Farm Fresh

Chevrolet, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The term "barn find" has come to mean some sort of old car that's been sitting, forgotten, for a number of years, to the point where nobody's sure where it is or how long it's been sitting. But they're not always in barns anymore-garages, warehouses, old gas stations, and garden sheds are all typical hiding places.

Sometimes, though, you get a literal barn find. This '62-ish Chevrolet coupe has been sitting for a good long time, in a ramshackle grain crib in rural Illinois. I have no idea if this is a rare car, with a big block and a four speed or something, but the skinny tires sort of make me think it's packing a straight six and a three on the tree. Nevertheless, this would be a neat car, restored. Whether it could be I don't know.

Farm Fresh '53.

Chevy, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

I saw this Chevy coupe at the nostalgia drag races, competing in one of the stock classes. As I was shooting it the driver said "So, do you have a filter that makes it look better?". I told him that I called cars like this "farm fresh", and he told me it was exactly that. His father (also racing that weekend) found it in a barn the week before, and they'd been pulling all nighters to get it the old girl up and running again.

Still packing the original straight six, the old Chevy ran faultlessly-if a bit slowly-all weekend.

Sometimes you feel a little low....

...and sometimes you feel reeeeeal low! Car customizing has been around for just about as long as cars-before that, really, since coachbuilders built coaches before cars. And I'm reasonably sure that the first owner of the deDion Bouton asked for custom paint and upholstery.

Anyway, car customizing in America became very popular in the immediate pre-war and postwar years, as young men sought ways to make inexpensive, often used, cars look newer, and more modern, and just plain unique. This could run the gamut from special paint all the way to reshaping panels, adding trim from other cars, radical lowering, and completely new upholstery. In some cases, it's hard to tell what the original car was.

This '39-ish Mercury coupe features quite a few tricks of the early custom car trade. It's been chopped (the roof lowered for a sleeker profile), the badges and trim removed (to partially hide the origin of the car), new wheels, and it's been lowered. It's a classic example.