Who’s had a barn find?

[tomphot]

My ‘72 Tii - original owner drove it daily in Atlanta, he was one of the first Turner TV employees.  In ‘87, he painted it and had BMW build a new engine.  He drove it for another 15k miles and then parked it in ‘91.  After 22 years, his neighbor finally talked him into letting it go.  He never got it running right and only drove it a couple hundred miles.  He then decided to sell and I was the lucky one who got it after an intensive interview process. 
After bringing it home, he called and gave me the original owners phone number who still had a bunch of stuff from the car that he wanted to get rid of.  I drove over and ended up with the original engine, full Kfish setup and 3 boxes of parts, some NOS still in original boxes.  Also paperwork dating back to the ‘70s. 
 

 

Then

Now

Edited January 26, 2020 by tomphot

[jgerock]

1 hour ago, mlytle said:

speaking of rats...how about an free 85 euro 320 with m50 swap "yard find"....

 

 

Argh. Another car I almost forgot about.  I never even got to ride in it.

[rcf925]

Kind of garage find, Sat in my nephews garage in pieces for 20 years til I took it off his hands

 

[beammmer]

I found them, but too much work for me.

5F7AFDB9-16E7-4AD4-8EAD-2EF10061EAAB.heic 037CFA33-D5BC-474F-978A-C1B1A164285C.heic 5F2BF7EB-D3DF-45F6-ACA1-72F526B32CFB.heic 796968D3-710C-4540-B012-3EFFF0770C8F.heic 28743831-3B8C-4AB6-86B4-9ED8D7956B17.heic 810D1F5A-2C04-4055-A625-97FFAB63C910.heic 005E51D9-C80B-49D6-8710-C101FA2E8587.heic 9258E01B-72F1-488E-B8A9-FD2E3050F1C2.heic 0E9FA057-835F-4014-9D0C-6891EE0C4099.heic 16C9152E-AFD7-40DB-8BFD-E30A36549284.heic

[MikeD]

 

Not quite a barn find but in a field with weeds growing up so high that you could only see the red roof sticking out.  1986 325ES.  Original 80,000 mile car that has never been molested.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by MikeD

[jgerock]

30 minutes ago, MikeD said:

 

Not quite a barn find but in a field with weeds growing up so high that you could only see the red roof sticking out.  1986 325ES.  Original 80,000 mile car that has never been molested.

 

 

 

 

Love to get that paint back in shape!  Are these recent pictures Mike?

[Steve Tochi]

My 74Tii was a Los Angeles "Curb Find" in a sense. The car belonged to my wife's bachelor cousin since 1975 and was his daily driver most of its life. But cousin really wasn't known to have a job or career so miles were low and was a time capsule of his life, he was a hoarder and hadn't cleaned the car out since the 80's. Even found of BofA flyer advertising CD's at 8%.  At the time of his rather sudden passing in his 70's, cousin had no trust or will, all his assets go into probate including 2 homes full to the gills he inherited, non running E36 and rusted out 356 in the garage. 

Trying to be sensitive to my wife's family but salivating at the same time, I end up contacting probate attorney, told him I have cash and will buy it.  Attorney says he has to get it appraised, court approval, title, etc before anything could happen. Meanwhile, the car is sitting on the street in a decent LA neighborhood but surrounded by underserved areas (being PC).  I drive by occasionally to make sure its still there, probably was out there for almost 6 months.  Months later, I'm backpacking in Utah and for the first time in 3 or 4 days, I get cell reception. Unknown number calls, and for some reason I answer it. Its the attorney and he tells me the car is ready to sell, and we strike a deal on trail subject to court approval. Lets just say I made my money in the buy, and I was hoping the judge was not a bimmer fanatic.

Sorry for the long story but the message is get your Living Trust and Will done, especially if you don't want some probate attorney and the courts deciding how much your car is worth and who the next owner will be.  Here's a pic, sitting on the curb months before I owned it, only showing it to make Carl drool over those steelies.

Steve

Edited January 26, 2020 by Steve Tochi
s

[MikeD]

1 hour ago, jgerock said:

Love to get that paint back in shape!  Are these recent pictures Mike?

Jim.....I have had the car for about 6 months.  Worked on getting it running perfectly then cleaned up the leather interior and carpet.  I am planning on working on the paint.  I did start on the front spoiler but ran out of time with the weather.  Don't have room in the garage to work on it over winter so I have it all wrapped up and will continue with the paint in the spring.

[bimbill]

Part of an estate that I helped the widow sell.  After all her parts were gone this '67 Euro 1600 was left.  She was going to call the metal recyclers so I paid her a small sum and hauled it home.  I have since begun a mechanical refresh, got it running and am upgrading the brakes to a 2 circuit system from the wonky remote booster single circuit setup.  Rust is remarkably minimal but my plan is to get it driving safely and then pass it on to someone who wants to work on the cosmetics (or not).

 

I call him Andy, in honor of the late owner who bought it in 1973.

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by bimbill

[M3M3]

4 hours ago, MikeD said:

 

Not quite a barn find but in a field with weeds growing up so high that you could only see the red roof sticking out.  1986 325ES.  Original 80,000 mile car that has never been molested.

 

 

 

 

 

speaking of 325e weeds finds, another E30 i "saved"

 

 

 

 

[MikeD]

1 hour ago, mlytle said:

speaking of 325e weeds finds, another E30 i "saved"

 

 

 

 

Yours has twice the miles than mine and looks 100% better.  Mine must have had a very hard life.   Just like you I couldn't let it just rust away in the weeds.  I had to save it.  Mine is  5 speed with the ES option.  Your new tan seats are just like mine.  I will be doing paint work this spring.

[RichenFamous]

My 74Tii was a Los Angeles "Curb Find" in a sense. The car belonged to my wife's bachelor cousin since 1975 and was his daily driver most of its life. But cousin really wasn't known to have a job or career so miles were low and was a time capsule of his life, he was a hoarder and hadn't cleaned the car out since the 80's. Even found of BofA flyer advertising CD's at 8%.  At the time of his rather sudden passing in his 70's, cousin had no trust or will, all his assets go into probate including 2 homes full to the gills he inherited, non running E36 and rusted out 356 in the garage. 
Trying to be sensitive to my wife's family but salivating at the same time, I end up contacting probate attorney, told him I have cash and will buy it.  Attorney says he has to get it appraised, court approval, title, etc before anything could happen. Meanwhile, the car is sitting on the street in a decent LA neighborhood but surrounded by underserved areas (being PC).  I drive by occasionally to make sure its still there, probably was out there for almost 6 months.  Months later, I'm backpacking in Utah and for the first time in 3 or 4 days, I get cell reception. Unknown number calls, and for some reason I answer it. Its the attorney and he tells me the car is ready to sell, and we strike a deal on trail subject to court approval. Lets just say I made my money in the buy, and I was hoping the judge was not a bimmer fanatic.
Sorry for the long story but the message is get your Living Trust and Will done, especially if you don't want some probate attorney and the courts deciding how much your car is worth and who the next owner will be.  Here's a pic, sitting on the curb months before I owned it, only showing it to make Carl drool over those steelies.
Steve

Living Trust is a must and very good advice. My family went through the probate debacle BS for lovely California. My wife and I set one up as soon as we had our first child.



The idea of sharing the story came about from some stopping in and seeing a friend who I met through this forum, DanG, and told him my story. I’m glad he told me I should share it here as I absolutely love everyones stories and pictures! Thank you for sharing, keep them coming! Hope to meet more of you in person.

[BarrettN]

They're still out there - last January my 74 tii found me, I ended up at an out of the way state inspection station to get my daily driver inspected. Here's a picture of how it sat, out in the open, but miracle of miracles, no rust. Missing a few things, but in fantastic shape - with a 5 speed, bilsteins, 3.91 LSD, and Recaros. Buying it for $2700 is probably going to be one of the best buys of my life. 

[1936spyder]

They're still out there - last January my 74 tii found me, I ended up at an out of the way state inspection station to get my daily driver inspected. Here's a picture of how it sat, out in the open, but miracle of miracles, no rust. Missing a few things, but in fantastic shape - with a 5 speed, bilsteins, 3.91 LSD, and Recaros. Buying it for $2700 is probably going to be one of the best buys of my life. 

Holy crap. What a find!

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[1936spyder]

My '74 tii was a garage find as there aren't many barns to be seen or had in the suburban parts of the Bay Area.

While I hesitate to share the story (again) as I have already to numerous people who are FAQ board members and who also follow me on IG, what the heck guess I'll bite...

2 owner from new '74 tii that sat garaged for 20 yrs shortly after the former owner started a family. The engine had just been rebuilt with a fresh head that had a 284 grind Dima Elgin cam installed, the fuel pump was replaced w/an E28 unit, a 5 spd conversion had been done less than 5K miles prior to that and it had Bilsteins and aftermarket sways as well. It had also undergone a complete repaint and had the seats, interior panels as well as the headliner reupholstered about five years earlier.

To top it off its non-snorkel nose has never been replaced, it's a factory sunroof car w/an original red tip Hirschman, the dash is uncracked, all of the trim is in incredibly straight, original condition and it's still wearing its original blue plates. And did I say no rust?

Lastly, upon seeing it for the first time, I realized that the same car had lived about 3 blocks from me while growing up as the gold MSW Ceres are somewhat unforgettable:



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