restoring an E30. preparing

[guuskolo]

Hello boys and girls.

some time in the near future (to be defined) i intend to start restoring an e30.
at the moment i own a 318i from 1985 colour burgundy.
it's got quite a bit of mileage and some of the previous owners weren't too choosy when buying parts, the paint was redone in some places and the engine is just not cutting it. in short this is not the pinnacle of driving i want create.

the question however is, what is?
there are a few things i find really important in my future car:
-the colour(of course): burgundy, Black, or dark blue (preferably metallic )is a MUST. that narrows down the search i guess.
-the engine: 2,5L would be a muse, yet i'm willing to settle for 2.3L.
-body style: coupe, yet again willing to settle for sedan(rather not).
-a manual gearbox, 5-speed.
-as many options as possible. some can be a real bitch to find and even worse to get properly working.

now this brought up some "before buying" questions. Again i'm thinking of fully restoring the car.

-RE-painting: when fully respraying a car, will painting it in the NON-original colour decrease it's worth. If yes, drastically ?

-Engine: will putting in a non-original engine decrease it's worth(2,5l into an 318 for example). and if yes, drastically ?

-Upgrading: will upgrading certain things do so? let's say rebuilding the engine with performance pistons and a higher lift cam, or adding a e36 steering rack.

-Gearbox swapping: automatic to manual

Any information would be welcome so fire away.

[Brianmoooore]

Anything non original will devalue a high value E30, but as we come down the scale to the world of cheap daily drivers, the effect is much less or reversed.
In short a 50,000 GBP E30 will be devalued my mods, or even non original paint of the same colour, but a 500GBP 318i auto with poor paintwork will have its value enhanced by any of your mods.

[guuskolo]

hasn't really cleared it all up yet.

what your saying is:
buy a 325, 2-door, in the colour burgundy and revise it for maximum worth, that part is clear to me.

but if i buy a 323 aut, which is frost white. restoring it to a brand new 325 manual burgundy e30 how much difference would that make from the original.
a while ago i saw a fully revised red 323 which went for 45000 euro, lets say that's our price. if i were to make it into a 325 metallic red, how much would it be worth then ? 20000 or 42500

[martauto]

Hi , if you want to buy an "investment" , do that and do not touch it and keep it locked away for a rainy day.
Or do you wish at some stage to drive the said vehicle? If so then do what suits YOU !!

Enjoy .


Mart.