It is always the same story... with the best of intentions you approach the owner of a car that you see parked for ages or in need of restoration and offer to buy it. The moment you show interest the cogs in the sellers mind start turning and he comes up with a story that I have heard too many times with minor variations. Some Gora offered me Rs six zeros figure for this car or some person form a far off place in Pakistan offered to exchange it with his new Toyota Corolla or similar or if the owner had recently snorted a few lines of pure coke then " the VW factory offered to buy it back and give me a new model car"..
and of course you walk away because either your father is still alive (maashallah) or he did not leave you the pass code to his off shore accounts where he stashed the ill gotten wealth when he passed away. A few weeks or months later you find out that the same car was sold for a fraction of what you had offered. Only recently I offered the owner of a Type 2 Rs 85,000. The vehicle was dieselised and had extensive hacking done to its front and rear, no seats, the sliding door converted to hinge type and a whole list of other mods. The good thing was that it started life as an original westfalia camper. The roof was still intact and the fiberglass top in place. I meant to chop the top and graft it on my Westfakia.
The owner immediately concocted a story like the one I mentioned above and demanded 250k so I walked away. A few weeks later the same bus was bought by Nisar Kabaria for Rs 55k (reportedly) and put the poor vehicle out of misery by hacking it to pieces and selling for scrap. I believe only the fiberglass top could be rescued by a young fella from Lahore!
