Early model 325e Rustoration

[roguetoaster]

If you plan to go Euro bumpers in the end you could end up with a desirable car. With the diving boards in place it's just a money pit/passion project to do because you enjoy the doing aspect of owning an older BMW.

[Sunnyledge]

Anything can be repaired with sufficient time (and money). I just addressed similar or worse rust on my 36 year old “undesirable” 318i. I was starting with a non-running car that had sat for 10 years. For 6 months after tearing the car apart to see just how bad things were I debated whether I was in over my head and spinning my wheels. But since it had been my first new car, I was determined not to let it end up in the crusher. In hind site I would do it over again, especially with the knowledge I gained in the journey. I had a blast driving the car this summer. Now there are replacement panels for many of the common rust areas making the journey easier.

[OBD2]

Once I remembered that rust is always AT LEAST 3x worse than what you can see on the surface, I started to tear into the car. What I found put me at a crossroads: do I spend the money (as little as possible) and time (probably a ton) to fix these issues or do I put back what I've torn apart and list it up for sale? After some soul searching, I decided I would bite the bullet and address the issues myself. I'd like to say that I gave myself a pep talk and ultimately grew as a person. Realistically, the reasons I stuck it out were because 1.) I couldn't sell this heap to another person in good faith knowing the issues I found, and 2.) because the previous seller left up his original ad for like 2 weeks after I bought the car. Some of what I found:



Passenger side floorpan was rotted from the inside out. The foam under the carpet was moldy and wet.



Passenger footwell had a questionable repair from outside the car. A loose piece of 22ga sheet metal was also attached from the inside but I took the picture after I tore it out (you can see the bolt that held the interior sheet metal in place).



Rear diff housing with bad rust scaling. Rear trailing arms covered in just surface rust (hopefully). Exhaust had a gaping rust hole and exhaust hanger brackets were barely hanging on. Spare tire well was surprisingly fine.



Some "less than awesome" rust repair/cover-up on the rockers and fender.



Janky fiberglass repair (from outside the car) and more rust holes that went unaddressed.


So, is this car a lost cause or is this condition just the norm when dealing with a rust belt e30? Should I have given up and chucked the car back up on Craigslist to let someone else deal with it? Probably would've taken a hit financially, but would have saved some effort.

Anyways, anyone want to trade me for an e21? straight up.

[OBD2]

Being in the rust belt, I searched for months across the US (mostly looking out West) in order to find that shining example of an e21 (yes, an e21). I was getting so desperate for a new project I even started to include other early models in my nationwide search, like the e12 and e24. I paid for multiple PPIs and received hundreds of photos, but nothing panned out, all for different reasons. Then as I began to lose hope, a local e30 popped up for sale on CL. The seller said it had been in his barn for close to a year and that he never got around to "fixing it up". Apparently the owner prior to him had dumped thousands of dollars into the car (including a replacement motor) within a 2 year period prior to the sale to the now current owner. Against my better judgement, I went to check the car out in person the following day.

For a 36 year old car, it looked fine. The paint had less fade than I would have expected and the body panels less dents than anticipated. Upon closer inspection, there were some "less than awesome" body repairs performed, including some sheet metal screwed-in to replace the rotted rocker panels and a fiberglass patch to fix a hole by the dead pedal. The transmission (5 speed) didn't like to stay in 3rd gear, the gauge cluster was out of an "i" model, and the odometer recently stopped working. Under the BavAuto seat covers, the driver's seat bolster was badly torn. The muffler was half gone, the entire rear subframe looked like it had been sitting in salt water for months, and everything smelled like mold. I held out hope that the replacement motor that was installed was a M20B25 because of the new tach (spoiler alert: it was another B27).

So, what do I do? Keep on searching?
I negotiate the price down a couple hundred bucks and leave him a deposit. I come back a couple days later with the rest of the cash and drive this thing 40 minutes back to my house:




So, my months of searching for a rust free e21, e12, e24, 2002, etc. ended with buying one of the least desirable (IMO) e30s (US early model ETA). And it was rusty. I guess my girlfriend is correct when she says I have a penchant for crappy old BMWs.

Anyways, I'm glad to be here and I will keep this thread updated with my adventures in "Rustoration"!