What is an E30 worth parted out?

[P.Kelly]

Let's say its a late model plastic bumper convertible. Everything is in good shape except the top. Power top still works but the canvas is toast.

Mileage is sub 100k on original M20 with 5 speed and 3.73 LSD

AC works

All body panels are straight and have good original paint.

Interior is good with exception of the normal rear convertible seat rip, and this one is minor.

I'm wondering if it is worth more in parts than as a whole. For those of you that have parted an E30, what do you think I could get in parts?

[devon.818]

motor-3-400
5sp swap- 4-500
interior front seats 200+ rear seat around 100
ac stuff hit or miss couple hundred if someone needs it
plastic bumpers 2-300
top-300
lights 150
tail lights 100


all in all you should be 1500-2000 AFTER scraping the the car.

e30 partouts are not big money

[Vivek]

You can get a bit, but it's work. The main thing is gonna be the driveline, that'll be worth around 800+. I'd say it's better to sell things cheap and get rid of them, rather than price things higher and sit on them for a long time. After about 3 weeks of selling stuff, my dad and I have made around 1300 in parts. We also kept a TON of stuff (uncracked dash, springs/shocks, top, windows, wheels--easily another $6-700 worth of parts). I'd say we can probably still pull a few hundred out of it without too much effort, on top of getting a ton of free parts in the bargain.

[frankie591]

what's wrong with it other than a bad top? Sell it to somebody who can enjoy it, because imo it doesn't sound like a car that should be parted out.

[devon.818]

thats the other thing, TIME is a killer, most people have lives, i for one count my time as money, so when me and ill4noreason would do this, it was called "pull as much as we can as fast as we can, scrap the car"
quick work, quick return, goal was to strip the car in three days and have it scrapped in a week

[gart]

Let me know if you do part it out.

[P.Kelly]

Car only has 70k on it and nothing is wrong, but I want the 5spd swap, dash and a few other small parts for my other car.

[F34R]

thats the other thing, TIME is a killer, most people have lives, i for one count my time as money, so when me and ill4noreason would do this, it was called "pull as much as we can as fast as we can, scrap the car"
quick work, quick return, goal was to strip the car in three days and have it scrapped in a week

You can fucking tear one down in a day alone. My brother and I gut one down bare in 5 hours.

IMO it is easy money.

[agent]

Car only has 70k on it and nothing is wrong, but I want the 5spd swap, dash and a few other small parts for my other car.

Part outs should be reserved for cars that have something MAJOR wrong with them, such as a worthless engine or a bent frame. Parting out a working car just because you want a few things off it is absurd.

[CrusherCurtis]

Why would you want to part out a sub 100k mile late model vert, that's in good condition aside from the top? No title? (that's the only reason, and you probably can get one).

[mrsleeve]

When I was doing 1800-2300 for I/IS and about 3000-3400 for IX's With solid IX specific parts

[P.Kelly]

Part outs should be reserved for cars that have something MAJOR wrong with them, such as a worthless engine or a bent frame. Parting out a working car just because you want a few things off it is absurd.

Perhaps, but that isn't what I asked.

Why would you want to part out a sub 100k mile late model vert, that's in good condition aside from the top? No title? (that's the only reason, and you probably can get one).

It has a clean title. I just happen to have acquired another E30 that I want to keep and need some parts.

When I was doing 1800-2300 for I/IS and about 3000-3400 for IX's With solid IX specific parts

If it's only worth ~2K in parts then I'm better off to sell the car and find the parts elsewhere, but where am I going to find sub 100k transmission and differential?

As I wrote above, I want the transmission, drive shaft and rear end, plus the dash and a few other parts for another car. I want low mileage drivetrain components, not somebody's 200k tranny that grinds and leaks. If I can find all of that locally without a bigger hassle than parting this one out, then I'll do that. I asked the question to see if such a car was worth more as parts or as a whole. It sounds like it may be worth more as a whole, but then I need to factor in my time and the cost of finding and removing all the parts I need from someone else's car, as well as the hassle of doing a 5spd swap when I don't have access to the donor car.

[Vivek]

Car only has 70k on it and nothing is wrong, but I want the 5spd swap, dash and a few other small parts for my other car.

Seriously don't part it out.

You can fucking tear one down in a day alone. My brother and I gut one down bare in 5 hours.

IMO it is easy money.

You guys must be beasts at ripping apart e30's. We pulled the driveline in around 4 hours, and that was just the driveline. Eric's done it quite a few times too. I've put a couple hours ripping apart the interior too. The most time consuming part is dealing with paypal, buyers, and shipping everything.


And OP, it's gonna be MUCH less of a hassle to just buy those parts. None of us can tell you what to do, but you really shouldn't destroy a 70k convertible for a transmission.

[P.Kelly]

I put the car up for sale, so we'll see how that goes... I ran through everything and figure conservatively, since everything is there, that parting out would net closer to 3-4K easily including scrap value on the shell.

[Vivek]

parting out would net closer to 3-4K easily

That could be true for everything but the last word. Getting 4k parting out a car will be a lot of work. You'll have to market every part extremely well, clean everything extensively, and have service like blunt. You can sell many things easily and quickly, but you'll still have hundreds of dollars worth of stuff left over that may not be as easy to sell as you assume.