HUGE muscle car and parts find...

[Cruez]

Look at all of that stuff...holy crap... plenty of unique items in there.. old FI setups, old aluminum heads... sheesh

 

Anyone got a fat wallet??

 

http://www.depereautocenter.com/parts.html

[CruxGNZ]

Amazing, hey? Here's a little reading for you guys about that.

 

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.â€

 

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!â€

 

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.

 

And here is some more reading from a guy that was looking at the stash...

Originally Posted by : Born30YrsLate

 

First you will notice in my signature that the "yenko" has been removed which only leaves a "copo"...so on with the show.

 

OK I'll give you the short version which will probably end up being the long version so we'll call it my version. All of this started a while back with my trying to locate the lemans blue '69 yenko camaro that was sold out of Broadway Chevrolet in Green Bay, which has not been found yet to my knowledge.

 

I found out in early june that there was still a '69 Yenko Camaro in Green Bay and I got the owners name (Dumpster Don) however I wasn't able to get ahold of him...come to find out he had recently died, I was then able to contact his brother (no help there...they didn't get along) and then his sister who I had found was the executor of his will....now let me tell you about Don Schlag...as you may have noticed earlier in the post he was affectionately nicknamed "Dumpster Don".

 

His dad owned a farm implement dealership in Green Bay which was then given to him by his father which he ran. So you have a guy that's never been married with a decent cash flow from his own business that liked Chevy stuff - Great Recipe. Don would buy things and never sell them and he kept much of it in the basement of the implement building until he sold it at which point he had to move stuff out (that location now is an auto parts store) and the stuff went into trailers. He kept living in a "cracker jack box" house that was next to the dealership and if you walked in the front door that's about as far as you would get because there were Chevy parts piled all over the place.

 

You may wonder how he got all those fuel injection units...well whenever people would have a problem with their poorly running injection unit he would simply trade them for a consistent intake/carb set up. About 10 years ago one of his trailers was broken into which is why the trailors were then all welded closed and placed through out the Green Bay area.

 

I'm sure you are all interested in the Yenko Camaro...a little history first - in talking to a friend of mine he vividly remembers 2 '69 yenko camaros running around green bay in the '70s, one orange and the other green...no blue one...dealer trade perhaps? anyways, Don picked up the orange car around 1971 for either $1200 or $1500 bucks from the original owner and from what i have been able to find out the owner history is known (Don kept a record on the car) back to the original owner and the orange car was sold new through Broadway in Green Bay. Most of this info I have recently found out talking with people who knew Don many of which didn't know what he had because he was a very quiet person and never talked about much.

 

Moving on...I was able to persue the car due to the assistance of a fellow syc member based on the potential selling price of the car (he will remain unnamed unless he wishes to make himself known and which I am very thankful to in allowing me the apportunity to persue the car without any worries) when I contacted Don's sister she had mentioned that she knew that Don a '69 Camaro and I told her I was interested in it as well as be willing to assist in any other way possible...

 

long story short, we had a verbal agreement in late june/early july that I would get first chance at the car when they got around to them and she didn't think that they would get around to them until spring...so fall comes around and she tells me there has been a guy helping out and he's interested in the car and she thought it was only fair he got a chance as well...then come mid of November I call every month like she suggested for an update and she tells me that she sold the entire thing to the guy that was helping them out...which is Larry the current owner of the stuff...talk about your heart falling into your ***...

 

I left out a lot of the conversational pieces between Don's sister and I just cause they don't need to be included, but the point here is and this goes with the topic of trusting someone's word and that is...DON'T trust somebody's word, especially when there is money involved...ALWAYS discuss a selling price and get a written document!...looking back it was difficult at the time to be aggressive yet patient seeing as how the brother had just died and not knowing the sister personally, but they wanted to sell everything so they wouldn't have to deal with it all and he was there with the cash...the family was asking $1 million for everything and Larry got it for a little less than that and he is looking for bids in the 7-figure range.

 

Back when the stuff hadn't sold yet, the VIN number that Roger posted that he was told is the same VIN that I got from Don's sister off of the title which begs the question...where's the discrepancy come in...is it the VV Cooke car?...I could go on and on about this seeing as how I kept my mouth shut about this since late May only to have the car taken out from under me...but, I'm much wiser for it...what really upsets me is that this stuff was bought to flip, not for the love of the hobby but for the money to be made off of it...I will be viewing this stuff next week wednesday and will get as much info as possible...i guess since there is nothing to talk about in regards to the packers this season, something had to happen worth talking about...only is 'sconsin. Now onto the next great Wisconsin find!...

[Cruez]

Very interesting story...thanks... I didn't know the background on it..

[80LS1T]

Wow what really amazing is to think that all those cars were in "my back yard" so to speak! It really sucks for that second guy in that story(if he's not BS'ing). I hate when things like that happen to people because they are just trying to be nice and let the family sort everything out before making any decisions. Oh well I guess next time he should be a little more persistant!

 

That other guy should make his money back in no time though just with a few of those cars!

 

 

Guy

[Here comes trouble]

Nut case miser!..... Lane County, Oregon has a similar story ofr a fellow named Gorden Elliot whose family also owned a Johnn Deere dealership. Ol Gordon died a few years back of lead poisoning from food he was eating that came in lead sealed cans.The canned food had to be over 75 years old. He owned numerous houses but could not live in them for the junk he stored there. He resided in camper trailers until they were loaded with junk. He spent his time dumpster diving and going to city council and county commission functions where he drove the politicians nuts. Gorden did not collect heavy chevy ... among generic other things he had a broken toilet bowl collection that would rival any in the world including Motel 6

[Guest ON3GO]

thats how im gonna be with datsun parts..

god knows i have to many right now.

 

great story!

 

mike