new hampshire tii 'barn find' on fleabay

[Anschauer]

trifle misdescribed but interesting nontheless - looks like the PO was one of the cognoscenti

nmna etc etc

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250582526481&viewitem=

[Mike Self]

bumpers tag it as a '73...the highest 72 tii VIN is 2762629.

mike

[thehackmechanic]

I saw this car when it was advertised locally a few months back. In fact the photo that shows the closeup of the rust bubble on the left rear quarter was one that I took. It has been sitting in that barn for many years. When I saw the auction on eBay, I immediately recognized the car. I thought that someone had bought it but was selling it without even having moved it out of the barn. Turns out its a guy acting as a broker for the owner. When I saw that the auction claimed that the car had "no rust," I contacted the guy and advised that he might get into some trouble truth-in-auction-wise by making that claim and I gave him the photo. To his credit he immediately amended the auction description and posted the picture.

It looked to me like there was non-original black undercoating up under the front shock towers, possibly / probably indicating that they and the front fenders had been rebuilt. That, combined with the visible rust bubble on the left rear quarter, gave me pause. I did not see any rust-through, but the car was in a dark barn and I was looking with a flashlight; I certainly would not want anyone to take my word that the car had zero rust other than the one photographed bubble.

I did not try to start the car. The owner said that it turned over and sputtered but would not run.

The fact that it is a very solid tii with a/c and sunroof and cool cloth Recaro-style seats with Roundels in the side (are these OEM? I'm unfamiliar with them) was of great interest to me, but malaga just doesn't blow my skirt up, and that combined with the less-than-100%-certified-rust-free nature of the body dampened my enthusiasm. I intellectualized it and offered the owner five grand, but I was relieved when he didn't take it. Someone will need to sort out everything on this car.

The auction was restarted a few days ago; the last one closed at $5600. I strongly suspect that the owner has the reserve set at near what the car would be worth if it was washed, waxed, running, and well sorted-out.

Still, I find myself hoping that I'm the guy who's around when the owner decides to take a realistic offer for it.