For most enthusiasts, stumbling onto a limited-edition muscle car forgotten in a barn is the stuff of daydreams. The reality can be a lot messier, especially when the car has spent the better part of a decade collecting hazardous bat droppings and serving as a rodent apartment complex.That was the scene waiting for the crew at WD Detailing, who took on a 2001 Ford Mustang Bullitt that had been parked inside an 1860s barn back in 2015. The mission was simple to describe and brutal to execute: decontaminate it, get it running, and hand it back to its owner, Sean, who had tucked it away years earlier when life pulled him in another direction.The bat-droppings-covered 2001 Mustang Bullitt before cleaningBullitts don't turn up like this very often. Ford built only about 3,000 of them for 2001 as a tribute to Steve McQueen's 1968 fastback, so finding one neglected in a barn is genuinely rare. If you want a sense of how scarce and how coveted special Mustangs can be, our look at an untouched 1968 Shelby GT500KR survivor shows just how much originality matters to collectors.A Toxic Job Before the Real Work Could StartBefore the Mustang could even roll into the shop, the team had a biohazard to deal with. The barn's bat colony had treated the Dark Highland Green coupe as a landing pad for years, leaving a thick coat of droppings that becomes especially dangerous once it gets wet. To protect their workspace, the crew cleared the worst of it outside in the parking lot before any real washing began.AdvertisementAdvertisementInside was no better. An ozone machine helped knock down the smell, but pulling the seats revealed three large mouse nests, including one tucked into the trunk where the nitrous bottle once lived. Anyone facing a similar interior should read our guide on inspecting a barn find before you buy, because what hides under the upholstery often decides whether a car is a bargain or a money pit.Mystery Badges and a Hidden Nitrous SetupThe cleaned and decontaminated Bullitt MustangThis particular Bullitt had a few quirks that left the detailers puzzled. It wore SVT and Cobra badges in all sorts of places, from the wheels and fenders to the trunk and even under the hood, despite the fact that the Bullitt was never an SVT car. Whether a previous owner simply dressed it up or it was some odd dealer experiment, the badging muddied the car's story. It's a reminder of why understanding originality is so valuable, something we dig into in our explainer on what matching numbers really mean.The bigger surprise was sitting in the engine bay: a nitrous system, complete with braided lines and solenoids. Clearly Sean hadn't treated this Mustang as a museum piece. He'd built it to move.Bringing the V8 Back After Nine YearsOnce the car had been washed, clay-barred, and given a deep interior extraction, the Dark Highland Green paint looked like it had just left the showroom. But appearance counts for little if the engine won't turn over. The crew checked the oil and coolant, fitted a fresh battery, and added a few gallons of new fuel to the empty tank.The revived Bullitt Mustang running againDespite nine years of sitting, the 4.6-liter V8 fired up almost immediately, with no misfires and no alarming noises. That kind of clean wake-up is the goal of any careful revival; our walkthrough on safely waking a sleeping engine covers how to give a long-parked car the best shot at exactly this outcome.An Emotional HomecomingWhen the team towed the revived Bullitt back to the property, they found the historic barn had already been taken apart for its reclaimed lumber. Sean, who assumed his car was long gone, was floored when the trailer gate dropped to reveal his gleaming Mustang. He'd owned it for around two decades, since he was a teenager.AdvertisementAdvertisementRather than load it back up for a quiet trip home, Sean climbed in and laid down a smoky burnout right there on the country road. Not every Mustang gets a second life this dramatic, though revivals are becoming more common; the moss-covered S197 Mustang reborn with a Coyote V8 swap is another standout. And if you're hungry for more cars waiting to be saved, our roundup of 180-plus muscle cars headed to a no-reserve auction is a good place to start.Watch the full toxic teardown and revival below: