Jack Smart moved to Bellingham, Washington in 1989 and began this collection. Sadly, he died earlier this year. His wife has been selling off the 31 VW Vans, 26 Beetles, as well as lots of parts. She’s placed an ad here on The Samba and there are links there to her other ads on the samba. There are also several Facebook pages with more pictures and videos. Some were running when parked, others are just rusty shells. I’ve not been able to find any overall pictures but mostly photos from Facebook. This page on Facebook has links to other Facebook pages.
The vans go from really nice to not so nice, and everything in between.
There are vans in every color and condition. Most are “Bay Window”, but there are a few split window vans in the mix!
There are a few nice Westies from the 1980s.
Some have engines, the ones that do are said to run. That’s about all the information provided, so a visit to see anything your interested in would be recommended. We hope the majority of these VWs can be saved or at least parted out to keep others on the road. So is there anything here you’d like to have a closer look at?
The Brown-white looks like a DEHLER … one of the special builders of VW Campers that time.
Thank you so much. Someone just emailed me this link and I was beyond surprised to see someone has placed the article on BarnFinds. I will check out what a DEHLER is. Thank you. Francie Smart
a field of dreams to anyone who likes aircooled VW’s. with the prices vans are bring this might turn out to be a better investment for her retirement then an IRA. great finds.
I hope you’re right Jim. It was always Jack’s intention that these would be his retirement fund. I just wish he would have been able to enjoy the fruits of his 40+ years of working on it all.
His son had a Triumph motorcycle he inherited from his dad. A 1966 or 65 TRSC a relatively rare submodel but largely unknown by many collectors. I brokered a deal for it on behalf of a friend in the UK. They are way more collectable there than here in the US for those.
It is on its way to the UK. The son told me about the VW stuff. I briefly thought about trying to broker some of those for $$$ but dont have the time or interest. The triumph i just did as a favor to a friend.
But it sounds like this guy was an interesting collector and I hope all the stuff goes to a good home and appreciated.
Thank you so much Doug. Jed was really pleased that since he needed to sell the bike that it was going to someone who would really appreciate it. It seems the Netherlands its a great place to market the buses I have. Three have gone there. Jack was a very interesting collector. He’d be pleased to know that part of him was recognized. Funny, he also collected harmonicas and pocket knives!! :)
Francie Smart
This is my dad’s and now my mother’s collection. She’s well aware of the value of most of the items, but there are still great deals to be had on lots of stuff that is getting harder and harder to find. The parts collection may be the most impressive. My father owned Gerties VW in San Jose in the 80’s. When he moved to Washington State in 1990 he left his much larger collection behind and started a new one. My dad spent most of his money buying and almost never selling VW’s. He always said, someday these are going to be worth a lot of money. In the late 90’s he shifted his focus to buses and then vanogans in the 2000’s. If you want to get ahold of my mother you can email her at francies2@yahoo.com
Jed, i tried finding your email to let you know this was up on this website. Glad you guys are getting the publicity and hopefully work out for you.
I wanted to let you know your old Triumph went to California along with a bunch of other bikes my friend was storing here. Then he added more british bike stuff and the container will arrive in a few days over there in Scotland. Steven knows the history on this bike and Ill make sure i keep tabs of it and perhaps i can send you pictures when it gets restored? Do you still have my home email?
Im working on downsizing my own collection to a manageable level. Although huge collections like this are fun to point to so i dont look as bad. Rationalizing,,,, See im crazy, but not as crazy as that guy. My wife sees right thru that. Hope this all works out for you guys,
I believe o do have your email. It’s pretty cool to get a shout out here for sure! Thanks for letting me know about the Triumph too!
I like DougT’s phrase: “See I’m crazy, but not as crazy as that guy”
I’m recovering crazy…divested half my inventory after figuring out
it was more than I could hope to finish during the years I have left.