Farmhouse Find

[DrumAnBass]

Ok, so imagine you live in portugal and your moving house. you find a lovely farm house set in a decent plot of land. the place has been empty for 15 years!

whilst exploring your new property you find a large barn in the trees. the door is padlocked shut and its all rusted solid. so you grind the padlock open.........

http://www.geenstijl.nl/paginas/mirror/20070215-pritt-mazda/index.html

Now if only I could find the arcade equivilent!

[pointdablame]

That is absolutely amazing.  That is an amazing find, and there are some really nice cars in there.  Man I would love the chance to be in there.

Awesome.

[horseboy]

I have dreams like that. Totally nuts.

[shardian]

I saw the first picture of the mini and thought, sweet! a barn with a Mini in it....then my jaw stayed dropped for the next 5 minutes looking at all the other cars.
Can you say "I'm Rich Beotch!" 

I think I have had a dream like that too by the way.

[boykster]

That's some great stuff in there....

Alfa's, Porsche's, Lotus's, etc...............................

I'd literally piss myself if I opened that door.....

 

[horseboy]

I suppose it is kind of like what must have happened to that dude that has been selling all of those NIB Computer Spaces, Robotron cocktails, etc. That must have been a great warehouse to see for the first time.

[Chris G]

That's amazing, but unfortunately my first thought was of the movie Wolf Creek.  For those that haven't seen it, basically a serial killer in the Australian outback lures all these tourists to his remote property, kills them, and keeps all their stuff (huge garage full of cars).

So hopefully someone checked all the trunks...   

[ChadTower]

Dude found an old chop shop or laundering operation that was abandoned at some point.  That much is pretty clear, no one abandons that type of a collection or stores it in a remote farmhouse like that unless they're hiding it.

Plus, most of those cars look rotted out.  Not sure how much value a lot of those cars would have when you factor in all of the corrosion on the bodies and undercarriages.

What mystifies me is how a selling agent never notices this.  Isn't it the agent's JOB to assess the property?  Hey, look, there's a bigass building over there!

[RayB]

Broken Link.

[DrumAnBass]

Bummer; the site must have been shut down due to bandwidth violations... I checked the google cache, but the photos don't load...

[TOK]

Ok, so imagine you live in portugal and your moving house. you find a lovely farm house set in a decent plot of land. the place has been empty for 15 years!

whilst exploring your new property you find a large barn in the trees. the door is padlocked shut and its all rusted solid. so you grind the padlock open.........

http://www.geenstijl.nl/paginas/mirror/20070215-pritt-mazda/index.html

Now if only I could find the arcade equivilent!

Not Found
The requested URL /paginas/mirror/20070215-pritt-mazda/index.html was not found on this server.

Well, that was a bit anti-climactic. 


EDIT: We were posting at same time.

[kingflynn]

There are a couple of pics here.

http://jalopnik.com/cars/retro/open-sesame-warehouse-opening-in-portugal-reveals-forgotten-collection-231918.php

[FrizzleFried]

Nice...and no...they are't all worthless rust buckets....many appear to be well worth restoring.

[ChadTower]

Worth restoring from a collector's point of view.  From a business point of view, by the time you paid a pro for all of the work that would need to be done on most of them, you wouldn't turn a dime of profit.

[Loki]

Bummer; the site must have been shut down due to bandwidth violations... I checked the google cache, but the photos don't load...

Weird... GeenStijl get a daily visit somewhere around 75000 and is never down (exept for this mirror it seems)
This is the original one, but also no pictures there ^^;
http://www.mazda-ogn.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6829&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Anyway, if I opened that door I don't think my heart would survive

[danny_galaga]

Worth restoring from a collector's point of view.  From a business point of view, by the time you paid a pro for all of the work that would need to be done on most of them, you wouldn't turn a dime of profit.

dont be a wet blanket. that is so worth the effort to part out the cars. youve got an instant wrecking yard! you could not have a regular job for the next few months at least and earn a living- tax free (",)  i think i see at least one 356 there. instruments, door handles etc will be worth good money.

[ChadTower]

Parting out is an entirely different issue. 

When I said "worth restoring" it referred to restoration, yes?  Is there something about "worth restoring" that includes "parting out"?

[danny_galaga]

Parting out is an entirely different issue. 

When I said "worth restoring" it referred to restoration, yes?  Is there something about "worth restoring" that includes "parting out"?

true. but you could say 'instead of restoring them, how about parting them out?' you are always so pessimistic. always getting stuck on a bad point instead of moving on. cheer up and look at the options. the sun is shining, fields are in bloom. oh, wait, you guys are still in winter...

on a related note, from the same site:

http://jalopnik.com/cars/retro/peter-max-corvettes-collect-dust-in-brooklyn-121123.php

ive never heard of peter max, but his stuff looks kinda familiar:

http://www.petermax.com/

now, since all corvettes have fibreglass bodies, many of these would definitely be worth restoring (",)

[ChadTower]

true. but you could say 'instead of restoring them, how about parting them out?'

I could also point out that if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass when he hops.  Would that help?  We were talking about restoring them. 

[danny_galaga]

true. but you could say 'instead of restoring them, how about parting them out?'

I could also point out that if a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his ass when he hops.  Would that help?  We were talking about restoring them. 

this is true as well. you speak much truth. and now i will speak about parting them out. that is so worth the effort to part out the cars. youve got an instant wrecking yard! you could not have a regular job for the next few months at least and earn a living- tax free (",)  i think i see at least one 356 there. instruments, door handles etc will be worth good money.

although apparently this story is well over a month old and the cars are no doubt no longer there...

just looking through the pics. i see a lotus elan, a nash something, an old ambulance. cars like these (especially the lotus-fibreglass) just clean and sell. also they obviously arent stolen: 1) who steals 50 year old ambulances? 2) most of them still seem to have the number plates on...

[ChadTower]

Well, they've been there for 25 years, probably.  It wasn't 50 years old when it was stolen.  Ambulances are commonly used in some countries as smuggling cars or getaway cars because no one questions a speeding ambulence with lights on.  In less affluent countries, really old ambulences are pretty common, too, since our old ambulences get shipped there when we're done with them.

The body on the Lotus would still be good if it didn't have infestations but would the undercarriage be any good anymore? 

BTW, I definitely agree that money could be made parting out, though personally I'd make a quick package deal with someone and have them take the whole thing away.

A lot of those cars do have plates but we have no way of knowing if those plates ever matched the cars.  They could be hot plates too.

[Thenasty]

did anyone say " its worth stealing them" ? 
No one owns them so, it can't be reported stolen 

[shardian]

Well, they've been there for 25 years, probably.  It wasn't 50 years old when it was stolen.  Ambulances are commonly used in some countries as smuggling cars or getaway cars because no one questions a speeding ambulence with lights on.  In less affluent countries, really old ambulences are pretty common, too, since our old ambulences get shipped there when we're done with them.

The body on the Lotus would still be good if it didn't have infestations but would the undercarriage be any good anymore? 

BTW, I definitely agree that money could be made parting out, though personally I'd make a quick package deal with someone and have them take the whole thing away.

A lot of those cars do have plates but we have no way of knowing if those plates ever matched the cars.  They could be hot plates too.

Of course, I'd have an expert come in and find me two or three that wouldn't require much work to keep for myself before selling off the lot.

[ChadTower]

did anyone say " its worth stealing them" ? 
No one owns them so, it can't be reported stolen 

What are you going to do, put them in your bag and run?

Whoever bought that land owns them.

[SithMaster]

What if the orig owners drop by with the papers showing ownership of the cars?

The only bag youd be able to use would be the glad force flex since i dont think they make bags with car signs on them.  though if they did id think it would be a glad force flex and not whatever they use for those dollar sign bags.

[ChadTower]

What if the orig owners drop by with the papers showing ownership of the cars?

After 15 years of abandonment?  One of the conditions of that type of real estate transaction is almost always "you also have to deal with any crap you find on the land - you buy the land, you buy the crap".  99.9% of the time that means disposal of trash. 

[_) (V) (-)]

My only question is. . .

What are you guys doing in my garage???
 

[ChadTower]

You do a poor job maintaining your cars.

[danny_galaga]

Well, they've been there for 25 years, probably.  It wasn't 50 years old when it was stolen.  Ambulances are commonly used in some countries as smuggling cars or getaway cars because no one questions a speeding ambulence with lights on.  In less affluent countries, really old ambulences are pretty common, too, since our old ambulences get shipped there when we're done with them.

The body on the Lotus would still be good if it didn't have infestations but would the undercarriage be any good anymore? 

BTW, I definitely agree that money could be made parting out, though personally I'd make a quick package deal with someone and have them take the whole thing away.

A lot of those cars do have plates but we have no way of knowing if those plates ever matched the cars.  They could be hot plates too.

the lotus will have a backbone chassis. i doubt it will have rusted much. i conceed some of those cars will be terminal because it looks like quite a bit of weather was getting in and so the cars with open windows could have had water sitting in the floorpans for long periods of time.

package sale would be an idea, but i would be inclined (and have more fun being involved in) to auction all the cars as is, except to giving them a quick clean. i reckon an average of 1000 (some heaps more, the vws and minis a lot less). theres a fun 180,000 smackers (",). bearing in mind it was a rural property in portugal, who knows maybe the whole block of land didnt cost that much!

[ChadTower]

OTOH, if it's wine country, it may have cost 5x that much. 

I wonder how many of those engine blocks have infestations.

[danny_galaga]

OTOH, if it's wine country, it may have cost 5x that much. 

I wonder how many of those engine blocks have infestations.

infestations? generally, the engines are the most salvageable part of any car. what ever infestations you are talking about wont really eefect its viability. totally rusted out bodies will though...

[ChadTower]

Ever seen an engine with 10 years of insect infestation?  Every seal in it is gone, every rubber part long trashed, and unless it's a really high end engine it's not worth the hours and hours to pull, disassemble the block, clear out every opening and channel, and then reassemble with all new seals.

[shardian]

Hey, if Hurley can pop start a VW party wagon that has been in a humid jungle for who knows how long, then these cars are golden!

[Havok]

Man, I'd love to restore and drive one of the formula 1 type cars. Awesome find...

[ChadTower]

Hell, even if you stuck a lawnmower engine in those F1 cars they'd be fun to drive around.

[danny_galaga]

Ever seen an engine with 10 years of insect infestation?  Every seal in it is gone, every rubber part long trashed, and unless it's a really high end engine it's not worth the hours and hours to pull, disassemble the block, clear out every opening and channel, and then reassemble with all new seals.

ever rebuilt an old engine? its a piece of cake. you replace ALL those parts anyway if you are doing a proper job...

[ChadTower]

Right, but that amount of labor makes it not worth doing, financially, for most engines.  Especially if you have to spend hours pulling out twigs and larvae.  If you enjoy it, sure, but just to make the cash it's a loser.

[danny_galaga]

Right, but that amount of labor makes it not worth doing, financially, for most engines.  Especially if you have to spend hours pulling out twigs and larvae.  If you enjoy it, sure, but just to make the cash it's a loser.

yes, if you were to do anything before selling them. if you just give em a hose and auction them, the buyer/s will do whatever to them- their call...

[ChadTower]

That's what I'd do.  Take whatever you can get initially and have the buyers haul them off.  The quick cash, maybe keep one of those F1 cars to mess around with.

[boykster]

If it was my "find", I'd definately take the time to examine all the cars and look for any very rare ones, including the F1 type racing cars.

It'd be a shame to sell off the lot for a song, only to find that a rare low production type car was in the batch.  My dad sold his '64 AC 289 Shelby Cobra after my mother parked it on an incline, the emergency brake failed and the car crashed into a wall and was totalled.  He sold it in the early 80's for a few thousand dollars....that car later in the 90's was valued at over $200k!

He loved that car....