My uncle was helping to settle an estate, and they needed me to look at a couple of VW's an establish a value.  I used to repair VW's and have owned quite a few in my younger days.

One of the VW's was a 1967 bus.....and this is what I saw when I went to look at it:



The VW and every other car in the building was surrounded by "stuff".  Boxes and old car parts and lamps and signs and old toys and old tools and old mopeds and bicycles......you name it!  The man had 4 large garages just stacked with stuff and some of the areas were so deeply stacked that you could not even walk between things.  I managed to get one front door open enough to peek inside, and I was able to find a spot where I could crawl in under the bus to see what the bottom looked like.  The bus is a project with the typical rust on the rocker panels, the frame was good - but it was missing the rear seats and needs a complete restoration.

It will take the family 1-2 years of hard work to clear this mess up.  There is some really nice and valuable stuff in these garages - but also a lot of stuff that is not worth much.  He had rearly Indian and Harley single cylinder motorcycles from the 1910 - 1914 era, a 50's Norton, a 70's Honda 350 XL, and a 1967 Honda S65 with only 372 miles on it. (I bought that one).




I am going to start cleaning out my stuff and get rid of all the extra stuff, I don't want my wife or family to have to go through this kind of cleanup when I am gone!

The Honda is just getting cleaned up....and made to run.  It is not perfect - but is too nice of an original bike to go through a restoration.  I have already cleaned out the "original" fuel that was left in the tank for 47 years!  The tank and carb cleaned up well, and I am waiting for a replacement petcock as the original one cannot be salvaged.  I did put some fuel in the carb after cleaning it and changing the oil....an the darned thing came back to life on the second kick!  It has a lot of dirt and rust on the chrome that is cleaning up pretty well.  The Honda will just be used for riding to church on Sunday morning, riding around the neighborhood on occasion, and I am very likely to bring it to the Dragon Run so you all can take a ride!

The owner of all this stuff was very active in the antique car hobby, and word got out really fast that he had passed away.  The son in law is doing a good job of selling the really valuable stuff.  There was a 1930's Bugatti, a 1927 Ariens Fox fire Truck, a 356 Porsche, a 1920's Cadilac, a 1915 Buick, and lots of other antique cars that have already been sold.  I was only asked to help in the motorycle and VW appraisals - they have qualified help for all the other stuff.  Once all the big and valuable stuff is gone - they will have a large local auction.  They did not want the notoriety of being on Pickers.  I just volunteered a few hours of my time so that I could crawl through all the buildings and explore.....it was fun to see what treasures could be uncovered!

old_rider.....You really need something like this Honda S65 for your ride into town.  It is 7 HP and is supposed to get 100 mpg or so.....I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the petcock so I can go ride this bike.  Th only petcock I could find with the double outlets that this bike has....is one of those eBay petcocks from Thailand.  It was shipped 30 days ago and is supposed to be here today!

I'm helping a friend with this situation, which is of his own making and not an estate. It's bloody hard work.

Bet that'll be great fun to put around on... ...

hey dave.  my 1st bike was an s65.  got it when i was 14. made a tag and rode it until i was 16 and got a real tag for it.  rode it to my high school grad.  had trans problem at 21,000 mi. and became a mc machanic. thanx for sharing it with us.  would love to have it

We just had 2 homes burn to the ground here, last night...
Hoarding was blamed... the fire got out of control too fast...
http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/24402349/crews-battle-mobile-home-fire-on-...

This is why I go through everything I own once a year.  If it's not a tool or gun and has not been used in more than a year, it gets sold or taken to goodwill.

Looks like a nice bike.  Should be a lot of fun around town.

In my twenties I restored a 67 bus that had the port holes and retracting sun roof.... had it running and looking great, that is all but the bumpers, which I see the rear one it your pix. If that bumper has the aluminum trim too, it really is a fantastic find. It was the last year with the split windshield which makes it most desirable.

It looked like this, same exact color, I believe this is a model....