A visit to the Garage

A roadtrip with my oldest son was in order today. We went to visit Tom's 323i and see for ourselves. We'll the rust scares me a bit, I'll tell you that. My son went haywire over the Ford Fairlane parked next to it and I had to curb his comments more than once. After an initial hesitation on the car, I've contacted Tom again to see if I can buy it. I HATE to see this car go to someone who's going to strip it or gut it out. I hope it works out.

Heaven help my wife....

A Buddy for Company? Or, Why have one when you could have 2?

I was browsing Craigslist (as was about a half-dozen other Bimmerforum members) and found another 323i. I've contacted the owner and after he gets unburied from his emails, I hope we can work something out. The thought of this car being stripped to be an autocross car just makes me ill. It's just not my idea of driving the car I guess -- everyone's taste is different.

I already told my wife. You can be sure of that one!!! After this past "incident" of getting the other 323i I don't need to send her over the edge.

This one is only about 40 mins from me! If I lose out, I hope it goes to someone who appreciates it. Updates on this post as soon as I am able.

Road test for the 4.10 LSD

The 323i went out to a job site yesterday and I had the chance to try it out. The only concern I now have is that the rear diff "sings" a bit on the road. I may need to up the weight of the oil to compensate and I really hope it's not a sign that it's going to fail on me.

The LSD is certainly real. I parked on the grass and punched the accelerator to leave 2 tracks in the grass. The old one just left one track.

The speedo is within 3 mph of the real speed as tested by a conveniently-placed radar cart on Route 14! The sheriff that was parked nearby probably thought I was nuts doing a U-turn and coming back around to check the speed. I'm running 14" rims, so the speed could have been off because of that issue. The 320is had 13" rims on it.

One thing that I didn't mention was the importance of following the recommendation of DISSCONECTING THE NEGATIVE TERMINAL OF THE BATTERY before doing any instrument panel work. I did not do this and had to reinstall everything again with the reset of the disconnected battery. Otherwise the clock and other instruments just didn't work as they should. All is back to normal now.

Back to the future....

The CD player installed in this car has a few idiocynchrosies to it. One is the total lack of reception of any radio stations and the occasional lack of control. So be it, I have an original BMW radio/ tape player that's been restored. It's the standard issue for the E21 series and I am torn between being able to use the CD's or having an original radio for the car. The real problem I have is really knowing what the dashboard looked like for an 80's E21 Euro car.

In goes the diff and more....

After a few weeks of waiting, the shop I use for all our cars helped install the 320is's rear diff and speedometer. The owner of the 320is contacted me and I had to tell him the news that the car fell victim to the "tinworm". I managed to salvage the rear diff and speedo as a last effort to save what I could. Now the 3.91 LSD and the speedo are in the 323i.

The photo shows the old rear differential that is now in the trunk of my toyota. The shot shows the rusty rear diff with a liberal amount of PB Blaster on it! I also got a good luck at the other project that I will eventually tackle : the exhaust system. The 323i has the stock exhaust headers (cast iron), a BOSAL resonator and some very small "who know's what" right behind the tailpipes. The lift helped show any rust and it's good to know very little is showing. I did see that someone did "ride the rails" on the frame at some time.

It's great to see the nearly-complete lack of rust on the frame and floor pans. The shop I use has a mechanic that's developed a great rust treatment that he sprays on and it seals the spot so well against oxygen that it basically stops the rust and you can scrub off the remaining rust in a few months and re-apply the treatment to prevent any further rust.

Readers will receive an update once I've managed to run the 323i on the highway to see how the new rear end and speedo behaves. I have to visit a job site on Keuka Lake tomorrow morning. Let you know what happens....

The First Frost

Well the weather is definitely getting colder and the time is near for the 323i to get under cover and parked away for the winter. The challenge will be to clear out the garage to make way for all the cars.

The slippery limited slip returns

I retrieved the LSD from the junkers today and cleaned it up to find that there are NO markings on this differential. No "S" stamped anywhere to show that it is indeed a limited slip differential. Great.
So, how does one confirm that this is really an LSD? Well YouTube is okay, but I found conficting information on the site. This may have been a conversion, so the task before me is to confirm 2 things: what's the ratio of this thing and is it or is it not an LSD?

1) ratio? YouTube did have an excellent solution for this one showing a car on a lift and the tire taped and the input flange taped to show the rotation. Turn the tire 10 times and count the number of times the input shaft turns. Move the decimal point over one space and BAM! Mine turned a total of 39+ times (which corresponds to the 3.91 ratio).
2) LSD or NOT? That's a bit harder. I guess I could pop the cover off and see the guts to confirm it, but one way (this I looked up) was to turn the input shaft and see if both hubs turn. That's the first sign, but it's better to simulate what happens when one wheel is stuck in the mud or snow and see if the other hub moves and if you can keep ahold of the one you're trying to keep still (stuck wheel). I tried it and I couldn't hold the hub still. Good sign.

I kept looking back at my driving tests and this one acted like an LSD, so why not any markings to back me up? There are conversion kits available to make your open diff into an LSD. I just don't know, I guess I'll keep cleaning it and messing with it until I'm convinced.

Found an old photo

I managed to dig up one of the few shots of my old 318i (E30) I had back in 1994. Wow! That's 15 years ago! I pulled this baby out of a barn near Ellicot, NY (south of Buffalo, NY) and towed it nearly 80 miles to a shop in Lockport to have the "idle control module" replaced. Anyone who owns the E30 knows about the IDM issues. When I had to replace it again 2-3 years later, I sold it. I figured it was just the restart of everything I replaced on it.

It was lapisblau and I see so many similarities between that E30 and my 323i. I don't miss the diving board bumpers and plastic bumper trim! I also don't miss the 4 cylinder engine, although the 3i8i did provide for some very spirited driving. I especially remember when moving from Lockport, NY to Long Island and having the front right caliper lock up! I stoped on the I-380 in PA with it glowing!!! I banged it free and drove 270 miles not using the break pedal ONCE!!! Just downshifting and the emergency brake (for just the back brakes) to stop the car, even in NYC driving! Try that with another car. Ah, youth and exhuberance... My mother-in-law hated that car and was glad to see it sold. I guess on some level I have the 323i as in-law repellant.

I used to enjoy driving on the north shore of LI back and forth to work in Locust Valley. Taking 25A and the back roads was such fun with all the winding two-lane roads and avoiding the parking lot that is the Long Island Expressway. I used to park right near the Locust Valley train station on a high spot and push start the car in second by just rolling out of the spot in back of the office and down into the train lot. There was a great shop (still there!) called Locust Valley Coach & Motor that did work on my E30.

Well, that was what seems like a lifetime ago. Having the 323i is like reliving a bit of the best parts of owning the 318i.

The Bimmer has left the building....

It's finally happened. One call to the local salvage yard and the two 320i's are gone. I called and in 15 minutes the driver showed up. I tried to finish up the work on pulling the LSD, but the driveshaft bolts wouldn't budge. I let them take it and negotiated that for the price of what they were giving me for salvage that they would safely retrieve the LSD (that's the limited slip differential for any NSA monitors out there!). The driver showed up and cabled the white one right off the blocks and onto the flatbed, the red one rode behind on the dolly. I got the wheels back and I will be returning to get the LSD tomorrow am. It's strange not having all these E21's around, but better for my wife.

I spent today weeding through the remaining parts I have in bins and in the garage attic. It's strange having all this new room.

Out with the old, in with the old

Here's a shot of the 323i at the lake. The last days of summer are finally rewarding us with some good driving weather. I've been selling off the parts from the two 320i 's and am getting down to body parts, engine and transmission. The white 320i is in hillbilly storage in the backyard for now.

The entire underbody "crunched" when I jacked it up. Not a good sign for it's integrity! I'll be stripping off anything that will come off and then it's the cutting tool for the rest of it.

I also contacted BMWCCA and am getting my old member # reinstated, it's not a big deal but it is pretty cool that they offer this up to rejoining members. I had a lapisblau E30 318i back then that I pulled out of a barn and redid completely before selling it at 240K miles. I saw that car 2 years later driving around in Long Island with the same mods I performed on it.

Valve Adjustment Road Trip and the Great White Ghost

On our 14 wedding anniversary I travelled with the family up to Exsten Auto works in Rochester, NY to get some knowledgeable repairwork done on the 323i. They performed a valve adjustment, performed the State inspection (passed! Ha! Ha! Look Ma, no catylictic converter!) and replaced the driver side mirror. THANK YOU! The car sounds much better now.

They don' t have a website but here is their contact info:
Exsten Autoworks
Phone : (585) 621-8200
78 Bennington Drive
Rochester, NY 14616

They are the best in the area for classic BMW work. The Genesee Valley BMWCCA members rave about them. I was very happy with thier service and would drive the 40 minutes out of the way to deal with them. They also have a measley 750 HP Chassis Dynomometer to test your mods. Now that's a serious shop.

The 323i behaved quite well on the highway and it is always a pleasure driving a car that can actually accelerate in 5th gear. That custom exhaust has to go. It's all you can hear at speed and I'm a "sleeper" fan, so the loud exhaust goes against my values in working on a car.

My two oldest travelled with me and the younger two went with Mommy. All were sick and the trip for Mommy was not so nice with crying baby and the tobbler (yes, that's an older toddler who doesn't toddle anymore...). We tried to spend time at the Science Museum, but had to skip out once #3 melted down.

This past weekend had me Ebaying the white E21's cross spoke wheel set for $40.00 plus shipping! Man, did that guy get the deal! I also started striping the car down and put the entire thing up on blocks. The whole underbody just crunched when I jacked it up. That's proof that the car was not worth working on: the entire unibody was shot. I'll be stripping out all the mechanicals from the car and that will be good practice for me when I retrieve the LSD from the red 320is. I'll post pics of the hillbilly'd 320i.

Winning over the next generation

My kids have certainly gotten a kick out of riding in the 323. On the weekends, I've been taking my 3 boys on rides to special lunches and to the pool. These trips also involve getting on some winding back roads to open up the throttle and let them feel what it's like to be in a car that you can enjoy driving. If this were a BEHR, we'd not be able to get them out of it!!

For a 27 year-old car, the 323 really is a hit with them. The "tuned" exhaust gets them all excited and it didn't hurt when we went for a ride one evening to the local ice cream stand that we met up with an Austin Healy owner (1958?) that noticed the rarity of the ride we arrived in. My oldest was happy to describe all of the details of the car to him. Now my oldest wants to go to the car shows and he's spotting all the classic cars around the area.

The irony is that the 323 styling is not so outdated. Most people see it and don't realize that they are looking at a car that's almost 30 years old!

Holy Hella, Batman!

I just spent an hour in the mosquito-infested outdoors swapping some of the 320 parts to the 323. The list is : the H4 and E1 Hella euro headlights, Ubercable and RedTop Optima battery. No time to do the euro signal swap tonight. The flat faces of the Hellas look much better than the round faced "halogen" ones. Those just say "halogen" on them, nothing else. No brand or anything.

The one issue was over the relay. I had one and a spare along with the replacement for what should have been an easy fix. As you may recall, the high beams did NOT work on the trip back. Well, for some reason that I can't figure, the 323's relay socket has the center pin missing/blocked out. You can't use the US relay in the euro fuse bus. I had a spare one and swapped it in, but it didn't seem to do the trick. Puzzled, I left it alone and put everything else back together. I hopped back in the car and started it up (definite difference with the new Optima and Ubercable assist) and low and behold I see a blinding light! All I could think was that the H4's were REALLY bright (dumb***). Turns out that with the engine running the high beams worked. It may be a wiring difference with euro versions, but it works fine now. Now I can't remember if I left the relay in.... I'll look tomorrow.

With the new headlights I'll have to check the alignment to ensure I won't blind anyone. The outer lights have the older bulbs and the highs have new Sylvania bulbs in them and they are definitely whiter.

Road Trip Accomplished

Late last week we made the road trip to get the 323. I tacked it onto a business meeting and that extended the time out by about 3 hours, but the car is home. I arrived at the dealership, spent about 10 minutes and hopped in and drove off in a car I have only seen on the internets... Jason was nice and took care of me.

Of course in true E21 style, the cursed 4-way switch broke just 2 miles from the pick up!!! I managed to wedge a piece of paper into the switch to get it to shut off and still let me use the signal lights and that's the way it went on the drive home. I have to say that for a 27 year old car it drove great! For a new car it drove great!

The exhaust system has been replaced with a "custom" one that's just too loud for me. I like high-flow, but this is just short of having nothing on the car. Every time I get in this car I'm upshifting to just keep it quiet. My wife is convinced the exhaust is broken. I can't blame her.

I think that the 320's days are numbered. This 323i has just about everything except the LSD, the higher limit speedo, the original center console, euro headlights (Hella H4/H1), and a few other minor items. The 320 has them. The 320 has a lot more rust under her. The entire back panel is rotted out. Yep, this may be the end of the 320 I fear. It's been a good car, but between the spousal pressure and no time to work on it, that may just spell the end for it.

It's hard to argue when you have a euro M20 under the hood the turns right over and has no big issues. This car would be a daily driver without much work.

The trip back certainly provided a good shakedown for evaluating the car. The blower is non-working (fan), there's no A/C (euro car), the engine needs a good valve adjustment, the trunk gasket is shot (moisture in the trunk!), no spare, driver side mirror is cracked, high beams don't work and the rear defogger doesn't work. That's about it.



The car drove just fine at highway speed. I can say that while passing someone it is annoying to not be able to know how fast you're going.
Yeah, that's it. Nothing like those mid 80's speedos that only go up to 85 mph. Hey! I'm still in the green zone! The 14" Toyos on BBS rims made the speed off by about 3-4 mph.

I could so just swap the LSD and calibrated speedo out of the 320i and fix that issue.

As always, more later!

Getting outside

The weather cooperated for a short trip out of the garage for the 320is. It's nice to be able to drive it a bit, even if it's just down the driveway. Here are some shots of the car with the basecoat on it. Still no glass back in, but soon....

Still no bonnet, but the majority of bodywork is done. I just have to tackle the rear end and I'm through with the big items.

Hey, Isn't that my car?????

The previous owner was nice enough to send me a link to the YouTube video of D-Fest 2009, a meet for BMW owners. About 17 seconds into the video, you get a short shot of the 320is on a back road (sans rear bumper!) doing some tail wagging.

HA! Nice to see her in amongst those newer bimmers! Thanks S.D.!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3kis54wYQs

;-)

Vin points to past body repairs

As I was doing further body work on the 320i this evening I decided to run the VIN # on the left front strut panel (driver side). The VIN there was "07970597" and on either end was a stamp version of the BMW logo. This is a mark for a euro car. Turns out that this part of the car came from a 316 dated 9/82 also noted to have right hand drive.

Use this link to decode your BMW. It works great for older Bimmers. It asks you to input the last eight digits of your vin. US and Euro models work on it.

www.bmw-z1.com/VIN/VINdecode-e.cg

This car must have had some rebuilding after an accident sometime after 9/82 and acquired a panel from the 316 donor car. That would explain the minor misfitment of my two new wing panels. The driver side panel has too much gap between the door and the wing. The other side fits just fine, except that the grille doesn't fit as tight as it should. This spells out a slight misalignment of the two front strut panels. Not much I can do except adjust the wing panels to fit or get the frame straightened. I never noticed a driving issue with the car so I may just need to make the 3-5mm adjustment to make it work.

If it weren't for the euro VIN, you couldn't tell the car had work done on it.

I test clear-coated the front valance and wing panels. They look great! The mettalic paint definitely deepens with the coating and brings out a wonderful luster. The panels look like a shop did them. I can't wait to buff them out.

If this is the way the Toredor Red looks, I'm keeping it instead of going back to the Chestnut Red. Ford paint or not, the color looks hot on the E21.

Going back to Chestnut

Well, after struggling with the Toreador Red Mettalic on this car and also finding out it's a FORD color (oh no!) I've located a site that will provide aerosol cans of the matching color so it's back to the Chestnut red for me.

I also managed to remove the rear bumper and I am not looking forward (or rearward!) to rebuilding that rear panel. The donor car appears to have a better panel. Time to break out the sawsall, too bad mine broke. In the next two weeks I'll post pics of the donor being cut up. I figure that's the best way to get at that M10 engine and transmission...

The New Addition....

80 MPH?? WHAT?
Oh, that's gotta go!

Here are some pics of the 323i I picked up this week. The car is the type that I am working towards with the 320i (euro mods). It has the euro bumpers, that damn rear license plate mount (!@*#&), and euro gauges (except the 80mph speedo). I'll likely swap out the speedo for a original one, so begins the search....

For the road trip, I'm debating taking one of my sons along and spending the day with him and making it into a good bonding event. I know some places along the way we could visit.

EBay is the Devil: Part II

The restoration of the 320i is going slower and deeper than I wanted to, but I'm willing to stick it out to get a nice result. One evening while browsing the EBay site back in May, I spotted a 1982 323i (yes, the imported type) for sale. I thought: "wow, would I like to have that one." saw the price and moved on. Turns out the buyer of the car bailed on the seller and a couple of months later the car was returned for sale with a lowered reserve.

Well, now I've done it. I saw it back on the listing and followed it right up to about the end of the auction. Now, please understand the circumstances: 1) I was sleep deprived from awaiting the delivery of our #4 child, 2) the 320i restoration was taking much longer, 3) this was a car that I first saw and wrote off as unattainable.

I watched the auction and even started bidding in an attempt to find the reserve price. On the last day, I wound up accompaning my 3 year old to the doctor to check on a swing set injury he developed from the day before. The appointment was right when the auction ended and I missed the close. I figured that if it was meant to be, I would have won it. Sai la vie (sp??). It turned out that on my EBay message board was a second chance offer. DAMN IT!

So here's the latest addition to the garage. G-d help my wife! ;-)

A 1982 323i imported in 1983 with all the euro options. Jason at G. Stone Motors in VT has been most gratious in entertaining my questions and I will let everyone know the road trip details once we get there.

Stay tuned!

Ghost in the Machine....

I managed to reinstall some of the front end and found some annoying electrical issues. To start, the car had a bad battery as a result of freezing over the winter. The battery would not hold a charge and I changed 2 not just 1 battery to find this out. When reinstalling the headlights (the euro conversion Hella ones) I must be plugging in the leads wrong on the low beams because I get all sorts of relays clicking when I start the car and turn on the lights. It's bad enough that the engine actually died when I clicked on the headlights, WTF! I don't want to fry the electronics, so I have to be VERY careful on how I fix it.

Thank goodness I have a multimeter to test all of the circuits. I tried to see if there was a grounded circuit that was draining the battery (no luck) and then the headlight thing reared it's ugly head. I haven't even tackled the euro signal lights! I hate electrical issues, but this is just forcing me to read diagrams and figure out what's going on.

Upgrades: Part One

I made a visit to the local welding supply company to upgrade the TopEnd battery cable. The one they provided (a 4 gauge cable by the same company) was big enough, but after purchasing an "Ubercable" ground, I felt it necessary to upgrade to a 1/0 cable (the next size smaller than the ground at 2/0).

You can certainly see the difference in cable size and understand that the better the cable, the better to conduction of electrical energy (lower resistance). This helps your alternator work a bit better and the claim by Ubercable is that is results in a reduction in loading (more HP back to the engine). The first photo shows the #4 against the 1/0 cable (4 times the size!).

The second photo shows (from left to right) the original BMW ground cable, the Ubercable, the #4 Topend cable and my 1/0 cable upgrade. That OEM cable looks postively sickly compared to the others!

Stripping the Donor Car

My two oldest sons and I started to really take the donor car apart today. What I found was a bunch of rigged electrical and mechanical parts on this poor E21. First off, the stripping of the engine bay resulted in a fuse block that has about 5 jumpers on it. The first runs the auxiliary fan. This is because they removed the belt driven one. There is also a GM!!! radiator in this car, but that's not all! The hood was dented from the INSIDE. Why? Because the filler cap off this GM radiator was too high. They fixed that by literally warping the radiator (making it into a parallelogram to fit). No wonder this car was always overheating.

The coil was also rigged and who knows what else. This car was an electrical time-bomb just waiting to go off.

In the next couple of weeks I'm going to be listing this stuff on EBay for cheap, just to get rid of it and remove this car, piece by piece, from my backyard. Mechanical parts, body parts, anything that can be removed.

I bet I can salvage the rack-and-pinion unit from this car, but is it worth it? I also noticed after stripping some parts that the clutch pedal is now WAY up. Wonder what did that...

Putting parts back on

The next couple of pics show the new W&N wing panels on the E21. I will need to tweak the right panel to fit for the gap is a bit too wide. It looks as if the car may have taken a hit early in it's life, but I can't see any seam work. The left panel fits PERFECTLY.

The next part I am attempting to aquire is a 1977 front valance to replace the existing one. I hope I can install fog lights behind the grilles in the '77 valence and avoid installing them on the new euro bumpers. With the current valence (air dam) you have to bolt the fog lights onto the underside of the US bumper.

Once the front end is complete, the results should be a combination of the euro signals, bumper and '77 valance with fog lights hidden behind the two lower grilles.

Some new parts (in more ways than one...)

Our first daughter showed up on the scene on Tuesday, 9 pounds 5 ounces. Hailey is back home with us and everyone's adjusting. No posting of baby pics, I have to draw the line somewhere.....

Back on the E21 subject, I received my Topend kit for the battery and air intake a day early (go UPS!) and have started removing the portions of the battery tray to find a complete tear in the steering rack boot. Hopefully that's just a new boot kit to fix. Good thing I'm not driving this car all over the place. The tray is all rusted and I see where I need to do some further grinding to remove all those little rust spots.

The Topend air kit is very simple and well built. It consists of a K&N filter and a welded 3" diameter steel tube that provides for a nearly direct path for air. No up, over, through, down and over as with the old airbox. The side benefit is that you can easily get to the oil filter (as mentioned in their site).

It's Summer and it's time to clean the shop...

I've gotten to the point where the garage/shop is such a mess that I HAVE to clean it out. I can't find tools. Parts are missing (when things like door panels go missing, you know you have a problem.... just kidding.). The entire place looks like a tornado hit it. It's time to organize and clean up for a better restoration effort!

On this blog you will find a contest. How many rust marks did I grind out on the driver's side door??? Now, you will note the word "find" because there are possibly more lurking under the paint. I do have a great way to detect even the most minor rust pin points on a car: 1) sand the panel with a flat hand sander (110 grit) to raise up the clearcoat. This will highlight any imperfections on the surface, which is usually the first symptom of rust. 2) take a grinder or better yet, a cutting wheel air tool to grind right down to the steel in each spot. 3) rust treat the entire panel. 4) sand again with the hand flat sander right down to bright steel. 5) treat with "Zinc It" or other zinc primer to galvanize the areas stripped down. 6) resand and glaze as needed to match the finish surface prior to finish prime and paint.


The door photo is shown below:














Okay, there are 163!!!! pit marks on the door! YIKES! Each one was a potential rust hole in this door. All were treated with rust converter and then reground and galvanized with "Zinc It" primer (which is AWESOME! when you sand this stuff, it's like sanding a big zing block.) Can you imagine just leaving this door alone? The resulotion on the pics here is dismal, but let me tell you that each spot was at least 20 mm across by the time I grinded down past the paint and got right to the metal. Rust blossoms and spreads a lot farther than what you can see.

(Update: I've managed to get at least half the shop cleaned up! Wow! I have parts I didn't even know I had!)

Almost done with the Front....

It's been a particulary interesting effort to strip and find as much of that rust as possible. I decided to remove the remaining a/c parts as the compressor was not there. The condensor was easy enough to remove, but all the piping was seized up and I had to resort to breaking it. Now I have room to install the turbo... The rust treatment on the wing panel areas is done and the areas are now primed (zinc) coated with paint and then coated with rubberized undercoating. That should help for next few years.

I have managed to locate a battery relocation kit and K&N air filter retrofit kit, so that will go in once the rebuilding starts. Right now, I have the parts to cut out and install the new sills and front wing panels. I am debating about getting a new air dam (the "while I'm here" syndrome) and trashing the bent existing one. The company that supplies this package is located at: http://www.racetep.com/e21.html

This is for the E21 fans. They also do engine rebuilds/ modifications. Temping, very temping. Okay, back to the rust I mean bodywork...


The car looks like a complete horror with the bonnet removed, side wing panels stripped off and the entire headlight, air dam and other parts removed. I also purchased a new compressor to run the air tools which are so vital to working on the car. Forget drills with stripping wheels! A good air grinder makes fast work on any rust. I was going deaf with the small compressor and I searched high and low on Craigslist (TM) to find a used one. The prices drove me to just buy new and have the warranty in case.

I also ordered a new power antenna for the refurbished radio. I'll let you know how that works out when it comes in. I have to have all these items in and correctly installed prior to close up of the front end.

The battery relocation and new air intake should really help things up front. Then it's tackling the rust UNDER the car.... not looking forward to that, but it has to be done.

That's in Euros, if you please....

My bank managed to help me out with my purchase of parts. It turns out you can't use a debit card to buy things in Germany from the US.... In any case, the problem is solved and the funds are heading to Walloth and Nesch for my parts!! Good thing, I managed to get all those parts off the car on the weekend.

Now back to finding and grinding all that rust off!

Thanks Evelyn and Katie at LNB for helping out!
Maybe I'll make it for crusing nite!

Oh, that's how it comes off!

There's nothing like taking apart a car to find out just how much thought was put into the design and construction of a car. I have always been of the opinion that BMW's of the 70's-early 80's were assembled with at least some logical process.

It's great when you can use a simple socket wrench to take a car apart. I managed to dissasemble the front end and side wing panels along with most other parts with either that wrench or a disciplined ability to pull things apart...



The biggest effort is finding the right tools to "do the job". I have grinding tools (air tools are the best), abrasive wheels (mounted to a drill, 3M make the best ones), or you can use that crazy stripper tool that you see on TV that uses a set of rods mounted to a hub to strip paint and rust. It works pretty well, but you have to be very patient and DEFINITELY wear eye protection!! Some of the wires came off during the agressive stripping process and you need to be clear of those!
Here's a shot of that wonderfull side wing area. I managed to strip the entire surface and rust treat the panel. If I knew that the back of the wheel well was plastic and a separate part, I could have unbolted the wing panel entirely and got it off fast. It still managed to be a standard "here's how be build them" situation. If you can bolt it together, you can take it apart.

Anyone attempting to restore a rusty E21 like I have, you need to get a collection of rust removal tools (strippers, grinders, etc.) and also get a supply of rust treatment chemicals (naval jelly, rust stop spray) along with zinc paint. The zinc paint is critical to the long term treatment of the steel on the car. With sprays like "Zinc It" you can treat the raw panels so that they are basically galvanized.

My experience with treating the rust on this car is that there are specific areas where the rust developed. The main areas (obviously) are the ones where constant water/salt spray/ stones have contacted the car. These are the front end, back of the wheel wells and anywhere the moisture has been allowed to accumulate.

I'll be useing the panels I have pulled off the car to make new metal panels to patch the rusty areas.

Digging Deeper

The last couple of days has had me grinding, sanding, rust treating and glazing. Lather, rinse, repeat.... It is truly amazing how many tiny stone nicks kicked up from the front tires have pitted the doors. As my process of stripping this car continues the "bondo" areas are showing up. I've used it before, but it's like a sponge! The stuff just attracts moisture and in a year or so the area around the patch is rusted out. My method is grind and cut then reweld new steel where you can. Otherwise get replacement panels where the damage just isn't worth spending the time.
So, with that being said. The approach to this restoration rust issue is as follows:
1) grind all rust spots and blistered areas down to bare metal using the air grinding tool;
2) clean off the area with a dry rag;
3) treat area with rust converter (which I trust about as far as I can throw the car);
4) restrip the area to remove any trace about of rust possible and retreat;
5) prime with self-etching primer;
6) resand area and reprime with sandable primer coats;
7) resand to bring out any imperfections in the treated area;
8) use a spare amount of glazing putty to build up the spot;
9) resand and reprime;
10) resand and reglaze as needed;
11) prime smooth areas with new sandable primer;
12) wet sand to remove any defects;
13) spray with a base coat of the preferred new color;
14) perform steps 1-13 on ENTIRE car prior to shipping to paint shop for full repainting.

I didn't mention the cutting out of rotted panels/steeel and welding of new metal, or the other non-body related issues. As far as using those "fillers" for fixing holes, I avoid them like the plauge. I'd rather use steel, grind the flanged edges and use just enough filler to blend the seam. The less the better.

You can find panels at Walloth n. Nesch a fantastic supplier in Germany. You pay about 50% of the cost of parts for shipping, but they have complete panels and parts you can not find anywhere else. http://www.wallothnesch.com/

My order consists of front wing panels (bondo victims), rocker panels (salt victims), and parts for my euro bumpers (YES!).

I know some restorers HATE anything to do with rust, but I found that if you have time and are very thorough you can derust a car, or at least go far enough to delay further corrosion until you can replace or trace those hard-to-get spots.

Wow! It's been a while!

I managed to get some time to check on my two patients in the backyard after about 6 weeks of no activity. The 320is started up and drove, but the 320i won't respond (it's the donor anyway, but it would be nice if it started!). I checked out all the body work I did almost two months ago and found only a couple of suspect places where rust has managed to continue. These are where I didn't fully treat and then seal the surfaces, so I can't complain about it too much.

The parts I've gotten a hold of over these past few weeks are: pre 1980 license frame (going to custom mount it for the euro bumpers) under the bumpers instead of on the back panel; two steering wheels (why have just one???) one is a is sport and the other is a momo leather one. I have to decide which one I want.

My goal for now is to work on the body right around where I have to reinstall the glass so that I can make the car at least drivable.

More later!

What? 101 HP isn't good enough for ya??

Oh, now I've gone and done it. I have been in the process of acquiring a turbo for the E21. My goal on this one is to put together a turbo with a moderate range (about 7 inches pressure. How many bar is that???) I don't want to blow the engine and I realize that I will have to rebuild and upgrade the M10 I have to meet the challenge.

I've been in contact with a "provider" of turbo kits that is helping out with my project. Should we really call them "enablers"?? It is an addiction of sorts. The idea that I can boost the HP of this M10 is just fantastic.

If I can get the M10 to about 150-160HP, I'd be happy. No more 0-60? Yes. Now it can have more HP than my Toyota 4 cylinder. Okay, but for now I have to concentrate on the bodywork. By the way, North Hollywood Speedometer called! They are shipping back my 120 MPH speedo all redone. No more gaping hole in my dashboard. With the euro fuel gauge and the fixed speedo, this should be an exciting weekend.

Ubercable, Euro Fuel Gauges and the flying speedo.

Well, I managed to accomplish a few minor things these past few days. One was uninstalling the speedo and shipping it off to North Hollywood Speedometer for a recalibration, the second was installing the new Ubercable 2/0 ground cable to the battery. The old cable was about half the diameter. The biggest challenge was getting the big cable to bend the way I needed it to to bolt it to the body ground and the battery terminal. One comment: they should make these about 2" longer for the E21's. I had to bend the body ground to get the thing to install right and the battery will NEVER move now.

The third item was the swapping of the face on the fuel gauge to show the liters vs. the overly-simple readout US cars have. Granted, the readout is still pretty relative. The needle always went beyond the max and below the "reserve" markings on the gauge, so how accurate is it really. I just like having more than "F" 1/2 and "R" on my gauges. That's just one step above the damn idiot lights! Blink! It's broke! Check Engine! The biggest challenge was practicing taking off the indicator needle so it wasn't broken in the effort. I had the old cluster to work on and good thing --- I managed to snap one needle off the temp gauge and mangled the tach needle as well.

Can't wait to hear back from North Hollywood Speedo on the recalibration work. I don't like staring into a big hole in the dash.

Waiting for the UPS guy.

Oh, I have a few new items to add to the "list" of parts for the 320. Among them are a euro fuel gauge, the replacement Recaro seat straps, an UberCable, and a dash cap. The euro fuel gauge will most likely be a donor of the face to my current gauge as it is for an E30, but the tank sizes are the same. The Recaro seat straps will let me get rid of the rags under my driver seat and an UberCable is a REALLY big copper ground cable that helps reduce operating electrical resistance, and the dash cap will be installed prior to the new windshield to finally cover up all those cracks in the dash!

I feel like Radar O'Reilly, shipping a jeep a part at a time back home....

Where's the glass???

Managed to remove the rear window glass and preserve the BMW of Bulgaria sticker. I had it with trying to get it out with the gasket, so I just took a razor and cut the gasket. Come to think of it, that's a pretty easy way to break into one of these cars! The metal around the gasket has all the regular symptoms of rot. You can really see it at the bottom corners. The garage is filling up with garage sale items. Time is short and I'll need to move this car before it gets covered in sale items.

Catching a few minutes this weekend

Well, I managed to do a few things this weekend. Among them were some bodywork with my two oldest kids, doing the rolling test for the speedo cable, and making some aquisitions on EBay.

First, the rear wing and taillights came off and I've been sanding and grinding the areas around the chronically rusty E21 areas. The cracked windscreen came right out and I went right to it with sanding, grinding, rust treating, etc.

While doing all of this, I came to the decision that this is going to be a modified E21. There are just some things I like better than stock and it will also provide the opportunity to try some customization work. With the euro bumpers, it's already half way there. One thing I'd love to try is to install a custom headliner and get this interior updated. More gauges and a slightly altered paint job. I found a clear coat "toreador red" mettalic that is like a deep mettalic cherry red. BMW just sucked with paint selections in the 80's. Herrarot should be banned, my "chestnut red" isn't much better with age. I've posted some shots on the site.

Speedo Refit: Part 2

As I mentioned before, I installed the new speedo. The suspicion is that the ratio for this unit and the LSD are just not compatible. Going 40mph within 200 feet was a bit much, consider that my Solara only gets up to about 20mph to the same locale. A short trip taken in the Solara that takes 1/10 mile seems to take 2/10's with the 320.... hmmm.....

Diving into the latest copy of Roundel (see http://www.bmwcca.org/ ) I found North Hollywood Speedo (http://www.nhspeedo.com/ ) that can fix the problem. It's either a recalibration of the speedo or a corrective ratio cable box. I'll know by this weekend. I'd rather not rack up double miles. Now I'm thinking that the previous owner had the same issues since swapping the LSD.

http://www.bobmodifiedbmw.com/ has a great pic of the speedo I really wanted....

Commencing with Refit....

I managed to install the new instruments this evening and test them out. I swapped out the speedo with one of similar mileage, but with the 120mph limit on it vs. the 85 mph joke of a speedo.



The steering wheel did not have to come off, as in the directions. You do have to be a bit dexterous to reach under and undo most of the electrical connectors and retaining knobs and be VERY careful lifting and turning the cluster up and sideways (right) past the wheel. Once I had the "original" cluster out, I realized that some patchwork has been done to it. It was missing one of red light windows and the top was all taped up. Instead of switching the entire cluster, I uninstalled my tach and put it into the replacement cluster and installed the new one. The important item is making sure that the speedos are close in mileage and the code on the back matches, so you have one with the same ratio. Uninstall and install happened in about 20 minutes. Now I just have to figure out why the lighting doesn't come on... always something.

I test drove the car up and down our driveway and managed to get it to just under 40mph before hitting the street. Yes, it's a pretty long driveway (220+ feet). Hey, can that be right? Great, now I'll have to test this speedo to make sure the LSD isn't throwing it off. Wait to hear about this one. Get on the highway and put it at 60mph and see if it takes 6 seconds to go 1/10 mile I guess. Or travel on the street at 30mph for 12 seconds and see if that's 528 feet... oh, the possibilities....

Headlights, fuses and oops! That just broke!

Nothing like spending a late night in the garage in 26F degree weather, but it was nice to at least have some time without interruption. I managed to pull the H1 bulb out of the lowbeam, pull and replace all the fuses and also get the cassette CD adapter out of the radio. Score one working radio (antenna needs replacement). I noticed a rubbing sound coming from the blower and it went on me! At least the donor car has a working blower assembly, so I'll yank the one from there.

With the car being started on a regular basis, it's running pretty smooth. I still notice the old M10 valve noise, so I have to see if my local guy will be able to make the adjustments.

The recaros (BMW sport seats??) are nice, but need to get some actual adjusting rails and seatbelts for them. Maybe I'll pop for a 5-point, but I don't think the seats will accept them.

Next stop: Windshield replacement!! I'll try posting some video on some of these things when I can figure that part out.

Ghost in the Machine: electrical issues

Well everyone, I managed to get the 320 home this past Friday. It drove great for a car that's 28 years young. I did notice a few quirks on my way home. The first was seeing the tach and clock both go out at once. One second they're there and the next, nothing. Don't know what that means. The next time a started it, the clock and tach was back on (sending unit???). There is also a little issue with a bulb in the signal light that refuses to go out. That's managing to drain the battery.

I can remember my E30 doing all sorts of strange things with indicators, computer checks, etc. At least this model doesn't have all the additional electronic gizmos my E30 had. I'd like to just have a simple, good performing car.

Here are some things I do miss on this car: fuel flow gauge. That was great entertainment on any drive. Almost better than the radio....

It's been that long, really?

Well, I finally had the car registered. I canned the idea of putting the vintage plates on it for now. I'll revisit that battle when I get the energy to tackle the DMV maze again. New plates for the bimmer....


My visit to the DMV was one of those comedy-of-errors that you just can't make up. The first time I visited, I was told my insurance cards had to have HISTORIC on them. It would have been historic to have gotten the car registered the first time. I was given several forms and told that there was indeed a difference between "historic" and "vintage" registration.... Hey! Just tell me which one lets me use the old license plates!

46 days later, I went back and just got it with new plates, but that's not the whole story. The reason I say 46 days later is that apparently NYS does not let one use their new insurance cards to register their car if the start date is more than 45 days old. I guess it's not good enough to have had to pay the entire year of insurance up front? Had to go back and get new cards sent to me and at that point I was determined to get this car some plates.

Mission Accomplished! Now I have 10 days to get it inspected.... Here we go again!!

Donor Car Must Die....

Ah, I can feel the winter weather beginning to lose it's grip (to match my mental state) and I will begin to dissassemble my white 320i for the greater good of my other car. On the left is Car Henge in Nebraska.

Part of me is just egging to take a car completely apart and chop up what's left for scrap. This will not be a "rolling frame" by any stretch of the imagination by the time I am done with it. I've got to get the other 320i out of the mechanics' yard and into my garage.

More later.....

Ever so slowly in the frozen tundra

Well, the snow just keeps on coming but I manage. My latest aquisition is an original BMW radio that has been reconditioned. Okay, CD players are great but nothing looks stranger than a new sound system in an older car.

Thanks to Jon for selling it to me! Sorry I missed the competition exhaust package! I'll have to break out all my tapes from college. Better yet, it may be safer to just make new tapes off of all the CD's. I'd hate to jamb this beauty up with a 20 year old tape.... do they still make tape recorders?? I have a Sirius setup. Let's see where I can install it and keep it hidden.

I also have to contact my insurance carrier and let them know that I have STILL not managed to register the old plates. DMV informs me that I need to send all the info to Albany (code for black hole of bureacracy) to get approval for the old plates. At this rate maybe I'll just get new plates and not make a spectacle of myself.... nah! Nothing like having police scratch their heads when seeing 30 year-old plates on a car!

EBay is the Devil

I thought that I was above being sucked into the EBay thing, but no.... It's just too simple to type in things like "E21" and get back results you just can't ignore. I managed to acquire an instrument cluster off a 320is that may work for me. It has the 120 mph speedo. I could never understand the idea of a speedo that has not only a red "55" on it, but a limit of 85. My wife goes over that passing people on the thruway. What, I not supposed to know how fast I am going if I'm over the posted speed limit??? "Gee, officer. I really don't know how fast I was going. Look, my speedo only goes up to 85." Will that work in court? Yeah, didn't think so.

Anyways, the testing and install should be interesting to say the least. I've got to find out if the tach and speedo work with my setup. I won't install if it means I have an inaccurate gauge, that will drive me nuts (no pun intended). All the talk about rear end ratios, what year model works for what.... blah, blah, blah. The info is cloudy at best. Just need the time to prove it to myself.

Donor Car or Sell it Whole

I took another look at the E21 resting in my garage and ran down a list of what I'd want to fix on it prior to selling it to anyone. Thermostat (overheats, the previous owner rewired the fan to run constantly) fix fan switch, new battery pan (a bungie cord and cardboard just doesn't seem right to me), accelerator pedal (that was missing???), fixing the "just new" break job, plugging the holes in the exhaust system, and putting back things I took off the beast to start the bodywork in the first place.

Sell or cannibalize? The M10 has got only 136K on it! A new set of gaskets, valve adjustment, and a clean up and it would run even better. At the time I bought it, I knew the a/c was stripped out and other items were changed. Now that I might put it back on the market to sell I can't put my mind around how I would really want to do this. My better half has already made clear that a garage full of E21's will not be acceptable. I can deal with that. I don't want it looking like a salvage yard. It just irks me that the parts I'd want off this first E21 would make selling it just about impossible. I even thought of just stripping it, palletizing the engine/transmission and cutting up the rest for scrap metal.

I figure that if I repair what I feel needs to be done to this one, I'll be into it for over $400.00 in parts. Good luck getting any return on that one and don't even count the labor. Yeah, I'll just sell this to someone for next to nothing and still get a hassle because of all that's not working on it.

Calling anyone who just wants a decent donor car! Considering all offers! You haul it away!