{"id":75367,"date":"2023-12-24T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T12:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=75367"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:19:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:19:19","slug":"rust-never-sleeps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/gallery\/2023\/12\/rust-never-sleeps.html","title":{"rendered":"Rust Never Sleeps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A famous rocker once said “Rust never sleeps” and if you\u2019ve seen firsthand the Barn Finds and Hidden Gems section at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN)<\/a>, you\u2019d agree with his assertions. Automobiles are a small part of the overall cycle of life and if uncared for, they slowly rot and crumble back into the earth with their planet-based raw materials such as steel, aluminum, rubber and the numerous petroleum-based interior parts. While there are varying degrees of this slow death of a car, it\u2019s never too late to save these mechanical mastodons that once ruled the avenues and boulevards across America in an era of Top-40 AM radio and drive-in restaurants. Luckily, there are still many rare examples of these machines whose body surfaces are covered in rust, mice droppings, faded paint and pitted chrome, but have enthusiasts staring in amazement, like gawkers driving past an accident scene. Regardless of the muscle cars’ poor state, there\u2019s always a home for these once-shiny examples of Detroit\u2019s finest in the Barn Finds and Hidden Gems section of the MCACN show. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The person who\u2019s been the ringleader in rounding up these well-worn vintage hot rods is Ryan Brutt, also known in the classic car circles as the Auto Archeologist<\/a>. This 40-year-old Chicago native cannot claim the phenomenon of “Barn Finds”, but he\u2019s moved the needle in this hobby in many ways. Ryan\u2019s authored a couple of books with vivid photographs of these buried classics while writing a monthly column in Hot Rod<\/em> magazine. Ryan\u2019s journey on the highways, byways and back roads of America discovering the rarest of the rare out in fields, garages and, yes, barns is well detailed. \u201cThe Barn Finds phenomenon took off well before me. There used to be a site called carsinbarns.com that was very popular. That\u2019s what started everything for me on this quest of traveling around the country documenting cool cars that have been neglected over the last half-century. I write for multiple publications on these poor cars and I’m usually a few weeks out every month doing something related to hunting down these cars. I really enjoy it,\u201d said Ryan. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Another interesting aspect of this offshoot of the vintage car hobby is how it\u2019s gained a ton of traction over these last few years. \u201cWhen it comes to reaching out to owners of these cars, we don’t really put a call out to people anymore. They just have to sign up to be part of our show and since \u2018Barn Finds and Hidden Gems\u2019 is a yearly thing at MCACN, the word has gotten out. Bob (Ashton) and I travel around the country looking for cool vehicles to discover and personally invite the owner and their cars to the show. We look for things our attendees would find unique and interesting,\u201d noted Ryan. So, what does it take to drag an old rusted muscle car out of the grips of death and bring it to Chicago for the MCACN show? \u201cThere isn’t a set of parameters to strictly follow, but we try to narrow it down to rare and unique cars that have been sitting for a very long time and haven\u2019t been shown to the general public before,\u201d commented Ryan. <\/p>\n\n\n

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During this year\u2019s MCACN show, there were plenty of cool worn-out muscle cars from GM, Ford, Dodge, Plymouth and even some obscure brands like AMC. Even though Ryan is an acknowledged “Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> Guy” whose daily driver is a B5 Blue 2009 Challenger R\/T that has racked up over 200,000 miles scouring the country looking for rare and buried muscle cars, he appreciates all makes, brands and nameplates. Ryan puts his heart and soul into the Barn Finds and Hidden Gems display where diehard fans trek to MCACN to get a closer look at these tattered and frayed machines. \u201cWe had 36 cars in the Barn Finds section at year\u2019s show that included 18 rare Mopars,\u201d said Ryan. When asked what his top three favorite Mopar vehicles were from this year\u2019s show, it was a tough call for Ryan as he loves them all. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cOne of my favorites was the barn find of the 1970 \u2018Pilot\u2019 \u2018Cuda that was one digit off in its VIN from RTS (Rapid Transit System) \u2018Cuda that was also on display in the show. Like the RTS \u2018Cuda, the \u2018Pilot\u2019 \u2018Cuda was powered by the 440 Six Barrel engine and had the Shaker hood. I knew about the \u2018Pilot\u2019 \u2018Cuda through my friend Seth Degenhardt who was a friend of the owner. We both convinced him to bring the car to MCACN as it had not been seen by the general public in decades. As of right now, the current owner has no plans to restore it and after the show, the \u2018Pilot\u2019 \u2018Cuda just went back into the storage shed,\u201d said a somewhat shocked Ryan. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Another cool car Ryan turned us on to at the show was a 1969 Charger 500 HEMI\u00ae<\/sup>. \u201cThis was a legitimate barn find that was drug out of storage just before the show. It still had the numbers-matching 426 Street HEMI engine under the hood, which is rare since this Charger sat for over 40 years. With any HEMI engine-powered muscle, it\u2019s rare to find one still with its numbers-matching engine since these things led a hard life among their abusive owners. Despite being covered in various shades of primer, the trunk still retained the original green paint and white bumble bee stripe. Luckily, this rare Charger 500 is destined to be restored and unveiled at MCACN in the next few years,\u201d noted Ryan. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Among the worn-out machines, a rare gem stood out. It was a special-order paint 1969 Coronet Super Bee. Powered by a 383 Magnum with a four-speed transmission, this was not your average bargain muscle car Dodge built in large quantities for 1969. \u201cThis rare Bee left the plant emblazoned in a unique pink color. Despite being repainted orange decades ago, there were still major sections of the original pink paint still on the car. Since the data tag denoted \u2018999\u2019 for the special-order paint option, we had a noted Mopar expert onsite at MCACN check the confirm the Bee\u2019s original color and it confirmed it was pink. However, we had other Mopar sleuths check out the Super Bee and they all concluded it was not the same shade as Panther Pink that Dodge had introduced in 1970. What\u2019s also cool, this Super Bee was ordered without the bumble bee strip, thus making it even more unique,\u201d exclaimed Ryan. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The popularity of dragging vintage muscle cars out of the grip of near disintegration and showing them to the world has increased in popularity as noted by Ryan. \u201cSince the Barn Finds and Hidden Gems section started in 2012, this year was the largest in the show\u2019s history. The area where these cars were shown had to be expanded and was constantly mobbed with attendees clamoring for a closer look. Many are surprised there are still so many cool and rare cars being discovered and brought to MCACN. We\u2019re already working on the 2024 and will have some vehicles unearthed and displayed at next year\u2019s show.\u201d So, mark for calendars, the dates for the 2024 MCACN<\/a> show are set for November 23-24, and make your plans now to attend this awesome event!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A famous rocker once said “Rust never sleeps” and if you\u2019ve seen firsthand the Barn Finds and Hidden Gems section at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN), you\u2019d agree with his assertions. Automobiles are a small part of the overall cycle of life and if uncared for, they slowly rot and crumble back into the earth with their planet-based raw materials such as steel, aluminum, rubber and the numerous petroleum-based interior parts. While there are varying degrees of this slow death of a car, it\u2019s never too late to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":75348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2621,2622],"tags":[2948,2949],"class_list":["post-75367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery","category-heritage","tag-dodge-classics","tag-plymouth-classics"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/RustNeverSleeps_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/RustNeverSleeps_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75367"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77809,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75367\/revisions\/77809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}