Unpacking another enthusiast’s collection can represent a staggering amount of work. Piles of random parts, mislabeled boxes, and sorting out what’s a usable item versus a throwaway can represent hours’ worth of effort for unknown gain. In the case of this listing for a pair of BMW Isetta projects, the next caretaker will also get to experience the joy of trying to assess just how detail-oriented the longtime previous owner was. Apparently, that individual owned a body shop where the Isettas were stored for many years, but upon his retirement, they were moved to his home and left outside. The owner has since passed away and his widow wants the cars and parts to find a new home. It’s all listed here on eBay with bidding just over $5,000 and no reserve.

Thanks to Barn Finds reader Chuck F. for the find. The marketplace for the Isetta is pretty black-and-white at the moment, with pristine survivors and/or restored cars fetching good money, and projects like these still quite cheap. There’s upside here for someone who knows Isettas, as they can more readily assess if the included spares are sufficient for putting these two back together, or perhaps making one really nice one out of the pair. The trouble I have with microcars of any variety is that they really do become special occasion vehicles pretty quickly, as they’re not great fun to drive in modern traffic and the circles that celebrate this era of BMWs grow smaller every year.

The seller does know a thing or two about Isettas, and is helping the widow of the original owner get them into new homes. He notes that the white car is complete with a decent chassis; he notes the floors aren’t totally gone but that they will still need some work. The white one also comes with keys, wheels, and the chaincase and transmission are inside the car. He claims overall, it looks surprisingly solid. He could not get the front door to open, which is why the interior remains littered with junk like an old tire. As this picture shows, it also had a canvas sunroof at one time. This is the car to restore, and the other Isetta is clearly just a parts car based on the description.

The black car has no chassis or glass, but it has some good spares that can port over to the white car – like the missing folding sunroof assembly. Despite looking it was primed and refinished at some point, the seller is fairly clear that it’s not a great choice for restoring. In terms of spares, the winning bidder will get two motors (one of which is just a case with no “guts”), a spare dash, set of hubcaps, blinker assemblies and lenses, two gas tanks (stored indoors), shift rod assembly with pedals, and more. At the current price, there’s plenty of value here for anyone that restores Isettas or at least thinks that they may want to someday.