1979 330 "Alpina"

[klubvintage]

So this past weekend I flew out to Indiana to pick up the car. I decided to get a babysitter and make a weekend out of it, so my wife and I took a little road trip! For those of you who haven't seen the story on the other post, it's a 2 owner, and the seller's father who was the 2nd owner had the car for 12 years then passed away and the son was selling it. He claimed it was an Alpina with a 3.0 conversion with 115k miles on the chasis and approximately the same on the motor, and supposedly boasted a DOGLEG transmission. Although I wasn't expecting a genuine Alpina car, it did include some very nice genuine Alpina articles, and some extra's he didn't know about ( more on that below!) I got there and there were only a few minor unexpected surprises with the biggest being a very deteriorated rust spot around the drain hole at the drivers side rear floorboard.

Here's the car as I picked it up (seller's photos)









So, first off, NO dogleg trans! That was a bummer, and the fact that the shifter bushings must be non-existent made shifting like stirring a bowl of soup! But the 3.0...is VERY smooth and powerful through ALL the gears! Seems to be idling high, but lack of a functioning TACH doesn't help. Also smells a bit rich (fuel injected running rich?) I was expecting to find the following:
-Full Alpina seat
-Alpina steering wheel
-Alpina finned diff cover
-Alpina wheels (7Jx15 and 1 13" spare)
-Alpina front valence
-Alpina rear decklid

But I was also pleased to find the following:
-Slotted front discs and upgraded calipers (maybe volvo, haven't take the wheels off yet to look more closely)
-Rear disc brakes
-Large front sway bar (appears to be Alpina as well but need to look better)
-Larger than stock rear sway bar

Here are some pics I took of the above findings:

Front slotted:



Rear discs:






I'm going to give it a full tune up, new shifter bushing kit and shorter shifter (need to find out what trans it is to choose appropriate shifter) timing belt and jazz need to be done (I've never done this before) and new tires are a necessity. But FIRST thing is to remove the disgusting purple tint!!!

Here are some pics of the trip home to NJ from Indiana:



Changing a couple of fuses:

[Layne]

Looks like the front brakes are not vented? That would mean they are 2002 calipers, which are not so much an upgrade as just a lot heavier for no reason.
A dogleg is totally unnecessary in a car with such a wide torque band. Don't sweat that it's not there. Hopefully you have a 3.45 diff. Nice score, keep us updated with pictures as you make it your own.

[Tom D]

nice!

i have a alpina rear bar. it looks like yours. i believe it measures 19mm or maybe 19.5mm. should have 4 adjustment holes.

as lane said, keep us posted.

[bcalis]

That's a beautiful car! Congratulations!

[OLD MAN]

Great looking car, you got a keeper there!

[fullswing]

nice car... and nice hat! congratulations on your purchase!!!

[bimas]

Great car, after all, you made it back from Indiana!

[Tom D]

M30B30 has no timing belt! chain baby, no problems there.

you now own the "BIG SIX"

[BIMMERBOYZ]

What is the white E21 in the back ground?

Also that exhaust has to go. No dual is a huge loss.

[Tx02Fan]

That is a nice one for sure; I was lusting for it in the first post. It's cool that you got to take a road trip with your sweetie to bring the new ride home. With kids that's hard to do at times. Congrats and please keep us posted.

[klubvintage]

M30B30 has no timing belt! chain baby, no problems there.

you now own the "BIG SIX"

Sweet! I have only had time to do limited research on this motor, so that's great news! Does the chain slacken at all, or ever need replacing?

My wife and I have done 3 cross country road trips/ moves each time with an additional child, and I've done two more cross countries since I'm my last e30, so it was nice to get to do it together again!

I definitely want to do a dual exhaust, any recommendations? Does anything bolt up or will o need to fabricate something?

The white e21 is a 1981 315 euro I sold to my brother "e21fun" on the board. Full zender kit and only 200 kilometres on the clock, its gonna be sweet when its done!

[Layne]

Does anything bolt up

[jjgbmw323]

You will have to do some work to get dual mufflers to fit under the car, like josh did with the euro tail panel,
and euro bumpers.

nice car by the way!

[jrcook320]

that car is freakin' awesome! Good buy, I'm jealous.

Where in Indiana was the car? If it was on the north end you could have stopped by place or we could have met up somewhere. I've always wanted to see and drive a big six powered e21.

Oh yeah, I about forgot about the exhaust. It would be awesome to do true duals with long tube headers and an x-pipe. There is nothing bolt on, you'd have to fabricate it. I welded mine up using madrel bends and a chop saw, there's a thread on here with the pics.

[milotrain]

Time to learn how to weld if you don't know already.

Timing chain tensioner is hydraulic and self adjusting. You shouldn't ever need to replace it or the chain unless you are totally rebuilding the motor.

[klubvintage]

Well it doesnt hurt to ask, but go ahead and yuck one up BTW Layne, front brakes are in fact vented. It stops hard but kinda sloppy, will tend to that soon.

And the wheels are also staggered, but the PO decided to be unique and stagger side to side by putting one 7j and one 6j up front and the others in the rear on opposing corners Desperately need new tires anyway, will fix then since tears are currently sized up from the fronts.

[pommeree]

And the wheels are also staggered, but the PO decided to be unique and stagger side to side by putting one 7j and one 6j up front and the others in the rear on opposing corners

That's called "a Wedge adjustment"

[Layne]

BTW Layne, front brakes are in fact vented.

Might be the volvo calipers then.

[klubvintage]

Yeah, welding and fabricating isn't a problem, I build custom bikes on the side:
http://www.metalsoulengineering.com

The car was in Ft. Wayne, right near the airport, but to think with a car like yours you'd still be jealous...wanna trade...lol

[milotrain]

Josh! Trade him now! That's an uncracked dash!

Time to get some euro bumpers for that thing but it sure is pretty regardless.

[klubvintage]

Haha, you tell him milo! My problem is that I never hold on to a car for very long, I always fix them up, restore them, modify them or whatever, drive it around for a while then sell it and pick up the next car on my neverending "Car wish-list!"

Hey btw, is your avatar a cat throwing up? It's a pretty rad pic regardless.

As for the euro bumps, I was gonna "borrow" them from my brothers 315 Euro, but I opted to take his seats instead and leave him the Euro's...I think his car would be trashed without Euro's...being a Euro and all lol!

[milotrain]

it's from a ridiculous Japanese comic about a kitten getting lost. She's trying to eat a whole cabbage for some reason.

[Tom D]

metalsoul, cool about the bikes and all. i have 4 of them myself. not many people use the Jap parallel twin, it's a great engine.

[klubvintage]

WTF, my post with pics and all isn't there?!? So one more time...

I cleaned the car up today, removed the nasty purple tint and fog lights, swapped out the Alpina seats and wheel to get ready to recover them, and played around a little.

[Tom D]

cool!! i wonder if maybe 30 years of private ownership mucked up a Dietel conversion. sure would like to some more detailed shots of the conversion.

i love the Momo/Alpina wheel. i have the same one. i bought it from mike dietel in 1983.