POLL: What level do you plan on restoring your E30 to?

[jesscaper]

Yes, that's always the case with old cars. They take a lot of time and effort. You fix one, break another. And because of the uniqueness of some parts, you also need a lot of money to repair and rebuild. But to be honest, I'm a fan of English classics. Retro cars have always been my weakness. But since they are costly, I prefer to use https://www.drivedadscar.com/ every two weeks. Each time I choose a new car. I call my beloved girlfriend for a date, and we drive somewhere beautiful to enjoy the sunset and life.

[Mahalaleel]

Currently dailying mine. I just did wheels, tires, alignment, and have plans to do a ton more, but go very slowly. I don't plan on it ever being "done." I plan to own it when my son is old enough to help work on it, and do projects together while he grows up. It needs rust repairs and body/paint work, but is mechanically and "interior-ly" sound - other than leaking A/C.

[Slybeanx]

Bought it and plan on "upgrading" it to a street race/show car. Just enough to where I could happily go to shows with it but not enough to ever win prizes. Def not a daily/ beater

[amcp]

My bronzit is 100% mechanically sound but is not 100% factory original and the paint is good for a 10 footer at 10mph.
It drives great and I'll take it out on nice days and to DEs so whatever that is.

I dont want a car thats got a ton of money into and Im stressed about some accident.

[TobyB]

Drivable.

t

[mike.bmw]

"Street show" for sure. I commute in the car a few times a week when the weather is nice (even in winter when there isn't salt on the roads). I attend ~2 HPDE events a year. I attend car shows with it (placed first in a BMW CCA NCC concours event last year in the 80s BMW class). I take the family on day trips in the car. I try to use it as much as possible.

When I bought this car 4 years ago, the body was in good condition. No accidents and all original paint. Some minor dings which I still need to have a PDR person address, but nothing major. A good detailing inside and out provided great results. Mechanically my car has needed a bit of everything to include suspension (springs, shocks, bushings, ball joint, control arms), steering (new rack, steering joint, tie rods), engine (timing case reseal, upper/lower oil pan gaskets, mess under intake refresh, fuel+coolant+vacuum lines, injectors, plugs, wires, exhaust, timing chain tensioner), brake refresh, dash swap ... this list goes on. I've address these things as needed over the past 4 years as seen here: https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/for...ite-1991-318is

I'll continue to update, refresh, and replace things as I see fit. It's a fun car to drive, it's a fun car to work on, and I really enjoy being a part of the E30 and vintage BMW community.

[e30austin]

I took my white m-tech cabrio apart for paint in March of 2017. After getting burned by the first "body man", I had to pay a competent body man almost 3x what the first guy charged, to fix his fuck ups. It burned me out so fucking bad, that I still have yet to reassemble it, three years later.

I have been slowly buying every piece of hardware, trim, clip, seal, gasket, etc, new from the dealer, as time and funds allow. I have ~$30k in the car and it literally still looks like a rolling parts car. Depressing, to say the least. Maybe I'll have interest in working on the car again some day.

On the other side of the coin, my red car has worn, tired paint and a rough body - at this point, I just don't care anymore. I still somewhat daily drive the car during the fair weather months and attempt to keep it presentable, but at a certain point, it just doesn't matter anymore.

Moral of this story, pony up and buy a car that already has an acceptable body and paint. I wish I never took this car apart, maybe I'd still be out driving my white car from time to time.

[AWDBOB]

I like to keep things just under street "show". The cars still look great and are mechanically sound, but nothing about the level of work takes away from the desire to drive it.

[e30davie]

Mechanically perfect.
Cosmetically good enough from 5 meters away.

Reason being i can do mechanics myself, but paint and panel is damned near impossible to get perfect as an amateur with limited time. Ive painted a couple of cars and i wouldn't do again. Lots of effort for a ~90% job. That last 10% is why you pay the professionals the big bucks. And i dont have big bucks for cars these days.

[NORBY]

There needs to be an option for "It started as a basic restoration, now I'm getting parts in the mail every day and I'm scared that I'll never end up finishing"

The more I pull apart the more I realise that needs to be done!

[Andrew325is]

It depends what condition the car is already in. Some of them don't need a restoration. I think it's also best to avoid repainting them, unless the paint is very bad such as totally failed clear coat. But even then sometimes it's best to leave it. In the Land Rover world we call this patina. People often restore an old Series truck completely, except they leave the paintwork untouched. It's very classy.

With mine, I want it in presentable driving condition. I want everything to work. I've already sorted the mechanicals almost completely. The only major things I still need to tackle are basically the rear subframe and trailing arm bushings, and install the new A/C components. I could probably also have the U joints replaced in the driveshaft. I intend to keep an OEM unmodified look.

[lukeADE335i]

Ticked "Street Show" but in reality something between "Daily Driver" and "Street Show" - not really building the car to show, just something that's a neat DIY driver and won't get picked on by Police :) Far from Concourse though.

[Das Delfin]

idk it's a DIY nut and bolt. The only limitations are affordability and head space. At the end of it I'll end up with something I find really cool, but definitely not something I'd bring to a show because I'm not at all interested in people nit picking my car if they haven't gone through a DIY experience themselves.

[Cabriolet]

I already went nuts 7 years ago a did a ground up restoration on my 1989 325i sedan. I'm in about $40k on this car but almost everything on the car is perfect.
But I'm going to do it again on a red mtech2 coupe. This car will probably costs more.

[thejimlab]

Right now I'm trying to go from absolute fucking disaster to shit box.