At one point, a long, long time ago a car in this condition would be referred to as a “rust bucket”. Well, there is a hole, no wait, there are holes in this bucket (you know the song). That’s right folks the rusty Ps just keep turning up. It appears that the big, and continuing to expand, P bubble may just keep growing indefinitely. Listed here on eBay, and rusting in St. Paul, Minnasota is this 1960 Porsche 356B with a reserve not met bid at the time of writing of $5,503.
The story goes that this car was purchased from a used car lot in North Dakota sans engine 30 or more years ago. The owner sold it in 2008 to a man in Minnesota. It appears, according to the seller, the car sat outside during most of it’s life and that the previous owner sold parts off of this car-cass.
Well the bottom hasn’t fallen out of the 356 market yet, but it has from this car. The present owner, some years back, purchased the doors off this rust bucket while it was in North Dakota and now the original doors are with, not on, the car again.
The “car” also comes with the original hood and engine lid. You can view those images and many more in the ad.
According to the owner or the owner’s agent, “This will be an amazing car when it is restored.” The front bumper, steering wheel, two of the three gauges (they are smashed), 2 doors, engine lid and hood, three Porsche wheels two are dated 1/60, one 10/59 and one that maybe a Volkswagen, the trans-axle and the headliner bows complete the ensemble.
The seller says you can purchase much of the repair metal from a supplier and weld it on as he has done himself on another car. At the time of writing there are 4 bidding for this 356 or what’s left of it, so at this point it is worth over $5K to someone. We don’t know what the reserve is, what do you think it is?
Rust-on, rust-off,
Robert
Well this is a B coupe, so it’s near the bottom of the pecking order of the 356 series, but it is a 356, so it’s automatically worth big $.
The rustbucket Speedster from the other day sold for $152,701, so this rustbucket B coupe should sell for at least $waytoomuch.
In response to a question, the seller says the reserve might be lowered, so there’s a chance that some lucky guy can buy it for a bit less than $waytoomuch. Trouble is, that’s likely to still be way too much.
Another week or two and it will collapse in a pile of rust particles
Sweep them up, put them in an urn and leave them on the mantle place
Brill! It’s a Rust Bucket – in fact there’s probably not enough rust to fit in a bucket!
As the great adam carolla once said:
“WHO THE F BUYS THIS S”
idiots
Stupid is as stupid does…..
How has it not collapsed already? There is so little structure left I’m astonished it can still retain its shape.
Whoever buys this steaming pile had better find a way to weld in some bracing before they try to move it. I don’t see it even making it onto a trailer without flexing and damaging whatever intact steel may be left.
I must be missing something..owner states ”new”metal can be purchased and welded on.
To WHAT are you going to weld to?? Sorry but most Porsche people must have more money than brains…
You’re not thinking creatively. The new metal can easily be welded to……(wait for it)…..other new metal that you can buy!
Anyone who shells out big money — or any money — for this is clearly not bright enough to operate a motor vehicle.
The only thing I can think of when I look at the pictures is: Beverly Hills Car Club!
Yep………
Why does everyone think the buyer of a car like this is dumb? Are you jealous of the money they will make? It’s doubtful this will be taken on by anyone but a professional. I guarantee anyone buying this car knows exactly what it will cost to restore and will have less in it in the end than it is worth. Whoever buys this car likely has much more knowledge of the market and experience with these than the majority of the riff raff posting comments.
The Walrus what you say is true big league guys with big league money what I find interesting Is why they have embraced the 356 glorified beetles. What they are buying is the VIN this won’t even get touched, a pro shop will build a whole new car move the tags. Then crush the evidence. The fact is a well equipt shop will put a new car together in a matter of a month or two. The buyer won’t even touch this until it’s ready for Barrett Jacksons. This isn’t really what the rest of us view as a real perspective of the vintage car hobby. Totally greed driven.
Greed perhaps… but the reason the greed can be taken is the underlying desirability of the subject matter. Nobody’s gonna look twice at 99+% of other 1960 model year cars in this condition. Bringing back desirable cars is, in elite circles, EXACTLY what the vintage car hobby is about.
I wouldn’t call it greed, I would call it speculation. If the market is there, someone will serve it. Are these car people??–only on a fringe basis. They want to make a quick buck. I have no problem with speculation. We speculate on cars, stocks, bonds, etc. These guys are speculating the Porsche market will keep going up. When the bubble bursts, as it always does when a market is overheated, there will be a lot of speculators left with a lot of rusty, $150,000 VIN tags. And a lot of buyers of the latest “in thing”, with cars that are worth half what they paid for them.
As the owner of a well-restored 356, owned for nearly 50 years, I’d like to make a comment about “bubbles.” Yes, we all know the bubble will burst some day. It happened to Ferraris several years ago, and Lord knows it happened in the California housing market. But what has happened since? For those who didn’t need to flip immediately, and hadn’t just purchased their Ferrari or California abode with that intent, life is good. Ferrari and housing prices (in that part of the country) are simmering upward again.
I don’t have any intent to sell the 356, but I’m pretty confident I could come out ahead on what was originally a $3,000 purchase, back in the day. Add in 20 grand for the restoration, and we’re still good. After all, it was a daily driver for years first, and a sunny day friend since. That car doesn’t owe us a penny!
And if I did sell, I’d probably plan on a one-way drive out to the West Coast to do it.
@D King–I remember the Ferrari bubble well, not that I had one. I remember reading, paraphrasing, that there are no real Ferrari guys anymore. They’ve all sold their cars to the “in thing” guys. Of course, a few years later they could buy their cars back for half what they sold them for. If someone offered you $300,000 for your 356, would you take it? It would be hard not to.
That’s right Walrus…that is nothing but surface rust in Minnesota.
How can the seller say this is a 4 cylinder when THERE’S NO ENGINE?
As a restorer friend of mine once said, unless you are a master body man ( or woman) you will just be dumping cash into the restoration if the body is trashed. You can honestly say this is a major restoration. Given rates at 100.00 to 150.00 an hour in our area. For body and paint work. You could easily be into this project for 60 to 80 grand just for a workable primered body. And we have not even started on all the missing parts. It reminds me of an accountant that for a retirement project restored a 67 MGB GT to almost perfect condition. He started with a complete car,( 2,500 cost) in which parts are readily accessible and available. His final bill was $98,877.50 ( he was a accountant and every thing was on a spread sheet. lol) , He was bored of it now, and it was up for sale for 24,000. Problem was the market was maxed at 25,000. This project scares me, and i can tell you it is not for the weak of heart, or some one with a beer budget. Will the market bear a 200,000 dollar restoration on this car? I guess some one will find out.
Not being a Porscheafile….are VIN plates really worth that much just to get swapped on a replica?
As I live in the UK the market is very very different the Porsche market has stopped rising . I only buy and sell Porsche and a couple of years ago I’d be on a plane buying this but now unlike the last seven years or so the market has stalled and ours is a rarer RHD drive market . I have three 911’s just sitting there not doing anything including a very rare RHD “72” and nothing has sold for three months !!! Still shouldn’t complain I do have three 911’s !
I would be ashamed to take pictures of this potential Burn Barrel/Lee
Readers of this column are in agreement! That is a steaming pile. Goodness sakes, enough. I throw out better metal than that daily. There is nothing left to weld to.
Stop the madness, stop buying the hype.Porsche… yuk.
In addition to the rust, missing parts, and driving dynamics problems with a car like this, I can see some other potential problems with buying this car.
One problem is that in some jurisdictions it is illegal to swap a VIN plate from one vehicle to another. There have been court cases dealing with the fraud involved in this, both if the tag swap isn’t disclosed before the sale, and if the jurisdiction has laws against tag swaps even if the swap is disclosed before the sale.
Andy Mcnab raises another issue: the risk of buying at the top of the Porsche market, then adding more money to deal with the car’s needs, all done with the assumption that the market will keep rising so that the car will be worth more than you have in the car.
The problem with that is that markets can ‘top’, as Andy describes for vintage Porsches in the UK, or even drop significantly if the economy goes bad, as happened in the collector car market after the last few recessions. Even rich guys pay attention to things like economic recessions, and one of the first things they tend to cut back on is buying very expensive collector cars that have the driving dynamics of an old VW Beetle.
Sorry to say, but there are two truths about fools and recessions:
1) Only a fool would try to predict the next recession.
2) Only a fool would predict that there will never be another recession.
I would not like to be the guy who buys this car or most 356s that were bought recently, when the next recession hits.
I was looking at the photo of the interior and thinking, “That’s not so bad, they painted the floor with grey and white speckle paint- wait a minute- THAT’S THE PAVEMENT!”
LOL. Fred Flintstone could drive this car.
A dollar store roll of aluminum foil (small roll) has more metal than this car! Simply put anyone who would pay a dime for this rust bucket evidently has more money than they know what to do with! This just goes to prove that there will always be a sucker willing to purchase junk. But then again people were willing to buy pet rocks back in the seventies, I don’t get it?…….LOL.
I guess I just don’t get this whole Porsche thing!?!
Fix it dear Henry……. just fix it!
could write a new song for Harry Belafonte
“but where are the doors dear Liza dear Liza?” etc. etc.
Alternatively, spray some of this famous auction dust on it (can’t find anything on youtube about how to dust up your relic) and someone will bid on it. But not me!