Blame my in-laws: this weekend, I was forced to clean out a makeshift storage closet in our back bedroom of all BMW parts, new and old, as we have guests coming. It’s not unfair – my wife and I are city dwellers so we don’t have a ton of space and I tend to selfishly stockpile vehicle parts wherever I can. It reminded me that I have collected a lot of parts for “someday” usage, but nothing like this Porsche parts specialist here on craigslist who makes my inventory look like a drop in the proverbial bucket.
The seller is located in Colorado and has a massive collection of vintage parts. According to the listing, most of it is from 1973 and earlier, with a few post-’74 bits mixed in. Given the ever-rising values for early P-cars, I have to imagine he’s got some desirable bits in his supply and certainly more than a few pieces that have gone NLA – short form for “No Longer Available.”
In what appears to be a large metal outbuilding, the seller has everything from engines to trim to wheels to transaxles. It looks like there’s a storefront of sorts, so perhaps this is the result of a business wind down or many years spent servicing German vehicles. I can understand how easy it is to come into owning a collection of this scale, especially as people begin just giving you stuff because they know you’ll take it in.
And the tough part is, as more parts disappear from dealer stock as manufacturers cease to make parts for older vehicles, I can’t blame you for wanting to hoard. I check parts number databases religiously to see what might disappear from circulation next, but it’s hard to predict how a car company determines when and which parts to make obsolete. If you’re looking for that impossible Porsche part to find, this seller might be worth making a call to. Thanks to anonymous Barn Finds reader for the tip!
Not being a P-car parts guru myself, it’s hard to tell what I’m looking at here. I see a suspension corner and maybe some manifolds and doors, but no engines or much else that might be unobtanium Porsche parts. Some of it looks more like metal stock. But to each hoarder his own…..
There are engines in there! The heads have been taken off, but they’re there, too. Looks to me to be a lot of 914 stuff, as well as 911 stuff.
I see two engine cases in the 1st photo and a bunch of cylinders in the 2nd photo but no engines, just some engine parts, and none of the mentioned transaxles. I also see a lot of what might be old seatbacks and seat cushions, but maybe not…..
I am just observing that if I were somewhere not very close to Denver it would take more than the 3 photos that show some parts to get me very interested….
Are 912 and 914 engines the same or interchangeable?
Sort of interchangeable……..but deffinatly not the same. Putting a VW engine in a Porsche is never a good thing. I did it when I was a kid so I could continue to drive my car while rebuilding the orignal 356 ( mostly the same as a 912 engine)
This stuff could be a goldmine for the right person seeing where Porsche prices are going. I knew someone who did this for Austin Healey parts years ago and made a pretty good living at it.
From the seller:
I do not have a inventory list, have wanted to take a video but have not done that. I would like to sell everything.
I have been restoring Porsches and other high end cars since 1969 and collecting and disassembling 1973 and earlier 911/912 and 914s for 20+ years, I am now 65 and would like to retire.
Unless you already have a business/outlet for this stash like these guys.
http://www.unobtanium-inc.com/about.html
Depending on how large the inventory really is ?–This will have to be a career move full time occupation for someone who has the space, money and time to market, and then ship this collection over time – could be an interesting lifestyle for the right Porsche person.
I am going to try to negotiate a time to inspect and a price et all. We will see.
i think the seller should end up with a nice retirement nest egg out of this. great find.
A stash like this could have some really good stuff, or a lot of junk, you just never know until you are actually there. But anytime there is a lot of stuff, the chances of good stuff being there are high. Not always though. I bought out a guy in VA one time, had a whole wall of Bosch 911 lenses, in the boxes. Wow! Except when we got back we realized he had saved every cracked lense, put it in the new box, and put it on the shelf. So amongst everything else we have I have the world’s largest collection of broken 911 lenses. Good luck to anyone who heads out there, it could be a good one. It’s a little too far for me and we’re are knee deep in cars.
Adam Wright
Unobtanium-Inc