Greater Los Angeles is chock full of automotive wonderment, with restoration services, collections, swap meets, and vintage car dealers tucked into unassuming cubbyholes all over town. One of these unassuming places was Rudi Klein’s “Porche Foreign Auto Dismantling” junkyard – the deliberate misspelling was designed to avoid legal action from Porsche. Klein was a German immigré with a penchant for his home country’s cars. From 1967 to his death at age 65 in 2001, he bought countless burned, wrecked, or unwanted Porsches, Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, Ferraris, and miscellany including Horch, Lamborghini, Maybach, and others. His sons inherited the horde, and have now decided to take the lot to market. This article will cover a mere sampling of the parts available; stay tuned for the second article in our series, when we highlight several extraordinary vehicles scheduled to see the light of day – finally. Thanks immensely to Helena, who provided this tip to Barn Finds.
A solid count of the cars is available – they number 180 – but the volume of parts is mindboggling and probably can’t reasonably be catalogued. The set of metal bits shown above will coalesce – with the right kind of knowledgeable persuasion – into a Porsche Type 901 engine. The case number is 6124427; the pile includes connecting rods, cylinder heads, an NOS SACHS clutch kit, and other internals. Unlike many of the items in Klein’s junkyard, these parts are well-preserved; the estimate on this lot is $3k to $6k, no reserve. Oh, and speaking of Porsche engines, this is the tip of the iceberg – aside from the relatively pedestrian 911 T engine shown as our opener, the yard contains several 356, 928, and 911 motors including a turbo. This 1500 ‘Pre-A’ engine is a favorite of mine for its rarity; the estimate is $4k to $6k, also no reserve.
You know that 1924 Mercedes 6/25 you have hanging about in the garage? That car you always thought you’d restore but for the fact that the motor had gone missing? Well, your troubles are over. This is Mercedes 6/25 engine number 1153*29, sans supercharger of course but that’s just a Roots type – it’ll turn up eventually (ha ha). These supercharged Mercedes generated the “kompressor” nomenclature we find on some Mercedes models – the sound of the word is a fair approximation of the sssssshhhh-ing of the machinery as the air accelerates through the combustion chambers. The Mercedes 6/25 was one of the first supercharged cars made by the company – then called Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft; it is so rare that no one knows how many exist today. The 1568 cc four-cylinder generated about 25 hp on its own, but once the Roots was switched on, that increased to about 40 hp. The estimate on this lot is appropriately high at $5k to $10k – but still with no reserve.
Here’s another gem: a four-liter, quad cam’d, six Weber’d, twelve-cylindered Lamborghini Miura S engine, good for 350 hp – when running. This lot carries an estimate of $75,000 to $125,000 – not a typo! – but once again there is no reserve. The engine number is 30452. I hope the dollies come with the motor, those are handy around the shop.
Mr Klein was loathe to let go of his treasures – rumor has it his prices were quite high. The resulting enormity of his collection is only slightly expressed by this photo. To see more, or register to bid, go to RM Sotheby’s where you’ll find the Junkyard auction here. The sales date is October 26th. In a day or two, we’ll cover a few special cars from Klein’s collection – stay tuned!
Back when Porsche parts were available to us lesser beings l was building a ’59 356 Convertible D race car and needed an engine. Turns out a retired airline pilot up the road had a whole lot filled with good parts. No cars, just tons of parts. If you haven’t experienced something like that or this example here you wouldn’t believe the overwhelmed feeling you’d get. I left the pilot’s place with a low mileage 912 engine, set of carbs and manifolds, 5 wheels and a set of gauges for $800. Over the years I collected a lot of parts but never got close to the amount of parts he had and wouldn’t even imagine what my reaction to Klein’s collection would be standing in the middle of it. Nice job Michelle.
I had a similar experience when I was restoring an MGA. A buddy told me about an “import parts” junkyard over off Johnson Creek road. I found it and in this case the proprietor was quite amenable.
When I walked in, I felt overwhelmed and fired with excitement. So many things I needed, just lying around! Well, ok, some of the parts I needed were still attached to their donors… I was working for a bank at the time; I called my boss and said, hey I need a couple days off.
For the next few days, I showed up with a tool kit and my phone, so I could call to get help with how to extract this or that. One MGA was perched in the air, atop two others, offering an easy route to nab all sorts of stuff. I was after the steering wheel, which I couldn’t pull, so I took the whole column.
Fun times.
I used to visit a yard where the guy attended municipal surplus auctions for probably forty years. It was an amazing place. Need a 60s vintage Dodge street sweeper? How about an aerial ladder or a half dozen former police cars? He too was not in a hurry to sell, and his prices reflected that. BF featured an ex-Pacific Gas and Electric Dodge 4×4 crew cab pickup- he had a dozen of them. He is gone now and his lot will likely be claimed by development.
My similar experience was with a huge barn full of Corvette parts. I was looking for a windshield frame for a C3 convertible and the guy I bought the Corvette from had a sticky note with a phone number on it inside of a repair manual, so I called it. The place was about 20 miles away, and the owner proceeded to walk me over to a field where there were a bunch of frames. We picked the best looking windshield frame and he cut it off with a torch. Nice score.
I also needed the vinyl windshield trim, so he walked me through the barn and was amazed at the shear amount of parts, all lined up neatly. An example I recall was an insane amount of steering column for all years, hanging from the rafters.
I recall his “alarm” system – it was a Beagle, chained up outside. No one got near that barn without that dog making a racket.
This, of course, was way before the internet, so it was quite a memorable discovery. I asked him if he advertises and he said that word of mouth is enough to keep him busy.
Great stuff. You are right, dealers typically don’t accumulate this much “inventory” if they sell at “reasonable” prices. Truly unique, rare and highly desirable items deserve a premium, he has a lot of such items, which also means he had hoarder tendencies. At least wasn’t stacked in piles left to rot.
These will now get back into circulation, hopefully making it a bit easier for restorers to finish some cars. Some of the prices might actually be reasonable, based on the specifics of a particular make or models market. Hopefully this won’t turn into another Lambrecht.
Steve R
“one man treasures another man’s junk”
Looked thru the auction list awhile back….lots of groovey stuff – his kids won’t have to ever work again !
This also reminds me of my visit to Vintage Power Wagons back in the 80s. I had a Dodge 1/2 ton weapons carrier. The owner, Dave, let me in on the weekend to wander around to look for anything that I needed. Seriously, the place looked like an Allied warehouse about a month before D-Day. Stacks of crates of NOS Dodge military vehicle parts, many still smeared with cosmoline. I almost fainted. 🤪
Wow! lots of crazy stuff! It will be interesting to see what it sells for. Some items seem to be a bit overpriced, or over estimated, since it’s a no reserve auction.