bmwe21.net forums

Hi all.

Earlier in the year i bought an E21 on impulse for 850 quite locally. I had no idea what they were like or anything about them. But had always liked them.

It looked quite sorry for itself and failed to start when we went to collect it. When we got it home and got it on the ramps we found that it had actually been fully restored at some point, including petrol tank out, poly bushed front, all wax oiled, new exhaust, etc etc.

First port of call was the engine. The altenator bracket was bent so that was replaced. The whole cooling system was overhauled with a new thermostat added. Full service & belt change & replaced the Piaberg carb with a 32/34 webber & its now running a lot sweeter, albeit a bit cammy, but i can live with that.

I have also sourced an E30 Houndstooth interior to replace the half beige, half blue interior!

Pics and updates to follow (once i work out how as am a complete forum noob) so bare with me, and go easy

This is the car when first purchased. As you'll notice it has the early valance. I have the later one spare but it requires some work until its ready to fit. Can anyone tell me if these early ones were supposed to have plastic grills?

Investigation brought up that there was one small hole at the back of the rear arch, but thats it for rust on the whole car, so very lucky.



Brakes off, all new, result!

And now on to the ball ache. The paint!

I started mopping it all back with 2 different grades of cutting compount, followed by some polish, and it came up a treat!!











However, it then soon became apparent that the paint wasnt UV stable as as soon as it got wet, it then bleached the paint! So i now have a camouflage red car So in the spring i will be prepping for a blow over.

Incase anyone was wondering what on earth the other car is shot is, its a Gilbern Genie mk2

Shame it didn't hold! That polish made a hell of a difference.

Yeah it came up really well. But it turns out its now allergic to rain as the water droplets magnified by the sun have been enough to bleach the paint permenantly. So i now have the joy of prepping it for a blow over next spring.

And the car looked so good! I'd defo try if there is a way to polish and protect the paint first, there must be a way to preserve the result!

Theres a proffesional detailer opposite my work that spends his days detailing and restoring ferrari's and Porsches, so i'm going to ask him if anything can be done first. But he's not cheap. And once 've done the prep i can get the car resprayed for a few hundres, so may be more cost effective just to get it blown over.

Well a decent respray and adding the cost of replacing a few parts like trim, seals and stuff will always be much more expensive imo. Worth checking out indeed!