Antique cars, collectibles that have been on Valrico land for decades to go up for auction

Car 'graveyard' in Valrico

A Valrico woman is selling her late father's cars that he collected over the past 75 years. Lloyd Sowers reports.

VALRICO,, Fla. - A weekend auction is bittersweet for a woman who is parting ways with her father’s antique cars and collectibles he kept on a plot of land in Valrico for decades.

Memories of cars often follow us forever and that's how it is for a 1955 Buick that was there from the very beginning for Sue Byanski Johnson.

"My parents had this car when I was born," she said, pointing at the rusted car. "This is the car I came home in when I was a baby."

Byanski Johnson has a faded photo of her as a small child with the Buick behind her.

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"We drove it until 1967 or '68 until we got the '66 Mercedes," she shared, proudly showing photo of her and her siblings standing with the Mercedes on a family vacation.

Byanski Johnson's father didn't get rid of it.

Sue Byanski Johnson as a baby with the Buick in the background.

"He kept everything he liked, which was everything," she laughed.

Most everything her late father ever drove still sits on a piece of land in Valrico that's been stuck in time since 1948.

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That's when Byanski Johnson's grandparents, Andrew and Lucy Byanski, bought an expanse of land for $40 an acre.

At that time, the parcel was surrounded by cow pastures and orange groves. It was still a small place when Byanski Johnson was growing up in the 1960s and '70s.

Sue Byanski Johnson and siblings pose near car during a family road trip.

"Brandon was real small," she shared. "Highway 60 was two lanes. Miller Road was just a sand road."

Byanski Johnson is now the last of her family and she's selling off the estate, including the old cars that some see as junk. Others, like George Schembri, see them as signposts marking places in time that you can drive right up to.

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"My wife is probably ready to throw me out of the house," Schembri joked. " I've got 18 cars."

He owns Schembri's Quality Auto in Seffner. He says restoring old cars is both fun and relaxing. When he arrived at Byanski Johnson's place to have a look, he popped the hood of a 1949 Ford farm truck.

1949 Ford farm truck.

"It's a flathead V-8," he exclaimed. "That was a favorite for early hotrods."

Byanski Johnson said her dad bought it when she was around 11 years old. It used to belong to a man who raised chickens nearby.

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"We called it the ‘Chicken Coup Truck’, because that's what it did," she stated.

"Because I have a lot of memories, so I hope whoever buys this stuff will love it as much as my dad and I did," she said as she covered her heart with her hands.