What do you guys think? Looking to get my first E32 750iL (Long, long time lurker)

[Eronus]

Hey there,

So real quick about myself. I'm nearly 30. My father is a huge BMW fan and through my childhood, had seen himself inside many different series'. The one that has stuck with me all this time was a 1988 BMW 750iL. It was beautiful. And he was reluctant to get rid of it. But he couldn't stand to look at it after it had been through a severe collision.

So, I'm looking to reignite the fire I've had for the 750iL since I was like 6. I make average money. I currently drive an 08 Audi B7 A4Turbo Non quattro (I hate it).

In fact, I was hoping to gauge opinions on the following:

https://porthuron.craigslist.org/cto...329286394.html

From what little I've been able to gather from the poster, it's been in a Garage for 12 years (Not running). And recently since March of 2017 he's owned it (not running). But....what am I getting myself into? Is this that project I can get into with my father? I understand that I'll possibly take years to work this out considering the money I'd have to invest and the time I'd have to spend. Should I find my fire starter elsewhere? These cars are getting harder and harder to find in my neck of the woods and I've been considering casting a much broader net.

Thanks for any input!

[e30luv318i]

Even if you buy it and hate it a 3.15 lsd is very desirable

[shogun]

For $950 I would take it immy, even if it is not running. Maybe the fuel pumps dead or something else. But the $950 are just the entrance fee, be prepared to spend much more, even if you do it all DIY, a hobby costs a lot of money. If it was parked for 12 years in a garage, be prepared to spend at least 3-5 times the purchase price, just thinking of 2 new fuel pumps, fuel filters, fuel hoses, new brakes, new tires, new seals etc pp.

See my website below under pre-purchase check and then go ahead.
Buy a Bentley repair manual for the E32, the BMW workshop manual as well as the wiring diagrams are online.

[Aubergine]

It must be the time for all of us lurkers to be jumping in! (I, too, just bought an E32)

The price seems both reasonable and high at the same time--how does it seem to you? The car has plenty of good parts but being Michigan I am wondering how much rust is on the body. As I'm sure you know, that can be pricey to have fixed right. Lastly, do you have somewhere to work on this while it isn't running? If not, then it may become an issue really quickly. If you haven't done any sort of project car before I would be cautious since this would be a pretty big first bite.

[Euronutt]

Will you have the time to work on it? Depending...something nicer would let you start driving sooner but of course cost more $$$ at the start. https://seattle.craigslist.org/est/c...365963064.html

[Eronus]

Sorry for the very late update. So I ended up buying the car sight unseen. I know, I know. What was I thinking? Well, I must have had a weird intuition kick in. I got the car for $900, delivered. It was about 100 miles from me. No battery. I wasn't able to get a good look until the day after it was dropped off because it was dark and raining when they made it down. Which was probably the intention of the seller. That's fine. I committed to the car well before I even saw it in person so that's on me.

The bad:

The body
This past Sunday I got a good look at it. My dad washed it up as it was full of spiders and webs from sitting. The body has little rust at the bottom of every door. There are some scratches in the paint....everywhere. There are a couple of dents on the trunk lid, around where the badges are. There's a little bit of rust on the bottom edge of the trunk lid. The plastic around the bumpers is worse for wear. The glass all around is mostly solid, though, with a couple small chips in the windscreen. The rims are all mostly clean. But that probably wont matter down the road.

The interior
We had a look inside. And.... it's mostly a heaping pile of dung, lol. The drivers seat's back rest was fubar'd. It was being propped up with a piece of wood from the back seat. Every seat has something wrong with it. Either buttons missing, or tears here and there on the leather. The center console has been disassembled and somethings been done with the electrical of the heater control console. When we got a battery and simply just connected the car terminals to it and the heater blower immediately started blowing (more on this later). No spare tire. Everything is just simply dirty. The passenger window is off it's tracks and wont close completely.



The good:

We put a battery in it, and turned on the accessories and everything came on. Looked like it should. It was a good moment.
Even better, we decided to start it after checking the fluids briefly. First turn of the key and the car fired right up. It was a beautiful moment.
We wanted to test and make sure the gears were all there so we shifted through them real quick and gave it a feel and everything was working there, so far.
We turned it off immediately after.



The weird:

We did some troubleshooting with the blower kicking on just by putting the terminals to the battery. We took out fuses hoping to see if maybe there's something wrong with one of the relays or the blower itself. No luck there. It kept going no matter what we took out of the relay. We looked a bit deeper and found that there seems to have been some sort of rigging. A wire to the hoods hook near the windscreen appeared to be routed directly to where the blower sits under the hood. Which I believe is right behind the coolant reservoir. We don't know why there may or may not be direct power to the blower. Right now it's a reasonable explanation but we haven't done much in terms of dismantling yet.


Overall - $900. I feel like I did good. Considering I hadn't seen the car in person, and it didn't even have a battery. I know I probably shouldn't be too proud. But I've always wanted to do this. And even more so with a car I've had a thing for since I was a child. I haven't taken any pictures yet. But I'll be sure to upload some real soon, so you guys can appreciate my bad decisions :P. I hope with enough effort and work, I can turn this car into what I've always wanted to.

Thanks for reading!

[mjimport]

Good luck! That is certainly a lot less than i paid for my 735i, but I went the route of spending more up front to get a road ready driver with minor needs.

cant wait for pics! What part of Michigan? I’m from Hillsdale county originally.

[Smoky540i]

We wanna see some pictures of that beast!

[CamE32]

The craiglist Ad you posted has expired, so I don't know what your interior/exterior colors are, but I just picked up a white 1988 735i parts car. Soo if you need any parts, PM me and I may be able to help!

[Eronus]

Pictures will come soon! Work has been a doozy lately.

@CamE32, it's black interior. I think you should wait to see the interior before :P

[Eronus]

Alright! I had my brother take photos of the car. There's a lot! And the plastic around the shift and the steering are apparently disassembled while my dad tries to figure out the issue with the random ground running from the engine bay into the car.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[NE32]

Nice pick up! I hope you enjoy! I do have a question for you. I see you have the BMW cover where the front license plate should be. How is it held on? I got one recently and this is the first time I actually seen one on an e32.

[Eronus]

Nice pick up! I hope you enjoy! I do have a question for you. I see you have the BMW cover where the front license plate should be. How is it held on? I got one recently and this is the first time I actually seen one on an e32.

I'm seeing the car tomorrow. I'll let you know. Right now, I'm guessing it's clipped/screwed into the bumper moulding.

On a unrelated but possibly related note. The rumor is, the car was originally purchased by a Detroit football player. Couldn't tell you which one and if it's even true. But it might explain why the car seems to be in pretty ok shape for the time it sat.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[shogun]

Maybe #27 is bolted into the original bolt holes for the licence plate http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=51_0591
and the inner plate with the BMW logo is clipped, so one cannot see the bolts https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...g/51111974982/