Thing at Amelia auction

[Augie]

I saw a 73 Thing that was auctioned off this weekend at the Amelia Concours. Very clean, do not know the winning bids but they were hoping for the $30K range.

[yel-mel]

It does look nice !

[77kafer]

Hammer price 33,600
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Supposed to be 77käfer, but there are no umlauts on an american keyboard

Overheard on 27 June 07, one lady to another when they saw my Harli in a parking lot at West Point, "maybe he found it on the clearance aisle at the Volkswagen dealer"

[germansupplyscott]

Here's the auction page:

https://www.broadarrowauctions.com/vehicles/am23_037/1973-volkswagen-type-181-thing

Strong money for that car. It's pretty but some really weird ish with this car:

WTF is going on with the mirrors?

It's squatting in the rear. Any restorer who knows Things would not allow it to be complete without adjusting the ride height in the rear. I really hate the look of a Thing that is squatting.

Don't like the aftermarket tail lights

Overstuffed front seats - foam inside for sure instead of coconut fibre

Missing the boot on the wiper motor wires, motor is painted white on the bottom

Crappy side curtains

Weird paint job inside the trunk

Something weird about the wheels. Not sure what they are but they're not 181

A decent, solid car.
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SL

[wbailey2112]

What's up with the mirrors is that they are just standard repro bus mirrors with no stem extensions to put the mirrors above the top of the doors.

As for the taillights, the usual generic elephant foot repro model that fits either the left or right side.

It's certainly a nice Thing but whoever paid $30K for it either did not care about the details or was an uninformed buyer that had deep pockets and just wanted a Thing.
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'74 Thing
'83 Westfalia

[Augie]

I did not see any side curtains, but I liked the top. I did not notice the odd mirrors, but I prefer them on the door post so you can remove the doors. I do not really know what is stock, but someone put bosses on the posts on mine.

[Deckard]

I find it odd that rather than spending a bit more money and crafting a period-correct car they made some rather odd choices, like the grills over the headlights, which cheapen the look. They also forgot to properly glue the B pillar trim, which I find ridiculous for a 30K car

[germansupplyscott]

[Augie]

Yes, I was at the event. Worked out that we were in Florida on vacation. I thought it was a really nice car, more stock than mine is, but that was the way it was when I bought it. It is always a work in progress, but will do it to my preferences. I am not a purist in that sense.

The Thing on auction at least started and moved on its own power. The Manx that was also on auction did not start and was towed to the auction area.

[germansupplyscott]

The great part of this is that a Thing can sell for that kind of money!
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SL

[Dusty1]

It's all good fun until you want a Thing project for reasonable money.

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