had this for a while? - This is the one I've had the longest. And I bought it from a family in Geneseo, and it needed a lot of help too. - Mm-hmm. And this runs well? - Yeah, it's got the flathead six in it. I can raise the hood if you want. - No, that's okay. You know but, I don't know
if you can see this drawing, but this is a picture of a sailing ship, and it's the Plymouth, was Plymouth Rock. - Yeah. - This is when the, it
symbolized when the pilgrims came to the United States. - This needs interior work as well. It will fire, I don't know. - Oh man. (laughs) (squeaking) - I think I took the battery out of it. - Oh okay, no worries. - But it starts and runs good. - Yup, yup. - It is a driver. - Nice. And how long have you had this one? - Let's, see, this I've had
it for thirty-some years. - No kidding! Look at the paint on the ground here. I guess that's where you
painted the Buick. (laughs) - Some of it. - (laughs) Wow. - That's actually the gas
tank out of the Buick, 'cause, had a problem
with the gas tank leaking. Gonna put some gas tank sealer in it. - Oh yeah. You gotta watch that stuff these days with the new gas, it eats up the sealer. - Yeah. - Make sure it's good for,
got ethanol, or whatever. (bluesy guitar music) - I also collect antique outboard motors. - Oh, look at that. Wow, all sorts of different brands. - Most of what I have is OMC equipment. - Do you have a boat? - I have a 1941 Richardson. - So this is a Nash. - This is a 1941 Nash. - You don't see many of these. - No, the Nash was a very
popular line in the forties, thirties and forties, because
of the size of the car for large farm families, you know? This, I bought from a
car lot in Rock Island. - I see. - Which is down here in the Quad Cities. At the time I was buying
a lot of these cars, When I was younger I had
a carpooler business. And I did decks and stuff. - Oh, so you got to go to
people's houses and found these? - Well, that's kind of how I got into it. - Yeah, yeah yeah. - And it was a hobby, it's
always been just a hobby. Something I did on the side. And, all original interior. - That's a solid car, man. - And it's got water damage
on some of the doors, but, it's all-- - Look at that original
mohair in the back there. - It's a beautiful, because
of the size you could get half a dozen people or
more, in these cars. - So this must be low mileage, to have the interior that's that nice. What's the mileage on this? - Yeah, this one only
has fifty thousand, yeah. - Wow.
- That's a low miler. - No kidding. Did you paint it, or it came like this? - The color is close
to the original color, you can see it on the door. - Oh yeah, oh that's pretty good, yeah. - And I matched that paint. - How long you had this one? - Oh, twenty-five maybe, years. - No kidding. Well, I appreciate it, thank you so much. - You're welcome. (bluesy rock music) - Well, it takes perseverance
to go barn find hunting. We passed this place
before, and nobody was home. Or so we thought. And we came back again
and knocked on the door, nobody was home so we
left and came back again, knocked on the door, nobody was home. And we're sitting out here for an hour, hour and a half, waiting
for somebody to come home. And Rick Wiley comes
walking out of the house, he was sleeping, he works at night, so it was just a strange, I guess, twist of schedules, you know. So thanks for hanging around, because he's got to go off to work now. But he's got a bunch of, neat cars, including this '51 Ford
Crestliner behind me. So just tell me about these cars, we can walk around, look at them quickly. You're a Pontiac guy and a
Ford guy, is that what I see? - Mmmm, I'm a car guy. I like cars. I really don't have any Chevys, because I raced the Pontiacs for a long time, and was an underdog, and
some of the Chevy guys were kind of hard to take.
But I do like their cars. - You drag raced them? - I have, yes. - So here's a Le Mans, what year is this? - '67. - And is this a project
car, or a parts car? - Oh, that car's probably for sale. I've had that for about 12 years or so, and I've got so many cars
just waiting in line, and who knows how long it'll wait. I might as well let somebody else have it. - So it's a two-door hard
top, and it says 326. - It's an original overhead cam six. I probably could get my
hands on the original engine, too, if somebody wanted it. - It had a V8 in it. - It does have a, it's a
Pontiac 350 that's in it right now, but that just
had the overhead cam six signs on it, and they just got taken off, and those just happened
to fit, which is probably, they're off of a '65, I think. - Ah, okay. - So this is not right. - A cam six, that's a rare little motor. And so, is this a pretty good
car, pretty good flourish? - No, it's a, it's a project. - Yeah, okay. - You know, it's not all together. It's kind of in the works. - What would you ask for this? - Well, I've been looking on
eBay, and cars about like this seem to be going for
around five grand or so. (metallic thunk sound) I don't know, I guess
I'll just have to see. - Yup, and you've pointed out this truck, that's a sweetheart. - Yes, that's kind of a pride and joy with everyone in the family here. - And you've had this a while?
- About three years. - Oh, that's it? - Yup, my uncle always
works on old trucks for two or three years, and then he gets ready for something else, and I found out he had that, and I went
and looked at it, and said, when you get done with
that one, I want that one. - So is that a four-speed box? - Yes, 352 with a truck four-speed. - So the first gear really low. - Yup, it's got a great granny gear. - And how's the body on that?
- Oh, it's just like it looks. It had one paint job on it and that's it. It needs a couple things. I've got most of the interior for it. I just gotta get it done. - Classic Ford truck colors, too. - Yeah.
- It's a deluxe two-tone trim. 96 thousand miles.
- Yup. - Wow. (car door slams) Now, stuff in the back here. What's going on here, you got
your own little junk yard? - Yeah, that's, that
Grand Prix right there, it's a low-mile car, but
it's rusted beyond belief. - Oh, boy. - It had 86 thousand miles on it, I have the engine in the garage. - It's a 389 you say? - No, it's a '67, it's a 400. - Oh, 400, yeah. - They had 400s and 428s in those. The quickest way to
tell one from the other is the 400 still had a
Carter carburetor on it, and the 428s they put a quadra jet on. - Got it. And what do you got
back here, two more box of, two-box Fords? - Yup, '50 Crestliner
and a '51 Ford parts car from Colorado that's not rusted, at all. That could be negotiated in
with the Crestliner deal also. - Oh. - Floorboard stuff, and
cowl, it's all good. - So this is a '50 Crestliner,
and we're not on the road to '51, they only
made them two years, right? - Two years, they made
it all the way through the '50 year, and then
'51, only until February. And they dropped it because, the reason those cars came to be is because they didn't have a hard top. Like GM and Chrysler. So they figured they'd
jazz up the two-door sedan. Soon as the hard top come out, people, that's what they were waiting for, so they dropped the Crestliner. - So what Rick is saying is, this was a stylized Ford that was produced because Ford had not yet
developed a hard top. So in other words a car
without this pillar, so they came out with this Crestliner to sell us kind of a up-market car, until the hardtop came
out halfway through 51, then this car was
discontinued, interesting. The way you tell a 51 from a 49 or 50 you could see this has got as bigger kind of a fin here should be chrome going to the taillight
and here's rather small. So 49 and 50 had a small
lump in the quarter panel and a 51 had a bolt on larger lump. These rusted out quickly these pieces because this car was made during the Korean War and metals, copper and things like that to make chrome last longer were being used for war time services so to find these in good shape is pretty rare. - What about this messy garage? - Oh my god it's bad. - Oh so there's the other Crestliner. - Yeah it just came here
so I've got boxes of parts. - So that just came here? - Yeah, it was in Colorado that- - 'Cause that was your dad's? - Yes.
- No kidding. - They live there and they came back here and so the car has only been back here for just a little while but it originally was here. - So you got an alternator on
here. So it's a 12 volt car? - Yes, it is now. - Three in a column. - Yep, overdrive. - So three Crestliners
in one location that's-- - (laughs) Unusual. - Yeah, man I mean you could
go a decade without seeing one. So what's the deal with Tempest, I see okay is this is a GT? - This actually is for real a Tempest, it's like what you were
talking about earlier. It's an easy clone, well it's not as easy to clone these as the others and a lot of people are against cloning because you know later down the road somebody might pay big money for thinking it's a GTO and it's not. And so I figure you know as long as we're keeping it it
doesn't matter that much and I never tell anybody
it's a GTO for real so. - Yep, so how long have you had this car? - Probably at least 20 years. - Alright so this is one of those unique cars with automatic on a column
and force feet on the floor. (laughter) I've never seen that combination before. - And you can make 'em
run pretty decent too. - Yeah yeah yeah. - This particular car right here had a 350 in it that I took out of a 68 Le Mans and I mean it was just every day driver and it ran 14 flat at the drag strip just without even doing anything. - Is that the drag strip
we saw up the road? - Yeah.
- Yeah okay we passed it. Alright so now Riviera,
I see Pontiacs here and Crestliners but where'd
the Riviera thing come from? - Oh I've had a couple of those and a guy had it and was wanting to sell it and contacted me
and asked if I wanted it. - That's gonna be restored? - Oh I don't know. You know what I don't really know. Some things I just have to have you know. It's inside if somebody
wanted to buy it they could. - It's not getting any worse.
- No. - So what year is this one? - '66.
- '66 Riviera and okay. If someone wanted to buy it
what would you sell it for? - Well I don't know I don't think I'd want to take any less than 2500 bucks for that and I mean that's probably
pretty realistic I think. - Is that a runner? - I haven't had it
started since I've had it but the guy said the engine has been completely gone through
and it's a 425 nail head. - And do you have the
fender and the bumper and all that stuff? - Yes I have all the parts
to it, that's how I got it. - Do you have these lights,
can you turn these lights on right here, so another Pontiac and two more Pontiacs, wow. And a Crestliner on the wall, I love it. - That's my dad's artistic
abilities right there. - Look at the door handle, the mirror. - That's life size I meant that's-- - I love it. - So what is this car? - '67 GTL, I've had that car for probably 32 years maybe and
I did used to drive that one. It's just you know I had kids and stuff and didn't really have the money but I was just able to keep the stuff and I had started taking it apart and I'm pretty ready to
have it back I think so-- - Is this damage or is this the way it's-- - No that was-- - Okay. - Yeah it had had the
fender and the door replaced on that side right there so somebody must've hit it right there. - And this car was white originally? - Yes, and it will be again. - Oh really?
- Yeah. - White with the vinyl tops? - Most have a black vinyl top. I have the vinyl top for it, I'm not a vinyl top
person I'm still debating on whether to put it on or not. I would like it better myself
if it didn't have one but-- - Is that four speed car? - Yes.
- 389? - 400.
- 400 okay. - For '66 and seven is where they made that switch. - Got it. - Yeah it's a tack dash, disk brake switch was the first year for those and this one does have disk brakes, I don't care about those
myself but somebody might. - Did you drag race that as well? - It has been on the drag strip before but it wasn't really a
drag racing car at all. - And another Pontiac,
your last Pontiac here. Yeah I wish you guys could see these cars. I mean usually the garage isn't this bad but it's just kind of-- - We're used to this, I
mean this is what we do. - I'm not.
- This is what we do. - I don't like.
- We like it with clutter. So is that GTO as well? - '66, that's an original three speed car which most of them were
I mean that was standard. - Three on the floor. - Yes, yup. Most muscle cars come
standard with three speed so I see these ads for cars-- - Are you out of here Courtney? - It says rare three speed you know. - Alright, nice to meet you. - They're not rare at all. That's what they came with. - Even early Stingrays had three speeds. - So that car there the first time I ever saw that car I really wanted it and of course the guy wouldn't sell it and I saw the way he was driving it and I figured I'd wait 'til he wrecked it and he did and then that's how I got it. - And you've had that for how long? - 30 years. - Boy you keep this stuff, that's great. - I never used to but every time I'd get rid of something I'd think man I should've never got rid of that. So I just hang on to it and-- - Yup, yup alright well Rick, delayed going to work I hope his boss doesn't reprimand him for it. But thank you so much Rick Riley for inviting us to your house. Well it's been cold, it's been a long day but we've been successful, found a few people around town all within a mile or
less of American Pickers world headquarters in Le Claire, Iowa. We knocked on the door here, no answer. Went to lunch came back,
knocked on the door no answer, sat in the truck
for an hour and a half and then Rick Riley comes
walking out of the house to go to work. He stayed around, let us look at his cars we thank him very much
but persistence pays off. Happy hunting. (upbeat country music)
