1937 Cord 812 Barn find

Still wondering whats happening to this car.

Any news on this car since Dec 25th or has this just gone away. When I read about cars that have been left to die like this has I feel sad. To the person that allowed this to happen you should be ashamed. To the person that's trying to save this car I say THANK YOU. Being a hoarder of animals or cars is a sickness but help is available too. If whats left of this Beverly can't be saved I sure hope it can be used to save others. Best of luck if you can save this car.

Hi,

I posted an update to this car's thread at

forums.phpstack-1081784-3880776.cloudwaysapps.com/phpbb2/viewto ... 8770#28770

--Tom

Based on information from neighbors, yes the Beverly was a running and driving car when it was parked in the barn. Actually we were told that all but one or two vehicles out of the six were running and driving at the time they were parked some time in the 70's.

mikespeed35 wrote: A little more info. is the car was owned by a J. Kile from Indiana in 1970.
CORDially Mike

Was the car a complete running car at that time?

Also please note, the "property owners" I refer to in my prior post, are some of the nicest, honest people I have ever met, if anything Mr. Kile took advantage of them. They wanted to improve their property and the dilapidated barn and those cars were impeding the process. I am sure they never told him they would hire someone to remove those cars FOR him. So please do not be duped by him. Also, to my understanding, Mr. Kile was never in any way, shape or form, conducting any efforts over at least the last 5+ years trying to work on the structure or trying to save the vehicles inside. Wow, this is probably the most drama this site has ever seen. I never had those intentions, I just wanted to learn more about the car and share my excitement with those who could appreciate it, and I have, so thank you.

On another note: NO need for "Buyer, Seller beware," as none of the cars we rescued are currently for sale.

Sorry it took me so long to get back, I haven't checked this in a couple of days. I hope I choose my words wisely as I try to explain this situation without offending anyone, so I apologize in advance just in case. The people that contacted us to cleanup the property, purchased the property form Mr. Kile in in December of 2012 with the agreement that he would have the cars removed by March 2013, if action was not completed by said date, possession of vehicles became new property owners. Well, after numerous extensions, with Mr. Kile only retrieving one vehicle, the final extension they gave him was January 15, 2014, after which they could do what they want with the vehicles. He had over a year to retrieve those vehicles. I understand that it would have been difficult for him to get the vehicles in the state the barn was in, it WAS difficult for us. It took a skid loader, two bucket trucks, one with a crane boom, a semi with a low boy, three trips with a roll back truck, and four men to remove those vehicles without causing further damage. Damage that never had to occur, the roof on that barn collapsed years ago, this is a case of complete negligence. The agreement with the property owners was always that we would take the cars, never that we were doing all that work for Mr. Kile's sake. I'm sure Mr. Kile is a wonderful person. I know he "loves" cars, to my understanding he has HUNDREDS, scattered all over, packed in barns across Northern Indiana and Southwest Michigan, cars standing on end, up against walls so he can squeeze more cars in. I've heard some of the barns are in a similar state to the one we are cleaning up. Yep, he's a true collector. Poor cars.... Well, I hope that sheds some light on this situation. As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Kile defaulted on his contract with the current property owners, and we gained the vehicles legally. Mr. Kile should be happy to know that they are now safe and sound in a nice, sturdy barn.

Bill,

I sent you a PM.

--Tom

Was this "Barn Find" located in South Bend, Indiana? Lee Foldenaur took me to a collapsed barn near his house and I saw the tail end of a Beverly sticking out from under the barn.

Sure looks like the same car.

That is a incredible bad situation, it let's me speechless ! <!-- s:shock: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_eek.gif" alt=":shock:" title="Shocked" /><!-- s:shock: -->

Krb12 what do you say about ?

SELLER and BUYER BEWARE!!
I spoke with Jim Kile a day or 2 after the first post on this subject and I spoke with him today. He did not sell any of the vehicles that were housed in the barn and still holds titles to them. This is the story behind the 'barn find" as I know it, it's a little long but it needs to be told.
Jim spent over 40 years serving the city of South Bend as a police officer and later as a dispatcher before retiring. He has been a member of the ACD club for many years and is a quiet, unassuming, trusting individual who has collected unique vehicles for most of his life.
He bought a large dairy barn many many years ago to store and preserve some of his collection. Unfortunately mother nature dealt the barn and Jim a blow many years ago and the barn collapsed on the stored vehicles. Jim was very upset by the situation and could not bring himself to start recovery of the vehicles until very recently with the help of a friend. Work progressed slowly with limited and older equipment that had a tendency to develop issues.
The activity did however, attract the attention of a neighboring property owner who expressed interest in buying Jim's property. This is where Jim's trusting nature became detrimental. The neighbor convinced him to sign over title to the property before the clean up and recovery was complete, with the understanding that he could continue the operation and remove all the vehicles. So the work continued but at a pace dictated by the weather in northern Indiana in early 2013 until about March when Jim was confronted by No Trespassing signs. New discussions with the new property owner(old neighbor) concluded with the understanding that it was deemed too dangerous for Jim to continue the operation but he would be notified when the new property owner got someone in with proper equipment to retrieve the vehicles and Jim could pick them up once they were safely out of the barn. Jim however, was not notified at the beginning of or any time during the professional clean up operation. When I brought this post discussion to his attention all the vehicles were gone. At this point Jim just wants to retrieve his vehicles.
A few of the other more noteworthy vehicles that were in the barn include a "36 Stude cabover Coke truck, a 39 lincoln 4dr touring, a 40 Stude business coupe, a Stude prototype and a Stude fire truck.
I would invite any other individuals with additional knowledge of this situation to further enlighten all those who have been following this post. It's a sad situation when this type of thing happens in the old car hobby.

Thank you both so much for the information! It's nice to know "she" has an identity now! ( I don't know why, but all old cars are girls for me, haha) Thanks again!

A little more info. is the car was owned by a J. Kile from Indiana in 1970.
CORDially Mike

As fort the tag, put it in molasses water mix 1:10 for 2 - 3 weeks, this should remove rust and dirt , but gentley

according my numbers this car should be :
ID number 812 2057 s
Engine number FB 2611
Bodynumber C96 264
1937 Beverly Model with
Bustle Back and folding armrests.
I guess the owner had dismantled all parts, that where stored inside the car, when the inside was safer for the parts, than letting them taken oder weather outside..... some people do that and then don't have the time..... and forget.
Happy you, now there is less guessing.
If you want to crosscheck my numbers,
contact Ron Irvin.
Best regards Philipp

So we got the Cord in our shop this weekend, and as it was thawing out we were sifting through dirt and debris to find whatever parts were left in the body. Surprisingly, there were a lot, and I couldn't believe it, but even the tags had been tossed in the body, hallelujah! I never would have imagined that someone would have taken the time to unscrew the tags just to toss them in the body of the car among other parts.

Here are the numbers in case, they don't show up that well in the pic

Model 812
Serial NO 2057 S
Engine NO FB2611

From my understanding the 812 ensures that it was built in 1937, and the FB means that it was NOT supercharged, but that's as far as my research gets me. Is there a way to get more info about the car now, especially in regards to the serial number, what does it tell us about the car? Any insight is much appreciated, thanks!

Wow.. How sad that poor thing looks under all that crap. Brings a tear to my eyes. I still see some value in whats left but have to pass on this find. Just too much for me to do. sure hope someone saves it like the original poster is attempting to do. I tip my hat to those who are attempting this save...

Thanks for all the information! We picked up all the parts we could find laying around the car, including trunk lid, front bumper, one hideaway headlight, one back fender, some other items but haven't got to go through everything yet. We are going to go back as soon as we get a thaw, and make sure we got everything that was there.

Hope you picked up the rear fenders and front seat frame along with the body.
K Clark

Would you e-mail me pics of the other cars too ?
<a href="mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url]

Did you identify all the cord parts that where there ? The frontseatshell was to be seen in one pic.
Regards Philipp

I have a nice trunk lid for the bustle back ! A whole lot better than the car!

Tagplate should be found on the righthand side on the of the bodyshell , but telling from the pics now on my Mac in larger size, there are none to see. I can see where they used to be fixed as there are the two spaces are rusted and in the long rightangle shape with a hole in each corner. The body was obiusley painted in a dark colure like Black oder blue.
I beleve its a non supercharge since the sc had the carb controlrod assembley higher up mounted on the firewall.

The stubframe has on the right side outer face between the two large rivets, very ligthley 4 digits stamped , so aproach this area ONLY with cheamical deruster but not with abrassive stuff like Sandpaper or the like, since you would erase it quickley. Should be interesting to get a clue of its id.

Thanks for the feedback. Where should we look for the tagplates, would the frame have numbers on it too?

You might want to place ad in www.jalopyjournal.com
Yep the shell looks quite stripped, it appears to me to be a coustom Beverly with long wheel base, are any tagplates left ?

<!-- s:cry: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cry.gif" alt="" title="Crying or Very sad" /><!-- s:cry: --> poor thing!
looks as if it was picked clean [i:375y3npu]YEARS[/i:375y3npu] ago.
Thanks for posting the photos, I am sure you will be getting an offer or two!

Here goes another attempt to share some pictures, thanks for the info Tom!

Hi,

I sent you a PM which should be in your inbox at the top of the forum page.

There are instructions in the Picture Gallery section as to how to post images. It's not as easily done as some other places. It requires using a (free) photo storage site like photobucket.

Navigate here:

forums.phpstack-1081784-3880776.cloudway...448&highlight=photos

for instructions.

I wanna see this barn find!!!!

--Tom

I am trying so hard to post pictures, but it wont let me. It seems the only way to post them on here is by copy and paste, but its not working and I don't know why! Sorry!!

I'd be happy to email or text pictures of the cord to anyone interested in seeing them, just let me know.

Greetings!
sounds like a fun find!!
This is a great place to post it for sale, and then that "auction site"
whatever you decide to do, [i:meuq1fm7]PLEASE[/i:meuq1fm7] post some photos here! <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) -->
These types of 'finds' almost everyone here LOVES to hear about!

(FYI, I also posted about this in the general discussion forum)

(Please note, I am just trying to do a little research for my husband, he will also have access to this so feel free to ask any questions.)

We recently were contacted to clean up and old dilapidated barn along with several vehicles that occupied it. Among those vehicles was a '37 Cord 812.
The car is in rather rough condition. Over the years someone stole the drive train components along with the hood and front fenders. We did find a few parts and pieces in the dirt, including one of the hide-a-way headlights. As far as I know, the frame and cab seem to be intact, interior is gone along with all the glass. We would like to find a proper home for it. I am inquiring on whether we should clean it up, or just leave it in as is, fresh out of the barn condition. I am wondering if maybe a Cord enthusiast looking for a restoration project might be more excited with it left untouched and fresh out of the barn that it lived in for 30+ years. Any opinions appreciated, thank you! Also, what would be the best source to find prospective buyers?
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