Far removed from the dunes and beaches of southern California where it originated, the car certainly turned heads on the streets of Buffalo.

Armillotti’s grandfather, Bernard, had picked up the “neat little car” from relatives on the West Coast, and for a couple of years in the early ’80s the two often would drive around together in Western New York.

“He was really a remarkable guy,” Armillotti said of his grandfather, a Merchant Marine during World War II and later employed at the Ford assembly plant in Buffalo. “He was always fixing stuff. Anything anybody ever brought to him he would fix it. Cars, you name it, he could fix it.”

Those skills would come in handy after the Baja’s transmission went bad around 1983. Bernard moved the car to his garage and began taking it apart. However, his wife would later become sick and the pair moved to California where the climate was less hectic.

Photo provided by Jim Armillotti Jr. Jim Armillotti Jr. is pictured with a 1966 Baja Bug that his grandfather drove cross-country from California in 1980. Armillotti was reunited with the Baja with the help of Joe Bollman of Jamestown.

The Baja was stored away for several years before Armillotti took ownership and attempted to finish the repairs started by his grandfather. Without much success, and ready to go back to school as an early 20-something, Armillotti sold the car for a “few hundred bucks.”

For the next 30 years, life moved on.

Bernard Armillotti eventually retired from Ford and moved to Florida before passing away in May 2000.

After graduating from the autobody repair program at Erie Community College, Jim Armillotti eventually went to Buffalo State University for his teaching degree. For more than two decades he has taught in the same autobody repair program at ECC.

A HAPPENSTANCE REUNION

Last September, Armillotti was browsing cars for sale on Facebook Marketplace when he came across a beat up Baja Bug. “It was all ripped apart,” he said. “It was pretty much in the fields next to a house. It was breaking right in half.”

Armillotti clicked on the next photo and saw the nose of the Baja stored in a shed. Curiously, he also could see a decades-old New York state license plate still attached with the number 173-WXL.

A light switch flipped on in Armillotti’s head.

He went home and looked through his photos, trying to locate one that included the blue Baja and its license plate. His hunch was soon confirmed: the car for sale on Facebook was indeed the same one his grandfather once drove cross-country in 1980.

After 30 years, the beloved bug had resurfaced.

Armillotti picked up the phone and called a Jamestown number.

‘REALLY CHOKED UP’

Joe Bollman grew up in Falconer and moved to Jamestown about eight years ago. He’s a typical classic car guy — his first set of wheels was a 1967 Impala that his dad bought him — and he takes pride in slowly reviving classic vehicles in his friend’s garage.

More than a year ago, Bollman and his friend purchased two Beetles, which he described as “projects” for the pair to work on in their spare time. One was a 1971 Super Beetle while the other was a modified 1966 blue Beetle — a Baja Bug.

While the Super Beetle had potential as a fun restoration project, the Baja was in serious rough shape.

Bollman knew the ’66 Baja was not worth the effort, so he took some photos and threw a listing up on Facebook Marketplace.

Not much happened for several months. However, that quickly changed when in March 2022 he got a phone call from a guy in Orchard Park. The two talked, and a meeting was set.

“This guy with a truck and trailer came and he backed it in, and we talked about (the Baja) and looked at the parts,” Bollman said of meeting Armillotti last spring. “He made an offer and I made a counter offer and that was it.”

“As soon as we did that he starts telling me this story and the hair on the back of my neck stood up,” he added. “There’s tears in his eyes and they’re probably in mine, and he’s saying how he had the strangest feeling that his grandfather was there listening to us — that he put me and James together.”

Armillotti said he wanted to see the Baja in person and close the sale before letting Bollman in on its background.

“I didn’t tell him anything,” he recalled. “I paid him for it, and after I paid him, I started telling him this story. I was getting choked up about it because it was a big deal. We all got really choked up, he couldn’t believe it.”

Bollman believes the Baja changed hands at least three or four times between the time Armillotti first sold it and then bought it back. Both are stunned the original license plate was never removed — a sign that the repairs first started by Bernard had never really been finished.

EYEING THE OPEN ROAD

Armed with far more automotive knowledge than he had 30 years ago, Armillotti has been working since last year to put the Baja back together. He’s hoping to have it road-ready by next summer.

“I’ve been putting it back together and it’s all in one piece now,” he said. “A little bit at a time it’s getting back together. Joe’s been a big help — he found a few parts for me. He’s really a great guy.”

He’s still amazed he came across the car when he did, certain his grandfather somehow played a role in the reunion. That belief was bolstered after Armillotti found his grandfather’s bottle opener still sitting in the glove compartment moments after buying the car from Bollman.

“I feel like when I’m working on it he’s right there with me,” he said. “I’ve been working on it for about six months. It’s all in one piece again, it’s getting there. And eventually I’m going to paint it and everything and I want to make it just like it was when he had it.”

Bollman said he was happy to help a fellow car enthusiast. He said the two still stay in touch.

“He sends me a picture once a month on his updates,” Bollman said. “There must have been a reason his grandfather wanted him to have that car.”