Uwbuurman: 1978 323i polaris: almost done

[uwbuurman]

Last week, I took a day off to do some things that didn’t need to be done for some time :mrgreen One of that is stripping down my B25 engine, that’s been sitting in the garage for the last year and a half. Objective: finding out what the state of the engine is.
At first I’d put it on the engine stand.



Arnold D., Wondermike and Groentje_me Came around for coffee and pie and some help! It didn’t take long before I had a bare engine!

Underneath the valvecover is a lot of dirt, old oilresidue, but a fairly good inside. Cam doesn’t show signs of wear, but I think I’ll replace it for a Schrick 272˚.





After that, we lifted the head. Again, lots of dirt, carbonresidue, but the valves seem to close good and I don’t see any cracks or what so ever.







Then the block it selve, also lots of carbonresidue.



Cillinders look great, they all look like this, no eedges I can feel at the turningpoint.



So, it seems I bought a good engine! Great news, I was in need of some… I realy would like to start on building my new engine, but I still have to wait for 1.5, 2 years…

[uwbuurman]

Last Friday I flipped the 323i back on the wheels for finishing some welding

Wheelhouse inside grinded down



Gaps in the floor finished



Cleaned the bootfloor, a hell of a job, but it is great working without the rear panel.



After cleaning the floor I tidied up the edges on the sidepanels and coldfitted the rearpanel.





After a big hustle I’ve got the tailgate on the car and the gaps are all even.



Next time I have to do a little more work on the sidepanels and then prepare the rear panel, clamping it down and it’s welding time! Can’t wait!

[LeeLee]

Looking good

[uwbuurman]

March 1st 2013.

Without rearpanel, the bootfloor is better reachable, so I decided to go on with the repairs on the bootfloor, left side. On that side I also replaced the wheelhousing.

At first I’ve cut it to size and then I welded it.

[uwbuurman]

Spotwelded it.





Looks like sloppy drilling of the holes, but thats because I drilled out the old spotwelds, which were placed like this.

[uwbuurman]

Grinded down and nice red.

[uwbuurman]

In the meantime, work on the e21 is progressing rather slow. Reason? I bought an E30 325iA Cabriolet, 1986, original first registration in the Netherlands from new, I'm third owner. Sat in the storage for the last 5 years. Very nice car, but lots of delayed maintanance to be done.

With cloth roof:



topless:



Great combination of Malachitgrün, beige leather and chrome:



On the ramp:





next to his older brother:



the 320D as pullingcar again. Wintertrim, this time.



For remebering: this is the summer trim

[uwbuurman]

After a lot of work on the 325iA cabrio, I’ve managed to get it MOT’d yesterday, so e21 time again! I’ve welded in the rearpanel.
Rearpanel and both sidepanels prepaired for welding:

[uwbuurman]

Dryfitting and clamping down the panel:

[uwbuurman]

And weld awayyyyy!

[uwbuurman]

After that I flipped the car on it’s side again, for some other small tasks. Replaced the ring and some pieces of floor



Seatbeltbracket placed back:

[uwbuurman]

Finished of the rearside. Note that the weld beneath the rear light is made like original. This is not supposed to be grinded down.





And the new floorpiece from underneath.



All weldingjobs on the leftside are done, now. Next thing is to clean the floor as much as possible. Then I have to do some more work at the floorpanels at the front. After that’s done, I can flip it to the other side and get started on the other wheelhouse.

[Jeroen]

Nice updates to the most extensive E21 restore report ever I guess! Catching up rapidly... almost up to date now. Thanks for all the efforts in documenting and sharing sir!

[uwbuurman]

Tnx, Jeroen. No probs, I like posting my work here!

[uwbuurman]

April 24th 2013: I have the car in the uprightposition again! So I can get busy getting all the sealant out. Before sandblasting, all sealant and undercoating has to be gone. It’s a rather unpleasant job to do…

At first the sealant along the left innersill. Rust… weird…



And what’s that, under the seatbracket? So the bracet has to come out aswell…



Right… Just smear the sealant all over the place…



And under there??





Took the bracket out, scratched out and cleaned. I'm a little pissed off about that edge of the florboard next to the inner sill. How to repair this? Just cut out the whole section along the sill?



And the cardantunnel.