What's it worth.... or.... What would you do?????

[wtinker]

Greetings all, I 've been a drooling, non-owning member for several years. I first fell in love with the 3.0 with Doug Nolans back at The Vintage in Winston-Salem back in 2012.

I finally have a shot a one that has been sitting for the least last 6+ years. Thus far I have only been able to do a walk around, peek in the trunk and under the hood. The car looks solid with tons of patina. Obvious things to note:

- rust spot on driver rear fender lip
- passenger door is creased
- the interior looks complete but is shot
* missing door panel is in the backseat
- rear driver side window switch is missing
- engine bay looks fairly complete and unmolested
- currently comes with a pet
- miles = unknown at this point

It is the last piece of an estate that has taken a few years to sort out.

What do you all thing is a good price to put on it given the work needed to make it happen?

I'd really be inclined to fix the interior and run with the patina for a while...

 

[teahead]

Hard to say.

As the saying goes: buy the best one you can afford

Body work is the most expensive part of the restoration. Easily $20-30k alone


If shock towers (front and rear ), rockers, fenders, trunk, behind glove box and fuse box door are good, maybe $15k?

 

[teahead]

Maybe more if the critters are included

 

[Markos]

It looks very promising to me. My guess is that most of the patina will wash or lightly sand off. I don’t see rust on the bumpers or on the inner fenders. In the shot that includes the dash end, I don’t see water damage.

I would ask to open it up. Blow off all the leaves in the engine bay.

Check:
The floor pans
Rocker edge (can’t see most of it)
Above glove box
above fuse box
under rear seats (they pull straight up)
trunk well
rear shock towers (feel with your hand or stick your cell in there)

Report back. I would offer $8K and talk about how it needs thousands to be even a driver. Don’t go past $15K if you are looking for a budget starting point. Keep in mind that a car in better shape may be cheaper in the long run contingent upon your restoration skills.

My seller’s girlfriend was using BHCC as a comp. If thing go that way assure him that those cars don’t represent the true market value of rusty e9’s.

 

[teahead]

Calling it: "the possum e9" !

 

[adawil2002]

The opossum E9, think $9-10K is a fair offer for the condition. You'll have double that in it to get it road worthy.

You mean Doug Dolan with the Tundra S38 powered CS.

 

[CSteve]

The opossum E9, think $9-10K is a fair offer for the condition. You'll have double that in it to get it road worthy.

You mean Doug Dolan with the Tundra S38 powered CS.

Adawil, do you really think $20k would make it road worthy? Markos, could you be a bit more specific about how many "thousands" it needs to be a driver? By driver I assume you mean safe in all the important places.

I am still on a steep learning curve, and a buddy is looking at a parts car in similar shape and needs advice. He wants it for parts, chrome bumpers specifically."

Steve

 

[adawil2002]

Yes, $10-11K goes a long way for tires, mechanicals and a driver seat. I know Will Tinker and his son are pretty adept at working on BMWs.

Steve O, your friend would be ahead of the game buying stainless bumpers on ebay. Parting a car is a lot of work as Markos has detailed in his thread.

 

[Markos]

Parting a car is a lot of work as Markos has detailed in his thread.

Agreed if you pick the carcass clean like I am. I still have quite a ways to go. I wouldn’t part this car. It looks too nice!

 

[Ohmess]

Steve -- It can be surprising all the annoying things that come up when seeking to get a car roadworthy. To provide two examples from my experience: when the rubber brake hoses deteriorate in our cars, they sometimes allow small marbles of rubber to float around within the system. This can lead to the need to rebuild calipers and/or rear brake pressure regulators (or in my case, both). Another fun one: my car sat for years with half a tank of gas, the moisture in the fuel floated to the top causing the inside of the fuel tank to rust. You don't want to risk having rust particles drawn into your carbs, so you need to clean the fuel lines and tank and then seal the inside of the tank.

 

[HB Chris]

In my opinion, this is the type of coupe that will break your heart and your wallet. It’s obviously been outside for quite some time. At a minimum you will be rebuilding the entire braking system, cooling system, fuel system, shocks, PS system and fixing whatever electrical wires have been chewed by your new pet.

 

[BarryG]

Chris , your right about what will need fixing, but you would go through it all any way.
My coupe was pretty rough when I got it some 10 years ago.
Hit in the rear, three colors of white, seats worse that these are & no carpet to speak of. I replaced everything on mine , motor 5sp suspension...
Brother go find a better car if you need to have it right now if not get it and fix it. 10 years later you be done maybe


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[CSteve]

Yes, $10-11K goes a long way for tires, mechanicals and a driver seat. I know Will Tinker and his son are pretty adept at working on BMWs.

Steve O, your friend would be ahead of the game buying stainless bumpers on ebay. Parting a car is a lot of work as Markos has detailed in his thread.

Thanks, I will pass that on to him.

Chris , your right about what will need fixing, but you would go through it all any way.
My coupe was pretty rough when I got it some 10 years ago.
Hit in the rear, three colors of white, seats worse that these are & no carpet to speak of. I replaced everything on mine , motor 5sp suspension...
Brother go find a better car if you need to have it right now if not get it and fix it. 10 years later you be done maybe


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Barry and Chris, when you both say, "you will be...., or I replaced" do you mean YOU, the owner operator with the skills and tools to do all this, or do you mean an experienced mechanic? And body and paint work, the black hole of our coupes? Wtinker, do you have any or all of these skills? Or a trust fund. Or a good job with Microsoft?

Steve

 

[dang]

We've heard from everyone but the OP (original Poster). @wtinker, you never mentioned how much experience you have with a wrench. This would help everyone gauge what you're getting yourself into...

 

[Ohmess]

Not sure which Chris you are questioning, but I've turned wrenches with Macha and can respond we are both owner operators with the skills and tools to do the work we are discussing in this thread.

 

[HB Chris]

Whether doing it yourself, which I have done, or paying someone else, these can drain your wallet faster than the blink of an eye!

 

[dang]

Whether doing it yourself, which I have done, or paying someone else, these can drain your wallet faster than the blink of an eye!

That all depends on your "good enough" scale.

 

[Markos]

That all depends on your "good enough" scale.

The public bar on this site is very high. I went through the warnings with my car purchase when I posted a similar thread here. All of the comments were in good faith and warrented, but I took the plunge. I'm doing everything myself but there are still certain unavoidable costs. For instance, I need to buy about $1,500 in sheet metal, and $2,500 in rubber. I have chrome on the radar which I am swagging about $3K. Not much in the grand scheme of things but it is death by 1,000 pin pricks for sure. There are plenty of opportunities for saving money, buying used, settling/compromising, half-assing, rolling-with-the-punches, etc. The one saving grace is that now matter how rotten these cars are on the inside, they generally look pretty good on the outside. So as long as it is safe to drive (your opinions may vary), you can always deal with stuff over time.

 

[Gransin]

I think it'll be hard to fix it up so it's only driveable and stop at that. You're going to run into alot of "while I'm in there" situations, and before you know it you'll be in a total refresh/restoration.
That doesn't have to be a bad thing, as long as you have the budget and time for it, because it'll still be very close to the same cost as if you bought a good coupe to start with, if you do most of the work yourself.
This is based from my point of view, but as Markos points out there are many ways of saving (and wasting) money in a project like this, and we all have to look to ourselves and determine what goals we have.
I like projects, so I say go for it! Anywhere around $10k seems fair based on the limited information, rust is always a big concern.

 

[Markos]

but as Markos points out there are many ways of saving (and wasting) money in a project like this

Hey I resemble that remark! Buys car for $3K - spends $1K+ on headlight wipers