Tom Cotter - 50 Shades of Rust

When picking up your new barn-find, bring a real camera!

After six barn-find books, I see an uncomfortable trend developing. Many people take beautiful glamor photos of their cars when they are fully restored, but few barn-finders take high-quality photos when their find is unearthed.

The publisher requires high-resolution images of 300 dpi and above for prints to be used in these books, and often, the as-found photos are much lower quality than that. When retrieving your new project, remember to bring along a real cameranot just a cell phone cameraso you can take high-quality images of your car from the start.

Youll be in much better shape if youd like to submit it for a future book, and the before-and-after shots will be that much better on your garage wall.

Thanks,

Tom

First published in 2014 by Motorbooks, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

2014 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2014 Tom Cotter

All photographs are from the authors collection unless noted otherwise.

All rights reserved. With the exception of quoting brief passages for the purposes of review, no part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written permission from the Publisher.

The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. All recommendations are made without any guarantee on the part of the author or Publisher, who also disclaims any liability incurred in connection with the use of this data or specific details.

We recognize, further, that some words, model names, and designations mentioned herein are the property of the trademark holder. We use them for identification purposes only. This is not an official publication.

Motorbooks titles are also available at discounts in bulk quantity for industrial or sales-promotional use. For details write to Special Sales Manager at Quayside Publishing Group, 400 First Avenue North, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA.

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Digital edition: 978-1-62788-371-9
Hardcover edition: 978-0-76034-575-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cotter, Tom, 1954

50 shades of rust : amazing barn finds you wish youd discovered / by Tom Cotter.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7603-4575-7

1. Automobiles--Collectors and collecting. 2. Antique and classic cars--Anecdotes.

3. Automobiles--History. I. Title. II. Title: Fifty shades of rust.

TL7.A1C683 2014

629.2220973--dc23

2014013232

Publisher: Zack Miller

Editor: Jordan Wiklund

Design Manager: Brad Springer

Cover Designer: Kent Jensen

Layout Designer: Diana Boger

Cover photography: Lura Lauer

On the front cover: A rusty Jaguar E-Type peeks from beneath a crimson silk sheet. Lura LauerandCarlos Lopez.

INTRODUCTION: THE ART OF THE HUNT:
ITS HUMAN EVOLUTION

by Wayne Carini
Host of Chasing Classic Cars, on the Velocity network

R ust and the classic cars have a complicated relationship. Rust can be the bane of the car owners existenceextensive rust can drive a car to the junkyard or to expensive refabrication and restoration. Rust can render a car dangerous to operate. Even a spot of rust can spell doom to a car owner as it can spread quickly and without regard for make, model, and year. For all of the pain that rust can cause, though, it can also tell the car collector a human story about the lives of the people who drove the car, where they lived, what they did, and what their particular brand of life was like.

In the early days of the automobile, rust was a nuisance, an embarrassment, a cancer that had to be removed. Rust removal did not begin as a concern for the aesthetics of the car but as a utilitarian enterprise. The average automobile was the second largest investment for a family besides a house; it had to last a long time. Early car owners repaired their cars so that the drivetrains could survive long enough to get them from point A to point B. Families did not take their cars in to trade them up for the newest model like we do so often today.

The 40s and 50s saw the birth of the collector car hobby as we know it. Full restoration was in vogue. The mindset in those days was to present a car that looked better than it did the day that it rolled off the assembly line. My father, Robert Carini, began his long career in automotive restoration with a Model A Ford that he found behind a barn in a small Connecticut town. He made that car look brand new, and along with two other friends, founded the Model A Restorers Club of America.

When my father restored a car, he did it to absolute perfection. From a young age, I helped him in the shop. Whichever car he was working onbe it a Packard, Duesenberg, Buick, Lincoln, or Ferrariit had to be an award winner. Every year we would pack up and head from Connecticut to Hershey, Pennsylvania, the Mecca of the collector car hobby, with our latest work in tow. These were both exciting and stressful times. Everything about the car we brought had to be absolute perfection. We went as far as to take a jack to the car show, jack the car up, and rotate the wheels so the name on the hubcap was perfectly horizontal and the valve stem was pointed straight up. I cannot recall a time when my father didnt take home a trophy.