1991 318i Frankensedan
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Hey guys,
I figured I'd start a thread with my new side project. It'll be slow progress initially and won't really get going till the 318is is up and running, but I wanted a place to document/record what I do with it.
A while back I picked up a 1991 318i sedan (yay slicktop for tall people!) from Andyhundly with the intention of using the front end body panels for the repair of my 318is, and then getting rid of/parting out the rest. Well, this shell is actually in pretty good shape so I decided that eventually I would do something with it and tucked it away in a barn.
here it is in the barn (I took the valence/bumper/hood/drivers fender about a year after this picture was taken):
Well, a week or two ago, a coworker of mine stopped by my desk and said he wanted to sell his 1991 318i that he has owned for the past 16 years. It's been his daily/winter car for it's entire life so it has some pretty extensive rust, it also has just over 400k miles on it... and that's not a typo. However, it has been obessively maintained mechanically (he has two binders of maintenance receipts, each is like an inch thick with papers) and it starts right up and drives great. Picked it up yesterday:
Quite a while ago he swapped the interior for a tan sport interior which he kept as part of the sale. Because of that, It has a nearly perfect black comfort interior (carpet is dirty but should clean up well).
Odometer stopped a few years ago, his mileage estimate is just over 400k
So here is my idea: I am going to take the motor/trans/diff and interior of the rusty car (as well as many of the parts that the white car is missing), and transfer them into the clean body of the white car. Between the two cars, and all the parts I have left over from my 318is project, I would end up with a nice car to drive and rack up a ton of miles guilt free. It's a lot of work for a drivetrain with this many miles, but I think it would be a fun challenge to see just how far it will go. I am into both cars and all the spare parts for less than 1k total, which is a great starting point for the project too.
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Excellent, I see no point to stored low mileage cars. It's not the miles that ruin a car, it's time/the elements. I would not be concerned about the miles. I rebuilt an m20 that had a cracked head and it had no measurable wear in the cylinders. It was bought at an auction and the odometer was broken and had stopped at 280k so who knows. The number on the head matched the chassis and nothing looked like it had ever been touched. It got a light honing, new rings, bearings, and seals and it was ready to go.
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goal for 1991 318i x2 = e30 picnic 2018?
You never know! I'm setting no goals on this one as far as completion dates haha. I'd like it to be a stress free thing to work on here and there and not care too much about making it pretty
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Minor update in this and some changes in plans. The motor and trans have been removed from the silver car (Thanks for the help Mike!), and I will have it completely stripped and out of here by the end of September. Because I am swapping my 318is, I will have a much lower mileage m42/g240/driveshaft/etc to swap into the sedan, so I will be putting everything that I can't use with the swap (motor mounts, exhaust, etc) into that car. The interior will still be coming from the silver car, as will a lot of random odds and ends. Hoping to get started on putting this one together maybe next summer.
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One man can never have too many 318's
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Who towed it with no wheels?
Ace auto salvage, I had wheels to roll it onto the truck and then we took them off before he drove away. I had to pay them 50 bucks to take it which sucked, but I kinda screwed myself on the timing.
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If you paid them $50 they could've at least dragged it on the bed for you.
Yeah that's what they did. I used the wheels to get it out of the garage and then we used the truck to lift up each end, took the wheels off, and then dragged it the rest of the way on. All said and done it took less than 20 minutes, and I had about 48 hours to get rid of it while simultaneously moving all my tools and parts 20 minutes away to a new garage (and working full time), so spending $50 to not have a hassle was worth it.
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thanks for the organ donation Frankensedan! RIP (rust in peace)
Dan
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thanks for the organ donation Frankensedan! RIP
RIP... It was a bummer killing an e30, but this one was pretty much already dead. Perfect for rebuilding others!
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