Donor vs Parts? My experience

[The V8 Files]

I've seen lots of people ask whether its better to buy a donor or just the parts.

A the beginning of May I came accross an ad for a BMW 730, the right engine and the right year (I only want the engine) 157k miles, it was 200 miles away and I couldnt really afford it but I was getting frustrated keep looking and planning and not 'touching anything' and I liked this car and I knew the wheels where worth quite a bit so I brashly bought it and hired a trailor to pick it up.

Anyway I had a holiday booked at the beginning of June so didnt really touch it till I came back and then started the big sale, 15 days in and its paid for itself and I've still got so much car to sell, every time I look at it I see something else to list and this is where it stands:

Sold:

Wheels £450
CD Multichanger £40
Bonnet, 2 doors, R Bumper, 1 Fog, Clocks £160 (Provisional but deposit paid)
Brembo 4 pot calipers £120
Boot £75
Plastic Bracket £15
Bonnet Cable £5

Expenses
Car £645
Trailor Hire £50
Diesel £70
Ebay Fees £50

Balance = £50 up

That said, I've not got loads of cash to spare, I need to replace some of what I originally spent and then need to organise gas/regs + proper power supply for the welder, engine crane to take the lump out etc etc.

But I've really enjoyed getting up close and personal with the engine I'm going to use, I've had chance to drive it around a bit, run compression tests, put diagnostics on there to make sure no error codes showing and just play with it while its still running.

My family thought I was nuts buying it but for me its worked out the best way forward, my advice to anyone buying a donor is probably not to just look for the cheapest rust bucket but try and get a good compromise between cost and condition, check out what bits sell on and how much for before buying and deciding on how much to pay for the donor.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, I'm still a bit of a way off from actually building anything but its getting closer all the time and when I do I'l be building it with a free engine

Other benefits are: Lots of cabling, switches, relays and many other small bits that may come in usefull during the build and when I'm done stripping there is so much steel of different shapes and sizes, some could be used for odd bits or just practice material for the welder.

[alga]

Hehe, the odds of selling parts are good if you're breaking an upmarket car that is still in use. Not so with the Sierra. Although I paid £115 for mine (rust bucket with the bumper+rad+headlights already stripped), and was able to recover £80 or so selling the bits I wasn't going to use (Pinto engine, flywheel, rear buffer, ECU, rear lights, ignition coil, exhaust).

[The V8 Files]

Originally Posted by alga

Hehe, the odds of selling parts are good if you're breaking an upmarket car that is still in use. Not so with the Sierra. Although I paid £115 for mine (rust bucket with the bumper+rad+headlights already stripped), and was able to recover £80 or so selling the bits I wasn't going to use (Pinto engine, flywheel, rear buffer, ECU, rear lights, ignition coil, exhaust).

Hi Alga,

What happened to hubs, brakes, diff prop, driveshafts etc?

Dont get me wrong I'm not saying this is the only way, Ive seen the question come up a few times and for once I felt happy to be able to share my experience instead of just reading others, I'm still in the very early stages of my journey, the forum has helped me a lot in the last year while its just been thoughts in my head, different donors will have different markets for sure and each will need research.

One downside I forgot to mention was the amount of time it consumes, creating listings, dealing with the silly requests, people agreeing to buy bits then dissapear etc.

That said I have met 2 or 3 really nice people who have a real interest in their cars. Overall I'm enjoying the experience and its getting me closer to the build

[alga]

Originally Posted by Dad_of_Seven

What happened to hubs, brakes, diff prop, driveshafts etc?

I used them in my build!

Dont get me wrong I'm not saying this is the only way, Ive seen the question come up a few times and for once I felt happy to be able to share my experience instead of just reading others, I'm still in the very early stages of my journey, the forum has helped me a lot in the last year while its just been thoughts in my head, different donors will have different markets for sure and each will need research.

This was my motivation, too. Two data points is better than one!