When I was in College at the University of Colorado, my Freshmen year, I purchased a 1974 BMW Bavaria in hopes of fixing it up and selling it for a profit. I knew then that nobody had ever done that before… So I decided to give it a try.

I looked for a few weeks and found a 1974 Bavaria that was an absolute beater, but it had potential. It happened to have been sitting in a barn on a ranch in Western Colorado for the past 10 years, and various mice and rodents had turned it into their home. The smell inside from 10 years of rodents was somewhere between unbearable and “un-breathe-able.” The guy I bought it from told me the old story about being used to go to the store by an old lady etc, I was then dumb enough to believe him.

After about 5 start up attempts, the thing started up and I was off. The drive from Grand Junction, Colorado to Boulder was about 4 hours in this thing, as it didn’t really go that fast up and down mountain passes. It was also nice because it was snowing the entire way and due to the smell, I had to keep the windows down the whole drive. The greatest part was when I looked in the backseat while I was driving, I spotted a dead mouse floating around the floor.

Anyway, short story shorter, after about 10 hours of clean up and about a month’s worth of marketing, I was able to clean it up, mask the smell with Windex and 409, and sell it for about a $550 profit. At the time, it seemed like pretty good beer and date money, but when you’re 18 years old, any amount of money is good beer and date money.

The buyer actually came by train from California with his wife in hopes of driving the thing back to San Diego. He showed up at about midnight with an envelope full of 100 dollar bills and had to inspect the car in the dark parking lot of Union Station in Denver. It was actually pretty funny. He seemed pleased and purchased the car. I never heard from him, so I assume he made it back to California alright.

Tell your story, I want to hear it.

Here is a picture of what it basically looked like. This was not the one I had, but this was how I see it in my mind now. The picture makes it rosier than it actually was.