Sammo

Thought I would get the ‘inner interior’ all nice before the re-upholstered interior goes back in next week.

Shampoo’d the carpets, cabin and boot, repainted most interior plastics and put in some sound deadening (mix of butyl and foam I had in the basement) in the spare wheel well, boot, inner rear quarters / arches and doors while I was at it.

Came up well, save a few little coffee stains on passenger side that are ordinarily covered by the seat anyway.

Can’t wait to get the new seats, door cards and floor mats in!

3 hours ago, Sammo said:

It’s the buyers that set the value at the end of the day.
 

M325i sales I’ve seen in the last two years:

Lachssilber Tech 2 $40k (auction) very nice, would go for significantly more now.

Red Tech 2 $64k (auction) stunning car

Black Tech 2 $50k (low 50s I think) (auction) very nice, not perfect

My Lachssilber one $34k (high kms)

Silver Tech 1 that a dealer is trying to flick $42k (auction)

Bang for buck isn’t a consideration buying a slow 35 year old project car.

Add another Tech 2

Black UK import 325i Sport $46,100 via auction

Market has definitely dipped a little 

1 minute ago, Bandit said:

Given the amount of your "hard earned" invested in your project Sammo, you have to say what you have posted. 👍

I’m in too deep haha

6 minutes ago, Bandit said:

There is a tremendous difference with all this hyperbole around "asking" price,  "market" price, and nett received price. 

From memory the last 325MTech 2 to sell for strong money was the white coupe that hung around Auckland for ages ohh 18 months or two years ago, went down into the South Island, then came back up to Auckland, sold for the buy now $35k. And there was a lovely red Mtech2 in the Wellington region, low kms, owners and largely original sold for quite strong money, may have been just over 50k,  think this car started all the chatter, and there was a cosmos black or delphin gray car too.

Subsequent cars marketed on TradeMe are / have all fallen short of the sellers expectations, a classic example is the largely original 2 or three owner MTech 1 in silver that has sat at Arrow Toys for nearly a year, and slid in asking from $69990 down to $48950, still unsold.

Of course there may be cars changing hands off market, we rarely hear about these.

In the writers opinion the E30 is just not in 2022 worth anywhere the money that some of the posters above believe is "fair" market value.

Within the BMW brand there are three or four models that, by comparison to the E30, give far more "bang" for your motoring buck. 

When  I was growing up way down south,  a well worn family saying, always directed to me because of my proliferate ways, (especially concerning fast cars) " A fool and his money are soon parted"

And when I gaze at a E30 325i on the market at more than $20k, this always springs to mind 😉

Discuss.....       

It’s the buyers that set the value at the end of the day.
 

M325i sales I’ve seen in the last two years:

Lachssilber Tech 2 $40k (auction) very nice, would go for significantly more now.

Red Tech 2 $64k (auction) stunning car

Black Tech 2 $50k (low 50s I think) (auction) very nice, not perfect

My Lachssilber one $34k (high kms)

Silver Tech 1 that a dealer is trying to flick $42k (auction)

Bang for buck isn’t a consideration buying a slow 35 year old project car.

18 minutes ago, BLACK DORIS said:

Not to thread jack here but are weaves going for this price? I saw some on TM 5 or 6 months ago (14s) and they had something like a 1K price range. I was thinking, good luck with that (recalling that people were struggling to sell them for $400 bucks 5 or so years ago). But seeing your quote here, maybe I should see what the market says for a 5 x 15s....

15x7 ET24 4x100 - the ones everyone wants - on Facebook to avoid Trade Me fees.

Sold my set of 5 recently inside a few hours for $2,250 plus a bottlecap spare with new tyre on it (my weave with the spare had a 20 year old tyre that didn't hold air)

They were in pretty good condition - I would have refurbed if I were to keep them though.

Liquid assets!

The good stuff will sell within hours at the below prices 

Set of weaves in decent nick $2000-2500

Mtech 1 385mm $500 (no, not $2,400 like the one on TM)

MTech 2 370mm $1000-$1200

Good sport seats UNOBTANIUM 

Bit of the old 'No known rust'

Or rust free... except for xxx

Never know what's hiding in these old girls.

Little update after a average few weeks with Covid / getting annoyed with the car.

Did a temp fix on the rust - after hitting it with a wire wheel, it went through the metal in a few more places, revealing 3-4 pea sized holes, through to the firewall near the fusebox.

Will definitely get properly fixed in the future, but for now, I wire-wheeled it back to bare metal then patched / treated using filler and POR-15. Bit of an amateur-hour repair, but it should delay the rot a bit and ensure my carpets don't get damp - will check underneath again in spring.

Found the source of my front suspension clunk too - went away when I removed the swaybar (suspicions were correct) - likely hitting front subframe or transmission guard due to a little bushing play / bar angle being off since it is reasonably low on standard end links.

Going to get new poly bushings and billet reinforced brackets and when I reinstall will make sure suspension is loaded and clearances are fine.

Interior reupholstering still in progress, hopefully will get it back next week - door cards are getting fresh vinyl as well with the insert stitched in. Ideally would have kept stock vinyl on door cards, but will be the same as the outer bolsters and seat backs, so should tie in nicely.

16 minutes ago, balancerider said:

Wikipedia agrees with you...given the propensity of E30's to rust I'd want to go over it with a fine tooth comb (first 5 yrs spent in UK). Alpina rims just look so good though.

Yeah, its looks great, but given my own recent experiences with hidden rust I doubt there are any rust free ones (that have not been disassembled and dealt with) kicking around.

Off to treat / bandaid rust on my seemingly lovely E30 😂

Just saw that, looks fantastic! I wonder what the reserve is.

Not an M325i but same same really.

Just saw that, I bet its had a hard life but still good value I think.

*Edit* 

Found the leak - little area in extreme top corner beside fuse box has some rust as pictured - does not seem to be a hole as such,  but obviously enough to let water in - pointing a hose here will have water trickle immediately into the cabin over the large area of interior surface rust.

Scuttle drains are working very well.

Will scrape back, treat, seal for now and keep car pretty dry and level (it usually is).

Will get property sorted before next winter.

*Edit*

Got the interior out getting reupholstered at the moment so thought I would have a look under my passenger carpet (I know I have a small rust hole there from poking around near the Jack points and I suspected a minor leak too).

Anyway, carpet is dry on top but wet (backing foam is saturated) underneath.

What’s more, got a few rust spots that I poked through plus the apparent source of the leak up high - big patch of scale rust pictured…

Seems to be getting in somewhere around the fuse box, hosing all around there however only saw a tiny bit of moisture getting in and the sill drains are working well.

Sunroof drains are clear and functioning well too.

Struggling to see how so much water could get in, although the car has been parked outside the past 3 or so weeks while we renovate our backyard and there has been a LOT of rain.

Guess I’ll keep saving for rust and paint at some point…

1 hour ago, GorGasm said:

IS, GS, or LS.

I do really like the first gen IS-F - a shame the dashboards are made from plasticine and they have that horrific infotainment / climate combo...

10 minutes ago, E30 325i Rag-Top said:

Wow, I am very envious of the pace of progress on this car, not only are you doing things to a very high standard, you are doing it fast as well!!

Haha, I'm going to run out of BMW money soon and off to Europe for 5 weeks in September, so things will have to slow down a little!

4 minutes ago, Harper said:

Agreed, OE is the way to go where possible. Will be like a new car when done!

Who's doing the upholstery work?

INH Upholstery - a guy I met through an E30 group - tried a more established place who didn’t seem too interested to be honest.

Got a good vibe from Nicholas who is younger but experienced and he knows E30s and seems really keen to put in the time to ensure this is a great job.

Retrim is in progress, all OEM fabric arrived and looks amazing (interestingly same pattern but a different hue to the Relicate fabric which looks a little blue by comparison)

Very glad I went with the OEM plus matching bolster fabric (with fresh vinyl for outer bolsters etc - OEM style).

As it’s going to take a few weeks, I still wanted to be able to use the car a little so here she is in all her stripped out glory, along with a very tired vinyl comfort seat - no corners for me for a while.

Its going to be a great contrast switching out to welded, resprung, refoamed and upholstered sport seats with brand new seat shocks!

Will shampoo the carpet, repaint some interior plastics and add a little extra sound deadening while the interior is out too.

Baur Powah

37 minutes ago, M3AN said:

This is so true. I worked at Sky at the time everyone was bitching and moaning about their monopoly, we knew exactly what would happen with market fragmentation, the total cost to the consumer goes up.

FWIW you no longer need Spark Sport in NZ for F1, F1TV Pro is available here for NZ$100 a season and it's better than the Spark option (multiple cameras, commentary choice, data feeds etc). For some bizarre reason the Android/Google TV app isn't available here so you need to either cast from mobile or sideload the TV app (which is what I've done). 

True, although I can't believe Sky Neon is still only HD and stereo sound - my new OLED and 5.1 deserves more 🤣

@Glacial Pace you may have already seen but an N55 manual… not cheap though

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-3641974910.htm

Guy had the fuel pump replaced and one bushing 😂 #winning

1 hour ago, NutStrikesAgain said:

I was interesting in buying a E30, which I went to see today, however the number of owners in NZ is 27... (since being imported in 1998)

So me that is a massive red flag of a car with problems - would other people on here agree?

Which one is it?

Unless you're dropping serious money on an E30 I would go with the general approach of the purchase price being 1/2 to 2/3rds the price to get it properly sorted - rust (yes it will have rust), suspension, electrical, engine, interior...

Worth it though.

My new Mtech 2 wheel is all refurbished and looking amazing but unfortunately the horn kept sticking/ staying on (an annoying feature indeed!).

Pulling it apart I found this hot mess of semi detached solder, shagged spring plates and added copper wire, possibly to offset the lack of spring in the plates?

Anyway, managed to rebend plates so they click back.

Will also resolder everything to make it all solid for another 20 years or so.

Interior refurb is about to kick off with Fabric being ordered today.

Flip flopped to using the original OEM Lemans BMW Anthracite Uberkaro as ended up being cheaper (and faster) than an Internationally sourced reproduction fabric, plus they have the matching bolster fabric too.

Will be doing door cards and front and rear headrests in Uberkaro as well so will be a lot of plaid!

Should kick off next week.

I have some of these Mtechnic seat badges en route as well but wondering if it will be a bit overkill with the pattern?

On 6/10/2022 at 7:13 PM, Cement said:

If this were my kids doing I could understand it ... and probably change it. Instead I correct it and bite my tongue ... over ... and ... over ... again 😆

Could be soup spoons facing the wrong way up haha

I think they are pretty good buying for the condition they are in, with everyone wanting $600 plus for wrecked fishnets- of course you would want to replace the headrests haha