- I bet there's, I bet there's 20,
oh, there's more.
Oh my goodness.
Oh, look at this, an El Camino,
a Studebaker, a Packard, a Packard,
looks like a pickup truck.
I'm Tom Cotter, the first car
I found I was 12 years old.
I'm 61 year old now and
I'm still finding cars.
And in this series, you'll
see that there are still
plenty of cars left.
I've been dreaming since
I'm probably 12 years old
about finding a car like this.
(mellow bluesy music)
I used to stay at a hotel
just a half mile from here
when I was out on business
in Northern California
and in the morning I like to run.
So I would run down this
road called Pope Street
in Saint Helena, California
and I'd see these old cars
lying around and I'd see
other stuff in the background.
I said there's got to be old stuff here.
I've got to meet this guy.
So you got a Ranchero here.
- [Man In Brown Jacket] I
chopped the top on it once.
(laughing)
- [Tom] Did you really?
- And when I chopped it, I
chopped it two and a half inches
and it was too much so I
raised it back up again.
- How'd you do, did you save the pieces?
- To an inch and a half.
Yeah.
- [Tom] Now, would you
sell something like this?
- Oh yeah.
- Would ya?
- [Man In Brown Jacket] I'd have to.
I don't think I'll get
around to fixing it.
- This is a 1954 Ford and
it's a four door wagon
called a Country Sedan.
It's got a 312 V8, overhead valve V8,
which was Ford's first overhead valve V8
after the Flathead era.
It's got a three speed with overdrive.
And this car's so complete
down to the hubcaps,
the trim, the spare tire, the jack,
the air cleaner still has the decal on it.
You don't find cars that are
complete like this anymore.
It doesn't happen anymore.
I'd say this car's, you know,
it's worth probably $2,000,
$2,500 the way it sits.
And restored, these can go
for 20, $25,000 these days.
So if you were handy
at home, you could buy
something like this, fix it
up and come out cash ahead
if you had to sell it.
All pretty cool stuff here.
(upbeat music)
- Carload of fellas rolled into there
and they'd blown the engine up in it.
It was a $75 purchase.
- [Tom] That's Russ when
he was just a young guy.
That's a lot of stuff going on in there.
- [Russ] That's all fuel injectors.
- This is a 1972 Jaguar
and the four door version of
this would've been an XJ6.
This is known as an XJ12 because
instead of a six cylinder
is a 12 cylinder and this is an XJ12C.
And the XJ12C is called
that because it's a coupe.
So this car, interestingly,
is a four door roof line
with two doors.
So they took the doors and stretched them
and then closed them off in the back.
So it's basically a four
door roof with two doors.
So lots of room.
Big door, lots of room
to get in and out of,
but a real rare car.
This is a '65 Chevy El Camino 327.
Neat, solid car
that is a daily driver.
Great stuff.
(upbeat music)
- And on the bottom of the block
has got die cast in there.
The casting number's number one
on the block that I got.
- The first Chevy V8?
- Yeah, uh huh, well,
it's the first casting.
- It turns out that Russ
Aves is one of the original
California hot rodders.
He's lived here for, oh, since '65.
He's got a Jaguar 12 cylinder.
He's got a '57 Ford Ranchero
with a 500 cubic inch Cadillac.
This stuff is all for sale.
Russ said, "I'm not
gonna get around to it.
"I might as well let
somebody else have the fun."
There's a 1954 Ford
Country Sedan station wagon
back there that's so
complete, you don't find them
like that anymore.
You don't find cars with four hub caps,
with a jack in the
back, with a spare tire.
It's a three speed with
overdrive transmission.
A 312 cubic inch V8,
which was Ford's first
overhead valve engine in 1954.
And you know what?
He said, "Look, I'd take 500 bucks for it,
"but I'd really like
to get $3,000 for it."
That thing's worth
restoring, very rare car
and wagons are very desirable these days.
(upbeat music)
When we got into Northern
California yesterday,
we really didn't know who to talk to
and we just talked to a car guy,
who turned us onto a car guy,
who turned us onto a car guy
and they said, "Have you
talked to Ricky Hall?"
No, we don't know Ricky.
So we called Ricky and
he said come on over.
So here we are in American
Canyon, California
and Ricky is an old Ford guy, likes '32s
and he's gonna show us
what he's got in his yard.
This looks too cool.
Is it a four cylinder?
- Four cylinder.
It's a real early '32 pickup.
- Man.
- Serial number's show it was
made, I think, early February.
- Of '32, really?
- It's got the no rib in the roof cap,
the roof right here.
- Oh, okay.
Single pull handles, it's got
the early style gas gauge.
- It's a Model B.
Now look at that, wow.
Well, that's cool.
Now this is a '32 as well.
'32 four door.
- [Ricky] Yeah, I got
this pick up last weekend.
It was in Lincoln, California.
- [Tom] Last weekend.
So you found this a week ago?
- [Ricky] It was complete.
I started tearing it apart this week.
- There are obviously still
cars like this out there.
How rare is that to find a
'32 in this day and age, 2016?
- [Ricky] It's getting pretty hard.
Especially one that's untouched.
- So Ricky just found this car
and he didn't have to search
through farms or ask people.
This car was on Craigslist
and he got it a week ago.
The fact that a car like
this can still be found,
I mean, anybody could've bought it
and this guy lucked into
buying a '32 Ford sedan
that's basically never been touched.
It's not a hot rod.
It's not a restored car.
It's just an old car.
Just amazing, I mean, guys
would give their eye teeth
for this thing, all over
the country, every day.
So this is a Lincoln Zephyr
and it's a 12 cylinder.
So if you look some of the other cars
that Ricky has, they're Flathead Ford V8s.
Well this is a Flathead Ford V12.
So basically the eight cylinder
stretched to 12 cylinders.
And they were smooth and quiet.
An old man told me once
that you could take a nickel
and balance it on the air
cleaner and it would stay there.
That's how smooth those engines were.
Now I didn't plan on
seeing motorcycles here,
but I've never seen a Sunbeam motorcycle.
Is that British?
- [Ricky] It's made by BSA.
- [Tom] Wow, what year is that?
- [Ricky] 1947.
I got that in an estate sale in Berkeley.
- [Tom] As it is?
- [Ricky] As is.
Actually I had to replace the fuel tank.
It was rotten.
I bought it just to resell.
- Man.
- [Ricky] So now it's just
something that's waiting
to go down the line.
- Oh man.
So this is a '32 Ford, three window coupe.
If you look at this condition.
I've been dreaming since
I'm probably 12 years old
about finding a car like
this, in this condition.
I used to read Rod and Custom magazine
and there was a section in
there called Vintage Tin.
And they would show
these guys in California
and find this stuff out in
the desert and drag it in.
And I was an East Coast guy
and I dreamed about
coming out to California
because the women were beautiful,
there was surfing, there
was Coors beer and old cars.
And it only took me 50
years to get out here.
Wow.
(upbeat bluesy music)
Napa Valley probably is
some of the most expensive,
desirable real estate in the United States
if not the world.
And you wouldn't imagine
large collections of old cars
to be hidden around Napa Valley.
Real Estate's just too expensive.
But we talked to a guy
who turned us on to Rod
who lives in Napa and we just
drove up the driveway here.
Well, there's something going on here
because I see a Trabant,
which is an East German car.
I see an old Cadillac under a lean-to.
A Javelin on a trailer, an old Cadillac
up on a ramp truck, a Cadillac ambulance.
I can't believe I'm in Napa Valley.
This looks like Kansas.
(upbeat music)
Now, Trabant was an Eastern German car,
tell me about how the body was made on it.
- [Rod] It's a composition
of recycled cotton
and paper.
(laughing)
- [Tom] So these cars have a story?
- [Rod] Oh, every car has a story.
- [Tom] And you know them?
- [Rod] Yeah, I do.
- [Tom] Oh man.
(upbeat music)
- This was bought new by
the Department of Justice,
Washington DC and assigned
to Southern California
during the Reagan administration.
It's a bulletproof Cadillac limousine.
- No kidding.
- Well, you see what happens when they do
the bullet proofing, they
have reinforced concrete
they pour in the doors
and of course it causes
the rust to happen from the inside out.
See what the windows--
- Look at this.
One, two, like three panes of glass,
or one piece of plexiglass,
two panes of glass glued together.
And these windows can't go down
because the doors are
filled with concrete.
So what does this car weigh?
- [Rod] About 9,000
pounds, extremely heavy.
(upbeat bluesy music)
- I'm gonna identify what this car is,
don't tell me.
- I'll give you 20 guesses,
you'd probably still get it wrong.
- Alright.
I'm pretty good at this, now.
I'd say an Italian.
- [Rod] It's Italian.
- It's an Italia, Intermeccanica Italia.
- [Rod] I'll be doggone!
- I'm good at this.
- You're good, you're good.
- So this had a Ford V8 in it?
Some had Chevy's, but it had Ford V8?
- Yeah.
- Look at that.
(bluesy music)
- I was after this Mark II
just because I thought it was
nice enough to pick it up.
Lincoln white with red interior.
Air conditioned car,
there weren't too many
with the air conditioned options
so this is the fully optioned Mark II.
I'm handing the money,
he's handing me the title,
95 year old guy selling his cars
and he's retiring, he's a pharmacist
and he tells his son,
that's 70 plus years old,
"Go get the picture back there
"because Rod's gonna
wanna see this picture."
Brings out the picture
of him, Elvis Presley
and the Lincoln and it says,
"Have fun with the car, Elvis."
Okay, now, we know that Elvis had
a white Mark II with red
interior, air conditioned car.
But we also know that there's one
in the Elvis Presley museum
that they say was his car.
- [Tom] Maybe not.
- Maybe not.
- This is uh, this might
be the Holy Grail here.
Holy mackerel.
Look at that.
See there's a photo here and a photo here
that are no longer there.
- [Rod] The notes on the back.
- It says "1956 Continental,"
1977 I guess it was on display.
Wow, huh, there ya go.
We spent a morning at Rod's
house here in Napa Valley
where some of the most expensive
and desirable real estate
in the United States happens to be.
There's wineries that
sell bottles of Cabernet
for hundreds of dollars
just five miles from here.
But tucked away in
little corners like this,
in even a place like Napa
Valley, are great cars.
Happy hunting.
