News / Life / Clark County Life

Check It Out: Rust never sleeps for gearheads – or their significant others

By Jan Johnston

Published: April 17, 2016, 6:00am

"50 Shades of Rust: Barn Finds You Wish You'd Discovered" by Tom Cotter (Motorbooks, 192 pages)

The promise of nicer weather ahead might be prompting automobile enthusiasts to pull out their special, garage-protected vehicles and buff them up in preparation for warm-weather cruising. I happen to be thinking about this because my husband has a classic Chevy pickup he restored, and it’s pretty much reserved for fair-weather driving. It’s a sweet ride, and we thoroughly enjoy taking it on the road on sunny days.

What surprises me most about being married to a classic car enthusiast is how much I have come to admire vintage cars. I’m never going to be the kind of girl who likes to wrench, or who can hold her own in a conversation about torque ratios or engine displacement, but I do like hearing the deep growl from a muscle car, or checking out the elegant lines of, say, a 1940s Packard. It’s a world I never would have entered if not for my sweetheart’s influence.

Not having the kind of monetary resources necessary to expand beyond one classic vehicle, we find other ways to satisfy our interest — no matter the weather conditions. During the summer months, nearly every town — big or small — hosts some kind of annual car show; or, if we want to avoid the crowds, cruising the county’s back roads is always an option. For those times of the year when it happens to be too soggy to leave the house, plenty of automobile-related television programs are available to watch (trust me on this — I know).

But what if the cable goes out and it’s raining cats and dogs outside? Time to go the library and browse the shelves for books like today’s title, “50 Shades of Rust.” If you’ve ever dreamed of finding a rare Shelby Cobra or a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray languishing in someone’s old shed, this collection of stories will definitely get your motor running.

“Barn finds,” as they’re commonly called, refer to classic vehicles that have spent much of their lives stored in outbuildings — quite often barns — moldering away from neglect. These hidden beauties usually just need a good dose of TLC in order to “shine” again. Of course, “shine” is a relative term in the vintage car world because there are times when an old classic looks better in its original state. For instance, in “50 Shades of Rust” you’ll read about Michael Cummings and his 1939 Ford coupe. It’s pretty rough-looking, but he decides “to keep the cosmetics as-is and restore it mechanically,” which is a perfect tribute to its colorful history: it was used to run moonshine in South Carolina! Then there’s the 1946 Chevrolet pickup truck purchased in 1998 by Dan Wampler. It sat outside for years with a hand-written “no sale” on the windshield, but Dan was able to convince the owner to part with it after he assured him he “wouldn’t chop it all up … and would keep the patina just like it was on the body, and just clearcoat the old paint and rust.” In these cases, it’s age before beauty.

Of course many of the stories in today’s book are about owners doing full restorations of their barn finds. A 1957 Elva MK II sports racer goes from a pile of junk sitting in a barn to a fully restored vintage race car. A “rusty hulk” found in a field in Virginia looks unsalvageable, but stock car racing historian John Craft notices a plaque that reads Holman-Moody and realizes that it’s a vintage Ford stock car. A comprehensive restoration is nearly complete, and the plan is to race it in vintage stock car races. A 1965 Pontiac GTO convertible, won in a 1965 radio contest by a lucky resident of Indianapolis, serves as a daily driver until 1978, then gets parked in a garage and doesn’t move until 29 years later. Now completely restored, the new owner says it “sees the light of day frequently now.”

For gearheads (and the spouses of gearheads) “50 Shades of Rust” will definitely entertain with its variety of barn find stories, including fascinating bits of automotive history, a few intrigues, and a whole lotta passion for vintage vehicles. Start your engines, readers. It’s time to hit the road … to the library!

Jan Johnston is the collection development coordinator for the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District. Email her at readingforfun@fvrl.org.

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