Robbie and I are in Ohio. We’re on our way to meet this guy named Larry. His father, Larry Senior, recently passed away. He’s got cars. He’s got petroleiana. Everything [music] right up our alley. Howdy.
>> You, Larry?
>> Yeah.
>> How you doing?
>> Good. My grandfather was a collector.
[music] He collected Indian artifacts and so we’d go to auctions when I was a kid. And then my dad, I grew up going to auctions with him for stuff, yard sales, flea markets. Yeah, collecting’s in my veins. It just it’s in your jeans. Now we’re talking.
>> Yeah, you’re kidding, right?
>> Oh, man. Here’s a 1963 split window. I mean, some people like the very first year in 53. Not me. 63 split window. That is the top of the mountain. That’s the best one, the most collectible, the most expensive one ever made.
>> I mean, is this a numbers matching car?
>> The engine’s a 64. I know that.
>> Okay.
>> Okay. So, it’s not the right engine.
Have you been working on I see you got the air cleaner and stuff off.
[clears throat] >> Yeah, I had to put a heater core in it.
So, you got to pull the battery out and it’s it’s a pain in the butt. Half >> the dash has got to come out of there.
This Corvette looks fast standing still.
It’s one of the most iconic cars in American history. It’s as American as apple pie.
>> 340 horse, four speed.
>> Oh, it looks like it’s been sitting for a while. Look at all the mold. It’s been repainted. Obviously, whoever restored it painted, but this might be the original color.
>> It’s the original color. I know that for sure.
>> There it is. That iconic split window. I can remember the first time I seen one of these. I was 14 years old. There was a guy down the street that had one.
Every time I seen him, he had a different grill with them. That’s one thing I do. That’s the one thing I do remember.
>> I know it’s got some neat options. It’s got power windows.
>> Okay.
>> Being a 340 horse >> four-speed, they only made 10,000 coupes in 63 to begin with. The first year they actually made a coupe. They were all convertibles until then.
>> Yeah. that just needs a real good detail on it >> and a little mechanical >> to me. I mean, this would be like a daily driver since it doesn’t have the original engine, you know. That just takes down a little bit on the cost cuz if it had matching numbers motor to the car, you know, it’ be a little bit higher, but I’m not scared of that, you know. I mean, like I said, it, you know, you want to drive them. You don’t want to just let them sit, you know, then they sit and rot >> and then get moldy.
>> That’s right.
>> Yeah.
>> This one has a little bit of problems, you know. How did it drive? I mean, clutch is good, transmission was good, shifts right in.
>> Yeah, everything ran fine.
>> Because sometimes when you let these sit, the brakes, they lock, you know? I mean, >> surprisingly, this had no issues to it.
>> So, I’m trying to think of a price that’s realistic. I got to ask, Larry, is this something you’d sell?
I have to think hard about it. This I’m going to consider a driver, you know, cuz it’s not matching numbers. So, I’ve been around these a little bit. I think this car going down the road would be 42 to 47,000.
I being at 37,000 cuz it’s I got to put 3 to five into it,000 to ship it. So, I’m almost getting up to what it’s worth. You know, I’m going to be up in the [snorts] 43,000. And I don’t mind, you know, I mean, once I get it fixed and everything, I mean, there’s there’s buyers out there.
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. My dad loved the car. I think it was probably one of his favorite ones.
>> I’ll tell you what, I’m going to throw I’m going to throw it out there.
39500.
I mean, drop not the original motor. It really drop. I mean, it really really drops a lot. I mean, it’s it’s >> in some in some cases it’s like the 35.
It’s >> kind of not the money as much as >> sentimental.
>> Yeah.
>> I keep going up and up and up.
>> So, Larry, what do you think? I mean, what’s your price?
I I just think, you know, all that I’ve done to get this, you know, I had small kids at the time, so I pieced my dad’s collection together, buying things, finding things, >> hauling things home.
>> Hauling things home. Miles at Hershey.
>> Here’s my final 41,000.
>> I still think it’s it’s it’s a bit hard, you know? I mean, I like to keep in the family. Now, when you start putting family into it, no money can buy it.
Then I could have said 90,000.
>> I have to have my son drive it. He’s never driven anything with this much power.
>> Well, I’d like to pass the passion that we had growing up, my sister and me and my dad, on to my kids. And I think the best way would be with the Stingray [music] for them to get to drive that and actually feel the power behind it and get the people’s looks. I guess I’ll just have to go grab my fly spray.
>> Okay. [laughter] All right, Larry.
Thanks. All right. Thank you.
>> Let’s get a load up. It was great hearing Larry’s stories and looking through Larry’s dad’s collection. At the end of the day, Frankie didn’t get his car, but we got some good stuff.
>> I’ll tell you what, Larry. Life’s all about timing.
>> Yeah.
>> If things change, give me a call. I will.
>> You know.
>> Yeah.
>> Just wasn’t in the cards.
>> Yeah, you got it. I >> appreciate it, buddy. So, >> thank you. Hey, good stories about your dad today. Seriously.
>> Oh my gosh. Yeah, he was. He was a lot of fun.
>> I’m sure he was.
>> My dad would have got along with Frank and Robbie real well. He would have [music] been busting their balls with so Ohio.
>> All right, Larry, take care now.
>> Have a good day.
>> He would have welcomed him with open arms because [music] they have the same passion as him.
>> Larry 415.
>> Have a good day, guys. Thanks.
>> Yeah, there they are.
>> Hey. Hey. Hey, you Katie?
>> Yeah. I’m Mike.
>> Hi. Nice to meet you.
>> How you doing? Good to see you. Here, I’ll hand you a flyer. Dan, he probably went through some of that stuff with you.
>> All right.
>> Hey, man. How are you?
>> Good. How you doing?
>> Heard a lot about you. [laughter] >> Yeah, they’re talking about you all the way up in Iowa.
>> Good or bad.
>> Hey, you know what Barnaman Bailey said?
Who cares what they’re saying? As long as they’re talking.
>> As long as they’re paying, right?
>> That’s right. As long as they’re paying.
Yeah. What do you got going on here?
Damn.
>> Working on a race car, me and Katie.
>> Yeah. Oh, she you were working on it, too?
>> Yeah, I dabble. I’ve been collecting race car parts all my life. My older brother Chuck got me into racing. I think I was 8 years old.
>> You were racing at eight.
>> Well, I wasn’t racing. I was wrenching.
>> Okay. You were wrenching on stuff.
>> Some guy come down. Chuck was sleeping in the car cuz he had a little too many that night. He says to Chuck, “Hey buddy, that little kid is working on your car.” Chuck goes, “Get out of here.
Leave him alone.” [laughter] Growing up around [music] the cars is completely normal to me. I still have all my fingers, all my toes. If it didn’t have a engine, it didn’t run. I I didn’t care about it.
>> I bought her and her brother go-karts, mini bikes.
>> Oh, you were one of those kids, huh?
>> It was an electric golf cart, right?
Yeah.
>> And he put [music] car batteries in it.
And he goes, “Hey, Katie, you’re the you’re the lightest. Get in it.” Rode a wheelie. Probably a/4 mile down the road.
>> Get out of here.
>> Keep going down there.
>> Did you have wheelie bars?
>> No. [laughter] God, no.
>> Once racing is in your blood, it is there to stay. It’s more than just tradition. It’s actually in your DNA.
Katie is second generation, and what she’s out here doing with her dad is exactly what Tony was doing with his brothers.
>> This car here is 67 Camaro.
>> Yeah.
>> She’ll be racing it next year.
>> Okay. You’re going to race this?
>> Yeah. [music] >> Now, what engine’s going to be in this?
>> A 433 small block.
>> Yeah. Just a little tickler. Yeah, [laughter] >> probably about 7 800 horsepower.
>> No kidding.
>> My brother Bill was racing the car for a while. I’m going to feel proud when I see Katie going down the track doing a wheel stand about this high.
>> Just like the golf cart.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Where Tony is at, [music] we are all going to be there. You know, guys that were wrenching on stuff, collecting things. You have your circle of people that inspire you. You have your family and then you have your physical [music] abilities that start to kind of fall away. What about anything back here? Is there anything back here that you guys have thought about?
>> Yeah, maybe turning loose or anything.
You know, he’s just realizing that like I can’t do all this. You know, I want to I want to finish a car with my daughter.
[music] I want to have that moment with her. I want to have that connection, but the rest of this stuff is turning into white [music] noise. All these things that he fell in love with and he loved his whole life and that he raced and wrenched on and worked on, it’s like all that stuff’s kind of fading away. And it’s just it’s more about him and his daughter and a [music] car that they’re going to work on together.
>> How about two 59 Corvettes?
>> Oh, you got 59s?
>> Yep.
>> Is that some of your first cars that you raised?
>> One was I don’t know. I’ve had it since the early ‘7s and it’s been sitting in the garage ever since.
>> Okay. It’s a lot to take in here, Tony.
>> Something how cars accumulate stuff over them.
All right, I can kind of see it now.
You’ve stripped the paint. You’ve got it down to nothing. I mean, this thing, there’s no interior in it. The doors are off of it. The windshield, there’s no engine in it. What are you going to want for something like this?
>> It depends on what you’re going to do with the car.
>> Yeah.
>> Right now, the cars are bringing big money as pro street.
>> Okay. like building it as a pro street ride.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. What I’d obviously like to do is see more of the car. It’s It’s hard to make any kind of offer to you without actually seeing some more of it.
>> I’ll help you.
>> I just don’t want these to shatter all over it.
>> It’s garage glitter when that happens.
>> There we go. There you go. How long has this thing been buried here, Tony?
>> Since 1985.
>> Okay. This gasket set to this car. No, just a gasket set. If I break something, if I break a motor, then I have a spare block. I have a spare crankshaft.
>> He gets pissed off and throws it at somebody.
>> All right. So, we got a big piece of plexiglass.
>> You can pitch that over wherever you want.
>> All right, I got you.
>> This is Katie’s hood there for a Camaro.
>> That’s the hood for your car?
>> Yeah.
>> So, do you want this outside? This is your hood?
>> Yeah, we set it back here.
>> Sure. Yeah, >> I can see the front bumper grill.
Look at that. There you go. Oh, yeah.
>> Yep. The iconic Corvette.
>> Sexy, right?
>> Do you have the seats for it?
>> I don’t remember to be honest with you.
>> Oh, yeah.
Oo. When’s the last time you saw it with that on there? It’s >> been a while, >> huh?
>> Been a while, >> huh? What do you think? pulling all the stuff off the front of the car and you see [music] those dual headlights. You know, it’s a 59. Putting the hood on it, you know, it’s easy to fall in love with, man. It’s a Corvette barn [music] find, but when you start thinking about the money and the amount of time and the effort it would go into [music] to get this car to the next level, it’s crazy.
Anything and everything needs to be done to this car. You’re starting [music] from the very bottom. You’re starting from the grassroots of it.
>> There’s only one little crack in the body. It’s right behind the front. I see what you’re saying. Yeah. Right. Okay.
All right. Before we go any further with uncovering it, I mean, I’ve seen the inside of it. I see what’s going on there. Now, [music] I can see the front end. I can kind of see one side of the back end. [music] You know, you’re telling me the only damage on the body is here, right, >> that you know of that you remember, >> right?
>> Okay. So, to be honest with you, it’s like putting all this stuff on top of it over the years protected it. Is that what you were going for?
>> Yeah, basically. [laughter] >> This car has been here for longer than I’ve been alive. Whenever I was little, I used to jump on it and play >> cuz I had no idea what the hell it was.
I mean, fully restored, these things are going for well over $100,000. We just don’t have the time or the the money to put into it. I’d like to see somebody who’s fanatic about these get it and do it right.
>> Yeah. A lot of them have been bought up, you know, or a lot of them are in really, really bad condition. Um, what are you thinking?
>> I’ve turned down offers 20,000 or better.
This would be the kind of car you’d want to buy if you were going to do the work yourself or really rebuild something from the ground up to make it your own.
Like drop an LS7 in it, take the straight rear axle out, just like upgrade it completely, you know, make it a street rod like he was talking. That might be the guy that would buy this [music] car.
>> Yes. Have pictures of it standing on the back bumper. [music] Get out of here.
>> Yeah.
>> What’s this say? Press Brothers Racing.
>> Press Brothers Racing. We all knew those guys, the [music] local legends, the guys that were bigger than life, that could do things that none of us could do, you know, that left an impression on us. Those coming of age moments where you see somebody [music] do something that’s superhuman. Tony was one of those guys.
>> Well, I bought the car right out of high school. In fact, it had a 409 in it.
>> Really?
>> Yeah.
>> They’re just so damn sexy. It is so cool. The lines of this thing, I mean, people had to freak out when you were drag racing this. Seeing a 59 Corvette going down the track on back wheels, you know, that’s crazy. [laughter] You could just barely read the name of the race team. It’s hand [music] painted on the car. It’s all faded out. The hood scoop. I mean, even though it has no rear end in it, to me, this one has the look.
>> You see, Mike, there’s a >> Oh, okay. I see what you’re saying.
Okay. So, [music] you’re That’s what they call it a back half car. Yeah, >> you guys did [clears throat] that work yourself.
>> Yeah, >> man. It’s really nice.
>> You can see how long the car has been sitting. Look at the wood.
>> That’s how long this car has been sitting here. Holy crap.
>> And this was oak.
>> It’s [laughter] been sitting here this long. Damn. It’s cool, man. So, you’re saying that one of those hard tops in there goes [music] with this car?
>> Yes.
>> Okay. So, you got the hard top for this.
I noticed the dash is gone. Do you have a dash?
>> I have a dash for it.
>> Look at that. There’s a block in there.
Is that the original block to the car?
>> No, that’s a 350.
>> Okay. I mean, there’s absolutely no interior in this car whatsoever. There’s no dash in the car. There’s just kind of like a aluminum sheet for the floor. You know, they lightened this thing up as much as they could. The front half of the car has the original frame. The rear half, boom, hacked off. Do you have the rear end? Yeah.
>> That you raced with?
>> Yeah.
>> What kind of rear end was it?
>> Oldsmobile.
>> No kidding. In the old days, that’s when we used to use Oldsmobiles.
>> What? Like what year olds mobile we were in?
>> I think 59 to 62.
>> And they were like indestructible.
>> Yeah.
>> No kidding. You can just thrash them.
>> They had to be.
>> Yeah. I [laughter] was going to say popping wheelies with the damn thing.
So, what engine was in it? A 409.
>> Well, when I bought it, but when I was doing the wheel stands, it had a little small block in it. 331 cubic inches.
>> No doubt. What would it run?
>> It run in the 10 and a/4 mile. Okay.
>> Pretty fast for that.
>> Hell yeah.
>> Yeah, man.
>> The owner of U Mercer Dragstrip, him and his brother owned it, George C. Opus and Alex. Every time we would pull the giant wheel stand, Alex would come over and give us 50 bucks.
>> I bet >> when people would give Alex a hard time and you’d hear, “Press Brothers, please come to the concession stand.” >> Uhhuh. So me and my two brothers would go in there and would have to straighten out the disturbance. [laughter] >> We were very good at that.
>> Yeah, can confirm. [laughter] >> This got some memories, man.
>> Yeah, >> Tony and his brothers were the real deal. If they wanted to go faster, they had to figure that stuff out on their own. The stance of the car, how light was the car, the tires on the car. If they blew it up, they had to start all over again. It wasn’t just about Friday night at the track. It went deeper than that. It was about proving it to themselves that they could do it. What are you asking for this one?
>> How’s the front end of this look?
>> Good.
Take five grand for it the way it is.
That is considerably cheaper.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. So, for five grand, what are you talking like? What comes with it?
>> The rear end and the top. [music] >> And then where’s the rear end? Is it on this property?
>> No, it’s down my buddy’s place.
>> Okay. So, do you think you have the rear wheels and the dash?
>> Yeah.
>> Why don’t we do this? I’m interested in the car. The number’s not scaring [music] me, but let’s just see if we can find any of that other stuff first.
Sounds good to me.
>> All right. All right, dude. We’re doing it. You’re helping me?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. [laughter] All right. Let’s do it.
