I seem to be getting confused over this term. I always equated it with a car that was discovered tucked away in some farmer's barn after having been hidden for 50 years. Seems like these days it means a car that's been parked in the barn for a year or two and may have been restored 6 or 8 times. What's up?

I would agree with you. But as times change, I guess so must language. It definitely used to mean a car that had never been restored and was filthy. It now seems to mean anything from a reasonably clean garage with a thin layer of dust. I think we should all adopt the term "garage hermit" for any older restoration that hasn't been out in a while.
That is my opinion and I am sticking to it. (I wish I had some money so I could buy one and call it that.)
Drive safe, w2

I seen the one on ebay that has a different frame etc that is barn fresh....I with you Chuck

It been quite a while since any real 'Barn Fresh'
old cars were found in this area. A deceased friend in the 70's had the time to search and did really find a few. These cars were piled up with a lot of dust, rotten tires and a dried out gas tank that was full of varnish. The paint was peeling. They werent a rebuilt car from 10 years earlier and then suddenly found.
Anyway times have changed and a lot fewer "barn fresh' cars are out there. At least in this area anyway. MHO

Consider that the oldest Model T is now 83 years old, and the original owner would be around 100 years old if still living today. It is quite unlikely that any old original Model T stored in a garage is just being found. However, there might be a few which were "Barn Fresh" 50 years ago, that are still unrestored and not driven much in the last 50 years stored in a barn which has been passed down for a few generations. Unlikely, though.
Norm

Like you I have been confused about what a "Barn Fresh” T is.

At first I thought it was an origional-unrestored T.

Then I began seeing people talk about their "Barn Fresh" T that had been restored in the past then placed in a barn for numerous years before being brought back to life.
Some had been in storage for 45 or even 50 years and other just a few – like 10.

I am beginning to think the hobby is going thru a resurgence with people rediscovering T's and putting them back on the road without doing a complete restoration.
The car market was dominated by the mussel cars but the prices went out of sight.

Somehow the Model T keeps coming back!

I just learned that one of the ladies in the insurance office has a T that was passed from her grandfather thru her dad to her.
I need to talk with her to see what she does with it.
I hope it isn"t a barn dweller!

It is sort of hard to find Barn Fresh ones any more when they have been tearing all the old barns down.

Norm - I know your math is better than that, so I think you meant "youngest" where you said "oldest"! Ha,ha,....just givn' ya' "the business",.......harold

P.S. Hey Norm; click on my name and take a look at the photo of my depot hack that "Hap" Tucker helped me add to my profile! (actually, "Hap" did it for me!) Anyway, I know that you (and a guy named Bruckner) will like the color!

I believe that my 21 Runabout may fall in the category you’re discussing here. But, my car came out of a garage and not a barn.

I call it a “survivor”. What I mean by this is that I truly believe my car has never been restored in its life. It has had “improvements” made during its life such as an engine/transmission replacement but has not been parted or has exchanged many owners. I believe there is evidence within the car itself to prove that.

The information I was given about the car was that I am the third owner. The second owner was the son of the original owner. When I purchased, it came out of a garage in San Francisco where it had been stored since 1970.

The car’s condition is very good and is solid. Credit goes to the previous owner as it seemed to be well cared for in its life, and a tightly sealed garage where it rested for the past 40 years.

I have since rebuilt the drive train in order to get it in good running order. I wanted to be able to drive and enjoy it. I’ll have to say that when I first purchased it I thought in my mind that I would restore it and give it a nice new paint, but as I’ve spent time with it and have talked and shown it to other T owners, I probably am going to leave the rest of it as is.

Orlando


San Francisco


After I got it home and cleaned up.


This photo taken yesterday 11-27-2010

Barn Fresh

Mine came out from under a haystack in a barn but I wouldn't have called it 'barn fresh'. It had never been restored in the sense of it being rebuilt in any major way.
Just sort of 'fixed along the way' then when it couldn't be started just shoved back in the barn and eventually buried in a disorganized pile of hay. The owner of the place passed away and his kids started cleaning the farm up to put it on the market for sale and while they were cleaning the barn and pitchforking the messy pile of hay out the fork hit the lower pane of the windsheild and broke it alarming the person that there was something under the hay.
The car was drug out and sold to a guys who specializes in project vehicles (has 25 acres of teens-sixties cars) and thats where I bought this nice little 99% rust free roadster for $1,500.

For sure it had to have been on the road as early as the advent of spray can paint because that's what it was shoddily painted with over the original black. When I stripped it the metal underneath both layers was a smooth grey with no evidence of having been sanded which boggles me because how was the car painted without some prep work????

I think there are still lots of T's out there to be found this way. Older 2nd or 3rd owners that just fixed as they went and then forgot about the car when it became too much trouble.

Some pics...

Here is a truely old barn fresh truck purchased from the daughter of the original owner. She said her dad put it away the week she was getting married. It was never restored, he start to take it apart to restore or fixt it up he had the top off and the doors and started to chisel the bolts off that held the box on. I bought it with the original bill of sale and the title in his name. I think it was a truely great find. It was from a farm here in Plymouth WI.

Very cool guys

Sure makes me feel old when I see cars I drove when they were new, now advertised as barn fresh....

Hey Bill, I especially like the original bailing wire home repair holding on the spring perch. It does look like a great find.

That is gorgeous Bill! Speedometer equipped???
What kind of rad ornament is that???

Patrick the speedometer was on the original order it was a Stuart Warner but was not found when I bought the truck, I believe it was $15 I would have to look at the order slip.The rad ornament is different then any I have seen but I like it.

It looks as if we have a few "Barn Fresh" categories.

So far I see "Original Barn Fresh" (un-restored)

And "Barn Fresh Survivor" (restored, stored for an extended time and then saved again) as Orlando said.

There could be subcategories to the Survivors.

If the original restoration was a complete vehicle with mostly original parts it might be called a "Barn Fresh Original Survivor"

If it was put together from many different vehicles it might be called a "Barn Fresh Salad Survivor"

OK I'm getting a headache from all this thinking and need to take my morning nap!

Nuttin I evva dug outta a barn looked or smelled vera freesh. Spessaly a chikken barn.

T's appear to always be in barns. Never garages.

While we are talking about 'catagories' most of the T's that have been found were 'field fresh'.
I live in the country and when I was a kid the bones of old cars were fairly plentiful and the most were Model T's and A's.
I believe field fresh is by far the most common and probably in the worst shape being years in the weather. Many T chassis were used for trailers and could be had for the asking.
I was just getting started in Model T's and I bought 2 chassis and a few parts AND a 38 Ford flat bed pickup from the factory. I didnt have much money and gave the auctioneer 35.00 for all I bought. I didnt have a trailer to haul my goodies home so I made a deal with a friend to haul my T treasure home and gave him the 38 Ford flatbed.
After thinking about it years later I think he got the better deal. The little 38 flat bed was a complete truck. OH WELL

John,

You beat me to it with the "field fresh" catagory.
That was the '27 was back in '77. She had been parking in the field behind the shed for 30 years on a farm property outside Raleigh, NC. Still had the '47 GA plates on her. Bought it from nephew of the orginal owner. All you saw were headlamps and honeysuckle.

Larry

Harold is right about newest vs oldest! I like the color of Harold's and Erich's Model T's except for the color of the wheels!!!
Norm

Here's what I call 'barn fresh' or maybe even 'Showroom fresh" !

This early T touring is inside an old auto dealer building in North Fl. Been there as long as the building I think...owned by corp estate, not for sale.....

Street side of old auto sales co.



Peek a boo view thru one of the small windows...



Close up of better shot thru the dusty window...

For me it depends on to whom I am describing my car. If it is a "non-car person" it was a derelict, non-running, dirty old car found in a barn. If describing it to a "car person" it was a non-running barn find. I think there are as many appropriate descriptions as there are conditions of vehicles (infinate).

Bill R. '25 Fordor

Dan;
Nice looking '14 touring

Said it here a couple of years ago--the only thing that is "barn fresh" just fell out of the back a farm animal.

Tim Moore

Whatever isn't correct or original on my car has still been on it for more than 50 years, so I'm not gonna mess with the history of it. The previous owner had it from the mid 40's to 2005. It spent 30+ years inside an old parts supply.

Tim, your mistaken. That's rear end fresh.

Really nice pic's guy's!...I like to see them when there like this...

This was my "barn fresh" 25 Touring. Took two hours to find all the parts and two trailer loads to get it all home. The son of the original owner disassembled it with the plan to restore it but never got beyond this stage. There were some new parts in boxes that came with it along with spare parts and a bunch of tools. The car was originally from Norwalk, Ohio (West of Cleveland) and had a dealer plaque on the radiator. The car ended up in a barn about two miles from me. (South Texas)

Here's a story along the same lines-

Local real estate investor type buy a building containing two Packards. One is a '34 Rollston bodied town car, the other is a more mundane late 30s 4dr sedan.

He trots out both cars to a car show with the signs all made up "this is a barn fresh car, hasn't seen the light of day in 50 years" etc etc.

By chance I happened to catch the owner sitting by the town car. I started talking to him and asking questions. "so they haven't seen the light of day in 50 years huh?", "how do you explain the Horseless Carriage tag on the 4dr in which the digits are only 20 numbers off from the tag that is on my '31 Model A? My tag was issued in 1972" "And here's another little factoid for you, I've ridden in that Town car when I was a kid and I'm only 32 yrs old."

His jaw dropped, he thought he had people fooled into believing that line of BS. What he doesn't know is those cars are both well known around here and within the Packard club.

I sent him scans of newspaper articles about the car, and some photos I had in my files. I also explained the buzz words barn find, etc.


To keep this T related, the prior owner of the Packard also had a '19 Runabout. and lots of parts. I learned the Runabout was sold and all the parts & tools were dumped into a dumpster

There are barn and other finds out there if you beat on doors and talk to people. Here's my "Garage Fresh" original 1922 coupe that had been sitting in a garage for 50 years. Still has the pinstriping on it. Rebuilt the carb, changed oil, took the water pump off, replaced timer wiring and it started right up and drove well.

Nice!!!
Drive safe, W2

My shed fresh find. Body went east, but the running gear is under Nellybell...

Well I've been surfing again and saw this:

http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22399

I had to let you see it.

Herb

I have cars that were barn fresh when I bought them 30 or 40 years ago, they still are, only now they are in my barn away from the hoarders.
If I live to about a 140 years of age or older, I might get around to restoring most of them.
My two sons put a little dent in the pile, but they also added more, there is no end in sight.
It is not like I do not have Model T's to drive, I make a lot of local and national tours with both clubs.

Fordbarn said i do not have permission to see the pictures

Kep,

You will likely have to register. I got word one of my old Ford videos was featured over there. I couldn't see any photos on posts until I registered.

Just in case any of y'all are curious which vid, it was this one. Bluegrass fans should enjoy it, even if it is about 'modern Fords"

http://vintagefordfacts.blogspot.com/2010/11/model-ford-song-georgia-bluegrass.h tml