Need to make a decision. Need some help.

[nando]

It's a 2 door, 91, manual.. i would fix it, especially since it's not rusty.

Mind sharing the build date/serial number (last 7 of vin)? They didn't make many 2 door manuals late in production.

[Alaska Ted]

Vin

It's a 2 door, 91, manual.. i would fix it, especially since it's not rusty.

Mind sharing the build date/serial number (last 7 of vin)? They didn't make many 2 door manuals late in production.

No problem, ED05338. Mind letting me know what you find out?

[nando]

Yeah i can tell you how many 2 door manuals were built in that batch.

[flyboyx]

if i bought that car for 700.00, i would fix the shit out if it. in fact, i wish i had that car to drive in colorado this winter. the damage is really minor. take the back end of the car apart(bumper, trunk carpet, tail lights). completely strip the back panel. get a 10" piece of 2x4, a few other various shaped pieces of wood, and a good size sledge hammer. take your time and slowly start bumping out the dent. try not to use the hammer directly on the metal if you can avoid it. in less than 20 min of work, you can have that panel looking 90% like the boo-boo was never there.

i really think that car is an amazing find for the amount of money you have invested in it. it would be a travesty to part that one. i might have to go up there and kick you in the nuts! haha! if it were an auto or perhaps a 4 door and you actually needed the parts for something, that might be another story. i don't think you understand the rarity and desirability of what you have there. everyone that wants an ix wants a manual coupe.

as far as the engine is concerned, i wouldn't rebuild that one if the pistons or cylinders are indeed bad. instead, find someone around here that is parting an ix, buy a good running engine(make them do a compression check). you should have somewhere around 180psi or better on each cylinder if the engine is warmed up. have it shipped. it will be so much cheaper than rebuilding that mess you have there.


if you don't feel you have it in you to fix it, please sell it for a small profit to someone like me who will put in the time to do a restoration on it. do you know if the xfer case is good? i was taking a mental inventory and decided that i have everything that car needs sitting around in my storage shed (including an ix engine and tan sport seats) to make it a really nice car.

[flyboyx]

about 3 or 4 years ago, i bought a mostly rust free 91 ix coupe in charleston, sc. my son and i drove it across the country to houston after doing a little bit of work to it in a parking lot close to the seller's home. i made a thread about it with a few photos.

here is a link but the photos are gone:http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=108894


i put some time into fixing all of its ailments and i drove it as a dd for about a year or so. i then traded it for the mtech 2 in my sig.

[nando]

yours was 1/32 in that particular batch. 10/1990 right? there were only 185 2 door manuals for 1991 production. lots of 4 doors and automatics. :(

my car's a 10/1990 as well.

[flyboyx]

i just noticed that it has front mud flaps!

[nando]

lol that's like 1/4 of what he paid right there!

[Alaska Ted]

yours was 1/32 in that particular batch. 10/1990 right? there were only 185 2 door manuals for 1991 production. lots of 4 doors and automatics. :(

my car's a 10/1990 as well.

Yes, build date of 10/90. Thanks for the info. The responses I'm getting are pretty much what I had anticipated. My problem is that I bought the car for 700 figuring I could get a spare set of drive line parts for my son's car and probably still be able to make my 700 back selling other parts. Doing this will cost me nothing but time and it will help to familiarize us with the ix drive components. Seeing as how I really don't have the time, space, and knowledge to do a complete resto, I'd have to pay someone to do a good deal of the work. This makes my essentially free pile of parts a very expensive project. What to do,what to do. I know its difficult with the limited info you have on the car, but what do you think costs would be to get this thing right considering I'd have to pay someone to totally rebuild the engine as well as do the body work and paint? Thanks

[nando]

how about flyboyx's suggestion of a used motor and beating the panels out yourself?

[Alaska Ted]

how about flyboyx's suggestion of a used motor and beating the panels out yourself?

Probably not, although i haven't ruled anything out yet. I already drive a reliable POS. If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it right.

[audiquattrot]

what parts did you need off of it, to complete the red one? Maybe sell the white one as is on the open market (profit)

[Alaska Ted]

if i bought that car for 700.00, i would fix the shit out if it. in fact, i wish i had that car to drive in colorado this winter. the damage is really minor. take the back end of the car apart(bumper, trunk carpet, tail lights). completely strip the back panel. get a 10" piece of 2x4, a few other various shaped pieces of wood, and a good size sledge hammer. take your time and slowly start bumping out the dent. try not to use the hammer directly on the metal if you can avoid it. in less than 20 min of work, you can have that panel looking 90% like the boo-boo was never there.

i really think that car is an amazing find for the amount of money you have invested in it. it would be a travesty to part that one. i might have to go up there and kick you in the nuts! haha! if it were an auto or perhaps a 4 door and you actually needed the parts for something, that might be another story. i don't think you understand the rarity and desirability of what you have there. everyone that wants an ix wants a manual coupe.


as far as the engine is concerned, i wouldn't rebuild that one if the pistons or cylinders are indeed bad. instead, find someone around here that is parting an ix, buy a good running engine(make them do a compression check). you should have somewhere around 180psi or better on each cylinder if the engine is warmed up. have it shipped. it will be so much cheaper than rebuilding that mess you have there.


if you don't feel you have it in you to fix it, please sell it for a small profit to someone like me who will put in the time to do a restoration on it. do you know if the xfer case is good? i was taking a mental inventory and decided that i have everything that car needs sitting around in my storage shed (including an ix engine and tan sport seats) to make it a really nice car.

Thanks for the feedback. I do understand that this car is pretty rare, thats why i haven't torn it apart yet. I don't know if the T-case is good. All the PO said was that it was running 3yrs ago when he pulled the head off. What do you think its worth as it sits? I haven't ruled out any options yet, I'm just struggling with them.

[Alaska Ted]

what parts did you need off of it, to complete the red one? Maybe sell the white one as is on the open market (profit)

I don't need any parts for the red one, its up and running well aside from the typical e30 electrical issues which we are currently getting sorted. The white one was just too good of a deal to pass up so I figured I'd grab it and pull all of the drive line components to keep as backups for the red one. Now I can't sleep at night.

[flyboyx]

Thanks for the feedback. I do understand that this car is pretty rare, thats why i haven't torn it apart yet. I don't know if the T-case is good. All the PO said was that it was running 3yrs ago when he pulled the head off. What do you think its worth as it sits? I haven't ruled out any options yet, I'm just struggling with them.

its value will be somewhat related to the condition of the transfer case. here is how to test it: jack up ONE of the FRONT wheels. once it is off the ground, try to spin it. if it spins pretty free, the xfer case vc is shot. if the wheel spins about 1/8 turn(accountable to driveline slop) or so and then pretty much stops or rotates with a shitload of force, the case is probably good.

the biggest problem with pricing this car is probably a function of your location. shipping a vehicle to the lower 48 that doesn't run would probably be brutal.

assuming that the xfer case is good, the body is indeed as rust free as it looks, and you find someone to buy it that doesn't need to ship it(or can do it cheaply), i would guess its worth around 2x or a bit more than you paid for it. unfortunately, as a parts car, it is probably worth 3x-4x more than your original investment. of course you would have to take the time to take it apart and there would be one less rust free manual ix coupe on the road. i don't really think my desire to see you save this car is a function of its the monetary amount. unfortunately, ix's may never see the value increase like a nice m3 or 318is. i think its more a function of its rarity than desirability. m3's and ix's cost about the same money new, but unfortunately, a nice cherry ix is realistically only worth 6-7k while an m3 is probably valued close to 40 grand these days. one day maybe the market will see the value in these cars. today....well, we just have to love them for the red headed step kids they have come to be.

honestly, i understand that pictures can lie, but the paint other than where it is damaged on the tail looks pretty damned good. it appears that you would have a pretty car if you just get the back end fixed and the rest buffed out. alpineweis II is a single stage paint so it is easy to fix. probably not necessary to do a full repaint. around here, a decent full paint job would cost 3k. if the paint on that one can be made to look nice for a grand, there is certainly value in that.