mincePy

Seems an M30B35 is a bit tricky to come by these days - that, plus the availability of parts in future, is pushing me toward the M54 option.

True. I suppose I'm thinking simplicity - I already have everything ready for an M30 - plus I really don't know what S50's go for these days or how easy they are to obtain. Any ideas?

Cheers! Sure will - it's here already

Yeah I went in circles with the seats too! Call me boring but I like the style of the non-racing leather seats. For me this car is to be a nice cruiser - maybe a little pep - but fundamentally a cruiser. Nice one - I'll let you know about the M30, highly likely to scrap it just not sure to what extent yet. What are your Frankenstein M30s? I'm pretty keen to keep the motor in the BMW family. I've considered all sorts - 1JZ, an LS - but for this car it'd just bother me. I think my dream is an S38, or S50. But, not really practical cost wise nor cruising engines me thinks ?.

I picked up an E23 shell, prepped for paint, a couple of years ago along with everything but seats and a front windscreen. It promptly sat in the garage for about a year while I sorted out life! Moved a couple of times, bought our first home and now my attention is really on the project. First on the list was to ship it off to get the interior, underneath and engine bay painted ahead of putting it back together. I've gone for a Calypsorot Metallic colour throughout. It looks quite different in the dark of the shop / garage versus in the direct sunlight: My restoration plan is ground-up - so while it was in the shop I started refurbishing what I could of the suspension and sub-frames (I had a spare rear laying around). My primary goal is to get the car back on the road so while I'm likely to change a bit in future to reduce the ride height, I've stuck with the stock suspension for now, with the exception of new Bilstein B6 shock absorbers - which should handle any future ride drop. I have both a 4-speed and Getrag 5-speed manual gearbox for an M30 to run with. Sadly I just stripped the motor to reveal chronic rust in the block water jackets and around the cylinders. The head is quite 'out of shape' around water holes too. It doesn't look salvageable so I'm now going through the roller coaster question of - what engine do I eventually put in? I don't like the tan interior it came with, and nor do I have seats - so I've found an anthracite interior sitting at a wrecker in Melbourne. The hard part is swallowing the shipping cost ?. I've also ordered some samples from www.stockinteriors.com who do a new carpet set for the car. So - that's where I'm at now.

Hi all, I'm Josh from Auckland - a qualified auto sparky by trade. Strangely my love for BMW's really stemmed from working on them before anything else - though that's not to say it's the only reason now. I've embarked on a project to restore a 1979 E23 733i that I picked up a couple years ago from a chap who blew the motor up and stripped it right down to prep for paintwork, then realised he had too many projects on. The E23 is well on it's way now but plenty more to do! Cheers Josh