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Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:41 am

I'm not the best in searching for topic I'm sure there was something similar to this in at some pont but what I got to say when describing barndoors to none VW people first I Tell them why they are Called Barndoors then I tell about how many were produced and now how many are left to try to give my understanding on how hard they are to find... So the first thing they always say is theres got to be a lot of them out there then.. So my question is do you guys how many barndoors do you know of that are not on the registry and is that because you are hunting them down or because the owner does not want them to be on the registry

Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:04 pm

i know of 5 in my garage, that is not in any registry....

Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:14 pm

Brian,
Great topic.

How many total Barndoors are "registered", do you think?
Is Tonny's site the best place to get that total?

I would say we can only guess how many unknown Barndoors there are.

Anybody want to place some numbers?

1. Total number of "known" Barndoor buses?
2. Estimate of total known plus unknown?

Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:30 pm

my GUESStimate is twice as many unknown than registered still existant.
so going by 1000 registered there probably are 3000 in total. of course we are all chasing them and a lot of them aren't even for sale yet because it is them older collectors who aren't interested in the internet and forums.
I personally owned 3 registered BDs within the last 6 yrs and I know of at least 7 more unregistered which could possibly hit the market sooner or later (or not :) ) there's so many garages and barns yet to be opened again. so this makes my 2:1 guess.

Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:05 pm

I know of 2. One got destroyed in the 80's by a fire and the other was just found by a friend last summer and neither are registered. There was another one locally that just surfaced last year and no one in the scene knew about. I would say there's still enough out there to make hunting them down a worthy cause. :wink:

Mon Mar 17, 2014 7:07 pm

ingenbremser wrote: i know of 5 in my garage, that is not in any registry....

Pictures or it didnt happen.... :wink:

Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:29 pm

brad2thabone wrote: ingenbremser wrote: i know of 5 in my garage, that is not in any registry....

Pictures or it didnt happen.... :wink: if you follow my username, you will find some Pictures, 2 are being cut up as donors.....

Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:07 am

ingenbremser wrote: 2 are being cut up as donors.....

think about that twice ! I don't know their condition, but if they have a VIN and usable parts, you might regret that someday. I had the same idea with my second 54 panel, but in the end let somebody else have it and so it might be another BD saved.

Tue Mar 18, 2014 4:55 am

I know of a few.. two of them don't even know what they have! Mum is the word... :wink:

Tue Mar 18, 2014 1:43 pm

djfordmanjack wrote: ingenbremser wrote: 2 are being cut up as donors.....

think about that twice ! I don't know their condition, but if they have a VIN and usable parts, you might regret that someday. I had the same idea with my second 54 panel, but in the end let somebody else have it and so it might be another BD saved. they are in a really bad condition, and the other`s i have, really need some parts of them... one is pancaked by a escavator (probably wrong spelling :oops: )

Tue Mar 18, 2014 2:18 pm

Since there were about 120k made and about 900 in the registry, I always assumed there were another 1/3 as many (so 300) in existence, but off-registry. That gives a nice round number in that there would be about 1200 in existence and therefore a 1% retention rate. i.e., about 1 in 100 barndoors exist, the others were scrapped. I personally only know of a couple that aren't on the registry though.

Thu Mar 20, 2014 7:41 am

I have two Barndoor (1954 W23 / 1952 W22). They are in fair condition and undergoing further restoration and collection of missing parts. Also I have a 1955 panel (July / Almost Barndoor) in the same process and none are registered.

Thu Mar 20, 2014 8:37 am

Like lots of people here, I also know a few BD that are not registered (yet :) )

So I would guess that there is another 1000 BDs known by VW folks an maybe another 1000 still around but unknown / unfound ?
But who knows... :idea:

Thu Mar 20, 2014 6:50 pm

Brian_Mccue wrote: So my question is do you guys how many barndoors do you know of that are not on the registry and is that because you are hunting them down or because the owner does not want them to be on the registry

I get the part of keeping a non-registered bus secret if you're hoping to buy it but why would someone not want their own bus on the registry? Fear of past owners?

Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:27 pm

ricekooker wrote: Brian_Mccue wrote: So my question is do you guys how many barndoors do you know of that are not on the registry and is that because you are hunting them down or because the owner does not want them to be on the registry

I get the part of keeping a non-registered bus secret if you're hoping to buy it but why would someone not want their own bus on the registry? Fear of past owners?

I know of a few unregistered BDs, more than I actually know directly on the list. I think many owner of the highly collectible models like to be discrete for several different reasons; some because they don't want to be constantly contacted by those who are interested in their buses, some who fear theft of parts and vehicles, and others who just like to hoard in private

Fri Mar 21, 2014 10:40 am

Ultramoron wrote:
I know of a few unregistered BDs, more than I actually know directly on the list. I think many owner of the highly collectible models like to be discrete for several different reasons; some because they don't want to be constantly contacted by those who are interested in their buses, some who fear theft of parts and vehicles, and others who just like to hoard in private

i get why you would not want to publish your name, contact info, address and phone number.... still putting the VIN number and a picture up would not hurt anything.

Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:53 pm

mandraks wrote: Ultramoron wrote:
I know of a few unregistered BDs, more than I actually know directly on the list. I think many owner of the highly collectible models like to be discrete for several different reasons; some because they don't want to be constantly contacted by those who are interested in their buses, some who fear theft of parts and vehicles, and others who just like to hoard in private

i get why you would not want to publish your name, contact info, address and phone number.... still putting the VIN number and a picture up would not hurt anything. putting up the vin on a Public list, saying it its a totalobjekt, or scapped, will give a "free" vin to those who will build a replika With "correct" bd vin, for instance if a norwegian vin show up on a "bd" bulit in usa of reproparts only .i here in norway would not have any way to find it out, and as i read here on TS , it is possible to get a car registered witout all dokumentation on ownership/pnkslip and so on.. mine cars, and wrecks will not be on any Public list because of this possibility for foul play ... (sorrY for bad grammatics) :oops:

Fri Mar 21, 2014 1:26 pm

I understand your concerns, but talking real vehicles ( not a VIN tag or just the VIN portion of the frame), as soon as it is registered on Tonnys site with a picture and your name along it, proves it is the bus you have and nobody can duplicate or repro it !

Fri Mar 21, 2014 2:29 pm

ingenbremser wrote: putting up the vin on a Public list, saying it its a totalobjekt, or scapped, will give a "free" vin to those who will build a replika With "correct" bd vin, for instance if a norwegian vin show up on a "bd" bulit in usa of reproparts only .i here in norway would not have any way to find it out, and as i read here on TS , it is possible to get a car registered witout all dokumentation on ownership/pnkslip and so on.. mine cars, and wrecks will not be on any Public list because of this possibility for foul play ... (sorrY for bad grammatics) :oops:

what is to stop any person to make up a random un-claimed VIN number, build themselves a new bus from scrap, punch in the VIN and claim it is legit?

At least, if you state you own a bus with that VIN number, they will likely not use that number to avoid the obvious duplicate.

Fri Apr 11, 2014 6:59 pm

Hi! I'm not a very active member and not a barn door owner or very knowledgeable BUT...

I'd say the best guess is to determine a number of cars that are surviving but not registered is to use comparable data from similar parameters:

I'd try and find the number of other early 50's cars and see how many where manufactured and how many survive/are known online.

I almost bought a 1954 dodge station wagon once. A rare car. (Leno has a hemi version in his collection) and quickly realized that there are very few survivors and only a handful online. I had to guess there where more out there but not online. I'd also wager that most people restoring and owning a car like this are not very into computers or at least posting photos and info of their car.

I'm going to say that there might be photo evidence and mention of no more than 15-20 online. I found one and I'm sure there are more running. BUT there have to be more than 10-30 more surviving out there? This was a similarly unfashionable and utilitarian vehicle to a VW Van of the same age.

There is not the same number of people on the hunt for a 54 sierra wagon so they probably get passed over much more often.

BUT I have to say of all the 50's barn finds appearing much less than half the barn doors are known/in the hands of true enthusiasts.

Just my 2 cents.