BMW E21 320/6 conversion and restoration

[danielson_dan]

Greetings to all E21 fans from this forum. My name is Dan , I am from Bucharest, Romania and , as expected, I am an huge E21 fan. I bought my first E21 in the year 2000 when I was 19 year old and since them I owned a few BMW E21 cars. In 2008, when I meet my future wife, I thought I was done whit my passion for E21, but in 2010-2011 the E21 virus came back to me. So I began searching for a car . I wanted an 6 cylinder but the offer was not too rich at that time in Romania and the budget was very limited also. I found an 315 in an city 700 KM from Bucharest. So after i saw some pictures I decided to go there and buy it and convert in to an 320/6. I mention that I drove the car back 700 KM till my house.

[Jeroen]

Nice! Welcome here and congratulations on the car! Any photos? We love to see photos!

[daman]

give us some photos because in this case i don't belive a word that you say about this car . this car really exist or it's in your imagination ?

[danielson_dan]

Thanks Jeroen. Whit a little help from Daman I try to put the first pictures of the car in January 2011 when I bought it.

[danielson_dan]

The car was imported in 1992 from Germany and had about 7 owners since then. The mechanical part was very bad, the body had little rust but the car had suffered accidents in the front and back and was bad repaired. The good news was that the sides were straight whit no damage. So over all the car was a good restoration project. In 2011 I did only mechanical repairs on the car to make it pass the ITP test (equivalent of UK's MOT, in Romania) and make it look a little better on the outside.

[danielson_dan]

In March 2012 began the real restoration of the car. The first step was the dismantling









Out whit the M10 engine ant it's 4 speed gear box





We've started the body work from the front were wasn't much rust but the front panel had to be replaced because it was badly repaired after an accident.











I've started the search for a used font panel because because I could not manage to order a new one. Mean while I continued whit other operations.





And , at last, a friend from Timisoara city sends me a front panel in a pretty good condition, needing just a little repair.

[Jeroen]

Nice work!

[davidvincent]

Looking forward to following your project - looks great so far!

[danielson_dan]

It's September 2012 and the front of the body is almost ready. I've painted the inner front and engine compartment so I could mount back the font axle and sit the car back on it's wheels.



























And the shark is back on it's wheels.

[danielson_dan]

Thanks a lot Davidvincent and Jeroen for the kind words.
I managed to find am M20B20 engine whit the original 5 speeds gearbox in very good working condition, about 130000KM the mileage.







A little cleaning , oil service and timing belt kit change.

[Jeroen]

Thorough job and nice engine upgrade, more compliments!

[danielson_dan]

Thanks Jeroen .
After I had fun whit the engine and front mechanics its time to get back to the body work. I have decided to replace the rear panel to, because had been repaired in the past and had a lot of filler on it.









Till I waited for the rear panel, I started to clean the under body whit the rotary wire brush (job for a convict ) to look for rust. Luckily I found very little rust.






























The parts for the rear body , finally , arrive .

[uwbuurman]

Nice! The're almost all rotten in the rear section. This is the only way to do it, just replace it!

[Jeroen]

Agree, and good to see there were no bad surprises inside the real wheel arches! Hope it's the same from the side of the interior, behind the rear seat.

[danielson_dan]

Most of the rust in the rear section was due to bad repairs after an accident that the car suffered in the past. I was lucky that the rear floor was in good condition and the wheel arches too. The interior side behind the rear seat was also in good condition whit no rust. Small rust holes were in front of the rear wheels where the mud is thrown by the rear wheel.





Treatment whit Fertan solution.













































Its November 2012 and the shark is back on its wheels again