Looking to purchase my 1st Shark! Does this seem like a good deal?

[Sean2005]

https://huntsville.craigslist.org/ct...228332639.html

Is this a fair price? Any advice would be helpful.

[BMW Performance]

That car has been for sale a LONG time.

Where in Alabama are you located?

[Sean2005]

Yes it has. I'm in Madison.

[tschultz]

The refinished seats are nice and go a long way towards the asking price. The auto is a shame but otherwise the price seems fair to me...

[BMW Performance]

I thought about going to look at it but I don't need anymore cars. It is local to you so go take a look at it. If you need anything give me a shoot and I will try to help you out.

[Sean2005]

I thought about going to look at it but I don't need anymore cars. It is local to you so go take a look at it. If you need anything give me a shoot and I will try to help you out.

I'm going to try and look at it this weekend. What part of North Alabama are you located?

[Sean2005]

Update

I'm suppose to go look at it tomorrow. The owner did tell me that it idles rough and hesitates. Do any of you think that it may be a timing chain issue?

[BMW Performance]

I'm going to try and look at it this weekend. What part of North Alabama are you located?

Depends on the day where I am, Huntsville, Gadsden, Birmingham, Anniston, ect.

- - - Updated - - -

Update

I'm suppose to go look at it tomorrow. The owner did tell me that it idles rough and hesitates. Do any of you think that it may be a timing chain issue?

I highly highly doubt it is the timing chain.

[Sean2005]

Update,

So I went to go look at the car yesterday evening. I purposefully drove my F10 to his house. His E24 actually looked better in person. He's the 2nd owner and has had the car for about 5 years. The speedometer is broken but shows 71k for the mileage. He claims that the mileage is around 90k. On the Craigslist add, the wheels were mix-matched but it looks like he upgraded to the OEM Star Spoke Style 189 Alloy Wheel. He said that the wheels and tires have less than 1k on them. The paint was fair but good enough for now. Interior looked as good as the pictures from the add but the front seat doesn't move forward. Engine Bay looked good. No rust underneath the body. All of the windows and the sunroof work except for the driver's side. It may be a blown fuse. The AC needs to be recharged. It started up great and actually didn't idle as rough as I thought it would. We took it for a test drive and it did hesitate coming out of 1st gear but after than it drove as it should. I'm thinking it is a Vacuum leak. We actually ran out of gas during the test drive but were able to make it back to the front of his subdivision and walked to his house to get gas. On the walk back he was telling me how embarrassed and sorry he was. I knew the half-mile walk was going to benefit me. I mentioned that I had lived in Germany as a kid for 6yrs and was there when the Wall came down. To make a long story short, he told me a few hours ago that he's writing up the Bill of Sale and is going to sell the car to me for $1500!

My Plan of Action

1) Get the Vaccum leak issued resolved
2) See whats up with the AC
3) Fix the speedometer
4) Work on the front seat
5) Re-paint the car

I'm not too familiar with Vacuum leaks. Will this be a fairly easy DIY fix or do I need to play it safe and expect to pay an arm /leg at the dealership?

[beanerbmw]

congrats on your purchase.

the happy medium between DIY and dealership is a trusted independent mechanic. I suggest you find one. at some point they will be needed.

[dcains]

Good luck with your new project. Vacuum system on this car is fairly simple, and if vaccuum lines have deteriorated, I'd bet fuel lines have, too - here's a good reference diagram:



A/C won't likely be such an easy fix, and is likely to be costy. But, there are many threads, on this site, bigcoupe.com, and mye28.com detailing a rebuild of the system with modern parts, and you shoud start searching and reading those. Every seller says, "just needs a recharge", but that's never true.

Odometer is a simple and inexpensive fix - check out this site: https://store.garagistic.com/e24-odometer-gears

[Sean2005]

Good luck with your new project. Vacuum system on this car is fairly simple, and if vaccuum lines have deteriorated, I'd bet fuel lines have, too - here's a good reference diagram:



A/C won't likely be such an easy fix, and is likely to be costy. But, there are many threads, on this site, bigcoupe.com, and mye28.com detailing a rebuild of the system with modern parts, and you shoud start searching and reading those. Every seller says, "just needs a recharge", but that's never true.

Odometer is a simple and inexpensive fix - check out this site: https://store.garagistic.com/e24-odometer-gears

Thanks for the congrats everyone. I really appreciate everyone's help. Can you give me a rough estimate on the cost to rebuild the AC System?

[XAlt]

Thanks for the congrats everyone. I really appreciate everyone's help. Can you give me a rough estimate on the cost to rebuild the AC System?

If the compressor turns, just force in some friendly neighborhood R12.

400+ for a compressor, 100+ for a condensor, $20 for a drier plus the cheapest 134 retrofit kit with oil. Various lines around the system, but less-electronics heavy than the later IHKA systems.

[dcains]

Conventional wisdom, i.e. replacing the original parts with the same (and then doing an R134 conversion), isn't really the best approach with these cars, mainly because tje original a/c was so marginal to begin with. And, expensive. One can convert to a modern Sanden 508 compressor ($150 = $50 for custom brackets), and 16 x 19" parallel flow condensor (<$100), some new hoses (maybe $200 at the high end), and few cans of R152a and some oil ($25). Of course, the system needs to be flushed and the overall cost will depend on how much of the work you can do yourself. I'm in FL and you're in AL, so we're both living in hellish heat and humidity this time of year, so working a/c is a nice feature to have in a classic car.

[Sean2005]

Thanks for the guidance XAlt and dcains. I think I'd be able get some help with this at a reasonable price. I agree dcains, the heat and humidity down here can be bad. Thankfully it will be Fall soon and having AC won't be that big of a deal. That might be my focus during the upcoming cooler months. The seller coming down $700 and upgrading the wheels and tires was definitely a plus. Once I get the vehicle home I'll post some pics.