I’d been in the market for another e30 for the last month or so. I decided to expand my search and ended up finding a gutted, non running 325e about 7 hours from my house on Facebook marketplace. After messaging the seller, I realized he was someone I’d known for the last few years on Instagram. So I gave him a call, and we agreed on $1,100 for the car, and he would even tow it down for me! It’s got a clean title, roughly 200,000 miles, and it’s been sitting on non op since 2014. It’s even got the original blue plates, which was a huge plus for me. I’m not sure if I’m going to keep this car, or if I’m just going to clean it up and sell it down the line, but I figured I’d track the progress here regardless. 
Luckily it’s always been a California car and there’s no rust. It’s had some parts resprayed, as there’s faded clear coat on the hood. There’s also so pretty decent sized dents in both doors that hopefully my pdr guy will be able to address. The interior has seen better days. It’s been stripped of pretty much everything from the dash back. It does have brand new bilstein shocks and h&r springs, as well as new stop tech rotors and pads that came with the car. He threw in a couple of other things like a trunk spoiler and an extra diff (which will be for sale here in socal shortly lol) He also threw in a couple of extra bottle caps as well as a set of 14 inch weaves. His friend up north was selling some interior pieces and I was able to work out a deal with him prior to delivery of the car. I was able to get tan leather sport seats, tan door cards, the bottom rear seat (still looking for the back piece), and a center console for the ebrake surround. 
Luckily it’s always been a California car and there’s no rust. It’s had some parts resprayed, as there’s faded clear coat on the hood. There’s also so pretty decent sized dents in both doors that hopefully my pdr guy will be able to address. The interior has seen better days. It’s been stripped of pretty much everything from the dash back. It does have brand new bilstein shocks and h&r springs, as well as new stop tech rotors and pads that came with the car. He threw in a couple of other things like a trunk spoiler and an extra diff (which will be for sale here in socal shortly lol) He also threw in a couple of extra bottle caps as well as a set of 14 inch weaves. His friend up north was selling some interior pieces and I was able to work out a deal with him prior to delivery of the car. I was able to get tan leather sport seats, tan door cards, the bottom rear seat (still looking for the back piece), and a center console for the ebrake surround.
I was able to grab some absolutely disgusting trunk carpet from my local junkyard. So much rat crap it’s not even funny. 
Vacuumed everything up 
Then hit it with the bissel 
Everything looks pretty good now! 
Cleaned up this mess 
Even shined up the spare 
Was also able to grab the battery cover from the junkyard Looks pretty decent all together! 
I’m scrubbing with basic upholstery cleaner (Adams in this case) and a microfiber. Then going over again with a magic eraser. This helps remove hard scuffs and discoloring. Then a final pass with leather and vinyl conditioner, and a final buff with a clean micro fiber. I’ve repeated the process with all of the interior pieces so far. 
Missing a couple pieces i was able to get from the yard, but seem to be okay mechanically. 
Didn’t come out perfect, but much better than it was. 
Both tail lights have chips in them unfortunately. It did come with an extra passenger side light that’s pretty clean, but I’ll need to grab the left one at some point. The nice thing about everything being taken apart is that I can clean everything thoroughly before putting stuff back in. 
Spent a bit of time redying the leather and shining it up. I grabbed these RS’s a couple of months ago with intent to refinish them and flip them, but I think they’ll be better suited for this car. 
They’ve never been split prior. Just painted poorly. They’re 5x114 unfortunately. They also do not have flat backpads which is even more unfortunate. The good news is that they’re 16x7+24. So with a decent size tire and adapters, they should fit pretty well.
Heading to Florida today, so I won’t be making any progress for the next week. Anxious to jump back in when I get back. Still have to clean up the passenger seat and finish restoring the RS’s, but this is making me excited for this car. It’s looking like it may actually end up being pretty cool lol 
Started trying to tackle the absolute mess that is the interior. The smell of varnished gas and rat excrement is absolutely unbearable. And my god, the amount of spider webs and eggs. So unsettling. 
After lots of time spent a vacuum and all purpose degreaser. 
Got to love rats. Going to resolder and heat shrink these wires next week. Will also wrap them in an oem style friction tape. 
Started laying down sound deadening and whatnot. 
Ended up sourcing tan carpet from two separate people on Facebook. Rear piece showed up first. A little crusty but not too bad. 
Cleaned it up and threw it in. Still wet here lol. Also started getting the rear seat belts in. Missing the single clip and lap belt if anyone has those laying around! 
After much time spent using purple power and the pressure washer. Looks a whole lot better. Still mad about the cuts tho lol 
Ended up grabbing the seat back that I was missing from Facebook. It’s leather, but when I got there I realized it was the tan from a late model and doesn’t match. But i figured it was better than no rear seat back for the time being. Also got the rear door cards, and the strange black leather rear deck lid in. Again, I’m hoping to find a proper tan rear deck lid, but for now, this will do. 
Realized this clip was missing from the door and I couldn’t screw the arm rest in the door panel in while installing. Grabbed this random clip from a Nissan at the junkyard and it worked fine. 
Door panel going in 
And then the carpet 
Seat followed. Starting to look like an interior! 
Pass interior door handle was broken. Needed to replace that before I could get the other door panel in. New one came in from eBay. 
Grabbed a roof rack from a buddy. 
This wooden shifter came up cheap and I thought it would look good refinished. I plan on lacquering it and throwing a new bmw emblem on it. Just waiting for the emblem to come in before I can. 
Momo hub arrived. 
It’s still very incomplete, obviously, but it’s starting to look a lot better! At least it’s no longer completely gutted hey? 
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