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Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:27 pm

I was wondering if anyone has ever found a great car at a junkyard, then fixed it up and sold it for profit. Here is a time when I almost did just that.

I wast at Ecoparts Dismantlers in Oceanside, CA to look for a new speedometer when I noticed really pristine orange 72 beetle. This thing looked like it had been kept in grandma's garage ever since the Nixon administration.

I went over to the counter to ask about purchasing the whole car. I looked back at the car from a hundred feet away and saw to my surpise some dumbass was carring it with a fork lift. --I ran back to see the damage. They totally ruined the rockers, front fenders and part of the pan with fork lift.

dammm...,

Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:05 pm

I really enjoy 'rescuing' vws that seem too far gone for most.

Here is a picture of my ghia I did in 2003. It was the only vw I bought from a 'junkyard' however this is the shape I usually start all my projects.

and don't fool yourself into thinking you can make a profit on a junkyard car. :shock:

Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:35 pm

My last junkyard car was a '71 bug I bought for $100. I put a new battery and gas in it, started it up and drove it away. I sold it 2 weeks later for $650 without having done anything else to it.

Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:19 pm

Oh yeah, I just remembered, I once got nice 57 ghia dash handle at a junkyard for 20 bucks, then sold it for 80.

It's good to hear that someone out there made money off a junkyard find. However I agree with the previous poster that there is little chance of making money doing this.

Al

Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:42 am

if yer only interested in making money then try buying some stock in mcdonalds or saudi oil.............. :roll:

Fri Sep 29, 2006 5:02 pm

and then before i sold it

ran great!

Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:39 pm

I went "Hunting" yesterday, No splits, 3 Bays and a bone yard w/6 Vanagons, 2 Syncros, got a few trinkets, found some Gl trim, power mirrors, some nice stuff that I don't need.
How rare is a rear facing seat in a Syncro Vanagon Gl ?
In the Northeast, its rare to find a car thats makes it to the bone yard, that you can drive again...........

Sat Oct 14, 2006 2:57 am

Hi Guys
I bought a 62 Split Window camper for a $100-sold it for $2300 and didn't do a thing to it.
Karl

Sat Oct 21, 2006 11:16 am

Bought this 64 og paint out of a Tucson junk yard. Added the decklid later.

Tue Nov 14, 2006 1:28 pm

one chilly day my friend and I walking thru a U-pull-it.
saw about the ONLY VANAGON i've ever seen in 12+ years of yard crawling..
poked head in the back and had a VW Inline4 with a KEP adapter kit..

pulled the $550+ adapter kit for the nice sum of $35 (bellhousing and fluywheel). 8)

rare and uniquie cars that DO NOT BELONG IN A JUNKYARD yes.. too many heartbreaking ones to count.. :twisted:

Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:19 pm

the best deal i've gotten from a junkyard is a 1967 beetle for $50 it is missing the transmission and engine and a few other little thing's. the owner of the yard said the guy who brought it in said it was originally a california car and it somehow got to minnesota where the yard is. but the car is rust free except surface rust since it's from california.

Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:45 pm

I was home a few weeks ago for Thanksgiving and ran into an friend of mine who mentioned a VW aircooled mechanic that one of his co-workers used. We rode downtown and I was much amazed that only a few blocks from where I went to Highschool was a mechanic with a yard full of bugs, busses and the like.

We went in to talk to him and starting off vaguely asked if he was selling parts of them or working on them or what not. His response: "If you are wanting to buy a part, I'm gonna ask that you take the whole car. I dont care if you don't want it, push it into the street or take it to the scrap yard, I have to have everthing off the lot by Dec 1st (this was Nov 21)."

He continued to point out the '68 bug and the some odd year super and a 1960 that had been in good conition....except that the building next door fell on it when they were tearing it down.

I ended up with a '68 bug that he said originally 150 for and then said He'd give it to me for 100 to help me out. When we got it on my trailer...the big surprise..."You'll have to come back tomorrow and let me get you that title" only problem was I noticed the cut out portion of the tunnel...he'd sold that title to someone else and is still looking for me another title so HE GAVE ME MY MONEY BACK (except for 20 bucks he'd given his daughter earlier that day)

So for 20 bucks I got a car with a 'nice' blue and red interior, a rear bumper, a rust free front beam, all good glass (except window) and a swing tranny. I still have yet to dig into her, but hey, 20 bucks...I wished I could have saved more... Not bad considering I was just looking for parts...

Sun Dec 17, 2006 2:34 am

my best find was a 67 bus, piad $35 for it and $50 for the tow. it was used as storage till the person's home got repoed. i had it a week and sold it for a nice profit. the weirdest offer i got on it a hippie tried to trade a pound or so of shrooms for it.

Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:38 pm

the only one i have found was a free 62 splitty camper. i found a nice front beam and a locked up tranny with good reduction boxes by a creek on the guys land. this bus was used for hunting and most of the windows are gone. has all seats and complete and OK camper interior. pop top works too! :shock: it even came with the nicest deluxe bumper!

Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:00 pm

Hell, my first car was a combination of a '70 and '73 beetle from a local yard. The '70 had an excellent body, crap interior and blown motor, $150. The '73 had been wrecked in the front, with excellent interior, rebuilt engine, and cool aluminum/chrome wheels and new rubber, $200.

Good times.

Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:59 am

just picked up a 69 fastback, 1 respray in the original color, interior is in pretty good shape minus the dash, although i got an extra, and there are NO dents or rust anywhere except for a 2in, by 2in hole in the pan. good motor (its a gex. im not holding up my hopes-but it runs.) and a good tranny. OG FI and OG backup light accessory with the over-rider bumpers. only thing keepin me from rollin it is that the drivers side seat rails are gone!

FREE minus the 40 bucks i paid for U-haul.

Thu Feb 12, 2009 8:10 pm

it was 1981, and i was working on a wheat harvest. we started out in burkburnett, texas. i was 20 at the time. w had a day off and so i decided to walk into town, it was about 1.5 miles. my younger brother had just let a buddy of his use my '63 bug and the kid had rolled it 3 times and was lucky to be alive. i was lamenting the loss of my bug any time i thought about it , i loved my little bug it was my 1st car and had just spent 560 to rebuild the engine. well as i am getting to where the freeway cuts thru i see on an onramp a vw bus with a couple "for sale" signs in the windows. well i walk over to look at it and immediately see that it is in excellent condition. it is a 1963 23 window deluxe with frilly curtains in all the windows it is red and what ever went with red that year, and it is in like brand new shape. i paid 500 for my '63 bug. on the for sale sign the price says $800!! now i am 20 yrs. old and i am trying to think of how to come up with the money . so i asked my boss and he said no, and my parents are strapped for cash because of the crash of the housing market, so i know they can't help. i still think about that bus and wonder what ever happened to it, hopefully that bus is alive and well today.

Fri Feb 13, 2009 9:42 am

Maybe I have just been lucky flipping cars. In college I used to pick up cars that had minor problems that owners were going to junk. The extra money helped with tuition. I have continued to do this but only if the cars fall in my lap. I would put $20-$100 into them and flip them.

1980 Omega, purchased for $250, sold for $1000
1980 Rabbit, purchased for $50, invested in a set of points, sold for $1000
1988 Daytona, purchased $500, invested $100, sold for $2500
1986/92 Diesel Jettas. Purchased both for $500, invested $250 in the '92, sold both for $3000
Purchased a group of 5 ACVW's that were on the way to the crusher, sold one for more than the purchase price of all 5. I kept the only one I really wanted to restore and am parting the rest.
1986 Sable, puchased for $500, invested in a junkyard headliner and steamed the interior, sold for $2000
Purchased school buses for $1-$500/piece, sold them all for $1400-$4000/piece.

Now the extra $$$ goes into my restorations.