bmwe21.net forums

Hello.

So i bought this car about a year ago from an old lady. It was her husbands, but he passed away and she decided to sell the car. It was stored in a dodgy shed for ~3 years. Imagine my surprise when it started right up once i connected the jumper cables. Yes it had rust, cracked windshield and the exhaust was pretty much gone. But e21s are freaking rare over here, let alone a 6 cylinder one. So i grabbed it and drove it home (~50miles) like it was, avoiding the cops

They day i bought it:

i sourced the windshield, replaced all the brake lines, fixed up the exhaust and it passed our MOT without problems. They couldn't find anything wrong with the supsension, engine etc. Here's how it looked with fresh MOT stickers on:)


So i drove it like that for a couple months during the summer, while searching for a good shop to take care of the rust. Let's just say the search wasn't very succesfull..so i said f&^ck it, bought myself a mig welder, some sheet metal and started cutting out all the rust myself

Welcome, Nice intro so far! Runs on lpg? Looks like you're about to Rio it out as you are welding the gasnipple hole ?

Welcome and enjoy the BMW

uwbuurman wrote:Welcome, Nice intro so far! Runs on lpg? Looks like you're about to Rio it out as you are welding the gasnipple hole ?

Hi and thanks
yeah, it does. Not decided about the lpg yet. I welded up the hole cause it was in a very dumb spot, but i may end up moving the nipple under the gas tank door. It's nice not to worry about the petrol consumption on the long drives

Peter V. wrote:Welcome and enjoy the BMW

thanks!

Not bad! Nce car, congrats and also a warm welcome to the forum!

Hello and welcome! Admirable that you're doing the work yourself. Look forward to the progress

Not bad! Nce car, congrats and also a warm welcome to the forum!

arshad76 wrote:Hello and welcome! Admirable that you're doing the work yourself. Look forward to the progress

Hi. Thanks!
i've always been into cars and had worked on them for forever, did stuff like engine conversions, engine rebuilds, coilover setups, painting etc. Just never worked with sheet metal, but i always wanted to try that.
so yeah, it's an interesting experience grabbing a cup of coffee right now, and then i'm back to this

Had about 10 free hours during the weekend, so managed to finish up the taillights surounds/panel beneath them. Ended up cutting pretty much everything you see in etch primer out Cutting out, bending and shaping the steel was the hardest part


found a couple of rotten areas under the bumper, hopefuly tomorrow i'll be able to patch those up

If you have some time to spare, take it step by step, bit by bit... slowly getting there!

lots of work dane, Carry on! Looking forward to the finished car!

Jeroen wrote:If you have some time to spare, take it step by step, bit by bit... slowly getting there!

yep, slow and steady..

uwbuurman wrote:lots of work dane, Carry on! Looking forward to the finished car!

me too, man, me too..still have a looog way to go. Need to patch up the spare wheel well (the gent that had this car before me have welded up a diy tow hook to it, so it's pretty rotten), trunk floor needs work, rear strut towers, one arch needs a bit of welding, both sills will be replaced, couple of patches on the floorpans, radiator support and then the front valence needs patching up too.

already got myself a can of epoxy primer and dug out an old compressor from the shed. Can't wait to get the car in primer.
then i'll be able to roll the shell into garage and start working on filler and paint prep.

and the engine. Probably will go for a cheap stroker - eta block+b20 head. Should get me to 2.7 and ~170-190hp.
Unfortunately my engine isn't in a good shape. Cam is worn, one rocker is broken and most of them are worn out. No sense in rebuilding the b20, when for the same money i can get a b27 which is wayyyy more fun.
still undecided if i'll it carbed or convert to injection

Welded in a new plate under the number plate spot and in the corner. Still need to gind down the welds and weld in a patch over the exhaust tip. Then i'll be all done with the rear and will be able to start on the boot floor and the shock towers.

Nice work in progress .. keep it up

Why didn't you just use a whole new rear panel?

uwbuurman wrote:Why didn't you just use a whole new rear panel?

as always. Money i paid 500 euros for the car. The rear panel alone is like 250+shipping. Add shock towers, spare wheel well, corner pieces, boot floor patch panels and i'd be looking at way more than 500 for the panels to fix up the rear alone. Don't have the resources to do that..plus i did'nt really think it would be that rusted out when i started cutting it, and after that there was no return


Fixed up the boot floor and pretty much finished the wheel well today. Grabbing a beer makes work go faster
also dissasembled the front end, will be pulling the engine over the weekend i guess.