Our friends at the mysterious California yard that is stockpiled with wrecked Porsches, Mercedes, and more have listed yet another carcass for sale. This time, it’s a 1959 Porsche 356 “A” coupe that took a hard hit to the nose in 1972. I’d love to know the story of this place, as it seems like they bought every 356 they could find at insurance auctions in the 70s and 80s and then didn’t touch them for 30 years. Find the 356 here on eBay with an $18,500 Buy-It-Now and the option to submit a best offer.
I’d also love to hear from someone who bought a car from these folks to see if they restored the vehicle or simply bought it for some mixture of obsolete parts that couldn’t be acquired any other way than via a whole-car sale. Check out the background photos – there are so many vehicles that still haven’t seen the light of day on eBay, from the numerous 356s to the vintage Mercedes bodies on the left.
Even more incredible is that the seller must have astute records somewhere that detailed the following: “15,338 miles showing on the odometer. Missing engine (originally believed to be engine number 71534 -1600), transmission, doors and seats.” If you run an operation where the original engine number is recorded despite having been sold likely eons ago, that’s pretty impressive. I supposed they could also be confirming original assembly details with Porsche, but most wrecking yards seem reluctant to go to that level of effort.
Does anyone believe any of these cars are returning as restored examples? I can’t imagine they’d keep going up for sale if buyers weren’t finding a decent carcass to work with. The early “A” coupes were the best looking, in my opinion, with slightly racier looks than the earliest examples yet still far more graceful than the later cars. Based on the door jambs, this one has been repainted in addition to being battered, so there’s a long road ahead of the next caretaker should it be restored.
Absolutely pure awesomeness!
A fine and beautiful 356, which makes me want to get a tetnushot immediately.
The lines are truly wonderful………Right!
I would never have to worry about damaging it in anyway.
Adam I like it. I think you should charge two trillion dollars and never feel even a little bit guilty.
Crate engine and a Tremec all day long. Or you could heat it and beat it into a coffee table.
A good father son project,
Would keep them together for years to come.
Or ruin the relationship beyond any hope of recovery
I’d rather go to Vegas & put the $18,500 on black, I’d feel that was $ we’ll spent!
This makes me sick. About ten years ago I sold my 61 356 B super 90 to a guy for $200.00 it wasn’t running but it was a complete car with the original engine and even a Blaupunct (sp) radio. Ugg
I feel for you Tommy, about as much as I feel for myself for selling my perfect 1962 Austin Healey 3000 tri-carb for $1500 waaayyy back in the last century.
Kinda like me selling my 1968 Chevelle SS for 1,200$ when I was going overseas while in service. Didn’t even look at the Blue Book value, loan value.
It never ceases to amaze me how ludicrous some people can price a completely trashed, worthless carcass of a car, simply because it’s a Porsche. The steering wheel isn’t even redeemable on this roach!! I pity the fool that buys this;
“A fool and their money were lucky to have ever met in the first place!”
Place is called PORFOR auto dismantles or Porsche foreign auto inc. , they are at 8935 south alameda street, las Angeles, California 90002. Just googled it.
You may think it’s strange, but with nice examples going for so much, even the rusted hulks are worth restoring.
Should be $18.50…..Watch the Porsche lovers go wild,,,
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Sorry about that post yesterday. I just really didn’t have anything to say. I still don’t.
I have decided that the people, who buy junk like this for ungodly prices, their dollar bills are only worth 1% of what my dollar bills are worth. Only way to stay above water on this pile of junk would be to steal a nice restored one and switch numbers. When I see things like this I just laugh, shake my head and say ‘Yep people crazier than hell!’.
It’s a shame stupidity and arrogance is not illegal. The clowns who run this yard should all be locked in these rusty wrecks they are always trying to hawk for the rest of their lives. It seems each is worse than the one before it.
Ok, back to our normal programming.
Someone must be buying . . . or else they wouldn’t still be around. No, I don’t understand it, I think it’s nonsense, but then perhaps what they’re really selling are only dreams and aspirations anyway, whether they’ll actually be realized or worth the effort may not be important to anyone but their buyers.
There used to be crazy cars at Porfor, like super crazy, read here:
https://unobtaniuminc.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/abarth-and-904-pics/
But only half the yard is German, the rest is parting diesel delivery trucks, which is probably really profitable too.
Adam, I thought that looked like the back end of a Porsche Abarth, one of the best looking, most sporting and lightest early P car bodies.
Back in the last century I researched the question who designed and built the fabulous bodies for these cars. Zagato was said by some to have done it, but when I contacted them the Zagato factory categorically denied designing or building them. I have spoken to some owners who did not like that denial at all. I guess if I owned one of these ultra-rare cars I would like to think that Zagato designed and built them too.
Anyway, in the end the evidence pointed to Carlo Abarth, with the help of Rocco Motto, having designed the body, and the small Turino-based firm Viarenzo & Filliponi having built at least some of the bodies. Who built the others? Who knows?
That was published in Excellence, October 1994 issue. FWIW….
The car next to it is my favorite Porsche ever, Rudy Klein had good taste.
Total garbage.
The guys at CHEP called. They want their pallet back.
I just made an offer of $5.00.. If he has any common sense he’ll take the Money
Hopefully you’re joking because that would be rude.
Surely you jest. nothing more needs to be said
cheers
GPC
It’s all about the VIN tag on this one.
Thats the problem today. Their are no visionaries left.A few hrs with a hammer and dolly and acement mixer full of bondo,glass.interior .chrome.tires wheels and maybe a few thousand in misc. crap,and presto you got.
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Greetings All,
Visionaries yes.
Hallucinatory people with unlimited money….not so much.
What many fail to realize is that there are places in Eastern Europe or South America that have the craftsmen who can restore a car like this to high quality levels. And do it at a fraction of the costs in North America or Europe.
I’ve seen national award winning restorations that have recently come out of Poland, and the labor costs were significantly lower. One owner said the shipping costs back & forth, plus his regular visits to Poland, still made the decision a good financial one.
They must be on to something! Like it or not they deal in this stuff on a regular basis and are still in business for a reason folks!
Ah yes, another high priced clapped out rusty junk Porsche for sale…… Ok you Porsche and VW van freaks, get your wallets out AND DO WHAT YOU ALL DO BEST…….Waste $$$!
The repaint wrecks it for me……
The one I bought to restore is in much better shape, and it was a Cabriolet. However I paid just south of 60 g’s for it tho. Everything was on the one I got, everything original and not near the rot as this one. This one is going to take a whole lot of love, but if the final bid is south of 20 g’s there is definitely room for profit. JMHO
Judging by the color and paint aging, it looks like [again] something on the order of an Earl Scheib attack.
Sheer madness! I sold a ‘’56 1500GS Carrera coupe for $2800 back in 1965! Seinfeld, sold a fake ‘58 Carrera Speedster for 1.5 mil recently. He’s being sued by buyer.
Just look at the prices at this he’s Cabriolet
You know an LS conversion is certainly not the answer for everything including THIS ONE, why would you waste a perfectly good LS on this?
We all seem to think that the asking price is crazy. Just because he is asking does not mean anyone will make an offer. But maybe someone knows something that I don’t.
I can’t help it…..If you buy this, you are crazy!!
These are investments. The average price on one redone is easy 6 figures mid 6 figures at that. That’s why I said under 20g’s there is room for profit. :-)
The only thing missing is a tree growing in the trunk.
Like this?
There’s one for sale on auto trader for $125,000 all done you could not restore this POS for double that
I’ve seen some pretty nice ones in the $60,000 range.
Go to Google maps and put in the address that Mark posted. Then click on the satellite view. There are cars lined up in there. You can zoom in, but I could not make out what the cars are. 8935 south alameda street, las Angeles, California 90002
I didn’t realize that scrap rust was worth so much per pound!
Seems like an awful lot of muhlah for a tach & speedo.Though the knob for the glovebox looked quite nice.
The only Porsche wreck worth anything is James Dean’s “Little Bastard” and good luck finding that one….many have tried , none have succeeded. Back when I worked for CalFire we hiked all over where the accident happened ( the road where the highway is now is not where the accident happened) hoping to find a splinter or piece to sell to a Japanese collector….no such luck….. by the way, did you know he was “rolled” by the Ambulance attendants and all his cash taken out of his wallet…tells you he wasn’t as well known then as he is now . pretty sad….. the “kid” in the black is the guy who turned in front of him with his Ford supposedly
Some cool bar owner needs to buy it and park it on their patio.
The kid’s name was Turnipseed.
Here is the site now.
I may have actually been wrong about the intersection being in a different place, but the main Highway has definitively been moved. Just found a really good web site that had a lot of now and then pics….. I always thought the obsession with James Dean, especially by the Japanese, like the business man who financed the memorial was strange. But hey, who am I to talk..my first wife was Filipino as is my beautiful wife now …..lol
Lotta yap. About un moceau de crap.
Not even good for parts.
Dream on.
Deans car was sliced up and sold as artifacts. Not that much was left anyways