Not sure if there is a class for this, low budget Father Son Build '79 E21

[King Hax]

your son should feel lucky to be working on this with you. im 20 and im building on my e36 323 by myself. it would be nice to have my dad helping out with it, especially because i have a tranny swap to do at some point this year haha

your build looks really nice. beautiful, fun e21. looking to this for a few good budget ideas. subscribed.

auto-x 4 life!

[OLD MAN]

ld a few cars too many by myself, takes a lot more time

your son should feel lucky to be working on this with you. im 20 and im building on my e36 323 by myself. it would be nice to have my dad helping out with it, especially because i have a tranny swap to do at some point this year haha

your build looks really nice. beautiful, fun e21. looking to this for a few good budget ideas. subscribed.

auto-x 4 life!

I am the one who is lucky to have his help, I have built a few cars too many by myself. Thank for the remarks, hope you enjoy the pictures and write up. More to come soon.

[Johie18]

agree with that. building with somebody else is a lot more fun and goes faster!

no updates?

[OLD MAN]

agree with that. building with somebody else is a lot more fun and goes faster!

no updates?

We have taken the motor and tranny out end to get the car to the tube bender to get the rest of the cage parts bent. Once I do this I will have pictures worth putting up on the web. For now we are just cleaning and getting ready for the work ahead.

[alpina323c1]

Hi there Daryl and Adam ... congrats on the build , very inspiring and motivating for alll the E21 family on this forum , I'm a big fan and love the work you and your son are doing . keep up the good work and keep us posted

cheers alpina323c1 ( Horacio )

[OLD MAN]

Thanks Horaico - I hope to have pictures to post in two weeks, I have an appointment next to get the rest of the cage/chassis tubes bent. I hope to get the 2.8Super ETA up on the engine stand exit week for a quick go through and cam check. Motor was running when we pulled it out of Adams E30, I thinking I am going to have to do some tunnel work to the the E30 tranny into the E21, it looks a lot bigger on the top half.

Not sure we will make the mid March back up and running I was hoping for - - .

[seatown88]

looking forward to updates!

[LouieD]

My son and I are embarking on an e28 build and your thread has really given us a lot of great ideas and inspiration. Thanks and keep up the great work.

[vinceg14]

The progression from the beginning to current state of the car is fun to follow. I am doing some research right now and plan a 82 320 swap to a six. I got a 81 323 parts car to use with a bent frame. What suspension parts do you suggest to use. My goals are to get the 82 to handle on like its on rails with a m20 engine? Raising the pick up points is out of the question for me since this will not be a track only car.

[OLD MAN]

Well it has be a while since I have up dated this thread - sorry - work, house, family........but all is good.

Louie D and vinceg14 Thank you - I know I have spent many hours going through other threads here in the build forum getting help and direction there are a lot of great build threads here!

Vince main point for raising the pickup points is to let you lower the car and stay with in the factory designed suspension geometry. It really does not take away from DD, I have done some of the same things to the Silver 80iS which is my DD just not to the same measurements.
Adam and I have been working on the car these last 19 months since I hurt the motor.

We have built a 2.5lt M20 with: decked block, crank scraper IRL Eng, oil pan baffle IRL Eng, Custom CP 10.5to1 pistons, Schrick 288 cam, KM cams m20 steel race rockers, CP rings & all the required new standard rebuild parts. Running a resurfaced 885 head on it with some porting work and under cut three angle valve job on it, using a .100" ML head gasket. We will be running the same headers as before but had them ceramic coated.





Inside the car I lowered the seat mounts - was tired of having my head close to the top side tubes of cage, Adam can use a booster..LOL We put in a new steering shaft removing the stock one and key lock. We are installing Welwood hanging paddles with two brake masters and adjustable front to rear bias on adjustable brackets so we can move the paddle in and out.

We cut out the stock front unibody shock towers and inner finder wells and replaced them with 1.5" tubing and custom made top strut mounts. We have made some removable aluminum inner fender wells to keep out the big bits and pieces off the tires. Hopefully with this set up we will be able to change front springs and service the top strut bearing in a matter of minutes now. While building the new top mounts for the struts we raised them from their stock position 1" in an effort to gain a little more shock travel. Basically we can run the same ride hieght with less static shock compression. Also cut the center top of the body panel in front of the radiator off and have made it bolt in - easy engine install and removal now.

Over the 4 of July weekend Adam and I finished the fab work on the front end and were able to paint it and start the reassembly. WE got the front subframe in along with the lower suspension arms and sway bar.

What it looked like Friday morning.



What it looked like Sunday afternoon













Next is to finish the door bars and pieces then paint the inner and start the reassembly of everything!

I will go through the pictures I have and get some cleaned up and sized and post more soon, Daryl aka OldMan

[OLD MAN]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you all.
It has been 5 months or so of working on the house, changing jobs and more work on the house...


Happy Wife - Happy Life!

Will Adam and I spent three days working on the car 26ht, 27th & 28th after spending Christmas day with the rest of the family.

We have been slowly sanding the roof for paint so we can paint it and the window openings - I want to get the windows/lexan back in so the inside will stay cleaner...before assembling the inside.

The big work we finished was we are throught with the cage no more up grades/parts to put on - that we can think of?

So paint and window installs are next and then it is reassembly time

Some pictures of the finished cage.

[silvertoy]

nice build! fun project

[TXV007]

Awesome work. It's a space frame super car with an E21 bolted on!

[OLD MAN]

Silvertoy and TXV007 - Thank you it has been a job to keep going - especially with Adam living down in San Diego now going to school and working.

Adam came up again this weekend as he starts school again in a week so he wanted to get some things done. We masked the cage and some other inner stuff off on Saturday and painted the floor again that afternoon. Forgot to take picture of that work but it was alot! Then after we ate we went through the garage and gathered up and laid out all the parts we need to put back in the car.

So after church we put some parts in the car - brake peddles, steering and steering quicken-er, ran some brake lines, made a gas peddle / linkage, reran some of the wiring for the rear, along with welding up a mount for the brake reservoirs installed them and plumbed they in. Last think we did was to install the driver seat to check the location of the steering wheel. We are also doing some paint and body work as well.

Sure we did more it was just a blur.....we worked some today also.. we are not that fast to do it all on Sunday.

[stealthbeam]

Looks great! Some excellent progress indeed!!

[OLD MAN]

Things still moving slowly - Adam is getting his introduction to body work....

This is where we are now ready for 320 then 400 sanding cleaning and spraying. Very time I say we can make this or that better Adam say "it's a race car - paint it and let's drive it!" I am beginning to agree....

[bfinley]

This is such an inspiring build, thank you for posting the write up!

I'm in the tear down phase of a similar rebuild with an added 200 day challenge to get done for a local show.

I'm jealous of the father son project. My Dad likes to come an watch me work, since his accident can't wrench very much.

Cheers!

[OLD MAN]

someone there giving inspiration is important too! 200 days can go fast depending on how much you choose to do and how much life comes along. Is your dad still recovering? Hope he is getting better.

Thanks it has been a fun - long project...Adam does not have much time as he is going to school full time San Diego state mechanical engineering and working. Snow boarding, chilling, playing drums and lots of studying. But it is great when he can come up to work on it with me.

[bfinley]

True story! He keeps me focused on the task at hand so that I don't get overwhelmed by the task at hand.

It's been almost a year and a half since he was t-boned at an intersection. His neck was broken and initially left him mostly paralyzed, today he is 90% functional and I am beyond grateful for that!

[Beginner E21]

Very nice build thread Old man, do u have pictures of you're rear colly build?

[OLD MAN]

Will it has been awhile since I have painted a car - it shows. I will need to sand the roof and give it another coat in a week.

But it is on the way again . I'm hoping the orange and blue cage do not clash too much....

[bfinley]

That looks so good!

[OLD MAN]

Quick up-date on our track car build, work done June 21 & 22, 2014, not my usual wordy self tonight.

• We finished the engine assembled once off the engine stand with the flywheel, clutch, starter and tranny bolted up to it. We then installed the assembly into the car along with the shifter, headers, alternator, and drive shaft.












• Doubled checked all the suspension hardware for torque and then finished running the front brake lines. Then bleed the brakes and cleaned up the mess.





Hopefully we will get it started next month!

[KarusselBMW7]

This is great! awesome fab skills. RESPECT... Anyways! Good luck hope it fires right up! Cheers

[bfinley]

Looking absolutely phenomenal !