(rock music) - Three, two, one. (tires squealing) (engines roaring) - A friend of mine, Peter Egan, wrote, once wrote a great story in Road and Track magazine that if you want to look for old cars,
go to a small airport. Because the wings of an
airplane leave lots of room to put cars underneath them. And so we're at a small airport, today. Happen to meet this great
guy, a couple weeks ago, Willy Vinton. And Willy is the curator
and the manager of the Fountainhead Auto Museum
in Fairbanks, Alaska. He has assembled, what I think,
is one of the finest museums in the United States. I just went there a couple
weeks ago, and I said, "Willy, do you know anybody with old cars? "We're going to be shooting an
episode of Barn Find Hunter." And he says, "Well, I've got a couple old cars." And he happens to own a
couple of airplane hangers. So Peter Egan's story is coming
true in Fairbanks, Alaska. Willy's going to open up his hanger and show us what he's got inside there. Are they underneath wings by the way? - No, I don't have any airplanes in here. They don't have room for
airplane in a hanger. (laughter) - Too many cars? - Too many cars. - Okay, cool.
- Yeah - Let's see what you have. - It's kind of a mess in there, but - I like this kind of mess. Well this is one of the most eclectic little grouping of cars
I've seen in a while. (laughter) This obviously has my attention. - 1947 Mercury 110 Pickup. - I don't think I've
ever seen one in my life. So, okay. Mercury, tell us about that. - Well, it's a Canadian
built Ford pickups. They started build 'em 1946, and so this is the second year for them. Very few of the early ones left. And I chased this one for
almost 25 years before I got it. And the Mercury pickups are a little bit fancier in some of the trim stuff than the Fords were. But, just a great old pickup
that's had an awful rough life. - Where did you find it? - Here in Fairbanks. - In Fairbanks, okay. - The sad part is I don't
have much history on it. But I went through the
running gear, and it runs. - So it's got a standard flat head V8? - Yeah, it's all original. - Can we open the hood? - Yeah. The only thing I did is I
put aluminum heads on it because the heads were cracked on it. - Oh, yeah, okay. So is it Edelbrock or something? - These are original
old Offenhauser heads. - Got an alternator on there. - Yup, yeah. Six volt alternator. - So do you drive this around? - Not much, but I just
finished the tail lights on it here a while back. - Okay, okay. - So I got lights all working on it. - So this was that standard
Ford green that you see on so many 50's trucks. - Yeah, it's, I haven't even waxed it yet. - (laughs) Wow. Can you start it? - Sure. (engine starting) - Sheesh. I think it's got a starting problem. It starts too quickly. - Yeah (laughs). - Man, is that sweet? (engine revs) Did you rebuild the motor? - Yeah. - Is that a hundred horsepower? - It's a 85. - 85. - Yeah. - Okay, isn't that sweet? So one ton, amazing. - We can run this outside if you want. - Oh yeah, could we? - Yeah. - Okay, let's do that. Okay, so we're going to pull this out (blues rock music playing) Wow, that's nice. - Not so fast now. (engine noises) - Now to get back in that old clunker. So tell me about this tailgate. - You see what they did,
is they stamped this out stamped the Ford out, and if you measure a Ford tailgate it's exactly the Ford
script is exactly that size. - Wow. - So and they made these
and just put them in and spot welded them. But you can see where somebody
was hooking up to a trailer and the hitch was a
little high or something. But if you look at the sides the sad part about this thing
on that side over there, somebody and I've never seen it before, but it had two foot square,
or two inch particle board. So the beds got to come
off of it this winter, and because everything underneath
it's a wood structure. - So you're going to
rebuild the bed, really? - Just the bottom. - Not the metal? - No. - Okay, well now we have room to go look at this Model A you've got too. This Model A, tell me, you
say it has an unusual history? - Well, yeah. This was bought new in Dawson City. - Which is in Alaska? - No, it's in Canada. - Canada. - Just across the border. Now one thing you can tell about the ARs, as you can tell this is a
restoration waiting to happen, is that the emergency brake is on the left. - Like a Model T. - Yes. That was the very first Model
A's were built that way. They called them the ARs. And this was built in December of 1927. - 1927, so they were still being built during the last year of the Model T. - Right, yeah. - They closed production,
so this, do you know the serial number, is this
one of the first ones? - I don't know, cause the,
I got to pull the body off to get the correct
serial number off of it, cause it's got a different engine in it. - Um hm. And so what color will
this be, do you think? What color, can you identify what- - Well, I gotta go back
and do some research, but it looks like it was a dark blue. - I see. Oh yeah. - Um hm. I love it when then they
haven't been molested. - Yup. So two unique vehicles. So, now we are on your third one here. - Well, the third one over
there is a 1975 AMC Gremlin. - So what's the story with this car? - Well, that was the
last car my Dad bought. - Oh wow, he bought it new? - No, he bought it used, and
it's never been messed with. It's got 62,000 miles on it. - Original paint. - Yeah. - So did your Dad live in Alaska? - No, it was Montana. - Montana, okay. Have you driven this car? - Yeah, I drove it about, oh I brought it up here
about 20 years ago, I guess. - So it's an automatic,
keys are in the ignition. A bench seat. - Yup. - Wow. Well, thank you, sir. - You betcha. - This has been a great
way to start the morning. - Well good. Doesn't get much better
than this, you know. (blues rock music playing) (engine roars) - We're going over to see a guy named Peter Lundquist right now. I met him last week when I was here driving around the state, I asked him "Do you know
any cars in the area?" He said "I got some at
my house, at my hanger." So here we are at the hanger. - Peter! Thanks for meeting me. - Yeah, you're welcome. - I met Peter a week and a half ago. We were driving around Fairbanks on kind of a pleasure drive. And actually Peter is a good
friend of my friend David, who loaned us this Mustang. He said, "You gotta meet Peter, "he's got a cool car in his hanger, "where he keeps his own collector cars." And there's one back there
that just (snap) bam, that's the car, so follow me. All right, so, I don't want to
put the words in your mouth, tell me about this car. - Totally original other than the wheels, but my brother bought it in 1975, when he was going to law
school in Puget Sound. He bought it in Tacoma, and then he drove it to
law school every day. And in the summers he would
drive it up to Alaska, work up here, drive it back in the Fall and go back to law school. And shortly after he
graduated, he passed the bar, then he got killed by a drunk driver. - Ah. - Pretty unfortunate, but you know. I ended up with the car. I haven't done much with it. It will start right up and drive. It's very solid. - How long has it been sitting here. - It's been sitting here for 12 years. - Do you remember what he paid for it? - $500. I have the canceled check at home. - Do you really? - Yeah. - Now this car has some unique features. It may look like an
average 57 Chevy wagon, but if you notice, the first thing you
notice it's a two door. Okay, so it's a two door
wagon, so it's not a Nomad. If I were to tell you
it's not even a wagon, you'd probably scratch your head saying "What's going on here?" So tell us why this car is unique, Peter. - It's unique because it's
a rare sedan delivery, is what it is. And, ah, they GM called it Window Delivery, but they built a very limited production of sedan deliveries
with glass in the back. So it looks like a station wagon, but sedan delivery trim, sedan delivery back, there's no back seat. Sedan delivery back door. And the VIN number has
SD for sedan delivery. - So sedan deliveries, if you think about, was a panel, kind of a
panel van, and it was just metal around here, and a lot of times florists
would put their name of their business or plumbing business. But the tell-tale mark
for a sedan delivery is a one-piece tailgate. Station wagon had a window one
up, the tailgate went down. But this is a one-piece, can I open this? - Sure, yeah. - All right, so it's
a one-piece tail-gate. That was a sedan delivery exclusive. Also. (door slams shut) As Peter said, there's no back seat. (door opens) You can see back here,
it's just a compartment for storing things. So who ordered this car and why? - They made them specifically
for the government. So I think they were all
Department of Agriculture or Forestry is what I understand. I've never seen, I've seen
other pictures of one, and they were all bare-bones. So they were straight
six, no real options, plain Jane, work vehicle. - So this is a 150. Most base model 55, 56, 57, Chevies are 210's. You can tell a 150. Now look if I make a
mistake, don't criticize me. Because I don't know
everything about 57 Chevies, but a 150 had no door handles, armrests on here. No armrest. You had to close it with the door handle. Probably why a lot of them are broken. This was a 210 option. I believe they only had one sun-visor. But this one has two, so I
may be mistaken in that area. It's got a radio delete clock delete, and I'm going to see how
many miles are on this thing. 99,636 miles. It's got a three on the tree. If you look, there's
nothing on this dashboard. There's no brass trim, gold
trim, or anything like that. It's a basic basic car. The 150's also had the
most basic steering wheel. Just one small horn button in the center. No deluxe horn ring around there. And that's it. It's a basic basic delivery vehicle. Or work vehicle. And as Peter said this was
ordered by the government for Forestry work. And I really wonder how
your brother found it? - Ah, you know, I don't know. He must have just, He bought it off a private party. So he didn't buy it from the government. - Got it. - There's a sticker on the dashboard, somewhere near the steering wheel that has the unit number for, I
think it's the Department of Agriculture. - Really? - Or such, it's somewhere
near the steering wheel there. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Huh. - And the log books are
still in the glove box from oil changes and
stuff the government did, - No kidding. - Yeah, there's a log book in there for. - Oh, look at this. This is unbelievable. United States Department of Agriculture. Chevrolet 57. Fiscal year ending June 30th, 1975. So this was in use for a long time. - So he must have bought it right after they decommissioned it. - Right. - Yeah. - So this must be like receipts, yeah, for oil changes, vehicle inspection. There's the tag number, the VIN number. This is intriguing. And, so here is a, Government vehicle operators, your guide to service stations
for gasoline, oil, and lube. Sheesh, this is amazing stuff. So I guess this was a required
piece of documentation for people that drove government vehicles. Wow, pretty cool stuff. Well that's pretty amazing. The 150's were the stripped down versions of Chevrolet sedans. I think they all had posts, whether it was in a sedan version. And I believe that's what
they used for the Black Widow, which was a 283 engine fuel injected version, which was the most
high-performance version. It was built to be a race
car, a NASCAR race car, or drag race car. But this one is on the
other end of the scale. Basic basic, three speed on the tree. And a six l motor. Let's flip that hood open there. (hood slams) And I'm not sure what
the cubic inches are, probably something like
215 or something like that. (clanking noises) So there it is. 99,000 miles, it probably
still runs like a clock. Does it run pretty well? - It'll fire right up. It'll drive real nice. - Geez. - Yup. - So what's your intention for this car? - I'm going to build it stock. Just like it is. But get the rear wheels
and poverty hubcaps. - Those little pipe,
the little tiny things - Yup. Small little, the small hubcaps. Keep it just stock. I have every piece, every part, so. - Man. - Do it as stock as I can. - Is the body pretty solid? - Pretty solid, it's
going to need some work. But in the 70's driving back
and forth to Washington, half that road was dirt. - Oh, yeah. - So silty dirt, you know, builds up, so. It's going to need some work. But for the most part, really solid. - You know another
thing I'm just noticing, is that 57 Chevies I believe
that were made in California had a one piece front bumper. And 57 Chevies made in Detroit had a seam here and a seam here. - Correct. - So that's a, so this is
probably a California car. - I think so, yeah. It's definitely a one piece bumper. And that's the original bumper, so. - Researching this car,
there's no value for this car, that we can find, because it's too rare. There's probably never been
one brought to an auction. And this might be the only
one left in the world. And it is a 235 cubic inch,
six cylinder, 140 horsepower. And it served its purpose. I mean that's all it needed to have. (Door slams) So, nice car. So we walk over here. Peter, tell me about this car, right here. - It's a 1914 Model T Town Car. And Town Car was the most expensive Model T built at the time. And they, so they didn't
sell very many of them. It was coach built by a
company outside of Ford, for building the actual body. - Um hm. - But it was meant for
taxicabs or chauffeuring, so people sat in the back
with glass partitions, and the driver sat up front. But very rare. Town Car Club says there's
two left in existence. This is number three. So there's three left in
existence of this model. - No kidding? - What's your intention with this? - Build it back to stock. - Build it back to stock. - I'm working that way, I've
got the mechanical parts. I've got everything I need. It's just a matter of getting to it, and the money to pay
someone to restore it. - Sure. - So. - Yeah, wow. - It would look like
that promotional picture that's on the wall. That's a- - Oh, look at that. Ford promotional picture from 1914, so. That's the exact model. - And how did you come to acquire this? - My Dad bought it in 1954. - Wow. - And so it's always been a Fairbanks car. The original owner bought it brand new. Barged it up to Fairbanks. Opened a taxicab company. Supposedly did it for a
year and a half, two years, wrecked it, damaged the front
end, and sold it for scrap. So it's been in Fairbanks its whole life. - Okay, well now we're going
to look at another Ford, of a slightly newer vintage. As we walk by Peter's other cool cars. So a friend of mine, David
Carpick, has loaned me his GT350 to use for our trip here in Fairbanks, as our vehicle. As a substitute for the Woodie. This is another one of his cars. He and his wife, Katie, have a great little collection of Fords. And this is a Boss 302 that he owns, that he found, and told
me a little bit about it. That's the original paint on there. So it's a Boss 302 1970
original paint car. It's got, it looks like it's
got eight track tape deck. So this was a model, the Boss 302, was built around the time, that the Z28 Camero was being built. And it was in response
to the Trans Am series. The car companies had to
homologate their race cars, by building a certain number
of street versions of it. And the cubic inch limit on the Trans Am series was five liters. So they had to build
these cars for the street, so they could race them. Guys like Bud Moore would
build cars for Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney, people like that. Swede Savage, Sam Posey,
all drove cars like this in the Trans Am Series. So this is one of those cars, it's a 70, and this could be for sale. I mean David told me, "I think we could consider selling that." So this will make somebody a happy owner one day, potentially. A rare car, desirable car, a high-performance car, a fun car to own. So if this car were in fair condition, number four condition, it
would be a $44,700 car. In good condition 68,200. In excellent condition 97 nine. And if it were concours, 128 grand. So, you know, what's this one? Original paint, it's probably
a good condition car. So somewhere in the 60's I suppose. I think this trip to Fairbanks has been particularly fruitful in that, we haven't found a lot of cars ourselves, but because we went to
a car, antique car event a week and a half ago, and made all sorts of leads, we were able to meet
people who knew about cars, or had cars themselves. So we've just come back here this week and call that number and call that number. Like taking orders. This has been a great time in Fairbanks. We're not done yet. We're going to keep driving around, looking for cars. But if you have a chance
to come to Fairbanks, check out the Auto Museum. Fountainhead Auto Museum. And scoot around some of the back roads. And maybe find some cars like this. Happy hunting. - This is the last known midget race car that ran in Alaska. And they used to have a race track over where Seekins Ford is now, called the Rendezvous Race Track. A gentleman named John Goss, that brought nine midget race cars from Seattle area to Alaska to race. He was flaggin a
motorcycle race over here, and he flagged the winner
and the second bike hit him and killed him. And so that was actually the
demise of the midget race cars.
