Expert advice needed...restore or run to death???

[BochumBass]

Evening all, I could really use some advice on something that's troubling me at the moment...I apologise that this could become quite a long post but I'll try and keep to the point!

I have a 1985 320i which I've had for 3 years now, and for a 20 year old car it has not given me any MAJOR problems. 134,000ish on the clock and has never really let me down.

I'm no mechanic and have all my work done by a BMW collector/mechanic/general expert who tends to have a "if it's not broken don't fix it" attitude, and basically gets on with whatever needs doing and leaves anything else for "next time". The car is now begining to look quite rusty (drivers door is bad round the bottom, the arches all have chrome "stick on" arches from a previous owner which I suspect hide bad rust and I had both sills replaced for the MOT last year) so I had a look round a few other easy-to-get-too areas at the weekend and found a smallish hole in the spare tyre well and a bigger hole above the rear drivers side arch, next to the petrol tank. There are also several small areas which are showing rust/rot and I've had 5 or 6 small welding jobs done on the recent MOTs.

Now to get to the point...if my car is starting to show this kind of wear and tear what are the other areas I need to have looked at. I'm taking it to my mechanic this week and I want him to give it a thorough look over as I need to decide whether to embark on a gradual rolling restoration project or if it's too far gone and just drive it till it fails an MOT badly. I have no idea regarding suspension, inner panels, floors etc so I coud really do with a list to give him of things I want checking for condition, and estimated lifespan. The engine itself seems to be running ok (apart from a clutch problem and the usual dodgy idle) and has always been serviced and maintained so it's just structural things I'm interested in at this stage.

Sorry if this has been a long-winded post for a simple question but I love this car, and would really like to keep it running for several years yet...but don't want to keep ploughing money in if it's all going to fall apart when the MOT tester next hits it with his special stick! Any help would be much appreciated

[Simon13]

i am no expert but i know where they rust!

you have done the sills so next major places for me would be

rear and front inner arches
front jacking points
scuttle

U can replace the door so i wouldn't worry too much on that

my opinion? well i'm not a massive fan of 320's but that besides u need to find a point to draw the line because there are still good solid shells about to warrant not welding up other shells every other year.

If the car a was special model then i'd say maybe save it. No offense there!

But when u are dead keen on your chariot............

[Wid77]

I agree. May not be worth restoring. You could break it up and sell the parts when it does 'die'. May be worth going to look at a few other E30's if you want to keep the same type of car and you can then see what else you can get for your money. I should think there are plenty of good cars around with solid bodywork for not a lot of money.

[Geeman]

There's not many decent chrome bumper'd E30's on the road anymore, which is a shame, so dumping another one just adds to the growing number of scrapped cars. Although it would probably be uneconomical to restore your car, it's up to you whether you decide to do this or not. Does this E30 mean much to you? Would you be able to afford to replace it with something newer and more reliable / less rusty?

I suspect the answer is yes to the last one. Cheaper to buy a replacement E30 than to restore your existing one.

You'll find that the only people who will want to restore 'non-interesting' E30's are the fanatics. Alpina's, Hartge's, M3's and Sports are always being restored / repaired as they are worth keeping due to their market values. Unfortunately, a B plate 320 that's rotten is worth nothing I'm afraid, so the only reason for restoring it would be for personal reasons.

Hope this helps.

Out of intrest... what colour combo is it...?

Giles.