North Carolina resident Tom Cotter has been looking for treasure for decades.

As he got older, he still loved the challenge of the treasure hunt, these days though, it’s looking for something a little bigger.

“I think that finding old cars is the same things as finding ‘treasure,’ but for a 50-year-old. This is what I can do with friends of a similar age – it replicates the fun we had when we were kids finding old bicycle frames or whatever you found as a kid. Now we just happen to be old car enthusiasts. And it is that sense of discovery that is so cool, so organic.”

It was this love of cars hidden away and forgotten over the years that led Cotter to write his book, “The Cobra in the Barn, Great Stories of Automotive Archeology,” a collection of tales on amazing automotive discoveries. And, it was this book that led to the “Barn Finds” exhibit at the Saratoga Automobile Museum opening July 29.

The exhibit will feature a wealth of old cars uncovered over the years. Included in the exhibit are Cotter’s own 1939 Ford Woodie and a 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang. Also featured will be a 1951 So-Cal Speed Shop Bonneville record-setting Belly Tank, 1934 Lincoln KB seven-passenger Touring Car, once owned by Rockefeller Prentice (John D. Rockefeller’s grandson); a 1930 Rolls-Royce Hibbard & Darrin Convertible sedan once belonging to Marlene Dietrich, a gift from Jack Warner; a 1968 Pontiac GTO Ram Air II convertible four-speed; and more.

Woodie, take two. The 1939 Ford Woodie has a particularly interesting story for Cotter; he found the car twice, more than 25 years apart. In 1969, when he was 15 and living in Long Island, he saw the car through a fence sitting next to a barn. He approached the owners and asked if it was for sale. It was, and for $300 borrowed from a woman he did yard work for, the car was his. Over the summer, Cotter worked off his debt, yet was still too young to drive his acquisition.

Four years later, he sold the car to a gentleman in Puerto Rico. Several years passed, and when he turned 40 Cotter and his wife discussed owning a Woodie again. They joined the National Woodie Club, but none of the cars available through the Club struck his fancy. When the member roster finally arrived, he noticed there were three members in Puerto Rico, two of which owned 1939 Woodies. He contacted both owners and found his car on the second call. The car had switched hands three times since Cotter sold it in 1973.

After a few years of back and forth with the current owner, Cotter purchased the car and began restoration work since its condition had deteriorated.

“That was nine years ago,” Cotter said. “Now it’s all restored and will be at the show.”

The birth of muscle. Another fascinating find on display is a 1965 Pontiac GTO Ram Air II convertible four-speed owned by Robert Bugbee of Lake Placid. Bugbee purchased the GTO from a friend who was moving. The car sat in his garage in Wilmington, N.Y., for 32 years. When Bugbee brought the car home, he realized it had all its original paperwork. After doing research, he realized he’d stumbled across gold. The car was the rarest GTO out there – there were only a handful manufactured and his is one of two that are known to still exist. The car has been getting heavy coverage in car publications and Bugbee is thrilled to be showing it in the Barn Finds exhibit.

“I’m happy to see this car get the prominence and recognition it deserves,” said Bugbee, who noted the car was the true predecessor to the Ram Air IV. “It’s going to be fun to let people see it. I want to publicize it as much as possible, it is the untold story of a super car that people forgot – it was the beginning of the wave of muscle cars.”

Bugbee’s GTO will also be featured in Cotter’s next book, “The Hemi in the Barn,” which is coming within six to eight weeks.

For more information on the Barn Finds exhibit at the Saratoga Auto Museum, call the museum at 587-1935.