[VIDEO] American Pickers Teases a 1959 Corvette Barn Find on This Week’s Show

Check out Episode 5 of Season 24 of “American Pickers” on The HISTORY Channel to find out if Mike winds up with a ’59 Corvette.

The show introduces us to Tony Prest, who’s been collecting race car parts all his life after his older brother Chuck got him into racing (or at least wrenching) around the age of 8.

An old photo shows a much younger Tony pulling an engine, and another shot features Tony and his daughter Katie many years ago. “If it didn’t have an engine,” Katie says now, “I didn’t care about it.”

Now getting on up in years and having to walk with a cane, Tony wants to have the experience of finishing one more car with his daughter, a first-gen Camaro that his brother Bill raced years ago. They plan to install a 433 small-block in it – “just a little tickler,” as Katie puts it.

Of course, Mike is always looking for the next big find, and Tony is happy to oblige him with a ’59 Corvette that he’s had since the early ’70s but has been stored in a barn since 1985. They stumble through overgrown weeds to reach the vintage C1, which has been covered from head to toe with various parts over the years, including the hood for Katie’s old Camaro.

“I can kinda see it now,” Mike says. “You’ve stripped the paint, got it down to nothing. No interior. Doors are off of it. No engine in it. What you want?”

“Depends on what you’re gonna do with the car,” Tony answers.

“What I’d obviously like to do is see more of the car,” Mike says. “It’s hard to make any kind of offer to you without actually seeing some more of it.”

“I’ll help you,” Tony volunteers as the three of them begin to remove a lifetime of “stuff” piled on the car.

“You have the seats for it?” Mike asks.

“I don’t remember, to be honest with you,” comes Tony’s answer.

Finally, the car begins to see daylight. “Pull all the stuff off the front of the car and see those dual headlights…” Mike says. “It’s a ’59.

It’s easy to fall in love with. It’s a Corvette barn find! But when you start thinking about the money and the amount of time and effort that would go into to get this car to the next level, it’s crazy. Anything and everything needs to be done to this car. You’re starting from the very bottom; you’re starting from the grass roots of it.”

Katie says the old Corvette has been there “longer than I’ve been alive.”

“Whenever I was little, I used to jump on it and play,” she recalls, “because I had no idea what it was. Restored, these things are going for well over a hundred thousand dollars. We just don’t have the time or the money to put into it. I’d like to see somebody who’s fanatic about these get it and do it right.”

“What are you thinking?” Mike asks Tony.

“I’ve turned down offers of $20,000 or better,” he answers.

Mike groans.

“This would be the kind of car you’d want to buy if you were gonna do the work yourself or really rebuild something from the ground up to make it your own,” Mike says. “Like drop an LS7 in it, take the straight axle out, just like upgrade it completely, make it a street rod like he was talking. That might be the guy that would buy this car.”

The teaser YouTube video ends at this point, so we’ll have to watch the show to find out what happens. Based on previous broadcasts, however, we’re betting Mike doesn’t buy this car, but then who knows? Maybe he’ll get a dose of Corvette fever only curable by a ’59.

Source:
History / YouTube

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