Need help deciding e30 m50 swapped 6k

[maxputze]

IÂ’ve always been a huge fan of the e30 chassis and have been looking for the perfect project car. I donÂ’t have much knowledge in what to look for when buying an e30 as this would be my first one. Moreover, I just found an e30 for 6k and it looks quite promising. My question is would it be worth taking a look at as the car is 250miles away from me or should I wait and keep looking as IÂ’ve seen many people buy e30s for very cheap. Here is the description on the craigslist add:

Around 35k miles to the engine

Going to be sold on stock basketweaves

**Willing to trade for another e30 that would be worth around the same price so show me what you got!**

Dm if interested and have questions

**Info about the car is out of order because going off top of my head**

M50 swap, some headers. I had the car for almost 8 months. Previous owner threw in the m50 but couldnt put it all together, so i did. Drives like a champ, pretty loud when you step on it and quiet when you try to be.

The car drives amazing and nothing critical that needs to be replaced

-All sorts of poly bushings and strut bars on front and rear.

-Lower front springs and stock rears.
-Bilstein shocks

Black interior with tan carpet, seats are sports. Couple tears on driver side and passenger seat is cleaned up. Cracked dash which is typical. Gauges work except the temp gauge, mile meter stopped working when i bought it.

Lights are good, the lights dont go on when in reverse.

-New tires all around
-New rear axles
-A/C blows okay, not too cold and not too warm
-Heater is poor
-Electrical for moving the mirrors dont work.

All the lights work, the headlights are swapped where the high beams are the regular lights and the regular lights are the high beams (hope that makes sense)

This car was built for drift but i tried cleaning it up and put it back to stock

Has a LSD diff i believe its 4.10
Paint is really good except for the roof


**Headliner is clean, i taped the passenger light on the interior because it kept falling out and i didnt deal with properly keeping it clean**

Body has a few dents here and there but nothing crazy

Rusty bash bumper... Obviously

Power steering has a leak i believe because it drains fairly quick. Note that it might not be necessary due to the power, i felt more in control without the power steering.










By the way I was thinking new front bumper too, but whatÂ’s not to love in a 1986 e30 rear wheel drive manual.

[323i E30]

Welcome!
First of all: buying someone elses project is always tricky. Especially when you aren't too familiar with the car that even contains many non-stock parts.
The pics aren't showing so I'll just comment on some of the notes you quoted.

35k miles isn't very likely on an engine that old, and there won't be any way to prove the miles on it.
Bilsteins are nice.
Temp gauge not working is ridiculous. That thing is too critical to ignore. Given that the 'heater is poor' makes me think that the car is running with no thermostat as a false security against overheating. That's just a guess though.
No lights in reverse likely is the switch at the shifter, which was not connected during install of the engine + transmission. That, or simply no bulbs..
Make sure it's road legal where you live (I have no clue about US local regulations). Does it have a cat..??

I can't judge on prices, but personally I would prefer a stock M20 over an M50 swapped E30 as a first E30.
You'll have a clear base to start with, which makes stuff much easier to diagnose and solve. Also, an M50 is hardly an upgrade over an M20.
Seller wants another E30 than this one. That wouldn't really motivate me to buy his/hers to be honest.

[maxputze]

Welcome!
First of all: buying someone elses project is always tricky. Especially when you aren't too familiar with the car that even contains many non-stock parts.
The pics aren't showing so I'll just comment on some of the notes you quoted.

35k miles isn't very likely on an engine that old, and there won't be any way to prove the miles on it.
Bilsteins are nice.
Temp gauge not working is ridiculous. That thing is too critical to ignore. Given that the 'heater is poor' makes me think that the car is running with no thermostat as a false security against overheating. That's just a guess though.
No lights in reverse likely is the switch at the shifter, which was not connected during install of the engine + transmission. That, or simply no bulbs..
Make sure it's road legal where you live (I have no clue about US local regulations). Does it have a cat..??

I can't judge on prices, but personally I would prefer a stock M20 over an M50 swapped E30 as a first E30.
You'll have a clear base to start with, which makes stuff much easier to diagnose and solve. Also, an M50 is hardly an upgrade over an M20.
Seller wants another E30 than this one. That wouldn't really motivate me to buy his/hers to be honest.

Good point the seller did mention that he wanted to have a clean slate so I guess I’ll just keep waiting. I am slowly realizing how much is wrong with the car like the lack of a front bumper and rust starting on the frame rails as I see in the picture, in addition the seller mentioned it was a drift build which means it was driven quite hard. By the way do you know any other websites other than craigslist to look for e30s. Also how many original miles to look for.

Thanks
-Max

[323i E30]

I’m Euro, so I don’t know much about good sites for the US, but I see Bring a Trailer pop up every now and then Someone else should jump in here.
Don’t worry too much about the miles. On these 30+ years old cars the maintenance is more important. Wear items will have been replaced, but you’ll just need to know when this was done for the last time.

[hakentt]

I never buy someone's project. On a surface looks ok but when you start fixing all of the small things, that's when you see so many mistakes, and it becomes a mess