Dismantling 3 series BMW

Should be worth it for the effort it would take, and would save having to pay someone to remove the shell if you have time and inclination. I've done this with a couple of cars, a 2CV and a Citroen GSA (it was rusted way beyond repair). Made loads selling the bits on ebay, over £900 actually. Not bad as I got the 2CV for free and the GS was £125..

I say go for it. We hired the biggest grinder we could get our hands on, it took an hour to chop the GSA up. Then, 2 trips to the tip in the Saab full of GSA in the back, job done.

mike

Scrap prices here are good at the moment. I'm reckoning on 60 pounds or so if I weigh it in as it is and can tow it there for free relatively legally as it is still MOT'd. Until I remove anything else, that is.

900 quid is pretty staggering! I got the BMW for nothing and reckon the alloy wheels to be worth 120 or so. Hopefully the electric mirrors, window and sunroof motors, etc will fetch a bit, but I'm less sure about the heavier or bulkier components on Ebay where postage costs mount up. The 4 doors for instance are all rust free, but would cost a bomb to send anywhere. I'm not convinced that BMW owners like getting their hands dirty so won't be surprised if I get more for the boot spoiler than the gearbox! I'm rather hoping someone will come along and say 3 Series transmission and suspension parts are extremely sought after by kit-car builders...

Oh, the other problem is that it has half a fuel tank full of either petrol of water. I'm not looking forward to sorting out which.

Well, removing the gearbox won't stop it rolling. And I'd have thought a good power steering rack and pump etc worth a few quid.

Is there a demand for them though, or do all 3 Series cars already have power steering fitted as standard? This is the only BMW I've had any experience with.

I was thinking of it more as a spare. All power steering racks and pumps leak eventually - and are expensive to replace.

I'm pretty certain it was an option. But could be most already have it.

What I did, when breaking my Merc, was to put half-a-dozen bits on Ebay, but on each ad I clearly stated "Breaking whole car" in the title and put a link to a webpage in the ad. Not that I was trying to avoid Ebay charges, but because people asked me for bits I would never have thought of listing, like plastic interior trim sections. Another half a dozen bits a week later, and the whole exercise has brought in around 400 notes, which I thought was not bad.

People will collect if there is the demand. Sadly Merc doors don't seem to rust at all, so my four pristine examples were crushed today. But you may be surprised about the hands-dirty aspect - you might think the same of Merc oweners? But no. I delivered the gearbox to Ipswich (300-mile round trip) to a guy who was more than happy to pay £100 plus my fuel costs. I had another guy travel the 130 miles from London to collect a £70 box of bits and another the 70 miles down from Manchester for another £70 box. Postage on stuff like alternators and starters is around £8 and people will pay that on Ebay.

Thanks for the tips Chris and everyone. Looks as though I may as well give my destructive side a free reign then!

...but be aware that ebay are pretty uptight about what kind of sites can be linked to from an auction:

Bill.

Yes, I did this too. I delivered all the bits as they were pretty heavy. Do you know you can get all of a 2CV, minus the chassis bodyshell and rear seat in the back of a Saab 900 :-) 2CV I had was mint, but had suffered a bump which had destroyed the chassis and damaged the bodyshell. All 4 doors, the interior, engine and box, exhaust, roof, tyres and wheels. It's worth a go anyway if you've got the time to spare, nothing else to lose.

MIke

In this instance, it looks easy to do without falling foul of their policy. As you're allowed to link to a page that further describes the item you're selling, a page giving general info about the specific car the item came off could arguably be there purely to clear up any questions potential buyers have about compatibility. Ebay then says " that page may contain links to other pages that offer items for sale outside of eBay".

BTW Bill, shame you didn't win that Bond Equipe you outbid me for! I deliberated long and hard whether I could justify going higher without knowing if the rear suspension was rusted solid - that and the diff being the main parts I was after.

I think it went overseas - the buyer has been picking up lots of overdrive bits on ebay.

I wanted to get my hands on a cheap Bond as a pattern for some new parts I've got in the pipeline. I decided early on what it was worth to me (once the cost of bringing it home was factored in) and stuck to my limit. The dilemma would have been what to do with it once I'd finished with the car - I hate killing cars! Cheers, Bill.

I hadn't noticed that. 87 quid for an untested J-type - I've got one he could have for that sort of money.

I'd noticed that! Mind you, that one looked pretty dead already to me.