My Little Blue Shark

[Marneus]

Hi all,
I bought myself an E21 3 weeks ago & am planning on stancing it good, thought I'd put a build thread up to let you know my plans & get your opinions.

Here she is the day I picked her up







On the way home from collecting it I managed a total of 26 miles before this happened









A sticky valve decided it didn't want to stay part of the head & asked number 4 cylinder to join the party.... 1 totalled M10

I got it towed back to the guy I bought it from's workshop, he stripped the engine out & I sourced a new one. While I was waiting for the engine I decided to tackle the bodywork.









No major rust, just surface rust. The floorpan, arches, boot floor are perect. There's a little bubbling coming through at the side of the windscreen but I'll sort that when I get it ready for paint.

I collected the new motor & dropped it off for installation on Sunday



I hope to have it up & running by the weekend.....

As I was waiting for the car I thought I'd go shopping & managed to win a couple of things on ebay



Recaro seats to replace the crappy E24 leathers that are in there now

And some shiny new rims



15x8 Schmidt Modernlines, they are a +25mm offset but I'll sort some spacers out once I roll the arches & see where they are going to sit. The updates will keep coming as & when I do something.

Cheers

Jamie

[00bmw323]

nice

[mpower5266]

Nice, do more work.

[Matt Jones]

Unlucky about the valve. Are you sticking with the original colour?

[BMWerke]

good start

[Effin' Euro]

Bumper trade?

[Whitbytom]

Did you buy this off Jim in Altrincham? Thought I recognised it.

Sorry to hear about your engine troubles, oddly enough that's exactly what happened to mine:


I think what causes it is the cam chain tensioner loses pressure, it skips a tooth or two and the first valve to get it is number 4 exhaust valve. I've still got the head of my valve in my desk at work, I rescued it out of the sump!

Oh and Modernlines are most definitely for the win. But you need stance!



Mine were 8J x 15 ET25 with 195/45 tyres. In the pics there's an 8mm spacer up front to allow em to clear the track control arm (ideally you'll need 10mm as the wheel weights were rubbing), and you'll need 15 or 20mm out back too.

If you need any help or advice by all means get in touch

Good luck!

[Marneus]

Thanks for the positives guys, I think I'm sticking with the original colour just shaving the side trims & polishing all the other chrome..... Unless I find another colour that grabs my attention..... (Laguna Seca Blue is top of my list but might be too modern for the
E21?)

Yes WhitbyTom, it's Jims old car & he's been a big help letting me use his workshop to sort everything. Wheel spacer wise I'm thinking 20mm at the back & 15mm at the front, I'll just see how much flare there is on the arches once I've rolled them. Might even need 20mm all round to get the poke right.

I'm thinking of stiking some 60mm lowering springs on it, in the pic it's lowered 35mm. Should I give this a try or save the pennies for some coilover??

[e36cruiser]

to stance on 15's your going to need coils i think.

[CSBolger]

to stance on 15's your going to need coils i think.

Probably, older Bimmers have really low rear arches, so the front will be the biggest challenge (I'm tucking tire in the back, but I still have an inch of gap at the front on springs. Neek's E21 is almost riding on its oil pan, and it doesn't look extremely low compared to a newer car. He'll probably have to poke a bit to compensate.

[340i]

to stance on 15's your going to need coils i think.

+1.

unless you buy built coilovers, you'll need to shorten the front struts and run shorter bodied shocks too. in the rear you've got to correct the camber when you dump the arse right in the weeds, cos the wheels will camber so bad they can hit the shocks. looks crazy but tyres wont last long. as a start, flip the rear subframe bushes, then look into some subframe modifications to bring the inner suspension pickup higher (thus reducing camber). are you on the bmwe21.net forum?

[Marneus]

+1.

unless you buy built coilovers, you'll need to shorten the front struts and run shorter bodied shocks too. in the rear you've got to correct the camber when you dump the arse right in the weeds, cos the wheels will camber so bad they can hit the shocks. looks crazy but tyres wont last long. as a start, flip the rear subframe bushes, then look into some subframe modifications to bring the inner suspension pickup higher (thus reducing camber). are you on the bmwe21.net forum?

Yeah mate, I'm on bmwe21.net, same username. The -60mm springs are just a stop gap till I save up & decide which way I'm going with it.
I'm looking into air ride at the mo, waiting for prices to come back to see if it's worth it or not. GAZ Coilovers are £600 but these only lower the car a max of 70mm so I'll have to see what I can do with them... I'll have a look at the subframe bushes when I start stripping it down.

[Marneus]

Hi all,
My spacers arrived last week but I was still waiting for the longer wheel bolts for the front so last week I tried the rears on,













I wasn't totally happy with the fit as they were still a little inside the arches, not quite flush but thought I'd wait till the fronts were on to see how they all looked.

Well, the longer wheel bolts arrived yesterday so today I set about fitting the front wheels. Got them all fitted with 13mm spacers, looked good & clearances seemed ok, set it back on the ground & tried to move her forward..... Little grinding noises ensued so I re checked the front & found that the track rod ends were grinding a little there's now a 1mm deep furrow about 1/3 of the circumference of the inner wheel

They are touching too much to leave so I have removed the front wheels & ordered a set of 30mm spacers, I'll take the 20mm ones off the rear, put them on the front & put the 30mm ones on the rear. This will give me plenty of clearance, a bit of poke & the wheels will sit nice in the arches.

Effectively I'll have 15 x 8 wheels with -5mm offset in the rear & +5mm offset in the front..... Need to save for the coilovers next month but will hopefully have them on by the end of Feb. I'll post some more piccies next weekend when I get all the wheels on & my brackets for the seats should be done by then so I'll fit them too.

Cheers Jamie

[Effin' Euro]

so do you figure 8 width" et -5 will give it a smidge of poke? i'm trying to figure out my offsets for the rs' i'm putting on my e21...

i bought a set of groundcontrol coilovers, and installed the rears today. i have maybe an inch or so of tire tucked in the rear. just for reference in your search for suspension.

[Marneus]

Seeing as it's above freezing today (A whole 2degrees ) I decided to swap the wheels & spacers to finally see what it looks like with the Schmidts on & I must say that I really like the way it looks. I'm happy with how the wheels fit in the arches, it just needs seriously lowering now. Anyway here are the piccies I took









Front fitment







Rear fitment




And how it looks now






Here are some pictures of Harvey, not strictly anything to do with the build but I haven't put any pics of him on here :P













Hopefully I'll have enough cash at the end of the month to buy coilovers & get it sitting right.

Cheers

Jamie