Benchmark Barn Find Journal

The bench you see at the back of this car is part of the car.  Not sure how it works but thought the image was perfect for this blog post benchmarking where Barn Find Journal is at and where it is going.

Spring is coming and hopefully with spring will come better health for both of us.  We endured a great loss and recovery is coming along.  With the spring robins and sweet new leaves and sunshine will come energy and therefore travel to spruce up our WebLot of project cars and old trucks for sale.

Rare 1957 Crestliner boat for sale (416)

This 1957 Crestliner with aa 1957 Johnson outboard motor is a real find. Such a small world too -- the man who owns this boat and motor (and has the title) lives only a few miles from us. I did some research on this boat and discovered: 

Larson Motorcraft produced Crestliners from 1955-1957. 

All Johnson outboards prior to 1958 are collector engines. 

This boat is aluminum and wood and original. 

The original coloring was red and white. 

Larson changed company to Crestliner in 1957.

There a many things about this old classic Crestliner that make it a collector's dream but the owner only wants $850 for the whole kit and caboodle.

We hope someone who loves old boats ends up with this one.  by the way, the 1957 Johnson 3.5 hp still runs great and the boat is usable as is.

Email Larry is you want it for $850 at larry@vintageozarks.com

Morris Minor Moggie Car

Type in any of these key words:  barn find, barn finds, barn find cars, barn finds cars, car barn finds, old barn finds, or the barn find  and you will find dozens of sites and blogs about Barn Finds.

A Morris Minor is part of this barn find in the United Kingdom area.  The British love for the Morris Minor is "Moggie" which can be compared to what we American's nicknamed the Model-T "Tin Lizzie."

Britain, India, and Australia still love the Morris Minor today and honor the car annually at a Morris Minor Rally.  The photo on the left was taken a one of those rallies.

The Morris Minor was the car for the working class folks, similar to the Model-T for America's working class of the same era.  Today, Britains, Australians, New Zealanders, and Indians find these old buggies desirable and any that are found and restored if at all possible.

1915 Franklin motorcar with air-conditioning

My take on this article is that we the people allowed the wrong auto manufacturers to take over the market. We should have stood by Franklin and Preston Tucker, another independent car manufacturer. http://bit.ly/bL6Tij

Posted via web from Starship Control Panel

Air-Cooled 1915 Franklin automobile

This is a copyright free photograph of Mrs. F.S. Bliven and her daughter.  Mrs. Bliven is driving a 1907 Franklin Model D roadster.  Her husband, Frank, was a Franklin automobile dealer located in Washington, D.C. at the turn of the century.

The Franklin motorcars were air-cooled while all the other car manufacturers during that time period chose water-cooled engines.  Many people preferred Franklin's car because air-cooled meant no worry when the winter cold came.  Anti-freeze was not invented yet and the water-cooled radiators had to be drained. 

Also, Franklin motorcars came with heat and ac; an advertisement for Franklin cars around the early 1900s sported that "You use it all the time -- 50 degrees below zero, 120 degrees in the shade."  Franklin's cars were lightweight compared to the other cars manufactured back then.  Franklin made most of car body with aluminum or wood.


In 1914, Franklin proved the effectiveness of his air-cooled cars when 116 Franklin stock cars in 116 parts of the country ran 100 miles in low gear without stopping the engine.  Yet, with all these benefits, Franklin cars sold for half the price of a Ford Model-A of the same year.

One-Woman Car of the 1920s

Maybe you are not guilty of thinking your grandma didn't have fun when she was young, but I certainly am guilty of it. My grandma never once even wanted to learn how to drive a car; she could drive a mean team of horses, but it took years before she'd allow herself to be a passenger in a car. Actually both my grandma's were non-drivers, and thought it un-lady-like to drive a machine.

But this lady is having great fun and on Broadway no doubt. It did my heart good to see such an adventurous woman in the days of the Roaring Twenties (as if most of them were not adventurous at least in dancing).

Oh, yeah, grandma was a Southern Baptist so she never danced, the only radio she listened to was Sunday morning hymns which she sang along with while she cooked, and her hair was down to her ankles having never been cut.

GASOLINE prices in 1919

By 1915 the automobile industry in America kicked into second gear.  Ford's Model-T (from 1915 up) is not as collectible as Model-T's manufactured in 1914 or before.

Those old cars are not as collectible because Ford  and other auto manufacturers nearly doubled their production of cars in 1915-1916.  And in doing so, these old cars lost some of the previous quality found in cars in 1914 and before.

By 1915 about one and half million automobiles were produced and gas stations started springing up near roadways like mushrooms.  But gasoline was dirt cheap back then so lots of gas stations was a good thing, or so you might believe.  However, I found this little ditty written by Bill Davis, 1916, which sounds more like something some person might write today:

Go! Just keep going; never stopping for a rest.

All the day I keep on dodging bill collectors with a zest.

Summer clothes we wore all winter, Now 'tis spring, they're nearly through;

Once I paid my life insurance, now it's more than I can do.

Little ones are nearly barefoot, pantry shelves are empty now.

I have chopped wood most all winter, before this year I knew not how.

Ne'er before in my existence, has the tank on my machine

Ever starved, and froze the family, keeping 'er filled with gasoline.

(Bill Davis, 1915)