A Sad Day: My 318is has a new owner.. ish

[BlueBMW]

Long story short, pops ended up in the hospital for a few weeks with some pretty severe pancreatitis, and left with some very large medical bills.  So my brother sold his 95 740iL in order to pay may dad back some $2000 he owed him.  He then had a limited budget of only $2000 to find himself some reliable transportation.  

After looking at junker after junker after junker, I finally decided to sell him my 318is.  I knew that whatever car he got I'd end up having to fix, and I'd much rather keep my 318is running than some pile he would have found.  He got it for the steal of a price of $2000.  I paid $2200 for it when I bought it, and adding it up, I've probably put another $2000 in parts / repairs into it.  Taking a huge loss, but sometimes that's what you do for family.  I used the $2000 I got to "buy back" my old 530i from my folks who have been using it as an extra car the last few years.  There were two provisions on the sale though.... he cannot smoke in the car, and if he ever decides to sell it, I get first option to buy (with a consideration of my sale price to him).

While I'll miss my 318 tremendously, I WILL find another one (preferably without past half-repaired body damage).  I kept my minty M-Tech 2 wheel in anticipation of the next 318is I get.  I don't think I'll even consider a 325 after having the 318 for so long.

If anyone has a NICE original or restored 318is for sale in either Silver/Black or Red/Black that's not to heavily modified, I'll be looking over the next year or so, probably with the budget of 4 to 6,000.  

For now, its the E34 530i.  Nice and comfy, and cold A/C, but its just not an E30!  Did find a complete M60B40 / 6 speed manual swap setup for it, so maybe it wont be so boring in the near future.

But for now, thanks to all who have helped me repair, modify, and enjoy the 318is!  I'll still lurk around here, since I'll still be tinkering with and fixing my old car.

[DesktopDave]

Blood is thicker than water...while I'm sure you don't need me to say you did the right thing...you did the right thing.

And a homemade 540i Sport...those are really sweet cars.  I had thoughts of doing the same thing to my old e34.  Does your E34 have an M52B30 or M60B30?  The M52 is a great candidate for E30 swaps.

Good luck with the search - there are still quite a few M42s out there that people don't know about, you'll get a good one.  If you can't find an e30, the e36 and Ti are both undervalued IMHO.

[Brian318is]

You did what you had to do, and most people would not have done that. Your family should consider themselves lucky you are as selfless as you are.

Keep an eye out on craiglook. I see a bunch of 318is up for sale. Some project, some not.

Good lookin' out.

[BlueBMW]

And a homemade 540i Sport...those are really sweet cars.  I had thoughts of doing the same thing to my old e34.  Does your E34 have an M52B30 or M60B30?  The M52 is a great candidate for E30 swaps.

Mines got the M60B30.  It runs awesome, but is a little less than thrilling to drive.  Its got 273K on it now, body is in excellent shape, and interior is also excellent.  Its been garage kept its whole life.  The block was replaced at 110K due to the nikasil issue, and I had the heads rebuilt at 230K.  The machine shop said they were just fine and so really just the just got a nice clean up.  Only bad thing, ever since they rebuilt the heads I've had a lifter tapping noise.  I can only thing that maybe the reinstalled the lifters in different locations than where they came from.  Kind of drives me crazy since it makes the car sound a bit like a diesel.

My buddy found a complete 95 540i/6 with a bad rear end and some body damage for $1000.  He's going to let me take it for a little more than what he's got in it.  So it should have almost everything I'll need to do the complete swap.  I'll just need a rear end since apparently the 530i rear end is not compatible.  A popular upgrade rear end is the 3.15 LSD from an 88 750iL.  I'll have to confirm this, but we'll see.

In the mean time.. I'm enjoying 16mpg city / 27 hwy and my bro is enjoying the 30s!  His financial situation is a bit worse than my own, so the better fuel economy should help.

Honestly, I'm not that sad since the car went to a good home, and because this gives me an opportunity to search for a really nice 318is.  The little issues mine had drove me nuts, so I'd really like to have one that doesn't have body issues!

On a side note... I could find a beat up eta and drop the 3.0L v8 in there just for fun!   Unfortunately it would have the 5 sp automagic attached to it.  The trans works perfect, but it does have 273K on it.

[DesktopDave]

I have two beat-up etas...diving boards and all.  Sorta went the same way you're planning.  I traded my e34 for a pair of e30 sedans (a 325 with a shot slushbox & a 325i parts car).  Soon the 325 will have the M20B25/Getrag 260 & 3.73LSD.  Then I'm thinking a 328i conversion from the guts of the eta & some M3 parts.  The other eta donated wheels & a sport leather interior to the project.  Due to rust, I can only make one car out of three, so I feel a bit of your pain.

One of these days in the not-too-distant future, e30's will be as rare as '02's are now.  I plan on having my spares parts stock built up well before then.