Value

Mon Oct 12, 2015 5:55 pm

What would you value this at? I'm buying not selling it,

E30 325i sport black Mtech 2
160k service history bmw up to 90k and then only mot certificates after that up to 160k and a few little receipts

Needs new front wing
Needs new interior or seats re trimming and door cards
Needs sunroof panel
Whole car needs painting
Dent in bonnet
Lsd needs a rebuild as its whining
Bottom of front valance bit isn't sitting on properly
Needs jacking point welding
Needs new centre console
Needs wheels refurbing
Battery tray in boot and boot floor needs welding
Needs a service as no clue when last done + probably disc and pads all round
New gear knob and gaitor
Electric sunroof needs attention

Drives fine
Box and engine is fine
Good exhaust and suspension
Steering feels good
All arches and underneath are good

What would you value it at?[/u]

Mon Oct 12, 2015 6:12 pm

1500 to 2500 depending on what idiot comes round wanting to buy it but I can hear China calling!

Mon Oct 12, 2015 6:43 pm

It doesn't sound like a scrapper. £1500 would be nice but even with that mileage it's a £6000 car when it's done.

Mon Oct 12, 2015 6:48 pm

How much do you think I'd put into it?

Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:06 pm

What ever you want

Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:13 pm

Sambe30 wrote:How much do you think I'd put into it?

A lot. Bare in mind the rust you have stated is just what you know about. Get digging, it's going to be grim. As a rule, any e30 I've seen with bubbles on the sun roof normally has a rotten roof.

Painting it will cost a fortune, not just in paint, it's all the trim that will shock you. To give you an idea, this weekend I spent stripping the engine bay on my sport ready for paint. Not a single plastic fastener survived (and nor would I re-use them anyway). Extrapolate that to the whole car and things start to get very expensive. My Sport only has 71k on it too, dread to think of the horrors you will find stripping that.

Not trying to put you off, it needs a hero to come and save it, just be prepared to be a hero with deep pockets!

Mon Oct 12, 2015 7:39 pm

No its not the paint, it's the time to get the metal work right before you even consider the paint.

Good case here is my touring shell, it has picked up 1 car park door ding per year for the last 26 years.

They took a combined 10 hours to sort, rubbing the rest of it down +5 hours, sorting the couple of scabs on the doors from stone chips (outside->in) +2 hours. At body shop rate that would already be well over £1k.

Chuck in replacing the front wing, work on the sills, the rear pockets, if the pockets are bad the arches will need at least some work, the sunroof and likely the roof skin along with it, shell carry points and there's likely some other bits underneath your looking at the thick end of £4k if you want a proper job.

Diff rebuild - £300
Wheel refurb -£200
Comfort leather interior - £300
Fixing all the stupid little things - another £1k.

As Andyboy said, it's a £6k car but the rebuild will be thousands before you consider all the mechanical things that might need doing on a car with only MOT history.

Mon Oct 12, 2015 8:04 pm

Who does wheel refurbs for £50 a corner these days, Its a sport so would not want comfort leather either! I think Paint is top of my list when buying! Its scrap unless you want to spunk 5k minimum into it to get it looking half proper!

Mon Oct 12, 2015 8:16 pm

Good point, I was just ball-parking to give an idea of just how much it will take to sort something like this out, Just the powder coat on my wheel centers (only centers, no barrels) was £100 at mates rates and I had to shot blast them myself.

I specified comfort only because I'm fucked if I know what a sport leather set goes for now, are they over £600 yet?

Mon Oct 12, 2015 9:10 pm

When I was searching they were around £400-500 for dog chewed scrap, and grand for something decent not needing a retrim.

Gave up in the end and made e34 Sport seats fit

Mon Oct 12, 2015 9:38 pm

ross_jsy wrote:When I was searching they were around £400-500 for dog chewed scrap, and grand for something decent not needing a retrim.

Gave up in the end and made e34 Sport seats fit

That's why I have no idea what they cost now, gone beyond what I would pay for 30 year old, musty seats that don't really fit me very well, half of which have cracked or rust frames.

Tue Oct 13, 2015 12:18 am

If you got everything right on the car and had evidence to show rust removal- it would be worth far more than £6k, easily!

Can somebody here find a top 325i sport for £6k?- No rust (evidence/pics to prove), in super condition inside and out. No chance unless you just happen to fall upon one by way of pure luck. Last time I went to view a nice presentable example that sold for near £8k - I found rust in certain places. I went to view one that sold but was a total dog and it went for strong money. They are almost 3 decades old now so you will find imperfections - so a good example will still need work. I haven't really seen a top example come up recently as everyone holds them.

Getting it right will probably set you back £7k - I know this as I have one sat on my drive and I have calculated what needs done +added some more on as contingency. But you will have a top sport - something which you cannot find and one which you know has no rust- unlike ALL the cars you will find on ebay/pistonheads/gumtree that are selling at inflated prices just by the way they look on the outside.
I am yet to see an e30 that has come up for sale on the main stream websites over the past 2 years where the seller states - no rust and then has pics of all the common areas you find rot.
Save the money and get stuck in mate. That is my plan lol

Tue Oct 13, 2015 1:14 am

Its shocking once you start.....depending the level of finish you want and how perfect you want it....can cost you a fortune..... i have spent already £13k and calculating another few grand before its fully finished.

Tue Oct 13, 2015 7:40 am

I've been thinking about all of this for some times. And restoring an 80's BMW is a walk in the park compared to any other 80's car. Try buying trim parts for an 86 XR4x4! Walk into any Ford agent with the chassis number and half of them will laugh you out the door.

Restoring an e28 or e30 is a lot easier than a Ghia X / 2.8i / XR4 / RS anything.

Of course Money is an issue but at least 90% of it is all still available either new or second hand.

Tue Oct 13, 2015 7:45 am

car is prob worth £1,500 with a lot of time spent off the road and at a cost of £££££ depending how good you want it to be, with a min price of lets say 7k [this is a guess as I have not seen the car] I don't see this is a car for you TBH

Fri Oct 16, 2015 12:35 pm

B7 wrote:I've been thinking about all of this for some times. And restoring an 80's BMW is a walk in the park compared to any other 80's car. Try buying trim parts for an 86 XR4x4! Walk into any Ford agent with the chassis number and half of them will laugh you out the door.

Restoring an e28 or e30 is a lot easier than a Ghia X / 2.8i / XR4 / RS anything.

Of course Money is an issue but at least 90% of it is all still available either new or second hand.

Definatly !!!

Trouble is, once you set out to do it properly, as in more than just a remove a few bits of trim, 2 day blow over trip to body shop without glass out etc, and bosh the trim back on and say/think you have a restored car , but if you set out to do a proper job .. When you start re building, second hand or your old trim doesn't really cut it, and like mentioned above the hoards of broken clips etc you need to replace throughout, and stacks upon stacks of things ...it becomes a labour of love and an expensive game, that doesn't really end for a long long time, like you say it's just a god send that you can still get a lot from Bmw brand new

Even when you do/can get it back on the road, there's always more and more and more you can to to further improve and refine and finish

For instance my engine bay was done, engine re buit, powder coated the rocker/inlet , it all looked great , then this spring a tiny hole sprung in one of the coolant hoses (old ones re used to get car back on road for last summer) ... I got a new set, then spent s load more money and time refining the bay... Refurb the thermostat housing, all new coolant system and tank, refurb throttle body, rocker and inlet removed and re painted to look better, strut brace etc

Then things like new calipers discs and pads

It goes on and on and on