1983 BMW E21 - France

[ollycarbs]

I guess it is time to begin a thread about my E21, i think there are some fans out there.
So i bought it on January 2008 to a friend who grab it from ebay one week earlier.
At the moment, my 96 Passat TDI had a blown engine (i had it for 2 months and timing belt said byebye), my buddy comes back this 2nd e21 and i fell in love, i told him "if you want to sell it, i buy it" i sold me one week later for 600euros (he won it 594euros on the bay)

the day he came back with it:






for the specs:

M10B18 1,8L engine injection 105hp.
5speed manual transmision
electric mirrors
5 white BBS 5,5x13"
pop up rear windows
271 000kms

All the bills from 1989 and she was in the same family until my friend bought it, from the father to the daughter etc...

So she has been my daily until May 2008:












i had to pick up some parts from a donor car for my other project (1981 passat B2 wagon with 1800engine, 5sp tranny, Weber 40mm, slammed etc) so i grab the bimmer and went through this 700kms trip in one day and disasemble the donor car for coming back like that:






Then in November 2008, i had a little accident due to rain and brakes blocked:




after that i use it very less...

last summer i changed the front grille and in September 2009 (285 000kms) i changed the water pump, calorstat, sender...






to:















Then i just ride it sometimes but as i had a DD it was in the garage...
in March 2010 i decided it was terminated i grab her out of the garage and began some serious work to be closer to what i want: a Stanced E21!

Out of the garage:


almost one year earlier i bought some front drivetrain from a 323i but the guy fucked me and send me two left struts and unusable calipers, now he seems to be dead and he is 900kms far from me...

my plan to have ventilated front rotors went away but i had 323i rear half drivetrains so i spent the last april week end to do a serious maintenance, under car inspection and put those rear discs drive trains:











At 288 000kms i replaced engine oil, transmission oil, differential oil, spark plugs, fuel filter, air filter...

some weeks later i had to do a trip in the North of Franc for work i took a look on our craiglist "leboncoin.fr" and found THE motor i want with low mileage and some 4 pot calipers really cheap...

here it is where we are now:


The engine is a 1976 M10B20 injection so a 2,0L 4cylinders with 168 000kms..
i am currently replacing some bits here and there and i plan to throw it in the car in August.

I hope anyone is too boring with so much non fun stuff but i almost forgot to speak about suspension and wheels so here are the funniest part of the story:

-front suspension is a shortened 4cyl strut to fit Bilstein B6 from a E30, a threaded sleeve from rallydesign.co.uk is welded on and i use some 8" 300lbs springs, i need to redo some weldings and send the parts to be treated then after i will put all of that on the car (Coilovers, ventilated 323i rotors with 4pot Volvo 240 calipers, Bilstein B6)

-rear suspension is M-tech struts from a E30 with threaded sleeves from rallydesign.co.uk too and 8" 250lbs springs, brakes are on yet and from a 323i.

-wheels are 3 pieces PLS Le Mans, sizes are about 7,5x15" and 9x15", i had to modify the centers of the rear wheels to fit them and now i have to fill the holes and redrill them due to the 2cms i remove from the back of the centers...

I realize just now that i do not have pics of the funniest part of my project... too bad, i will do soon!

I hope nobody dies while i was boring you ladies and gentlemen!
Thanks for your attention!

Nicolas,

[TheNeek]

I always give an E21 my attention. Love them in Alpine Weiss as well. Great ride. Great story.

[schroedin]

I miss mine so bad

[ollycarbs]

Hello,

thanks,
Before i had the bimmer, i never notice how beautiful the early bmw series are in white .
When my buddy came back with this Alpinweiss and 2 headlights E21, i litterally fell in love with it... and it is still the case! I love this car and my girl too, that's a point!

Schroedin, i hope to never sell her, until now, i prefered sell my DDs to keep it but sometimes life does not let us do what we want to... I hope you will have another one day!

I will take some pics of the suspension and wheels this evening for you to have an idea of what it should look in a while...

Nicolas,

[Jason]

Nice one man LOve E21

[Turbo 3.8L e21]

Nice, looks very tidy

[ollycarbs]

thank you guys!

i had to find what means "tidy" how bad my english is!
A friend of mine said me the exact thing (in french) last week at the VWdays (vw french meet soon on AWOL) And thanks, i think so too!

I went to the garage this evening to takes some shots of the cool stuff, i found too some random pics of the work...

Let me begin with the random stuff:
the day i came back to home with engine, thank you mum for the rosebush, thank you the school i work for, for the car!


Some craftmanship on january while i was chopping the struts, too bad it is not my tools but those of my buddies (they are crasy, search "ameise killer" here there is a photoshoot), too bad it was two left struts... i realised that some weeks after!





now, the parts:

all the suspension waiting for THE moment,


a little mockup,


The wheels, PLS LeMans (the city of the 24hrs, the race, where i come from by the way)


Of course, the centers will be repainted.

the front center with the huge back hub(really not sure of the terms)




the rear centers, need some work with the holes,


but the lip was worthy,


What it looked to before i machined the rear centers, a bit too much of poke to my eyes(225/50 tires won't be my choice, i planed some 205/40 or 195/45) :


and the last for this evening, the engine as it sits right now:


Thanks for looking!

Nicolas,

[schroedin]

Those wheels are awesome!

[dav3design]

This is going from strength to strength!

[TheNeek]

sooo excited.

P.S. It's called a "back pad"

[ollycarbs]

thank you guys!

i swapped the wheels with some other in 13" i almost done for nothing so i am close to do a bargain.
the ex wheels was:

Too bad i do not have them anymore but 13" was very too short for any of my car projects...

Neek, thanks for the vocabulary! Glad you like the project, your E21 is a reference!!!

It is a lot of stuff i show you but it took me about one year to grab that and i really hope it won't take me so much time to assemble that on the car!
The updates could be not so often but i will let you know!

Nicolas,

[Dubmd]

i ffrekkin love both those wheels!! omg omg

[TheNeek]

I too appreciate your taste in vintage modular wheels.

[ollycarbs]

i ffrekkin love both those wheels!! omg omg

Thanks,

if one day you want a set, i can try to grab one and ship it to you, it will perfectly suit your mk1 cabby! it should be exclusive to own those old french wheels in USA i guess!

A set was on our "craiglist look a like" last week for 150$, 4x100pcd, i guess it is now sold or the guy did not know what he was selling!

Neek, thanks,
i really hope to grab another set of those PLS Type 413 (the 13") again just to own them because it is one of the most beautiful wheels to my eyes... but only available in 13".
I would have to buy another car to put them on...

Nicolas,

[TheNeek]

I would have to buy another car to put them on...

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