What E30 would you buy / have built for 5 grand?

[ChrisBarns]

Rules are:

Must include purchase price

Any modifications / restoration must be costed realistically for a professional to do.

As an example layout (I've made the prces up) might go...

Mint chromey 316 2 door £800
Install M3 brakes / suspension £1000
Seats recovered in leather £1000
Fit m30 £2000
Huge fluffy dice £200

Total £5000

[pnd]

£5k is a lot to spend on an e30 but if i were to spend 5 large i would want to enjoy it for a reasonable period of time. So £2000 for a 325 without problems and with decent suspension. and £3000 to get a proper 2.7/2.8 built.

[march109]

Sorry £5k isn't alot to spend on an e30.

Won't buy you a good Sport let alone mod it.
Won't buy you a good iS and do much to it.
Won't buy you any E30 and pus an S series engine in it.

I've spent ALOT more than that on both of mine and one of them is scrap now.

But if I had to again:

£1500 E30 325i (in any colour but must have BBS)
£105 BBTB
£250 6 Branch
£80 2.8 Motro Chip
£250 M52B28 Crank
£40 320i rods
£700 (or thereabouts) bottom end rebuild with new crank. (less seperatly itemised expenses)
£320 cam
£120 ish Everything needed for a damn good service too.
£40 SE bootlining
£70 Tech 2 steering wheel
£140 Pagid front pads
£60 SS Goodridge brake line kit
£15 Satin paint to dechrome and tidy up rocker/intake manifold
£300 good cloth sports interior
£40 dremel to refurb BBS'
£20 Enough Nogaro Silver spray to do all 5 BBS'
£450 H&R cupkit
£200 Eibach ARBs
£100 new bushes
£200 new tyres.

Then watch it fail the next MOT needing £1000's of welding!

[dimebag_from_hell]

I think for 5k mate, you could get a good IS and do some cracking work to it

[SPADGE]

I would cossie one of my touring and obviously add some decent brakes and suspension etc...
Before anyone tells me that will cost me more than 5k it won't!

[e30bmlover]

i would just go out and buy a 320is.. not for 5k it would seem.. ok a clean straight e30(2 door) and drop a m50b28 in it!

[E30BeemerLad]

I would do what I am doing already, which is a presentable shell, m50 and other morsels and then turbo the life out of the mo-fo.

I reckon my Touring will be on the road with the M50 swap & resto for just over a grand, so £4K would be plenty to have some proper power output

[Morat]

Its not a huge amount.
I bought my car for £645
Seats £160
Wheels £200
Tyres £280
Springs/Shocks/rollbars/topmounts £950ish
Samco Hoses - £185? (originals were all rotting from the inside)
Massive Service including all fluids, new front calipers/disks/pads new wishbone bushes, cambelt, waterpump, fitting suspension etc etc etc £1295 (inc £500 labour at £25/hour)

Thats just to get a clean straight 325i Touring into good mechanical condition with nice handling, sports seats and 15"BBS. It had been pretty well maintained as well - its had a new fuel tank, brake lines and rear beam bushes in the last couple of years. It only had a couple of weeks MOT left when I bought it but it would have only got advisories for the front wishbone bushes and maybe the squeaky brakes (which still worked fine).

These cars are all due some serious work, they're cheap to buy for a reason.

[daimlerman]

Note that the OP specified work priced by a professional...lets me out then!! At £50 an hour or there abouts you will be lucky to get a body resto on budget.Just look what coin Simon13 has admitted to spending on his 'pina resto,never mind the bits and bobs he has forgotton about.Half of the fun of playing with elderly cars is the tinkering to improve and repair,my two E30s only go to the professional mechanic for the odd jobs that I am unable to do myself.So my costs are parts only.I paid £185 for the 4 door 320i that formed the base of my 2.7 and I guess that I have put in perhaps £2500 in bits over olmost 3 years.If I was running a modern car over the same milage and time I would expect a similar cost from a main dealer for routine maintanance.Not as much fun,though.

[Jhonno]

I would buy ste's old Touring..

[Dan320is]

I would buy ste's old Touring..

+1

[pnd]

of course £5k is not a lot to spend on an e30 over time but would be in one go. I suspect in reality many of us have spent this maintaining and getting right quite mundane e30's.

[Grrrmachine]

I just got whole rear suspension changed for new, rear drums polished with new mechanisms, shoes and calipers, complete copper pipework made up and fitted for brakes, front tie rods and balls joints swapped and the car through its MOT for the Polish equivalent of 250quid, and thats with branded parts, fitted, with two-years guarantee.

Considering the cost (and ability) of Polish mechanics, 5 grand would go a VERY long way over here, so I think I'd get a very good touring shell, strip it down and replace every perishable component, respray it, fit a decent modern diesel turbo engine in it, then have it immaculately yet tastefully retrimmed. I wouldn't splash out on performance or gauche customisation, but I'd fit a PC in there with a Fusion Brain so that I could read as much live engine data as possible too. The design premise would be a stately yet economical distance cruiser (for my Poland-Blighty trips) rather than a high-performance monster.

[capri_rob]

£5k might get old_skool's C2 2.7 .....

[hubble]

Sorry £5k isn't alot to spend on an e30.

Won't buy you a good Sport let alone mod it.
Won't buy you a good iS and do much to it.
Won't buy you any E30 and pus an S series engine in it.

I've spent ALOT more than that on both of mine and one of them is scrap now.

But if I had to again:

£1500 E30 325i (in any colour but must have BBS)
£105 BBTB
£250 6 Branch
£80 2.8 Motro Chip
£250 M52B28 Crank
£40 320i rods
£700 (or thereabouts) bottom end rebuild with new crank. (less seperatly itemised expenses)
£320 cam
£120 ish Everything needed for a damn good service too.
£40 SE bootlining
£70 Tech 2 steering wheel
£140 Pagid front pads
£60 SS Goodridge brake line kit
£15 Satin paint to dechrome and tidy up rocker/intake manifold
£300 good cloth sports interior
£40 dremel to refurb BBS'
£20 Enough Nogaro Silver spray to do all 5 BBS'
£450 H&R cupkit
£200 Eibach ARBs
£100 new bushes
£200 new tyres.

Then watch it fail the next MOT needing £1000's of welding!

That'll be right

[AlexBaur325]

Id go for a nice 2.5 cabby, spend the chance on a service and valet.

[casper8r]

£550 for a rusty shitter which I run into the ground
£4250 for a megafast PC and superbroadband connection to postwhore on various car forums.

[Chase007]

March109 has the right idea and by the way there is an IS shell for sale in the cars for sale section with the engine in it just no head i think he will take 150-200 for it maybe even less he needs it gone and the space for his M3 project arriving any day now,

[Pete-M]

I'd drop a V8 into mine, fix the AC, stop the tailgate squeaking and fit sport front seats.

[gooner1]

£1350 on a half decent pre facelift cab.
£250 on a set of noggaro silver 15"BBS.
£180 on a cloth sport interior.
£500 oo a new hood supplied and fitted.
£150ish on cambet, waterpump,and all parts associated with a good service.
£2000 upwards on full respray and getting rid of minor( i hope) rust problems)
£130 on a original bmw front spoiler.
£30 for a Z3 short shifter.
Plus 12 months road tax, insurance and Mot.
Ooops, silly me ,ive already done it. Well the 2k is put aside for the paint and bodywork, so in my mind its spent.

[Bob_S]

5k is such middle ground it's hard to say, more than likely go for a 320is though

[old_skool]

I'd buy the absolute best standard pre facelift E30 I could find for £4900 and spend the rest on cleaning products and a cover. I'd be happy in the knowledge that it's as good as money in the bank.

[Dan318-is]

An audi s2

[bss325i]

I bought my S50 touring from old_skool for £5500 but that was a bargain!

Needed to put big brakes (£700) and H&R anti roll bars (£230) on it though!

[fuzzy]

I would cossie one of my touring and obviously add some decent brakes and suspension etc...
Before anyone tells me that will cost me more than 5k it won't!

it wouldnt for you but mine did because i didnt do the work myself. mine is at around £9000 so far and its still broken

[old_skool]

I would cossie one of my touring and obviously add some decent brakes and suspension etc...
Before anyone tells me that will cost me more than 5k it won't!

it wouldnt for you but mine did because i didnt do the work myself. mine is at around £9000 so far and its still broken

Moan Moan Moan.....

[321gazza]

buy a 318is with a blown engine,fit a c20xe engine from a astra,cavalier,calibra,about £2/400 quid complete with loom,ecu,manta or omega gearbox,£100,£50 fit this engine,box combo into the is (only chose the is because of the better suspention) and hay you"ve got a very cheap quick car,(i"ve got a let in mine of which should be on the road by april next year).

[Felix79]

I would like to think £5000 will get me a nice Alpina 2 door

I be happy with that ( Sorry not that experimentl I know )

[Alex]

Buy A 316i/318i from an old man/woman

m50 b28

Sports seats recoverd in cream leather

Set of 15" bbs fully refurbed

[pacerpete]

I've bought a T+T '91 E30 M3 for £3500. Its at the metal working magicians now then a trip to the painters . Hopefully it will be at gaydon fully fettled owing me around 5 bags. That WON'T be the figure on the window !

[Jhonno]

I would cossie one of my touring and obviously add some decent brakes and suspension etc...
Before anyone tells me that will cost me more than 5k it won't!

it wouldnt for you but mine did because i didnt do the work myself. mine is at around £9000 so far and its still broken

Thats the Ford bit you've added letting you down again

[fuzzy]

I would cossie one of my touring and obviously add some decent brakes and suspension etc...
Before anyone tells me that will cost me more than 5k it won't!

it wouldnt for you but mine did because i didnt do the work myself. mine is at around £9000 so far and its still broken

Thats the Ford bit you've added letting you down again

just wear and tear this time. the clutch has disintigrated after 4 hard years service. unfortunately changing the clutch means either engine out or removal of the exhaust,driveshafts, diff and prop to get the box out.im half way through the latter.

[Jhonno]

That's 2 days work there

I removed and refitted a box in an afternoon

[fuzzy]

That's 2 days work there

I removed and refitted a box in an afternoon

its taken me 7 months so far and ive only taken it apart

[Jhonno]