Talk about a wild looking barn find. While this won’t be the first time one has appeared on Barn Finds as my colleague, Adam Clarke, wrote this article about a 1970 Invader GT back in 2019, here is another, a 1975 vintage, in a barn find style setting that is worth a glance. It is located in Yakima, Washington, and is available here on Facebook Marketplace for $2,500.

Since Adam did a nice job of covering Autokit Industries and the story around the origins of the Invader GT, there is not much more that I can add to the history. We do know that there were well over 1,000 produced and finding one for sale is not too much of a challenge. Just type “VW Invader GT” into a search engine and voila, a multitude of years and conditions will appear.

This example is not photographed in the most productive way. The images, which were shot inside a garage, don’t present the car in its best light. That said, the body appears to be in reasonably good shape. There are paint chips on the leading front edge, the headlight bezels are missing and there is a Corvette “crossed-flags” emblem that has been planted atop of the fuel door. The exterior surfaces are quite dusty so it’s hard to take a measure of the finer points (read: cracks & splits in the ‘glass) or to make an informed value judgment around the finish. Other Invader GT’s that I have uncovered have a black louvered hatch panel positioned over the rear portion of the car, from the roofline to the rear valance covering the entire rear section. That’s obviously not the case here and it’s hard to say what’s up with the goofy looking spoiler, it looks like it got boosted from a Taurus or something and is just tacked on in a random location. The wheels are mismatched too, with the rear alloys looking like standard equipment from a fourth-generation Mustang GT and the front ones being center-capless aftermarket pieces.

The engine, which is not photographed, is a 1600 CC VW, flat-four cylinder engine which apparently starts as the seller states, “Threw gas down the throat,Hooked up a hot box & it fired over.” No word regarding this Invader’s driving characteristics. The muffler doesn’t look quite right, it’s showing a little too much undergarment and the tailpipes protrude far enough to work as a sort of curb scratcher warning system. The seller also suggests that this Invader, “Needs Brakes, Ignition and some harness wiring.”

The interior suffers a bit from the same malady as the exterior, it’s obscured by limited light and hard to see in any detail. What can be seen of the black vinyl fabric appears to be in good nick and it looks roomy for two; long-legged drivers or passengers can probably stretch out. Also, the seats appear to provide a good, low center of gravity which should help to keep this Invader, and its occupants, planted and flat when going through maneuvers. The instrument panel looks to be all intact with no open pods/missing gauges.

The seller tells us that the Invader GT kit alone cost $4,400, the same price as a ’74 Corvette. I can tell you from experience, $4,400 is about $2K low for a new ’74 Corvette. What the kit cost originally is really immaterial as the asking price for this car is only $2,500 and that’s a result of the existing marketplace supply, and obviously, the condition of this example. Of note, the rear license plate frame references this Invader as a 1974 model but the seller claims to have the title so logic would dictate that he knows the model year and it’s a ’75. This Invader is pretty well together, or so it appears, and at least it starts. It may be a cheap way to get one’s feet wet in the kit car world, don’t you think?