My $400 89 325i

[Jean]

Picked this car up on sunday for $400 cash, clean title. As you can see the front end needs work, and it needs to be cleaned bad as it sat for a few months according to po. Battery is shot, and I can't find ac charger for my portable jump-starter. Hood is coming off tomorrow, and seats to do interior cleaning.

On to the pictures.









Dinan exhaust, pointing the wrong way too



Shift knob is broken and was "fixed" with tape.



Interior is filthy



Not too bad under the hood



Suprisingly cleaner than the interior lol




What spare ?



Yay, my 84 e30 didn't need this





Super clean interior, came with some tools

[uberCerealkiller]

not a bad deal for 400 bucks, i would have bought it

[mtechnik]

Get cracking with Mr. Vacuum. Congrats on that pickup

[bergie_318is]

Get cracking with Mr. Vacuum. Congrats on that pickup

my thoughts exactly!

i would of definatly bought that for 400 bucks. what are your plans for it? are you just gona clean it up and sell? or a 2.7 turbo project which is what id do :):):pimp:

[BBY1104]

/\ What they said, 400 was a great deal. You can make that back parting it I am sure, but nice find regardless

[Jean]

Going to do some cleaning today, then try and get her started. I would like to replace the hood/fenders and get an a/c shop inspect the a/c system and let me know what it needs to be ice-cold again. If I can get her on the road for another 600 with fixed front end and working a/c it will be my DD. Other option but I am not sure if it will work, is to rip the a/c system out of this car and put it into my 84 318i (any experts want to chime in on this, will it interchange???) and swap the suspension/lsd/wheels/coilovers/seats/steering wheel into this car and make it DSP autocross car. It will also be easier to put a 24v into this car vs. my 84. My 318i will then become a daily with A/C.

[Julien]

Going to do some cleaning today, then try and get her started. I would like to replace the hood/fenders and get an a/c shop inspect the a/c system and let me know what it needs to be ice-cold again. If I can get her on the road for another 600 with fixed front end and working a/c it will be my DD. Other option but I am not sure if it will work, is to rip the a/c system out of this car and put it into my 84 318i (any experts want to chime in on this, will it interchange???) and swap the suspension/lsd/wheels/coilovers/seats/steering wheel into this car and make it DSP autocross car. It will also be easier to put a 24v into this car vs. my 84. My 318i will then become a daily with A/C.

Depends if the 318i had a/c to start with.. if it didn't, it's a big pain in the ass.. I've done it with m 318ic. You'll need to change the a/c compressor bracket out (and source an m10 one), replace the orings and the evaporator. and.. pull the dash to replace the hvac unit along with the wiring harness that controls the condesor fan, the magnetic compressor clutch with a few relays.

Julien

[Jean]

Julien,

My 318i did come with a/c originally, but I pulled all of it out and junked it. It's not a problem for me to pull the dash and install the blower,a/c box back. I think I still have the m10 a/c compressor bracket. I am just not positive if the late model a/c system will plug into the early car, the wiring differences and all. I can post pictures of the early and new blower,heater/a/c box wiring harness later if this will help (I have an 88+ box with the wiring, and sourced a wiring harness from an 86 car that plugs into my car). If it's just a matter of removing all of the a/c hardware, replacing the o-rings, possibly buying a new dryer? then I would rather do that.

Jean.

[4ce30]

damn good deal! congrats.

-Brandon

[Jean]

Made a little progress, removed the grills, lights and cleaned the interior a bit. Car starts, idles good too but I can hear some kind of electrical "shorting/jumping" sound in the distributor/spark plug area, so I'll look into that tomorrow. Power mirrors, windows work, check panel seems to be working, blower/heater controls work. Stereo does not work or maybe I don't know how to work the factory tape, seems like it does not want to power up. Can't find reverse or 1st, 2nd.

There appears to be some damage to the radiator support area, I wonder if I'll have hood alignment problems...





Still need to clean the passenger side, and carpet has a hole at the foot rest area.




Will check if the si board is good/ reset lights or pull cluster if need-be.



It fires up hehe, I am starting to like Inline6 sound already



That's it for tonight

[Jean]

Pushed the car out of the garage, removed the passenger seat to clean the rest of the interior.



How can someone have this much crap in the car, is beyond me.



Stained carpet



Ewww



Soaking wet, smelly carpet be gone.



I was worried that maybe i'll find rust holes.... found just a little bit of water .





Nasty

[oldskool3]

Nice looking project car especially for $400. Definetly a really good price. How hard was it to get the carpet out?

[Zacm829]

good deal

[Garageaholic]

Great deal, keep the pics coming!

What are you going to to about a replacement carpet?

[Jean]

Nice looking project car especially for $400. Definetly a really good price. How hard was it to get the carpet out?

Not difficult at all. Remove the seats, front/rear consoles, front speaker/kick panel covers, door sills (you'll need new clips to re-install) and seat belt anchors that bolt to the floor panel. I cut around the heater/ac box as I didn't feel like removing it.

Not sure about carpet yet, or the car in general to tell you the truth. Thinking about making this into a track car by swapping some of the stuff over from my black e30, and pulling the a/c from this. Not sure yet.