Just had a thread about a e30 for a track car on pistonheads. 2 hours prior to this purchase. Car looks fucked. But £560 and a 323i with manual means I just need to either hunt for a shell or see how bad this really is. Thoughts on BMW e30'sla-la Gassing Station - PistonHeads 1984 BMW 323i Manual E30 Orange Spares Or Brave Repair, Wheels Engine Drivetrain | eBay Guess its time to buy a non rusty shell unless this one is saveable for a decent price. Off to collect in the next few days due to it being 500 miles or so away from me. Never done track days nor drifting so not sure if a car set up for track days can drift too? Assuming I would need a lsd as a welded diff would suck for track days.
Damn it! My phone went flat as this finished on ebay, I wanted it! Good luck with the build, it's pretty rotten!
Stole this from my post on pistonheads to save retyping DwD, you say its rotten? Ive seen alot worse after a quick glance round haha So finally in 30 minutes ago, quickly grabbed these pictures. From the ad looked like the inner edge of doors was holey, just cobwebs Will clean up tomorrow and get better ones, or worse depending what I uncover, lots of overspray on plastic trims near the arches from a quick glance which suggests lots of lovely filler. The guy gave me a spare bumper, both are slightly damaged so not sure if they can come apart to fix together to make one whole. No radio, but other than abit of cobwebs and mould interior seems to be like new. Going to head into a few tyre garages tomorrow to see if they have any bald tyres I can have for free just to roll the car around for now. Rear spoiler thing is a completely different colour, no idea if it was meant to have one. Going to nick my battery out my old bmw and see if she will start, previous owner said it was last running in 2010 when it drove to his house. Anything I should do before just trying to crank it?
Take plugs out and squirt a little bit of oil into the bores to help lubricate the rings. Petrol is probably had it too, so if you've got the time drain the old stuff and throw some fresh juice in. Check the oil hasn't glugged up completely too. Pull the fuel pump fuse and turn it over for 10 seconds to build up oil pressure, then throw the fuse back in and crank.
She runs! Took a while and some easy start though, sounded smooth enough. https://youtu.be/zmsiO43yBYU Spewed all its water and leaks petrol though. Didnt try drive it yet as it was running off jump leads from the Range Rover and needs the engine bay cleaned out, job for tomorrow, too dark now. All inner arches near the sills need welded, outer sills need welded, not sure about inner sills though. Rear arches for sure, along with my new wings im due to collect tomorrow Strangely there is a big patch of filler on the top of the boot lid, going to peel off and explore soon. Roof is rust free though! Scuttle area seems to have been saved by the 4" of mud filling it, except in the middle where there is a slightly rusty edge appearing... where the least of amount of mud was. Popped the boot finally, was fairly stuck. Found new kidney grill, headlight surrounds and various other things. Not sure if this means anything to anyone but if they could tell me if my car should have it?
question did you buy this because of it's low mileage? I think you could've gotten something way better.
The fact it was £560 and im a student who cant save money. I can spend money monthly on my cars but saving to buy a nice one? Nah not here, also its nice to learn to do things. Sadly gonna have to pay a bud to do the welding. Edit: Will point out this is by far my lowest milage car by about 50k. Currently driving a Range Rover on 162k, which by all accounts should of exploded 5x
it needs lot of work to make it usable imo. also, 323 are just just weak, comparing to 325. Thay are more like 320. Some will say you dont need huge numbers to drift. yeah, right but less than 100?? If you add cost of basic repairs, welding, any cheapest suspension, large service, probably brakes and lines, probably rubber parts (suspension) it's going to cost you a lot. Better to sell it on ebay after you cleaned it, and get one already working well. There is 1 in very good price advertised here on forum
As I said, dont really have more money to throw at a car thats not rusty as they go for 2k+ really. I have plans for the engine so dont worry
it's not just rust (which repairing will not cost 50quid ). Unused car dies and may be death trap. Brake lines, suspension components, engine etc. On top 323 is just sh"t. calculate costs, add what can get fot it (probably more than what you paid). If you dont have money, dont waste what you have
No repairing the rust wont be £50, to buy all the repair patches is like £250 alone. But spending £400 or so welding it up just puts me at £1000 spent. I then have a solid shell I can learn to work on. Only ever worked with discos and defenders so its not rusty in comparison haha. Im not saying I couldnt afford to if I really wanted, got a 83 cherry turbo I only use a few times a year which I could sell. I would rather spend some money each month and learn as I go along rather than sit and save up and then just buy a mint one.
sell that, get this: http://www.driftworks.com/forum/dri...ck-hydro-e46-rack-welder-more-mot-1500-a.html I would if didint own e30 325turbo already
4 door and as I said I want to learn on my own car, not always about the best financial choices. Or I wouldnt be running a very early l322 Range Rover.
I say fair play to you man. Taking the time out each month to do little pieces here and there is much more rewarding then sitting on your money and spunking it quicker than you can count it. Can't wait to see the progress
First drive today Brakes work but not great, they are going to be replaced anyway. Engine temp got 3/8 and then started to "jump" up and down a little bit. I have this gearknob, should it press down to go left into reverse like my e46 did or does it just sort of jump over? This is pretty retro cool! Found some old discs This little thing leaks with the wires in it
the thing leaking is your expansion bottle for your cooling system. you have a long way to go on that, but there repairable and bits are available. personally jusnk the brakes go fully new on the lines will cost about 65quid all in. junk the motor and stick a 2.5 in and you'll be good to go. i have a build thread somewhere on my current e30 (on here) that was as bad as what you have so dont get disheartened.
tbh mate just stick with what ya got rebuild the brakes and get rid of the rust and do some basic matenice on the engine and go have fun
Thats the plan, aint changing engines. Its only got a genuine 55k on it as well haha. Bell, what is the little thing with the 2 wires in the bottle though? The actual bottle is ok its that thing screwed in thats leaking.
Look forward to seeing end results on this. Forget about the low mileage as the mileometer digits should not sit like that.
Gave it a bang and they straightened up, the brass nut on the back of the temp guage is loose too so might be loose elsewhere. Mileage seems genuine due to the fact I have MoT dating to 2003 or so with a milage of 23k. Dash isnt cracked, engine sounds decent, seems like a cared for car earlier in its life. Even comes with the origional sale invoice. Not too bothered either way though, I was drunk on eBay and didnt even notice the milage till after I had won it.
