I bought it about 18 months ago as a reward to myself for getting a new job. I wasn't really looking to buy an E21 at the time, although I've always fancied one. It's always been a classic case of seeing one on my way to school each day but being too young to be able to even drive one. It was owned by a local newsagent and was quite a rare car to own back then, an '81 323i in black it stood out amongst the other BL, Fords, Vauxhalls, etc.
Fast forward about ten years and my boss at the pizza place I worked in as a delivery driver bought a wreck of a 323i as a project, he asked me to give it a clean at the weekend, threw me the keys and left it with me for the day. The car was untaxed, no MOT and I wasn't insured to drive it, never mind, and at 17 it was the first proper car I'd ever driven, blatting it up and down the A roads and lanes for most of the day.
I spotted the car on C&C and it was in my price range, more importantly the bodywork looked very straight. I turned up at the owner Paul's garage, which was a business which looks after classic citroens, the yard was full of DS, GS, CX, etc, a good sign of sympathetic ownership. The previous owner to Paul was E21-Mark, there are photos of it in MIB's thread.
As I suspected the body is very straight, albiet with age related dings here and there, but no sign of bodged up repairs although it appears to have had a blow-over at some point, I think but not 100% sure. Overall the car was straight, nicely original and complete. Mileage was about 48k, not sure about this but the car looks like it may have been laid up for a number of years.
Since owning it I drove it for about 6 months, fitting some new OE exhaust parts, new oil etc. I laid it up for the winter in 2011 and have only recently recomissioned it. I've fitted a new Sachs clutch kit and new pads, front calipers, front brake lines and H/Brake cables for the MOT, which it sailed through. It needs to be tuned, valve clearances done. The only real bad bits are the interior, drivers seat is frayed and the blue carpet had faded to a weird brown colour, exterior wise the common patch of corrosion at the bottom of one B pillar and small hole in the spare wheel well, easy stuff.
Thanks for looking.
