Barn Find...

[RacingManiac]

Trio of rare Italian exotics found in dusty Texas barn (http://jalopnik.com/5825189/trio-of-rare-italian-exotics-found-in-dusty-texas-barn/gallery/1)

Not a bad trio...

[250gto boy]

sweet. you never see cars like these with so few miles and that Daytona is absolutely sexy

[Man of Steel]

Ouch.

Any Ferrari that’s 30-plus years old with low miles has probably sat untouched for years, and that typically destroys the engine from the inside out. The car was probably pulled into the garage, shut off, and the owner closed the garage door and walked away. The battery died, the fuel turned to varnish, rust formed on the cylinder walls, and the rings froze to the cylinders. Then rust attacked the valve faces and seats so that when sleeping beauty is brought back to life, she’s ugly to the bone.

As engines suffer a slow death from sitting, so do carburetors and transmissions, transaxles, suspension components, brakes, a/c and heating and defroster systems. Heater control cables freeze and heater valves seize solid. The a/c lines deteriorate and the brake reservoirs vent to the air, initiating death by freezing the brake calipers.

Every shop has horror stories of transaxles and differentials in which the lower part of the gear set or ring and pinion was immersed in oil while the upper half was exposed to air vented into the casing. Such improper storage leads to condensation and death by rust.

Regardless of whether a Daytona had 5,000 miles or 50,000 miles, rust never sleeps: If door skins haven’t been replaced, they will need to be. Rust also attacks the inner panels of the rockers, rear wheel wells, and the trunk floor.

Time is hard on rubber, so suspension fittings and bushings, seals, and gaskets will be shrunken, cracked, or hard. Cadmium suspension platings will be well past their due date, regardless of miles.

While a Daytona is probably good for 100,000 miles, they never get there and almost always require rebuilds because of old age. Just one example of the time and age problems is the large 20-quart dry-sump system, which hardly ever gets hot. There are multiple ingredients in gasoline and the boiling point of gasoline starts somewhere north of 168 degrees.

Carburetors and cold engines dump raw fuel past the rings into the oil system, and unless the oil is heated to well over 168 degrees for an extended period of time, fuel contaminants will not boil out of the oil; condensation, acids and other corruptors will shorten engine life.

So before you pay $150,000 for a sleeping-beauty Daytona, instead of $225,000 for a well-maintained car or $275,000 for an older restoration, consider the following: It will cost at least $25,000 to overhaul the engine, $5,000-plus for the brakes, $5,000 to $10,000 for the suspension, and at least $10,000 for those underhood nightmares waiting to bite you. And never mind $35,000 for paint and $10,000 for an interior.

Expect the same issues with a 365 BB or 512 BB and BBi (1974–84)—plus the dreaded every-five-year belt replacements. In addition, poor federalization work to meet EPA and DOT standards must often be redone properly.


From Ferrari's On-line. Awesome find still. If you have the money.

[RacingManiac]

They make for great projects for the collector though, as finding these with little original miles is very hard....

[ScionDriver]

Probably easy to say that yes, it will cost quite a bit to get them up to running order, but if you can afford it, it won't bother you a bit, plus you're getting a car that is all original (before replacements) with very low original miles.

[NSXType-R]

Definitely going to be a long term project car.

But it'll be worth it.

[clutch-monkey]

give me a blank cheque and the dino to work on!

[W.R.]

Wish I had a barn to find things in...

[LHamilton_w]

At least that Daytona looks good from the outside. I would guess even if the internals have decayed, it would still sell for a lot and as NSXType-R mentioned, a restoration would definitely be worth the effort.

[Commodore GS/E]

I have just looked into our barn- I mean maybe some super-rare exotic could have appeared. Sadly, it's still only filled by a mildly broken Fiesta and a rusting Fiat. Meh.

[Kitdy]

My boss's farm has a Fiat X1/9 in it, which I saw for the first time two weeks ago.

He also has an old Jag rotting away somewhere in storage... So sad.

[Commodore GS/E]

My boss's farm has a Fiat X1/9 in it, which I saw for the first time two weeks ago.

He also has an old Jag rotting away somewhere in storage... So sad.

How did the Fiat come to Canada?

Anyways, there is an empty house next to my brothers house in Saxony that was left hust after the reunification. In it's garage, we found 3 Wartburg 311 models, one of it being the rather rare Camping model. Sadly, only one of them is in ok condition, and getting them out there would be a challenge, too, because of the trees that have grown in front of the garage :(.

Let's just face it: the chances of finding a Ferrari in an east german barn are rather dismal :D.

[Kitdy]

How did the Fiat come to Canada?

I do not know. I will have to ask him about it.

I wanted to take a closer look, maybe get the VIN, but it is an absolute mess and is covered in dirt and other detritus. There could be animals in it.

[f6fhellcat13]

Let's just face it: the chances of finding a Ferrari in an east german barn are rather dismal :D.
Who knows, you might find a Chaika, a Tatra, or one of Honecker's Citroens or Volvos!
A Tatra, though probably not the others, would at least as cool as the Bora.

[VOGUE_MAN]

Wish I had a barn to find things in...

Agreed.

[Ferrer]

Who knows, you might find a Chaika, a Tatra, or one of Honecker's Citroens or Volvos!
A Tatra, though probably not the others, would at least as cool as the Bora.
Air cooled, rear engined, V8 with oddball aerodynamic body?

Who wants a Ferrari...

[TVR IS KING]

I love these, such mystery. I wonder why the Daytona looks so good. How can the paint possibly last that long in a barn? Even if it was covered, I'd expect some wear.
It's a shame though, a waste of 3 near-new Italian beauties.

[Commodore GS/E]

Air cooled, rear engined, V8 with oddball aerodynamic body?

Who wants a Ferrari...

Hemi. You forgot to mention that it has a Hemi engine :D.