So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage?

[Sherlock]

On the way home from a hot rod show here, I took a local city street I don't usually take, and saw what appeared to be the back end of what I thought may have been a Hillman wagon (1960's)...

I just had to turn around... IMMEDIATELY, ASAP

The car was a 1963 Singer Vogue station wagon (estate car) - a badge engineered Hillman by that time, in kind of rough shape although quite solid on closer inspection, still needs a fair bit of work though. He brought it over from England when they moved here in 1981. And it was on the road locally up to seven years ago...

Also inside this rather anonymous garage was a 1952 Velocette police motorbike, it looks kind of rough but the owner tells me that it's in good overal original condition (never restored), and he told me that he still uses it on the road whenever he is able to. I invited him to our local September Brit/European show with his motorbike, he said he just might and had never heard of the show before.

The Singer, awaiting a rebuilt engine and some electrical work

The Velocette, apparently ready for a ride whenever...

These pictures fresh off the press, taken less than an hour ago... I love digital sometimes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I've gone by this garage many times, never knowing what hid inside, I'm constantly amazed at what is out there, some of the most amazing stuff and sometime you never know it.

 

[Steve_S]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

One day I came home from a British car meet. The winner of the show was a concourse 30's Bentley that would blow your socks off. As I was in my front yard talking, I was the Bently drive by my street. Turns out the guy lives three blocks away and has a collection of classic Beltley and Rolls Royce cars hidden on his property!

 

[Steve]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

An XK120 roadster alloy body, chassis # 6700010. The story of finding that one and its subsequent rescue and restoration are told elsewhere on this forum.

 

[Banjo]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

About 3/4 of a mile up the road is a neglected XK120 belonging to a nice older man. He's owned the car for most of it's life and it's sat dormant for a good portion of that. He had to move it out of the garage a while back to do some cleaning and he put a big "Not for sale" sign on it. I guess we'll see what someone will pay for an unrestored Jag at an estate sale some day.
Lots of others around here too but that one is real close by.

 

[frankenstang57]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

Let's see, a '65 S&S hearse, a very rusty Spitfire v-8 project, a 196? Benelli Barracuda, and a '58 Austin Cambridge. Outside in my side storage, there's 2 Stags, 1 1/2 Spitfires, a 924S, '74 Fiat 124, and an '03 Kia Rio. Ah, my own personal junkyard! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[sammyb]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

A block down the road was a 1969 Trans-Am (original owner too! He sold it last year /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif ...) Across the street in a humble three car garage with two Beetles and a 1976 Buick parked outside are a Porsche 356C coupe, 356B Cabriolet and a Speedster!!! A block down the road from those are two 1969 Dodge Chargers, which are used frequently.

Up the hill from me are a 65 Corvette and ZR1 Corvette, a '64 Impala around the other side, a '79 MGB under a tarp...

Tons of old cars around these hills.

 

[waltesefalcon]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

Hmm about a half mile from here is GT6 project, belongs to the original owner. About another half mile beyond that is an MGA sitting in a guys backyard, I saw that between the slats on his fence when I was going for a walk one time. My boss has his MGTD and his Porsche 356B coupe, and his 54 356 Speedster, in his garage at home. A professor at Cameron, has a nice blue TR3A which just sits to rot. Thats about all I can think of around here.

 

[jsneddon]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

OK- this might turn into a long post - I'm sorry.

3 blocks from my house when I was growing up in the mid-west there was a small auto repair shop - never more than a couple cars out front and nothing interesting. Basically a double-wide trailer that the guy lived in and a 2 car shop with a little lift in it.

So one day I'm driving by and there is a Singer roadster sitting out front. (4A roadster? 9 roadster? - not sure - definately post war - I thought it was a MGTD from a distance) I drool over it for a couple of days and Saturday morning Dad and I load up in his '52 MGTD and we drive up to the shop.

We start talking to the owner about British cars for a while and he gets this funny smile on his face and says "come on guys, follow me".

He takes us behind the double-wide and there is a low cinderblock warehouse out back that we'd never noticed before. From the street it is nearly invisible. He unlocks a side door and flips on the lights.

This guy has at least 40 cars sitting in there including a few jags, a couple of Austin Healys, and at least 10 mid-fifites race prepared two-seaters. Not your average two-seaters mind you... Maserattis and Ferraris... All in pristine shape... all red... vintage sponsor stickers and inspection stickers.

My dad and I just about crapped our pants.

Turns out that the repair shop out front was just something to keep him busy. His real business was trading classic racing cars all around the world. He explained that he keeps it all low key so that he doesn't have trouble with thieves and asked that we do the same. This guy must have had at least 2 million 1980 dollars in inventory sitting back there. For the next 10 years until I moved away we'd chat now and then and he'd show off his latest purchase. He only took deliveries or shipped out sales in the middle of the night. I'd be driving home late and see a closed semi sitting out front and they'd have the back open and be loading or unloading another beauty.

I don't know where he went now - I was back home last week and drove by his place and it was leveled for a parking lot for the light-rail station that now runs on the tracks next to where he was.

You just never know what is lurking in someone's back yard!

 

[aeronca65t]

The former major of our town died years ago and left this car in his barn (for about 14 years). His son saw my race-Spridget in my driveway one day while drivng by and asked if I was interested in it. It's a 1275 car with wire wheels, low-mileage and a perfect body. It was filled with mouse-turds, so the interior was spoiled, but that's about all. My brother now owns it...it was a great deal!

Also, does this count? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jester.gif (it's in my garden shed, parked on its side).

My friend Pete has a mess of cars on his property, stored in various outbuildings and sheds. He runs a Brit-car repair business so there are always "new" cars, plus some he owns, plus some that I think have been forgotten by their owners. Some are in great shape and some are awful looking. Right now he has: Four classic Minis, two 122S Volvos, a 142 Volvo, two big Healeys, three Spridgets, three MGBs, a FIAT 124 Spider, an ALFA V6 sedan, a Turner, two Cortinas, a Renault 5, a dune buggy, a F500 sports racer, an MGA, a Lotus +2 and a bunch of other things.

 

[John Loftus]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

A few blocks from my house lives an older gentleman, I'd place him in his 80's, perhaps 90's. He is the original owner of an Austin Healey 3000 not sure of the exact year but I think he said '58. Two carbs, he said. He scared himself driving it one day about 15 years ago and parked it. I had a chance to look at it briefly, there were still boxes on the bonnet so I couldn't open to see the engine. From what I could see the body looked great, original paint, interior was all original. Missing the speedo and one dent in the rear bumper. California car and saw no evidence of rust. I think it could be an excellent candidate for a 'clean up' restoration (mechanics, lightly buff out the paint, etc.)

Anyway he didn't want to sell yet. I've dropped by to talk to him many times but he's hardly there or doesn't hear well enough to answer the door. I hope to get a better look at it one of these days.

 

[beaulieu]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

not much around here , there was a MGTD in a garage 2 blocks away, sat there 20 years before I saw it the first time, would not sell it,
all the other interesting Brit cars are either in the back yard or gone,
not much out in front to see anymore......

 

[coldplugs]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

There's quite a lot hiding in old barns & sheds here. Within a few miles we have several TD's, most of a Bugeye on a rotisserie, a Giulietta off in a field, several Opel GT's, dozens of Model T's and A's, numerous old trucks (some still in use) including a beautiful '41 Chevy pickup, old tractors everywhere, and a metal building full of Fords from the thirties through the fifties in a private collection.

A few weeks ago I was at the water testing outfit and noticed a side street called "Constellation St." Since it's near the airport I figured it might be worth a look and went down it. It dead-ended at a Constellation, as in Lockheed.

 

[Sherlock]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

Forgot one... One of home owners in the same back alley as mine has an Alfa Romeo 1300 Junior duetto roadster (probably a 1968), it's usually in the back of his house under a cover - parked over concrete, one day I was driving by the house and was absolutely astounded to see it as I had never seen it before at that point.

Upon closer inspection it was a "roughie" special, still seemed to be plated for the road but needs lots of bodywork.

 

[William]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

Immediately next door is a Harley softtail, mildly customized. Before that, our neighbor had an old chopper (a proper chopper) that he'd bult himself in the sixties. Took him over a decade to rebuild it, scouring swapmeets and stuff for it. Beautiful example, which he sold to finance the new one.

Next to that is Tom, who has a beautiful 1973 or 4 Ford Mustang fastback, which he's owned from new. Metallic brown, 351 motor, automatic, perfect bodywork and an interior that's virtually unused. I've known him since 1979, and have never seen the car on the road-out in the driveway once in a while, and I've even seen it run a few times, but the tires are dry rotted so no road use. It's another one of those "it'll be restored someday" deals, although I rest easy knowing that it's stored properly and moved once in a while. Still, I'd love to see that almost mythical pony run.

Way back in grade school I had a friend named Frank. His dad was a scientist of some sort, and was originally from Germany. His family lived in a neat, big house that was on a weird plot of land that didn't face any streets in my neighborhood-just the alley that their driveway was on. Anyway, there was a car in the garage under a ratty canvas cover. One day, Frank said "wanna see the race badges?" Sure, I said, so he pulled up a corner of the cover and showed me the left front fender and wheel. It was faded red, peeling, with a rusty wire wheel with a flat tire....and a couple of badges riveted on, about where the BL badge is on a '71 MGB. I swear one of them was a Zagato Z, but that was back in what, fourth grade? 1984? Heck if I know, just that in retrospect, being that Frank's dad was German, and by memory a good bit older than my dad, he might have had some sort of fancy sports car that he raced before emigrating to the States. Certainly didn't occur to me to ask then (I wasn't the car hunter I am now). Every once in a while I think about that car, usually when I read something like this, but I've never had the guts to just walk up to their house and ask. If they still live there...

-William

 

[JPSmit]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

Not my neighbour but my best friends neighbour has a Morgan (that he uses a lot) 2 mercedes 80's SL and SEL) plus his Jimmy. He's also got a 20's? Rolls Royce and dismantled Bentley in his basement and until recently the Austin 7 that had won at Brooklands in 1934 or 1935. He sold the Austin to a fellow who had been searching for it for about 3 years. This fellow (the purchaser) finally contacted a man in England who thought it was still owned by my friend's neighbour (It was) hence the sale. What makes it so remarkable is that after three years of searching, the buyer and seller turned out to live 1 1/2 blocks from each other.

 

[Guest]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

Guy down the street and around the corner from me has a beautifully restored 69 Chevelle convertible, triple black, 396 big block with a 4 speed sitting in his garage. I met him one night at the Dunkin Doughnuts of all places, and found out he lives in my neighborhood. He hardly ever drives it, never shows it.

i was driving a few miles from my house in the TR one day last summer, there's a small rural gravel road at the far end of my town, off a main road, that dead ends at a small cemetery. Absoutely no traffic goes down this little road. There's an old red barn on this road, it's the only building there. As I'm driving by I notice the barn doors are open, and there is a guy hunched over the primered shell of a car, wet sanding the rear quarter. The car was a 67 Shelby fastback Mustang. I stopped, talked to him for a few minutes, he seemed anxious to get back to his sanding. I drive by there all the time now, but haven't seen the car or him since then.

I find myself constantly trying to get a peek into peoples garages when I'm out joyriding, you just never know what you'll see hiding in there.

 

[Radford]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

Just around the block from me here in Atlanta I spotted a nicely keep light tan MGA sitting in a gargae on Moores Mill.

 

[mikeyr]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

2 blocks down is a "driver" XK120, he drives it nearly every day rain or shine (mostly shine in S. Calif.). It smokes a little and it has seen better days but he keeps on driving it, I applaud him for that, doing with that car what it was meant to do.

Unfortunately, he is not very friendly, one time when I was walking around he was under the car swearing as he worked on it and I offered my lift less than 2 blocks away and his answer was "no thanks because then you would just try and buy the car and its not for sale" I explained that I had way more British and Italian cars than I needed and didn't want to buy his, he sent me on his way. Still a nice car though.

3 doors down is a guy who is destroying a big Healey and shoving in a V8 into it.

Even though I live only 2 miles from Moss Motors there is very little British car activity here in this town, almost never see older LBC's

 

[tony barnhill]

Re: So... What's hiding in your neighbours garage

I'm in a car guy neighborhood - next door is a sweet Vette, an MGA, a TR6 & a Harley, across street are 2 old Boss Mustangs - 1's a convertible, up street is a Cobra kit car & 3 old Mustangs, opposite direction is a Camaro dragster, down another block is an Austin Healey 3000 kit car

 

[roger64]

James, great looking car, very rare over here, next time I am in Calgary I will give you a call, perhaps we could go see it. You never know what is lurking around the corner.

Roger