A visit to "AUTOBREAKERS" at Riverstone on Saturday revealed that there is very little to be saved from there now! Most of the vehicles are just rotting away stacked 3 high in some cases. There are the odd early split window kombis, Type 3 Fasties, Notches and Squares as well as Bugs. The owner thought that all was worth a million dollars 15 years back thus he never sold much of anything.

It is difficult to move around the yard due to weeds and cars placed too close as well as the danger of a rusted hulk falling on you! Just look at a few Type 3s.

Maybe some good rare junk there but just not worth the time.

DH

interesting.. pics of the busses?..

Only had a bloody phone to take the pics and didn't know how to drive it for a while! I could go back with a camera another day. The buses are just inside the fence at the back.

You can catch the owner (John Alstrom) on Saturday afternoons from 1-5 pm.

DH

i bet theres a few joe blakes in there as well ,it is a shame we had a wreckers like that over here all these old cars and stuff but none of it for sale,think most went to sims in the past year

That's why I've left it until the weather cooled down a bit!
The Kombis are around 1, the Type 3s are at or around 2 and 3. the Bugs are scattered but mainly in the side street area.

DH

Warb! Was it you who modified the garden "PENRITH" on the corner of the main street/Castlereagh Rd. to read "PENRIFF" a few years ago??!!

DH

haha, nah mate...

fuck me, how many cars can you fit on one block!..

a valet nightmare!

i thought that they would have been crushed years ago and the site re-developed. i talked to him about bits years ago but he didn't seem to like the idea of selling anything. such a waste, lots of interesting cars rusting into the ground.

Here's the rest of the block!! He doesn't own the rest of them. He did have a yard on the opposite corner but was moved from there. Was a 63 Notch (red) there about 10-15 years back. A bit sad in condition but eventially someone did purchase it for around $1000. Anyone know if it was ever restored??

DH

i was mate's with this guy's nephew at school. doesn't matter what your into in terms of cars he seems to have all makes and models just rusting away.
a shame really.

I've spoken to him and looked around there years back. the problem is, most of the cars are beyond salvation or he is asking a bit too much for them.

you'd think he'd want to sell off one's people had interest in to keep cash coming in.

must be getting a good deal from a metal recycling place...

dunno, but he's in no rush as you can see. I guess there would be a lot of donor panels, but even they would need real work to be useful. what's complete is very rusty and what is not complete is almost completely stripped. there was a low light single cab out there the last time I was there and it was just sitting on the ground and had been for some time. the top half looked ok but you can bet there'd be no chassis left in it now. a real shame and many of the cars there are like it.

yeah, i used to go there years ago and wondered why they never really sold any and just let them rust away...

lots of good stuff there

pity

meh this kinda thing happens all the time
there was an old bloke not far from me that had condor motors an old VW garage from the late 60s
he used to wreck about 200 a year in the 80s-early90s
he still had a shitload of kombis, bugs and type3s tho on his property
i used to be like a kid in a candy store whenever i went there
he knew how much i loved them and let me get parts off them
alot were saveable cars to, the orange superbug was an ex QLDdrivers club car, it started up when i hooked a jumper pack to it
he always said to me he was gonna dig a big hole and burry the lot but i knew he never would
but a few years ago after enough complaints from the neighbours sims came in and crushed the lots splitties and all even a few bugs with flash trim

heres a couple of old pics i scanned that i took many years ago this is just part of it, there were heaps more in under that forest, some where cars i knew that were on the road as a kid

I think part of the problem is that the people who own these cars want more for them than they are worth in terms of saving them. I mean I'd love to own a 62 notch back (semi complete shell or less) and I'd even be prepared for a full rebuild and major rust repairs, but not when the guy at junkyard wants $1000 (or more) for it. It's probably really worth more like $200 (at best). At the same time lots of dreamers waste the owner's time making them offers they have no intention of following through on. Like a lot of us, I have in the past been guilty to the latter crime.

Anyway, I guess they'll figure it out in the end. It's not like any model of VW we had sold over here is rare.

I'm sorry, but this kind of thing bugs the S**T out of me. Honestly, why not give them away to save them from the scrapyard or the god of oxidation? As we all know, anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

I hassled an old feller where I lived at Coomera about a very very solid looking Dat 1600 he had sitting out in his front yard for about a year. He kept on with "No, it's worth more" than what I was offering. About two years after I gave up he called me up and said come take it away - but by then it was absolutely stuffed full of rust, grass had claimed the undercarriage and everything that used to move was seized and he reckoned it was "Still good for parts".

Sad.

I went past the Rivo yard today - a sad sight eh? I bought a rusty old 54 petrol tank off him years back - I just wanted the top half anyhow.

I don't know how people can do that...

they must have paid something for a good car

but some people don't understand that a car sitting out in the open doesn't get any better or appreciate in price..

that early type 3 on the top looks like it would have been a good buy about 20 years ago...
but it looks like the rust is set in...

Lee

Few cars i found.

Approached owner with Splitty no1.
11window, 63-65 in really good nick as it has been in shed for 30years,
approached owner with fellow VW nuts, told us to "f##k off" (There was a lady present btw)
Told us too, that he needs it as a shed..... Neighbour said would swap for a garden shed!
Just a person with an iummac Splitty that has sat their for 30years stacked full of old rubbish.

Approached owner of Splitty number 2.
11window, 66, daily driver. 1600tp. really good nick, no rust. Not for sale but has a 55 in a shed up the north east May be for sale.......

He also mentioned a bloke with two more, 50's and a 60's model. Will continue chasing up and saving these from a possible death.....

Wont be able to get pics of these but ill try of the next yard.....

Also found:

Yard full of cars which include (Vw wise only of course)

55 Oval, (Originally used as a beachbuggy but not baja'd. Cant remember much of the rust issues as i was younger and havent looked under the tarp in a few years...)
73 Squareback,(Ok but covered in mould)
71 Squareback, (Really badly rusted)
914 Porsche. (Tarped. Pulled the tarp of and its a Red one!!!!)

Not for sale, In a yard with about 15 other cars. All rough and in need of resto.
Real shame. No kombis. Place is overgrown and owner claims that he will build a shed to house them and restore everyone.
That was 15years ago and he still claims it.

Heaps and Heaps of Audi's, Volvo's.

Poor oval and its an og Black one. Worth a bit me thinks.....

Also found, three DC, a red and white 75 and another Kombi.... In backyard with two Porche 911. Been there for ages and rumor has it he had a Splitscreen but now long gone.
__________________

Also found, white Oval (56) in a paddock near Hobart. Missing passenger seat and has later model pre63 engine cover.
Has part of some towel rails left and semaphores look buggered. Never talked to the owner, house sitter said it was for sale, owner said no. (Email wise)

Got a lead on a 53 Oval out Mole Creek way, and a 69? Not for sale. Owner claims he is getting ready to drop the 53 on the 69 chassis. Owned it from the early 70's. Has laterr model lights etc on it.

Found a 76 Panel up in the middle of nowhere. Complete and uncut but missing sliding door (Has one but off a microbus)
Wants $2000 for it and has sat outside his house untill the engine blew a bottom end. Does come with a good 2000cc

He also has a wrecked Bay Deluxe Microbus full of VW parts. Sadly panels have been cut of this ruining, it.

Real shame....

Oval and type 3

Hi

There was guy at Bexley in Sydney that had 3 or 4 splitties and some early bugs as well, I was always meaning to pop in see what he was doing with them, then council made him clean up his yard and they all disappeared, while the council were there they found many illegal firearms.

Im all for knocking on doors to find out about old cars, just be aware that anyone that hordes old cars maybe has a screw loose, but then don't we all.

Steve

i wont say where it is cos he doesnt wanna be hasseled but b4 i moved back to lismore a guy i lived near has a very interesting collection
he wont part with any of them atm but i work on him constantly

the prize at the center is a 48 split beetle in original paint still driven to work on the odd occasion
its basically rust free but living on the coast i dunno that it will stay like it for ever but it certainly hasnt gotten any worse in the 6 years ive known it
also a showroom (and i mean showroom) cond 56 oval, 61 cabrio and a 2001ish mexi bug with only 80kms on the clock cos it cant be reg'd in aus

For the Northern Rivers guys.... Is there anything left in the big yard at Waterview Heights (Grafton)?

DH

i havent heard anything about it for years but i wouldnt be surprised if it doesnt exist anymore either

most wreckers have been slowing crushing any vws
i know most of the wreckers round here dont wanna keep anything older than mid 90s cos theres just not enough market for it
the guy that lives in the granny flat downstairs had a SV21 camry still ran fine and registered wreckers wouldnt give him a cent for it LOL
sold it for $150

mm interesting thread..... sitting on the other side of the fence with more than a few VW's sitting in my yard and at a friends farm I must say I can fully understand people sending them to SIMS rather than selling them and going through the hassle of dealing with tyre kickers and time wasters.

You start off with the best of intentions and then get hassled or dicked around one time to many so you spit and ring the wreckers who on the current market gives up to $100 a car without any hassle at all.

When you look at the numbers it isn't a bad option.

I mean take my yard, I have nothing rare in there just Bay window kombi's and 68 and later bugs. Prob about 20 all up in my yard and about another 30 or so at the farm. So say 50 all up. Now I can spend endless weekend with tyre kicking time wasters trying to sell them or I can ring SIMS and get $5k straight up no hassle, no effort and it is all gone.

Yeah I can hear people saying what a waste and how dare you , but there comes a time when you are just over it all.

I have found most of the people who come door knocking and chasing parts are only looking to make a dollar out of you anyway and no one likes the idea of someone making money off them ……

Anyway just an alternate way to look at it ….

the reason i have so many vws myself is a few of them ive saved from going in the crusher when they are solid easily restorable cars

i can understand where ur coming from brad,
even if u put $100 on every car i reckon atleast half of them wouldnt sell anyway
they would continue to sit and rot away to the point there beyond saving anyway.... so whaddya do

dub74l that looks awfully like barry sankeys yard on clothiers creek road near murwillumbah! brad how much did you pay each for your fifty or so? I remember doing the yearly clean up at stokers siding and taking lots of straightish 6 volt beetles and splities to the tip not even worth getting sims into clean up they even used to charge you to take them away!