the banana!
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 6:45 pm
I have decided to do a build thread as i can see this being quite a long term build and hopefully documenting it will help with motivation and excitement!
So there is a back story, I am a bmw nut and thankfully my better half is as well!
I have had my fair share but nothing from this vintage yet. The closest we have come so far is my girlfriends e28 M535 which is her pride and joy (im sure pics of it will appear somewhere in here!)
She loves the styling of the e21 and has been desperate to get her hands on one. We have had an eye out for one for quite a while and we narrowly missed out on a beautiful black one that was on ebay a few months back. We were both pretty dissapointed. I have had my eye on robs (wiz0r) one but its sadly not realistic for her insurance.
The Banana!
I have been known to take a few gambles in my time and generally i have done pretty well but this was a real push! We regularly scour ebay generally using the search term 'e21 bmw' but for a change i just searched 'BMW' in classic cars. I found a 'bmw 320 auto 1982'. There were no pictures and at most 6 lines of description. The first gamble for me was I wasn't sure when the crossover point for the e21/30 was so i had a worry i could end up with an e30 320 which wouldn't have really been my cup of tea! Secondly it had no tax or mot.
Asking price was £1200. I went in low, £680.
I didn't hear back until the next day, i had a phone call from the better half, " why have i got an email saying enjoy your new car?!" oh yes, i used her account
I called the seller, first off was sorting payment and collection, then on to the car! I didn't ask too much as i was too scared but it turned out to be his fathers and sadly his father passed away a few months back.
i asked if he had any pictures of the car and he said he would text me some.
I held my breath.
I thought i'd hit gold!!!
so i knew it had an e36 interior. I know with this kind of thing to expect a poorly fitted set of seats. I'm fine with that.
This is what came next.....
wheres my roof?!?!
Ok, i've got a car, i just havn't got a roof.
It turned up 2 days later -
%*&@ the roof, where are my door handles!?!?!?
It arrived just as i was leaving for work, i had just enough time to push it into the garage.
One of my friends was picking up some tyres from mine so i told him to poke his head into the garage and have a look at the car.
over text -
"does it run?'
'not a clue!! i havn't even popped the bonnet, it might not even have an engine! ............................... err can you pop the bonnet and just check for me?'
'its got an engine!'
'Phew, can you send me a picture?'
'thats not a 2.0!'
After a bit of research and a big thanks to the guys on here i have a 2.3 from a 1980 323 auto.
There has been a crazy amount of fabrication, sadly none of it is up to my standard
roll bar found its way directly to my scrap pile!
E36 rear bench removed -
sadly i forgot to get pics of the sill reinforcements but that can be a giggle for later!
Where am I going from here?
Reshell. Sadly i was let down on a shell today which i thought i had an agreement on but apparently i was mistaken
Strip down, everything will be stripped and prepped for new shell, i want this to be something special.
Sadly work has ramped up so i'm predicted to be working 6 day weeks until christmas, its going to be slow progress for a fair while but hopefully there will be good progress.
So there is a back story, I am a bmw nut and thankfully my better half is as well!
I have had my fair share but nothing from this vintage yet. The closest we have come so far is my girlfriends e28 M535 which is her pride and joy (im sure pics of it will appear somewhere in here!)
She loves the styling of the e21 and has been desperate to get her hands on one. We have had an eye out for one for quite a while and we narrowly missed out on a beautiful black one that was on ebay a few months back. We were both pretty dissapointed. I have had my eye on robs (wiz0r) one but its sadly not realistic for her insurance.
The Banana!
I have been known to take a few gambles in my time and generally i have done pretty well but this was a real push! We regularly scour ebay generally using the search term 'e21 bmw' but for a change i just searched 'BMW' in classic cars. I found a 'bmw 320 auto 1982'. There were no pictures and at most 6 lines of description. The first gamble for me was I wasn't sure when the crossover point for the e21/30 was so i had a worry i could end up with an e30 320 which wouldn't have really been my cup of tea! Secondly it had no tax or mot.
Asking price was £1200. I went in low, £680.
I didn't hear back until the next day, i had a phone call from the better half, " why have i got an email saying enjoy your new car?!" oh yes, i used her account
I called the seller, first off was sorting payment and collection, then on to the car! I didn't ask too much as i was too scared but it turned out to be his fathers and sadly his father passed away a few months back.
i asked if he had any pictures of the car and he said he would text me some.
I held my breath.
I thought i'd hit gold!!!
so i knew it had an e36 interior. I know with this kind of thing to expect a poorly fitted set of seats. I'm fine with that.
This is what came next.....
wheres my roof?!?!
Ok, i've got a car, i just havn't got a roof.
It turned up 2 days later -
%*&@ the roof, where are my door handles!?!?!?
It arrived just as i was leaving for work, i had just enough time to push it into the garage.
One of my friends was picking up some tyres from mine so i told him to poke his head into the garage and have a look at the car.
over text -
"does it run?'
'not a clue!! i havn't even popped the bonnet, it might not even have an engine! ............................... err can you pop the bonnet and just check for me?'
'its got an engine!'
'Phew, can you send me a picture?'
'thats not a 2.0!'
After a bit of research and a big thanks to the guys on here i have a 2.3 from a 1980 323 auto.
There has been a crazy amount of fabrication, sadly none of it is up to my standard
roll bar found its way directly to my scrap pile!
E36 rear bench removed -
sadly i forgot to get pics of the sill reinforcements but that can be a giggle for later!
Where am I going from here?
Reshell. Sadly i was let down on a shell today which i thought i had an agreement on but apparently i was mistaken
Strip down, everything will be stripped and prepped for new shell, i want this to be something special.
Sadly work has ramped up so i'm predicted to be working 6 day weeks until christmas, its going to be slow progress for a fair while but hopefully there will be good progress.
