If the E30 was a Puzzle...

[moatilliatta]

How many pieces would it be?



EDIT:
Hold your thumb up next to it, like counting how many jelly beans are in the mason jar...

Get the real oem out and start counting?

Maybe its just one piece to the puzzle.

[venerated]

Hmm, maybe 500 or 800. Something with a bit of challenge, but not where you want to give up.

[nando]

are we counting the hoard of pieces I've got stashed in my garage? because I don't remember what any of them are or where I put them..

[dnguyen1963]

Mine would never look the same every time I play with the puzzle.

[Reichart12]

Subtract 8 pieces for rusty e30s.

[McGyver]

It'd probably be a relatively simple puzzle, maybe 100 large pieces. That being said, everyone's missing a piece or two and some replacement pieces are NLA. So everyone is passing around bent and water-damaged pieces to "finish" their puzzle. Half the people are using cheap carboard cutouts instead of actual pieces. But it's ok, we all know what we got.

[moatilliatta]

Editors notes:
Hold your thumb up next to it, like counting how many jelly beans are in the mason jar...

Get the real oem out and start counting? This is what I'm curious about...

But, Maybe its just one piece to the puzzle.

[ZeKahr]

Probably somewhere in the 3000-5000 range if you want to granularize it down to every little piece like nuts and bolts. I’d say somewhere around 40% of the total number are parts that are critical to the car functioning as a useable car. The rest are there due to some sort of government regulation or consumer demand

[McGyver]

...consumer demand

Meh, 2 out of 4 lug nuts are good enough. Can't believe these damn consumers want ALL of them...

[325e '87]

As an “old guy”, pre internet and forum, there can be 6,000 pieces or 300. With you tube and forums, it is pretty easy to learn how to do stuff that I paid thousands for back in the ‘90’s.

Right now? I would say 300. In the ‘90’s? I would say 10,000. We just could not search the internet for DIY or even get visual processes via video back then, so, we took it to an Indy. There are only two things I have not done to an e30. Take the motor out and remove the dash. Three if you include dropping the front/rear subframes.

My current situation leads to new experience though.

[325e '87]

As a non-daily visitor here, but intensely using, this site is crazy slow. It takes 5 seconds to do anything, which is fine for me, but probably not fine for those under 50.

[dnguyen1963]

As a non-daily visitor here, but intensely using, this site is crazy slow. It takes 5 seconds to do anything, which is fine for me, but probably not fine for those under 50.

Hey, it's free and the info from this site is worth the wait.

[m3clutch]

Mine would never look the same every time I play with the puzzle.

highly relateable rofl! I just did my timing belt for the first time (myself, last replaced in 2012 doh!) and here I am, a month later, waiting on aux fan brackets to arrive from the motherland. New radiator going in... wiring up senders to vdo gauges. Like...wtf, I even lost the washer off the back of the alternator bracket...not sure where that fucker fell too. Refreshed suspension bushings front and rear too... something wrong with me. I can't stop. I just wanna drive.

[TobyB]

Unlike a puzzle, pieces can be used in ways that aren't 'how it's supposed to go'-

up to a point.

And the final number of said pieces?

Totally negotiable.
Front brakes were considered
dangerous well into the '20's.

t
more spare pieces than assembled puzzles.