E21 318 from 1982 -- any hints?

[gmo]

Hi all.

I'm about to buy a 1982 E21 318. It's not to expensive (around 700 Euros) and has and runs (solely) on LPG. I'm not very familiar with this car, however, so I was wondering if there are any technicalities that may cause trouble in the future.

Please help.

Greg

[PK]

RUST !

check everything, boot floor, arches, jacking points, floor pans just for starters. check all the underneath you can and pay attemtion to top of the coils.

check the running under load to see if it miss fires or that it has a lumpy idle.

find out who did the conversion and give them a call for a bit of history, also find out how much it cost them to do the conversion and tell me. I'd like to consider LPG at some point

[Reck]

Test drive and listen for clutch and gearbox noises.. Also check for wheel shimmy as bushings do wear and are hard to get hold of.. As above for rust but also check round windscreens (particularly rear passenger), the boot lid seal and round the petrol filler pipe inside the boot. Some things are a relatively easy fix i.e. dodgy hazard switch, duff seats, poor idle/cooling but rust is your main enemy.

[m3gaz]

700 euros?Thats half the price of a reasonable LPG installation.Buy the car and have fun driving it and working on it.If it turns out to be a pup sell the LPG set up to PK!

[Danny043]

...Also check for wheel shimmy as bushings do wear and are hard to get hold of...

The dealer still has them all, so does W&N, and maybe our main sponsor?

Indeed, the LPG installation alone makes the car worth the price. But I'd still bargain