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Sun Aug 03, 2025 8:30 am

1973 standard barn find pulled out of upstate New York. I stumbled up this beauty while at work a few years back. Was lucky to be able to meet the owner who is only at the camp for two weeks a year. This was a daily driver and parked when it was still running in 1988. The engine turns over by hand smoothly and feels and looks like it was parked yesterday. Not sure what the plan is for this one. It’s pretty complete and very straight but has heater channel rust as well as at least one inner wheelhouse that needs replaced. Some fender mount issues but nothing I can’t handle. I just have way too much else going on right now. Either way it’s getting cleaned out washed polished waxed and put into dry storage for now. It’s my wife’s birthday year and she is already attached. It’s her second rescue and recovery of a VW. She’s hooked. Anyway here are some pics as found and at home on the trailer.

Guarded by big ol spiders.

Sitting in the driveway

Couldn’t resist had to clean up a spot to see how nice the original paint still looks

Hope you enjoy the pics.
Will update with wash and wax pics hopefully later today

Sun Aug 03, 2025 8:54 am

Nice find I once had a 73 in that same color down on long Island. That northeast road salt effect will keep you busy for a while with the patching. Good luck-Bob

Sun Aug 03, 2025 10:13 am

That’s kinda funny because this one spent its daily driver days on Long Island. This guy would buy slightly used VW’s and have a small fleet of engines he kept rebuilt. When and engine wore out he would just swap it out and keep on keeping on. He worked at JFK.

Sun Aug 03, 2025 10:53 am

Washing the entire car is very satisfying and the easiest part of the restoration.

Sun Aug 03, 2025 11:13 am

Probably the only easy step on this one

Sun Aug 03, 2025 11:28 am

Nice score! Based off of the rusty spots, you got a few years of steel swapping to do! Love when you get to melt steel!

Sun Aug 03, 2025 5:58 pm

Here are some more pics after unloading and some quick cleaning. I had to use the spare but I got four tires to hold air!

After her first bath.

Mon Aug 04, 2025 3:26 am

The floors look better than I thought they would after seeing only the exterior at first, particularly the battery area. Looks much better with the layer of black growth removed. Bob

Mon Aug 04, 2025 6:20 am

It’s nowhere near as bad as it could have been, the building it was in was very dry. It sunk down until nothing could get underneath it. So maybe that kept it from turning into dust. But it’s going to need the pans and channels replace and both inner wheel houses up front. But all in all not too bad.

Mon Aug 04, 2025 2:31 pm

Looking forward to following the build. Nice color!

Mike T

Tue Aug 05, 2025 5:10 am

My wife loves the color. I think my first step is to do a “will it run” on this. Mostly just for fun, I have a fresh 1776 to go in it. I am also going to dig through my sheet metal stash I know I have a heater channel a floor pan and I believe both wheelhouse repair pieces.

Tue Aug 05, 2025 9:28 am

It will run. They love to work and this one is grateful to be out of the barn!

Nice find. :D

Tue Aug 05, 2025 12:14 pm

If nothing else it will fun to try.

Tue Aug 05, 2025 4:46 pm

I know it’s probably a waste of time to try to clean this ol girl up but it makes me happy to see what can shine actually shine up.

I don’t have an actual buffer just a polisher so it can get better than this but not bad for 30’minutes.

I will be picking up a remote starter trigger tomorrow afternoon because I don’t have the keys yet. But they exist and yes it does have a title.

Wed Aug 06, 2025 3:46 am

It looks better. It reminds me of many years ago when I would get a new old car. I would do this same cleaning and polishing in spite of the flaws and it would look better and make me feel better about what I had bought. I am enjoying your progress. Bob

Wed Aug 06, 2025 4:52 am

Bobs67vwagen wrote: It looks better. It reminds me of many years ago when I would get a new old car. I would do this same cleaning and polishing in spite of the flaws and it would look better and make me feel better about what I had bought. I am enjoying your progress. Bob

Thank you, I used to live in Black Mountain a long time ago. I miss North Carolina

Wed Aug 20, 2025 1:57 pm

Off to a good start!

Wed Aug 20, 2025 2:17 pm

I would love to be able to make it drive and stop enough to take it to the show coming up in Geneva Ohio just as it is on 40 year old bias ply tires and all. Of course I will trailer it there and back but it would be fun to roll into the show as a barn find.

Mon Sep 01, 2025 6:07 pm

Here’s a cool pic my wife took.

Tried to do a will it run attempt the other day but the starter is bad so that didn’t get far. Tried to replace the broken vent window today but my replacement I got from my shop is missing the tab with the threaded nut plate. I will need to get another of both. But I still need to pull the last car out of the barn find stash before I can really get started on it.

Tue Sep 02, 2025 3:36 am

The flag and sunflower add a nice touch to gerty.