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Sun Apr 03, 2022 11:35 am

open house but "off limits" to the buses???

ODD since that was the majority of the picture posted...

sounds like it was a bit of a scam to get ppl to come out for a last ditch effort to make a few $$$ off the bottom of the barrel junk...

When's the actual auction for the "good stuff"??

Sun Apr 03, 2022 11:50 am

since the owner has died I don't think the widow is "scamming" anyone, I think the idea is to clean the place out as soon as possible rather than continue trying to operate a junk yard in the middle of a residential neighborhood, I can't believe its been there as long as it has, the vw community begged for and got one last chance before everything was crushed, I hope they made enough money to consider parting out a few more items before its all melted down into Kia's and Hyundai's, of course everyone thinks bay busses and vanagons are made of gold so they didn't want people sawzalling them in half before they finish looking for titles, As of 24 hours ago the date for future sales and auctions was not finalized, stay tuned for updates, pretty sure there are other threads and facebook groups keeping tabs on future updates

Sun Apr 03, 2022 8:16 pm

It all boiled down to what you were looking for, what you were expecting, and if you called Chris at Hillside Auto to find out what was/wasn’t for sale before you left.

There were a lot of naive enthusiasts thinking they were going to put a battery, and some fresh gas into the yard cars, and drive them home. There were those disappointed they couldn’t find CA clean sheet metal on Ohio cars that sat in 30+ years of Ohio Winters.

I’ve been wanting to walk the yard since the mid 80’s, so I went thinking it may be the first/last time I’m given an opportunity. There were a few vehicles with engines that had oil without moisture on the dip stick that most likely could have been salvaged, but difficult to get out/carry with one person on muddy sod. Most of the cars had transaxles in them. Some turned over, some didn’t. Again, not worth cheating death imo with a HF aluminum jack on mud.

If you were able to see the forest through the trees, there were parts to be had. My haul of goods included

- Superbeetle wiper covers with some tank vent chambers and filler vent T’s
- Superbeetle dash switch panel with working headlight/defrost/hazard
switches, and a couple of switch blanks.
- two domed, and four flat top Pierburg fuel pumps.
- three 64-66 turn signal covers, and one 67
- some rear seat pivot, and anchor hardware
- a bunch of OEM plastic wiring connectors for headlights/tail lights
- some reverse light fuse holders, and some og Bosch plug wire bells
- three working Superbeetle fresh air fans
- a misc plate holder, and an OEM VW coil that probably doesn’t work, but has
a cool VW logo on it
- 66, 67, and 68 deck lids.

I’m thinking they felt panels may be a hot item for momento’s, so the sale had price list requested body parts one for $50, two for $80, and deck lids fell under this. The 67 is pretty rusted at the bottom, but is repairable. The 66, and 68 were more for wall art. $40 may be high for some for rusted out decklids, but for what people are asking for clean ones, I’d rather pay $40 for wall art. The Super wiring covers were $5 each, and EVERYTHING else was $20. After doing the universal “Samba Classifieds” look up of what people are asking for stuff, my $20 box did pretty damn good....

After talking with Chris, and his Dad from Hillside, they had mentioned as of Saturday, there were multiple offers on everything as is. So it’s quite possible nothing will be crushed at the moment. There is also a possibility of an auction for the remaining mostly complete vehicles, and the contents of the buildings. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Sun Apr 03, 2022 10:12 pm

The $20 box sounds like a great deal to me.

Glad they weren't nitpicking the small stuff, better to get it to people who can use it for a decent price than have to junk it

Mon Apr 04, 2022 8:32 am

billmetric wrote: lots of really really REALLY rusty bugs, in mud, been hearing about this place for 25 years, stopped by on Saturday 4-3-22 for the yard sale, plenty of nearly complete bugs without engines from 1965-79 lots of supers, half dozen plus Ghias, an almost unrecognizable Thing, a type 4 even, bug transmissions $50 ea. you pull it, I'm hoping they are not dumb enough to crush everything with speedos, knobs, switches and trim intact, didn't see a single usable windshield but lots of side and back glass, all the bay window and later busses were off limits to parts pickers, maybe a few have titles and would be restorable if you enjoy fixing extreme rust, there was a pile of camper cabinets and wood rotting out in the weather, most everything here was junked over 20 years ago and Ohio's weather has not been kind, I'll be back for the auction, there is a large "barn" (hence the name) that is supposedly full of the "good stuff" I'm expecting piles of worn out core motors that may or may not be rotted out on the bottom, maybe a few restorable post '65 bugs and bay busses with titles if you're lucky, I should have stopped by 25 years ago before everything rotted into the mud but I was just a kid and the beetles rotted out long before the legend ever did

:lol:
I did stop out there 20+ years ago to buy some OG engine tin.
It was just about as bad back then.....
Jim was able to help me with that but he really was his own worst enemy.
He seemed to be much more interested in accumulating then selling.
Spent most of his time complaining how the city wants to shut him down.
It would have been a great local resource if he just promoted and took better care of his inventory.

Guess the city finally got their wish.

Wed Apr 06, 2022 5:04 pm

So sad - another VW haven goes out.

Save as many as you can -

Thu Apr 07, 2022 9:34 am

I didn't recently 'save' a VW, but I did buy one recently that had been saved, and nurtured, and turned into a daily summer driver.........in Michigan of all places.
This vehicle was originally built on 14 October, 1970, left the factory on 27 October, 1970, bound for San Antonio, USA.
It then sold 'new' at Canyon VW in Corona, California on 12/3/1970 to the parents of a girl named Jodi, who had just graduated High School.
2 years later, it was sold to a family of 4 kids in Pomona, California. 22 years later, the youngest son drove the car to Ohio, where he began studying architecture at Ohio State in Columbus.
The engine died and the car sat, until it was sold to the guy whom I bought it from, for $250. The car had 345,260 miles on it, and it was June of 1994.

New struts, wheel cylinders, and a used 1968 1500cc single port engine, and it became a summer daily driver, stored in a garage for the winter time.
In July of 1998, the car and the owner moved to Detroit, when he became a design engineer for General Motors. In 2000, it began its transformation into a Cal-Look car. Disc brakes all around, lowered struts, new sway bars, and a new Mexican bumper.
The winter of 2004/2005 saw the build up of a street hot 1776 engine, close-ratio transaxle and installation of additional rear chassis bracing. The car had 360,947 miles on it.
I just bought the car from the previous owner, moved it 12 and a half miles east (we were practically neighbors), and parked it in the garage. It has 366,710 actual miles on her, and it has been saved.

Now I just have to wait for warmer weather and a couple more rainstorms to wash the salt away, and I can finally drive this beauty. I have to show her off. :P
...........sorry for going off topic. I've never been to the Beetle Barn, the owner sounds like an ass, now his widow doesn't have to look at his racist mug or hear him rant. Good riddance to him, but not to the VW's that will be crushed soon.