New to the forum and just picked up an E21!

[charter21p5]

Update: We finally moved in to the new house and I ordered a new nissens radiator (auto trans) for the car... Waiting and waiting for the radiator to arrive! I am not sure if I will do the auto trans to manual E21 trans swap. I am really thinking the car needs an M54 engine, E46 trans and diff! Going to do some research on the swap before moving to an e21 manual transmission.

I spent the day today working on cars. I added to the fleet a 2000 E39 M5. Sorting it out now. Below are a few pictures of the day to include the E21 parked behind a tree:

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[charter21p5]

Update: I spent part of the day Saturday working on the E21. I had another thread looking for help on the car running a bit warm: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...ies-to-the-E21

The issue appears to be resolved by getting the radiator cleaned and ensuring all of the air bubbles are out of the system. I will update that thread with more photos detailing the various tests I preformed to troubleshoot. A big thanks to Epmedia andGDAus for all the help provided to resolve the issue.

I also spent part of the day Saturday working on the inside of the doors. I wanted to put rubber coating on the inside of the doors and update the weather shielding to something which would reduce road noise.

I picked up the following from
autozone:

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and from ebay:

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I took the door cards off and re-greased the various components. Prior to this I cleaned out the insides of the doors and sprayed the 3M rubber coating. I then applied the weathershielding from ebay and put the door cards back on.

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[charter21p5]

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I put the door cards back on and drove the car around a bit to check road noise. It definitely seems to be a more quiet ride than before... I put the rubber coating in the doors to help protect against corrosion from moisture etc. I ensured the holes at the bottom of the door were still clear and able to allow water to flow out.

Pretty fun day and I am getting closer to finishing this car. I decided to swap out the auto trans for the 5 spd. I always debate an engine swap however I have so many other projects that need to be worked on and the engine is running very strong in this car at 60k miles I will take the easy route for now and get the better transmission installed.

Also, the photo above is prior to trimming up the edges of the weathershield.

More to come soon.

[charter21p5]

I almost forgot I had these on my iphone... Friday night I drove to the gas station where I took the first photos of this car. I took another set of updated photos last Friday at the same gas station same parking space. The drive to the gas station was a test of the newly cleaned radiator and bled coolant system. Looking back at the start of this thread I definitely have put some time into working on this car since acquiring this E21 as it had sooo many issues which is what I wanted resulting in a lot of fun!

Matter of fact I really didn't know how to work on cars prior to this car so it has been quite the experience. I have learned a lot from this forum and other friends. I figured the E21 would be the perfect car to learn on especially since I previously owned an E21, same color, many years back. It wouldn't be a waste of time or money spent if that makes sense...

I am very appreciative of all the help!

Anyway sorry for rambling on.. below are the photos:


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[charter21p5]

What's up everyone!


I haven't been on the forum much lately. Been busy working on other cars, so the e21 has been on hold for now.

I know a few folks asked how the rotary mid rise lift I have been using for the e21 was working out. I did eventually run into two issues when using the lift:
1) the front caster wheels were grinding grooves in the concrete garage floor.
2) I ran into clearance issues when trying to use it with other cars.

To resolve these issues I decided to make a pit for the lift with metal flooring. The reason I didn't just put a sheet or two of metal down on the floor of the garage is I have limited height to work with (when lifting cars) as the garage has a 2nd floor. Otherwise it would have been probably a lot easier to just use some sort of home made ramps with a sheet of metal on the floor protecting the concrete. I chose the pit instead and I thought you guys might enjoy seeing some of the photos of the pit created for the lift.

The pit is 8.5" of industrial strength 5000lb plus concrete with a 2" sheet of galvanized steel across the floor. I also put a metal trim around the top of the concrete pit to protect the edges of the concrete. I painted the metal trim, with engine paint of course, as rust preventative measure. I also created a tunnel for the hydraulic and safety lines by cutting a slot for a 3" PVC pipe. 3" PVC pipe was installed and set with new concrete.

There will be an aluminum cover with handles made to cover the pit when not in use. I have the aluminum sheet cut however haven't finished putting it together and possibly painting or putting a large decal on it....

Hopefully more progress soon on the E21! and yes that is a getrag 245 5 speed transmission on the floor in the photos! I need to install it soon...

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[Heretic E21]

E21 is one of maybe half a dozen cars that can actually pull off Jewish Racing Gold.

Car looks great, live the Aplina style wheels.

[320iAman]

Rambling on is good. Looks like your doing some good work on your e21,,rubber coating the inside of the door is good thing helps keep the rust out from moisture. Looks like you made a place for your lift to work on your cars, now you can pull up a chair and work on your car, instead of on your back or using a crawler. Height restrictions of standard garages stop many high lift products from being sold.

Randy

[charter21p5]

Thanks Heretic, I really like the Kashmir gold color on these cars.

Thanks Randy, adding the door insulation was / is very noticeable when driving or shutting the doors.