jeff_a Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 (edited) I read on Yahoo Auto today* something about "You won't believe what someone's found in a barn!" Thinking maybe The Holy Grail or at least a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, I got suckered into reading the story and it's about an "unbelievably-rare '69 Mustang Boss 302". I remember seeing enough of them in the Tyson's Corner Mall parking lot when I was in high school to think "Not so much." A bunch of people impressed by the "find" were leaving hundreds of enthusiastic comments, including one guy who feels that as a barnfind it would be worth "in the low hundreds", and something like $65K if it doesn't have an engine. Maybe I missed something. Fairly normal collector car, isn't it?* "Rare Mustang Boss 302 Emerges From Barn After 40-year Slumber" Edited January 8, 2014 by jeff_a (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest billybird Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I wouldn't say "fairly normal", although certainly not rare. Back when the muscle car craze peaked, I saw them approach six figures for a correctly restored example. Of course I thought all the muscle cars were over priced then but that was the craze at the time. Example: My dream muscle car has always been a 1969 Dodge Super Bee Six Pack A12 car. I've watched the prices of correctly restored examples fall from 125,000 to 70,000 for the same car.The barn find Boss I would say certainly not six figures and 65,000 without the engine-no way. Unless of course certain auction companies had it; but I won't go there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Henry White Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 There is a barn find 69 Boss 302 on ebay right now at like $72K, I assume same car. Hmmmm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karguy12 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Definitely a cool find but certainly not newsworthy. I sold my Boss 302 running and driving and looking better than that one for less than $40,000 and it HAD the correct Boss 302 engine and all of the Boss goodies. That car might bid up to over $70k, but it certainly won't be paid for and picked up.... lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave@Moon Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 #1 condition in my 2010 book lists the car as worth $88K, $11K more than a similar '57 Chevy BelAir hardtop. A drivable, HPOF-worthy barn find '69 Boss 302 in totally unmolested, rust-free condition could be a low-$100K figure car by those standards. It's all about supply/demand. After all they only made 1.628 '69 Boss 302s. They made over 48,000 '57 BelAir convertibles, and they're worth considerably more ($110K in #1 condition) than the Boss 302. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_a Posted January 8, 2014 Author Share Posted January 8, 2014 (edited) I re-read the story, and forgot to mention that it hit a fire hydrant before being parked. So the sign could read: Ran great when parked [or at least until it plowed into a fire hydrant]. Edited January 8, 2014 by jeff_a (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caddyshack Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Just another example of an over used phrase to attract attention. Maybe we all should run out and buy used barn wood, line our garages with it, and let people who drive by think they have stumbled across a valuable "barn find". The 60's era Vette and Chevelle always get attention when my door is up, but I call it what it is, not what they could be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whtbaron Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 LOL... the shop I am currently working on is a renovated hog barn. From now on, ALL of my projects will be "barn-finds!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Dobbin Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 "Barn Find" is another over used term like "Classic Car", "Low Mileage", "Original Owner", "One Owner", "mint", "Restored to original", "Last Known Survivor", "Needs TLC". All terms of opinion rather than fact.I own two literal "Barn Finds", actually found in barns in Wisconsin were dragged to Florida One still draws a crowd, but the onlookers don't see that I did a lot of unseen (non cosmetic) work to get it to the reliable driver status it enjoys now. The other became a Resto-Mod.Many other cars were found in similar condition, but not in barns, but other people's garages and incomplete project piles. I still look closely at all old barns in hopes of another real barn find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest billybird Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Sooner or later one of two things has got to happen. We'll either run out of cars or barns; one or the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
West Peterson Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 [ATTACH=CONFIG]229809[/ATTACH]Want Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsancle Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I was surprised the Boss 302 got that level of attention. Certainly not holy grail material but relativity rare and certainly collectible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff_a Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 (edited) Thanks for all the replies. It wasn't a badly written article. The interesting thing about it was not the car allegedly in a barn, but that the story elicited hundreds to not only read it but reminisce and comment about their old long-lost car (none of them were even Mustangs!). The individual who thinks it's worth "in the low 100s" said it'd be a $65,000-$80,000 car without a motor. What a crock! Maybe I need to get more worked-up about Barn Finds. They do exist -- but sometimes people get in a frenzy about things. I'm really more interested in what I'd call Hidden Collections. I saw a couple last summer while on the 10th Annual Pierce-Arrow Gathering at Gilmore tour. We have a Peerless Motor Car Club Member named Bryan Moran who got to see one in a little town in Iowa 6 or 7 years ago. These are places nobody advertises, nobody has access to {unless you have connections} and no one lists on automobile museum listings. They are private collections scattered all over the country. I'm sure a lot of you out there know of some. Edited January 11, 2014 by jeff_a Threw in another paragraph. (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Harmatuk Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I know where there is a "garage find", less than 5 miles from my house.It is a 1966 Chevelle SS 396 car. Blue with black stripes. Blue interior. One owner. Beautiful.The car was bought new by a lady and soon after it was bought, it was stolen. The thieves pulled the 396 and after the car was recovered, the Chevrolet dealership installed a brand new 327. probably less than 20,000 miles on the car if that much.The car hasn't seen daylight in I KNOW, 40 years. The one car garage doors haven't been open in 40 years.The car is not for sale.Bill H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Restorer32 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 An occasional customer of ours found a 1919 International on the 4th floor of an abandoned toilet paper factory in Philadelphia. "Barn finds" are where you find them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taylormade Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I find it amusing that many of these so called "barn finds" are just cars that were stored by their owners - owners who obviously knew the car was there and put into storage for one reason or another. Somehow "barn find" has come to mean a car that supposedly disappeared from all sight and knowledge for some undetermined number of years and then was magically discovered by the super-sleuth who for some reason decided to open the doors of a structure he didn't own and was greeted by the sight of a vehicle that no human eyeball had seen for decades. Take my "barn find." It sat in a garage for forty three years. It happens to be the first car I ever owned - the actual car. I sold it to a fraternity brother of mine in 1967 and it went into his grandmother's garage in 1970 when he went into the army. It had been there ever since. Was it some magical discovery that I can claim to have found? No. Phil, the gentleman who I sold the car to, knew where the car was and watched over it. It was no big secret, there was no mystery, and the fact it happened to be stored in a barn-like garage means just that - that's where it was stored. So, here's a photo of my 'barn find."<quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whtbaron Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Yep... I own 4 barns and I know what is in every one of them... bunch of junk that nobody in our lifetime's is going to want, and not one vehicle. People don't forget what is in there, they just get too old to do anything with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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