Probably picking up this 325is this week

[richardkeith97]

i paid 1800 for my 90 is with 220,000 miles. samething minor rust. turned into a little more then expected but body work is cheap if you know how to do it.

[whatt18yahoo]

if you look hard enough you can find them cheap like really cheap. that car is worth no more than 1400. besides it has diving boards - who wants that... i would reccomend that you look acrossed the nation find one rust free and fly to pick it up then drive home. that thing seriously is not woth 2500.

[whatt18yahoo]

so this is the email i sent to the seller and i hope that you get a better deal than what he's asking for. 2000 is rediculous unless it has an s54 under the hood. or if it's an m3 or if it has really any engine DOHC swap.



to the seller:


Alright so you clearly have no idea what you have. Nor what you’re looking at getting into, nor what the current state of the economy is.

For starters that car is worth 1200 at best.
I am glad you put an e46 shift knob in the car but that is not worth 1300
Cracked seats?
Rust?


You deserve a die zel

Don’t get me wrong I am sure it looks nice drives nice etc etc butin this economy it is a buyers market not a sellers market. And selling a car for double –in your case probably triple its value is in no way justifyable.

I’d offer you 600 cash now and if you say no oh well that’s the best offer anyone should make

[ben312]

so this is the email i sent to the seller and i hope that you get a better deal than what he's asking for. 2000 is rediculous unless it has an s54 under the hood. or if it's an m3 or if it has really any engine DOHC swap.

cause a rust bucket that has 6000k in NEW or newer parts for the swap is not worth even the low end swap parts cost right? :roll: parts car or DD it doesn't matter, the car would a whole swap waiting for you, so its worth at least the swap parts cost.

and an m3? I doubt I will ever see a runing/driving e30m3 go for anything less then 6-8k, unless it was REALLY bad rust or body issue.

back on topic: The car looks okay from the pictures, check for rust hard and offer him 1500-1800 for it. And lets see pics of the other car.

[GetSlideways]

He ended up sellin it to someone else anyways, went and looked at another one that is gunna be a good project for me i think, Heres the email with info he sent me and went and looked at it today.

"1988 325is, It has some rust but nothing too out of control, just the rear quarters and some spots on the wheel wells. It has about 188k miles on it and runs well. I replaced the master cylinder, brake slave cylinder and battery last year. The rear CV joint is bad, but I have two rebuilt axles that i bought from murrays I will throw in that I do not have time to install. I have a new brake master cylinder for it also. I also have a Master cylinder for the clutch that i didn't install yet from Bavarian auto sports. The front seats wore out so I replaced them with some rebuilt seats I bought on Ebay. They are leatherette instead of the factory leather, but are real BMW M-tech Recaro seats. The tires have a lot of tread. They are nice Yokohamas. The wheels are the factory 14" BBS spoke wheels - including the spare."

He hasn't posted it for sale so i have time to sell the Jeep hopefully i can do that soon it drove pretty well but you could hear and feel the slop of the bad CV joint when you were shifting and driving it, eventually it's gunna break so that repair will have to be the first thing i do, the timing belt needs replacing its been 50xxx miles since that last time that was done.

We'll see hopefully i can get some better pictures it was getting dark by the time i saw it tonight

[whatt18yahoo]

and how much are we looking at?

when i buy a car unless the tires still have the chalk lines on them the status of the tires means nothing to me.
i look at the oil is it low? is it dirty? is there visible chunks in it? is it a light weight oil? if not why?
i would climb under the car and look at the guibo joint as well (rubber disc 2 inches thick about 5-6 inch diameter coupling tranny to driveshaft)
check to see the seals on the dif
check to see if the tranny is leaking
check to see the extent of the rust

[madformx5]

And if you don't know how to do it it's not cheap. Especially when you have to start replacing floor pans.

i paid 1800 for my 90 is with 220,000 miles. samething minor rust. turned into a little more then expected but body work is cheap if you know how to do it.

[madformx5]

Sideways,

You should buy a car down south that is in good mechanical condition and forget the rust buckets up in Michigan. The plane ticket to fly down to drive it back would be cheaper in the long run than having the bodywork done. Finding a straight rust free car will save you thousands of dollars in the long run even if you can do body work. How much is you time worth? Another point you also have to consider is if you want to spend all of you time doing body on an e30 or if you would enjoy driving one more. Patience and distance from the rustbelt is your friend. I have three e30s one is a 90 black/black 5spd iS, the second is a one owner 90 4dr glacier blue/grey autotragic, (I know! I have a 5sp conversion) and the third is a 90 325i coupe zinno/houndstooth parts car and I only have 2100 dollars in the purchase of all three and none of them have any rust. In my opinion you should pass on any shell with rust unless it has parts that are worth more than the asking price of the car. With a car like that I would just strip the parts and take the shell to the crusher.

[whatt18yahoo]

sadly enough it is true that there aren't too many cars here in thhe rust belt that are worth a dime. not to say our cars aren't cool or worth modifying/owning but be weary of what you buy

[GetSlideways]

Thanks for all of the input guys, im gunna take another trip out to the guys house and take a look at the car again this weekend. Hopefully in better light so i can see the extent of all of the rust, If it seems manageable on my own and not much more than surface rust (which is how it seemed to me when i took a look at it) the rear driver lower quarter was the only part that seemed like i might need to replace but that shouldn't be hard to scrape up from a junk yard, than i should be able to handle it my dads friends pretty good with body work.

I wish i had the time and money to wait it out and look into getting one from down south but i really don't have much cash as it is and he said he'd let it go for 1700 with all the parts needed to fix it that he has.

Like i said before this being my first e30 im not looking for a showcar, this one is in good mechanical condition aside from the CV joint and maybe over the summer when i have more time ill be able to take a trip down south if i find a good shell with a running engine.

If i do end up getting this car do any of you have experience replacing axles? front and rear he has rebuilt ones i may as well do both even though the rear is the bad one, just wondering what to look for when doing this fix? thanks again for all the input