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Fantastic luxe old classics from an old unrestored Mercury to massive fifth-gen Lincoln Continentals are here for viewing in the ‘burbs.
The best car finds are not always limited to junkyards and dusty barns. A legendary classic just might be tucked away in a suburban garage. Tom Cotter, AKA Barn Find Hunter from the YouTube channel Hagerty, shows us some crazy-beautiful classic cars hidden outside the city limits.
Check out the video to see the cars and their stories.
A One In 500 Mercury In Concours Condition
Tom Cotter is visiting Art, the owner of Henry Ford II’s personal Ford Mustang. But another treasure waits in his garage: his grandfather’s 1950 Mercury Monterey, which he bought new and kept in storage for over 40 years. This was the first model year for the Monterey, and Mercury produced fewer than 500 of them.
This Monterey has stunning details: for example, the gold-plated Mercury head badge and winged hood ornament and the chunky chrome bumpers, dual exhaust pipes, and a split windshield. A Flathead V8 powers the car, and it has a three-on-the-tree. What’s more, the car has only 14,000 miles on it.
Mercury intended the car to be a giant step up from its predecessor, the two-toned Mercury Custom and, before that, the submarine-like Mercury Eight that started it all. Art’s Monterey is in mint condition and also has a few high-end options like a vinyl top and all-leather seats. Because of those factors, Tom estimates its true market value to be well over $50,000.
A Driveway and A Four-Car Garage Stuffed With 1970s Classics
From Art’s garage, Tom visits another suburban location, where he meets a friend of the owner of a seemingly random collection of cars. The only commonality these 12 cars share is that they all are mostly large, luxurious models from the 1970s. Parked in the driveway are various gems such as a green and white Lincoln Continental, a V12 Jaguar X-JS, a Cadillac Coupe de Ville, and a Chrysler Imperial. The garage holds a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, a second Lincoln Continental, a Mercedes SSK kit car, and a classic Chevy Nova. One or two are drivable, but the others are still works in progress.
As Tom learns about the cars, their owner’s philosophy becomes clearer. Like many of us, he loves cars from the era in which he grew up. More interestingly, though, his favorite is the one he’s working on at any given time. Whether it’s a ford, Chevy, GM, or an exotic, this man simply loves cars. It’s a sentiment that it’s easy to understand.
