If you had a parts car for a week..

[katit2]

If you had parts car 95' 525i for a week, what would you take off/keep?

I'm thinking about purchasing donor for manual swap and need to make sure this car is not any longer than needed on my property. It probably would be rust bucket with shot interior, etc. But it might have heated seats, ASC, etc.
What is there to keep? Talking mainly small parts that go often..

[ross1]

Randomly; All of the switches/modules/relays are easy to remove and take up little storage space. Body side trim if good is always worth saving. The engine of course if good, at least all the accessories attached to it. M50 intakes and oil pans are desirable among the engine swappers. Instrument cluster. The plastic bits over the rear seal belts on top of the seat back. Heater valve and HVAC controls. Lights. Grille and surround. Radio and audio amp. Glove box latch. Bumpers. Seats. window regulators and motors.
I'll think of more

[katit2]

Good info, thanks!

I called PickNPull yesterday. They said they will take car for $150 without drivetrain (tranny). I wonder if they going to take rolling shell? Mainly I want to make sure someone comes in and hauls it away for free or pays something. I really need to act quick otherwise my wife will kill me

[ross1]

Good info, thanks!

I called PickNPull yesterday. They said they will take car for $150 without drivetrain (tranny). I wonder if they going to take rolling shell? Mainly I want to make sure someone comes in and hauls it away for free or pays something. I really need to act quick otherwise my wife will kill me

I'm surprised they'll pay that much w/o the drivetrain.
OH, keep the cats too! $$ for scrap or better to be re-used by someone here.

[katit2]

OH, keep the cats too! $$ for scrap or better to be re-used by someone here.

I think shipping is a biggest problem here. So far I've seen 1 e34 on a street in 4 month. Not much activity in STL with E34's

I thought about keeping wide hood as well, but shipping it will be impossible..

- - - Updated - - -

I'm surprised they'll pay that much w/o the drivetrain.

So, what is the best way to get rid of rolling shell?

[south42]

I just call up a towing company and they give 50 and they take it away.


Andy

[katit2]

Ok, so there is ways to do this. Now I just need to find a donor
I figured it will be hard to find full manual swap for sale and at the end I won't know what parts go where, etc. Much better if I take and inventory all this stuff myself.

[ross1]

I just call up a towing company and they give 50 and they take it away.


Andy

How far down do you strip them Andy? My tow guy doesn't want them even for free. A junkyard takes them now but doesn't pay. I suppose they go directly to the crusher.
I have a hard time stopping once I begin and usually go down to bare shells, NOTHING that bolts on remaining, sometimes the glass too. Stupid, I suppose, since so much never sells and is taking up room.

[katit2]

Stupid, I suppose, since so much never sells and is taking up room.

Yeah. I want to avoid this. I think I know which parts might be of value, smaller, easy to ship/sell on eBay or something. But I don't want this to take much of my time and don't want to compete with you guys LOL
Ideally I should have 1 cardboard box with random spares after I'm done with it.

[ross1]

Yeah. I want to avoid this. I think I know which parts might be of value, smaller, easy to ship/sell on eBay or something. But I don't want this to take much of my time and don't want to compete with you guys LOL
Ideally I should have 1 cardboard box with random spares after I'm done with it.

Not competing with me, I'm still trying to unload stuff from years ago, have a look at the dates on some of my FS threads. Sadly I'll have another parts car soon as I'm planning a manual swap in my 535 and the donor is at my friend's shop waiting. Knowing myself I'll strip it clean and have to deal with all those bits.
The good news is that I haven't needed to buy many E34 parts in a very long time.

[katit2]

Not competing with me, I'm still trying to unload stuff from years ago, have a look at the dates on some of my FS threads. Sadly I'll have another parts car soon as I'm planning a manual swap in my 535 and the donor is at my friend's shop waiting. Knowing myself I'll strip it clean and have to deal with all those bits.
The good news is that I haven't needed to buy many E34 parts in a very long time.

Ok. Not competing with Andy j/k. All I really need is MY e34 being manual and all complete/restored. After that's done if I need part here and there I can always buy it, no problem. I'm tempted to keep engine from donor though... Different thoughts about building stroker with turbo, etc. Just not sure why I think about it when I have M3...

[demetk]

I 90% stripped my red e34 and got $100 for the shell,



Took a couple of weeks to strip. Poor thing.

[The Chauffeur]

I wish my car looked as good as your shell!

[south42]

I have gotten more picky on what I take off. I moved do I no longer have as much room so I am just taking what tends to sell. I use to do like Ross, but after holding on to lots of parts for years I had to purge. I tend to get 100 to 200 if I tow the car to the shredder.

Andy

[E38740iMD]

I 90% stripped my red e34 and got $100 for the shell,



Took a couple of weeks to strip. Poor thing.

what happen to the car

[demetk]

what happen to the car

Body including doors were rusting badly so it was time to go. The turbo engine went into the M5 so I could start the rebuild process on the M engine, the interior went into the black e34 and the LSD went into the green e34. I now have extra parts to keep the other e34's on the road on the cheap.

So if you have other e34's then take as much as you can from the parts car because sooner or later you will use those parts.

cheers

[GregT53]

One part that gets missed and is important to the community is the IHKR or IHKA module. It's easy to overlook it because of its obscure location. They are hard to find used.

[katit2]

Raising this topic up. I BOUGHT a donor! Should be here on Monday. It is 92 touring with manual swap(with LSD) and from what I understand it's pretty much shot, work needed everywhere.
I'm not sure what to do now. I have 2 choices basically:

1. Do a swap, put automatic back in a car how it was originally, sell car as is, someone might want it like this. Just not sure how much it will worth like this?
2. Do a swap, don't bother with putting tranny back in, try to pull parts, sell what's possible and scrap.


#1 sounds good as it's possibly going to keep this car on a road, I'm leaning towards this.
#2 will be easier, no need to assemble it back together. However, I'm not sure what good of a parts I can get from 94. Engine is different and from what I understand many other parts won't fit my 94 either.

Ideas?

[ross1]

If the car is a typical midwestern rusty beater you'll not get much for it, even running, so probably not worth the effort. There are touring specific parts that ought to sell well. If it has a good high stop light that is gold as are any rust free body panels.
Completely dismantling e34s in order to sell parts is an exercise in futility these days as the demand for parts has slowed as the number of cars still in service has diminished. I'd keep the engine if I had room as they remain popular for easy swaps into E30s, a few of the non-vanos parts are still desired. Other parts have been discussed already.
Touring specific stuff, motor with wire harness/DME and spares you figure you might need yourself are all I'd make a point of removing. Sometimes you'll be surprised at what people will ask for so if you have the room and tolerance for an eyesore keeping it around might work out favorably.

[katit2]

I definitely can't keep it around. Need to decide and do it asap.
Step 1 - It goes into garage and I'm removing all swap parts ASAP to minimize lift time. Then car goes out of garage to my parking lot.
Then I will look through parts inventory, order all new seals, mounts/etc..

So, if I try to put it back and sell - it's probably 1 month on my parking (until I get parts and take auto stuff from my car, etc)

When you say it's not worth anything, don't you think it will worth $1000? I don't see any of them in STL, couple cars I tried to buy all sold for $2k+ I don't know, maybe there is people looking to do LS swap, etc. If car complete/rolling it might worth it?

I really don't want to keep it for too long. Allso I may want engine for future project - but this is pre-vanos engine with lot's of miles (270+) - so not much value there either..

[ross1]

I definitely can't keep it around. Need to decide and do it asap.
Step 1 - It goes into garage and I'm removing all swap parts ASAP to minimize lift time. Then car goes out of garage to my parking lot.
Then I will look through parts inventory, order all new seals, mounts/etc..

So, if I try to put it back and sell - it's probably 1 month on my parking (until I get parts and take auto stuff from my car, etc)

When you say it's not worth anything, don't you think it will worth $1000? I don't see any of them in STL, couple cars I tried to buy all sold for $2k+ I don't know, maybe there is people looking to do LS swap, etc. If car complete/rolling it might worth it?

I really don't want to keep it for too long. Allso I may want engine for future project - but this is pre-vanos engine with lot's of miles (270+) - so not much value there either..

What's it worth to you to install the auto box, swap out the pedal cluster, diff(?) and maybe a radiator?
The engine still has value in parts, intake, harness/dme and sump are all sought by swappers. The recip assembly too. The motor is worth more dismantled. Post up pics in and out of the car once you get it. Looks sell you know.

[katit2]

What's it worth to you to install the auto box, swap out the pedal cluster, diff(?) and maybe a radiator?
The engine still has value in parts, intake, harness/dme and sump are all sought by swappers. The recip assembly too. The motor is worth more dismantled. Post up pics in and out of the car once you get it. Looks sell you know.

To me nothing I'm doing here and with E34 worth anything. And this car is just hobby and coolness factor, not primary or transportation I rely on. All this done is just for fun and excersize. I know I'm weird
None of this makes any sense from time/$ standpoint.

From what I see - this E34 cost me almost as much as F80 I have EXCLUDING my time.

[ross1]

Did you buy the one from Maryland?

[katit2]

did you buy the one from maryland?

yep