Here's the story from Old Cars Weekly....
Huge muscle car stash found!
Larry Fisette had no idea whether he was buying King Tut’s tomb or Al Capone’s vault when he agreed to buy 21 trailers said to be full of Corvettes and Chevrolet muscle cars and parts. Luckily, all of the rumors he had heard whispered around his northeast Wisconsin home turned out to be more true than he ever dreamed.
So far, Fisette, a De Pere, Wisconsin, restorer and automotive repair shop proprietor, has opened 17 of the 21 sealed trailers one-by-one and found a Yenko Camaro with 45,000 miles; a pair of low-mileage 1970 LS-6 Chevelles; a 1972 Camaro Z/28; two 1957 Corvettes, one a fuel-injected car, the other a dual-four-barrel-equipped example; and several other Chevrolet performance cars. Filling in the space around the cars like water around pebbles is an inventory of NOS and used performance parts that would make a Nickey Chevrolet parts manager jealous, and Fisette is not done cracking trailers open. He’s also confident there’s more muscle hidden in the trailers.
How the trailers came to be full of new Corvette side exhaust systems, factory Corvette race parts, and highly desirable engines and parts is as interesting as the man who filled them.
Donald Schlag’s passion for Chevrolet performance cars, even when they were new, gave him the foresight to realize that someday, others would have just as much interest in them. So while he was working at his father’s John Deere dealership, Green Bay Implement, Schlag began buying the parts from the local Chevrolet dealer’s parts counter in the 1960s and stored them at the John Deere dealership. He also made annual trips to California, pulling a trailer behind an RV for a month at a time in order to retrieve more parts for his stash. When his father died and the dealership was liquidated in the early 1970s, he tucked the parts and cars in semi trailers.
But when the very people who Schlag was saving parts for betrayed him by stealing a part, Schlag stopped sharing his collection. He even went so far as to completely seal the trailers off once they were full. By butting the trailers up against each other, not even he could go back in them. Schlag also stopped driving the cars he collected after one of his Corvettes was keyed in a parking lot. From that point on, he swapped the engines and slipped the cars into the trailers, never to be gazed upon again.
Many local car collectors believe the reason why Schlag pulled the engines from his cars and installed a different engine before he put them away was to thwart thieves, since the cars wouldn’t be numbers-matching. Even rare parts, like a first-generation race Corvette gas tank, was separated from its two filler neck pieces and its parts spread between three trailers. Another theory to explain why Schlag swapped and separated engines was because he predicted the engines would be worth more than the cars, so he pulled the hot engine from most of the cars and put a slightly less desirable engine in its place.
Despite his unfortunate interaction with some of his fellow hobbyists, Schlag remained friendly. When scouring car shows and swap meets around Chicago, Milwaukee, and Green Bay for more parts in his rusty El Camino, he could be found engaged in a conversation in which he would even mention if he had a part or a car.
“He’d talk about what he had, but he didn’t brag and he didn’t sell anything,” said Fisette, who met Schlag before his June, 2005, death on two occasions. Through these brief interactions, people began to piece together what he had hiding.
And while no one knew exactly what Schlag had, Schlag knew what they had in their garage. By being the local expert on fuel injection units and offering other mechanical services, Schlag became acquainted with cars in the area, which also helped him feed his collection.
“There was a rumor that Don would remove your big-block and install a small-block [as a gas-saving measure during the second fuel crisis],” Fisette said. This would explain why about half of the engines Fisette has uncovered are big-block Chevrolet engines.
Upon learning that Schlag passed away, Fisette took a chance on acquiring the collection and contacted Schlag’s family.
“I called her [Schlag’s sister’s] number, told her my name, and said I’d buy everything and told her I had the capability to buy and disperse it all,” Fisette said. After checking with other hobbyists, Schlag’s family decided that Fisette was the right person to buy the collection.
“We were so lucky to find Larry,” said Joanne Stepien, Don Schlag’s sister. “I received several phone calls [from people interested in buying the collection], so I took their names and numbers. I had about five different people to choose from.” Stepien then researched the reputations of each party, and Fisette was the only person to come back with stellar credentials.
Once the deal was sealed, Fisette was ready to break down the doors of the trailers to see what he bought, and the first trailer he opened didn’t let him down.
“I hadn’t seen inside any of the trailers. I did it all on Donny’s reputation,” Fisette said. “The first trailer I opened had two [1970 Chevelle] LS-6s in it,” he said. "It was absolutely total amazement.” The Chevelles were parked bumper-to-bumper in the trailer, and the first he gazed upon was a gold four-speed, bench-seat car that Fisette soon realized was the LS-6 Chevelle his neighbor bought new. Fisette even remembers the day the neighbor brought it home from the dealership and showed it to him. Regardless of his memory of the car, Fisette prefers the Chevelle parked in front of the gold, four-speed car: a blue Chevelle with bucket seats and an automatic transmission, which he considers more driveable.
Unearthing the Yenko Camaro shortly thereafter was obviously an exciting experience for Fisette, but it was opening a trailer full of factory performance engines that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
“The most exciting moment was when I opened up a trailer and saw shiny engines up one side and down the other, and then two stacked shelves of them,” Fisette recalled. More than 150 high-performance engines have been found, in addition to 14 nice, low-mileage cars, but the bulk of trailers contain parts. And lots of them.
Since finding the trailers, Fisette has organized the parts in a warehouse to best determine what he has. While looking down the line of engines, Fisette smiled at a complete engine for a 1969 Camaro Z/28 engine and asked, “Isn’t that pretty? It’s a DZ-302 that’s complete down to the breather!” The Camaro 302-cid engine is one of approximately six such engines he’s found, and he’s hopeful that it and many of the other engines will land back in the cars they originally came from, right down to the cast-iron COPO 427-cid engine block he’s found.
“I think it’s going to give people a chance to make their cars correct,” he said. One hobbyist has already contacted Fisette to ask if he has the original engine to his Nova, which was sold to Schlag many years ago following an engine transplant. Although Fisette plans to sell all of the parts in one lot, he said he would try to reunite the Nova owner with his car’s original engine.
For Fisette, the hunt was more fun than the catch, and he wants to share that experience with fellow car collectors. Pointing to a 1958 Corvette radio, he said, “Imagine how happy this is going to make somebody.”
A happy man himself, Fisette is thoroughly enjoying the challenge presented to him. “I’ve done nothing but empty trailers since September,” Fisette said while surrounded by all the parts he’s organized in his warehouse. “I walk in here and feel like Scrooge McDuck. I can remember as a kid thinking, ‘I’d kill for a four-speed.’ Now look how many I have got!”
Finding such parts continues to be a treasure hunt in itself. Each time he opens a trailer, Fisette doesn’t know if he’ll find it filled cars or SS wheels hanging from the ceiling, engines lining the walls, and 55-gallon drums filled with performance heads and crankshafts. And even when he finds a trailer loaded with cars, he’s never sure if he’ll find another stash of fuel-injection units or Corvette knock-off wheels in the cars’ trunks as he has on several occasions.
Regardless of his few interactions with Schlag, Fisette feels he’s come to understand the man, and if he’s right, there are more surprises great cars and parts waiting to be found. One of those potential surprises may be another Yenko car. Fisette has found a rust-free front clip for a Nova in one trailer, a hubcap center specific to a Yenko Nova in another trailer, and he’s heard that Schlag owned a Yenko Nova with a damaged front clip. Combined with the fact he has a title and keys to a Nova, Fisette is confident he’ll soon uncover another muscle car icon from the Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, dealership. “I’ve really got to know him through this puzzle,” Fisette said.
Larry Fisette is a worthy caretaker to the cars and parts collected by Donald Schlag, because he’ll make sure that the cars and parts end up in the hands Schlag was saving them for.
http://www.depereautocenter.com/parts.html
I found this on another fourm. Yes I know its chevy stuff but just think there could be one of these guys out there that did the same with our cars.
Dunno what he paid for the stuff, but its worth MILLIONS....
Esp if he has any part that belongs to any copo chevy i heard that each copo model had only 3 actual car produced. I know there were copo camaros but im not sure if they made any other car with the copo name.
Wow. That's incredible. In the one pic I counted at least 90 cylinder heads. I wonder what he paid for all the trailers? Now I wanna know what's in the last 4!
so cool it needed two posts lol
Ya sorry dont know what happened there. Someone can delete one.
I've heard a few rumours about this gold mine, including that the whole lot was sold for less than a million, and that Jay Leno was the new owner. Dunno how true those rumours are, but I wouldn;t be surprised if this stuff ended up in Leno's hands...
Just imagine the money you could make on eBay...
Yea, I want to know what's in the last 4 trailers.
My life and my left nut for that freakin' Yenko Camaro :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: !!!!!!
Dibs on the Yenko Nova when he pulls it out of one of the other trailers!
I bet no one will be surprised when I say I'm pretty unenthused by this whole story :p
Rare shiznit or not, Vette's, Camaros, Novas hold absolutely NO interest for me.
Folks are lucky he didn't have all the containers dumped off a ship at sea seeing some of the "luck" he had dealing with his fellow "enthusiasts".... I'm sure he had good intentions when he started this whole thing...but sounds like he got really paranoid later on. Taking gas tank assemblies apart to thwart theives?!? I mean come on.
You can always count on Chuck to call it like he sees it! :iagree:
I'd just settle for a Chevelle. Haha, but seriously, just from selling the parts the guy will probably triple if not quadruple what he paid for all that stuff. Still pretty impressive, now where's the guy with a 1970 Boss 429, Fairlanes, Cobras and Torinos, and every cool blue oval engine and part ever made, stashed away?
When old you become, paranoid will you be too. Hmmm? ;)
I don't blame him one bit. You guys don't know what I have to go through sometimes to hide the convertible or keep its location secure. That's just one car...I can't imagine doing that 10, 20, 30 times over, plus the parts. He knew exactly what he had, what the stuff was worth, and the means with which people would try to take those things from him. He did what he had to do. Kudos to him.
There was a local guy that had a few Yenko's. Too bad he liked nose candy more. Needless to say, the cars aren't his anymore thanks to the law. I still don't see the aura surrounding Yenkos as being that significant though. The COPO cars seem to be much more worthy of legend IMO.
There all over the place most Ford guys see it this way. Whats the purpouse of owning it if you can't drive it. You have to be a little excentric to do something of this scale.
You don't have to worry, Eric - I won't be coming to Ohio for a while yet :p
Whether you like Chevies or not, just think of the money you could make on eBay with that stuff :bowdown:
Man that is freakin awesome! Who hasn't had a daydream about this at one time. Hell I'd be happy to find
one nice '70 Chevelle in a barn somewhere.
Man how can you call yourself a car guy and say that? I
LOVE my fox T-bird but I'd give it up for a LS6 Chevelle, big block Nova, or first gen Z/28 any day of the week. I know you don't seem dig anything mainstream and all but jeez. I guess its just me but as long as I think a car is cool and American made I really don't car what it is. Oh well I guess you dont think a 400+ hp from the factory muscle car is cool (but somehow an '80 T-bird is)...different strokes for different folks huh?
Who says it's in Ohio...? ;)
There's a guy whose house I go by on my way in to school every day...has a '70 Chevelle sitting off by the side of his house with no engine. Looks like it has some rust but overall seems to be in decent shape. It's been sittin there for as long as I can remember, I don't even know what the guy is doing with it (he also has a chevelle wagon and 80's monte ss sitting with it, they've been there forever too)
If having to like Camaros and the like and drooling over old big-blocks is a requirement for being a "car guy", then I guess I'm not one then.:giggle: If I was given any of the cars above, I'd sell it to some over-enthusiastic fan boy and be on my way. I'd use the proceeds to contine on with some of my involved automotive projects(but remember..I'm not a car guy..I just spend most of my time modding and working on them though). I have what I have because I like them and they mean something to me, not what I'm stuck with and am making due and would give up in an instant for some mainstream cool...:flip:
Yes different strokes. Some more different than others :D
i'm going to have to agree with chuck on this. yes, the car are cool as hell (to a point), but it's not the same warm and fuzzies as finding a 428 69 mustang coupe, 83-86 turbo coupe with no options at all (maen and lean) with 2k miles, or something so rare, yet so undesirable that's it's actually cool as hell.
I agree completely.... Anybody got his ph #?? :D... Maybe I can puppies off this 5.0 TC for that Yenko or COPO(since those cars all seem to have the wrong engine, it'd be right up his alley)... Hell he could have all three TCs I still have, and the Lightning and the Aerostar and the wife...(oh shiznit I'm gettin carried away)....
Hell, I love my nova but I couldn't even read the whole article without getting bored of it.
meh...chevy stuff...awesome story. awmazing find but its just not my thing and isnt all that exciting too me.....
Hehe, that's exactly why I want to find the guy who isn't "most" Ford fans, so I can take his low mileage muscle car and enjoy driving it.
Umm...5 months? Better get busy.
I love muscle cars of all makes, but they're all gettin so expensive nowadays...they're turning into the new street rods:mad:
So when I get old and go crazy you guys are going to fight over my TC stash??
What`s the point of buy the half of GM muscle cars and parts, store and rarely drive them...? I would do this if i can live 200 years at least. Otherwise, seems without any sense to get that wonderful cars and die at 70....
I agree and I am sure that you are probably more knowledgable than I am when I comes to working on cars. I'm just saying that I get so tired of people flaming on something because its too mainstream. Yeah I get tired of seeing '69 camaros in mags too...but the fact is that muscle cars were amazing right out of the box. Yeah right now they're pretty popular and waaaaay overpriced. But there is a reason they are so popular and most people never give our cars a second look. I'll be first to admit that one reason I like my T-bird so much is that it is different and I take back the statement about giving it up because I probably never would. My old man had a '69 Chevelle with a big block when he was in college. The stories he and his buddies tell about that car are amazing...hell he helped pay his tuition by drag racing. So for me its reasons like that that I'm so interested in 60's cars. Sorry if I came off wrong and pi$$ed you off but I am having a hard time understanding why anyone would dislike something just because its "too popular".
Well, first if you think you pissed me off...not even close. ;)
Muscle cars aren't THAT amazing. They can go fast in a straight line....woohoo:rolleyes: They can't stop for shiznit or handle. They are overly popular due to the fact that the "kids" who were around when they were new are the baby boomers who are the middle-agers now. They are a pretty large demographic, and they have money. Most of it is that they want the "status" of owning a "muscle car"...and while there are actual enthusiasts out there, most just fanboys doing for the prestige, or because their neighbor has one. Why do you think there has been this big "retro" trend lately? This group is being marketed to, and the rest of us have to suffer this .
When something get's put on a pedestal (whether it's worthy of this position or not), it gains "fans" just because they think if they say they like something, then they can fit in and be cool too. Which in turn feeds the whole madness.
Anyway, just because it's mainstream/popular with the "masses" , does not mean it's "cool".
I know it's hard to understand my mania....I don't expect anyone to :D
I see what you are saying. In my case if the general public decided today that muscle cars weren't popular anymore I'd still dig 'em. And in the same respect a well built Fox T-bird/coug will always get me goin'. So I guess I pretty much don't pay attention to fads as I see muscle cars in person regularly and have my whole life. Its what I grew up with so its kinda my guage for everything else. I don't rely on a propaganda machine (i.e. HOT ROD magazine) to tell me what is cool (while sadly many folks do...look at all these rice burner mags that high school kids read these days).
I'll admit most can't. But for the era they were OK. Hell my T-bird didn't stop or handle for shiznit when I got it but thats changed now :evilgrin: . And my '72 Chevelle is down right scary when you have to get on the binders or throw it into a corner (but it wasn't built to do that anyway). For me when a car does what it was meant to do well...its cool. Last thing I want to do is start an argument here. I just try to respect everyone for what they do and try not to be too vocal about something I don't like because hey...someone else does like it and it obviously holds meaning to them...so why put it down? Have a good one.
My nova goes around corners on two wheels.
It also has a three pump hell mary brake system.
Three pumps then a hell mary, maybe you'll stop!?
I'm not really impressed with muscle cars either, except the exceptional ones (428 Mustangs, 427 Camaros, Hemi Cuda's, etc). The run-of-the-mill small block and small big block (383, 396, 390) cars simply aren't that impressive. They look good, but a modern day Nissan Altima SE 3.5 would hand one its ass in almost every performance category except straight line acceleration, and even then it would probably hang pretty close with one. Yes, the old cars were hobbled by their stiff bias ply tires, ancient leaf spring suspensions, and primitive brakes, but that's the way they came. You can certainly upgrade all of the above and increase the car's overall performance considerably, but then it's no longer stock. Modern cars, even bread and butter family cars, come equipped to stop, go and turn better than old cars ever hoped to, straight from teh showroom floor. The mainstream magazines point this out regularly - the "good ol days" aren't as good as people remember.
That being said, once again I must state: Whether you like those cars or not, think of the eBay (or Barrett Jackson, in the case of the cars) money you could make!
I can see the $$$$ in Carmen's eyes from down here in VA...:rollin:
Link to some pics of the stuff in the trailors....
http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=238155
Whether or not a Nissan Altima can handle or accelerate better than an old muscle car doesn't really make a difference to me. I mean, it's a Nissan. Who cares if your Honda Odyssey takes the curves better than a Dodge Charger? For some people, the appeal of a muscle car is that it is an echo of a bygone era when no one cared about emissions or gas mileage. It was a time when stock car racing was so called because you could actually go to the dealership and purchase the same car that you saw race at Bristol on Sunday.
I like all old cars that someone has taken the time to keep clean and put some love and work into. Be it a concours restoration or a cool resto-mod, a '25 Model T or '93 Mustang. They're all cool to look at and listen to, IMO.
Exactly. Its just something about driving an old muscle car. There is nothing like getting stared at and people giving thumbs up or old guys coming up and saying "man I had one just like this". To me cars were cars back then. Anyone with a mechanical bone in their body could work on them. I guess its just that nastalgia thing.
Yeah I know old muscle cars can't handle but they just have so much more personality than anything that has come out in the last 20 years (except for the T-bird/Cougar). I've always liked the way that muscle cars looked but I hate it when they get in the hands of these street rod people who turn them into 20" wheel wearing show cars. Mabey I'm just nuts but I think that most of the time muscle car designers got the car right in the first place. Of course I like the way my car looks with no body kits or anything. I just like the stock look. Any ways out of all those cars the only one I'de take would be the blue and white 70 Chevelle SS 454. I always liked the way they looked in blue and white. Actually I don't care for 69 Camaros. Now if I had all that stuff I'de sell it all and build one hell of a kick ass Tbird:D .