Hi all, I just recently moved back to NC after an 18 month stint in the Bay Area CA. Now that I have a garage it was time to get a fun little project. While in CA I searched for an affordable 2002 to no avail, anything "reasonable" was too much or required too much paint and body work. While perusing Craigslist I stumbled upon a one owner Alpinweiss 320i in Pinehurst. Went out to check it out and ended up writing a check on the spot.
Here's the car after some serious compound work. Not entirely happy with the results, but it will do for a "driver".
Car came with complete maintenance history, which was pretty extensive. It has 180K...just broken in!
I have a bunch of parts to get it up to my standard including front control arms, brake hoses, rear trailing arm bushings, upper strut mounts (forgot to order rears), cap, rotor plugs. I also got some H&R Sport springs and Bilstein Sport struts and shocks to eliminate the floaty suspension.
Phase two will include a set of refinished 14" Momo mesh wheels (I think they are called Altairs?), a header of sorts, free flow exhaust, hotter cam and head work (port, polish, double valve springs, etc.). I'd like to keep the CIS injection. I've already found that the oxygen sensor wire is cut, so it is running open loop (no catalytic converter, rich). I was cleaning up the engine a bit and managed to disconnect the auxiliary air valve vacuum hose from the nipple on the intake boot. That was fun getting back on with the intake manifold in place (came very close to pulling it off)! I must have reduced a vacuum leak as I had to adjust the idle after I got everything buttoned back up. Car has received new fuel pump, accumulator and WUR within the last 10K (which spanned over 10 years), so I think I can get it running okay once I get an oxygen sensor and replace all vacuum hoses and lines.
Fun little car. It has funky brown checked interior that somewhat matches the cloth pattern on the door panels which. The brown carpet is now a nice green color, too!
- - - Updated - - -
Sorry about the huge pics...trying to figure out Imgur!
Can't see any pictures ! Unless it's on my side, can you please attach them again? Thanks
Thanks sorry about the pics. They looked fine on my Mac and on Tapatalk too.
Last edited by Petebee; 02-14-2018 at 09:08 PM.
No pics for me, also
No e30s again.
Beautiful!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Welcome to the e21 forum. I cant see pictures as well.
Randy
Is there a link on how to load pics directly?
Sent from my SM-T560NU using Tapatalk
When you answer, in the area where you type, is a bunch of little symbols. One of them is attach a pic. It will open another window and you pick your picture out in the other window and then hit the box at the bottom
No e30s again.
e21 rear.jpge21 front.jpg
Hope that works...I guess you can click them to enlarge. It used to be so much easier when Photobucket worked.
Last edited by Petebee; 02-15-2018 at 03:40 PM.
Past, Present, and Future
1974 BMW 2002tii (RIP)
1995 BMW 325is w/ FULL S50 swap, track prepped (SOLD)
1988 BMW 325ix Zinno/Black (RIP)
1988 BMW 325ix Alpine/Black (Sold)
1988 BMW 535is Alpine/Pacific Blue (Going Away...)
1982 BMW 323i (Current Project/Paper Weight)
2003 BMW 325i Sport Touring (Daily Driver)
That is a very nice looking car
Looks great! Bring that to The Vintage- E21s are under represented...
Welcome.
Great looking E21.
Always FUN TO DRIVE - Build Thread & Tech info - 79 320/6 track car build thread -- Videos of track car -Adam in car Auto-x video - Start-up video - 4/2011 Adam's TOP BMW time San Diego BMWCCA - 4-5-15 Dyno break-in run new M20B25 - Exhaust Thread - Link
Got quite a bit knocked off the maintenance list with a bit more to go:
Replaced front control arms
Replaced front brake hoses
Replaced front struts, springs and strut mounts (H&R Sport, Bilstein Sport)
Replaced rear shocks and springs
Scrubbing and degreasing 36 years of gunk and grease in the engine bay (ugh)
Put the car on the ground to see how it turned out. Still sits quite a bit high, hoping that it settles some more.
Still to go:
Replace rear brake hoses and bleed brakes
Replace front sway bar bushing and steering rack bushings (nice poly from Eurometric)
Replace rear trailing arm bushings (may hold off on this for a bit)
Replace rear subframe mounts (nice poly from Eurometric)
Basic tuneup stuff (plugs, rotor, cap, fuel filter, air filter)
One tie rod end is bad, so I'll have to order that, too
I am so impressed how nicely this car has come apart. Nothing too dramatic so far, fingers crossed that I didn't just jinks myself.
Here are a few after pics:
front after susension.jpg
side after suspension.jpg
Here is one of the Momo wheels that I plan to refinish. I am thinking of painting them gold or Nogaro silver and then having the faces and lips machine polished. Thoughts?
momo.jpg
great looking car and nice progress already!! i cant wait to see the rest of your build
Ryan | 1983 BMW 320is | H&R's, Bilsteins's, Eurometric
My Build: https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...83-320is-build
I won't refinish the wheels...no way. I am thinking of using Renewed Finishes to do that.
Got the other brake hoses done (rears were a bit more fiddly than the fronts), bled brakes, tightened everything up and went for a test drive. The suspension is really not that firm, but that's okay. I have a front caliper that was sticking and must have boiled the brake fluid a bit as I lost the pedal and required a few pumps to get it back (good thing I was close to home at that point). Pulling into the garage I could feel something dragging and the passenger front wheel was hot hot hot.
Do you guys rebuild these calipers or are decent remans available? I imagine new calipers would be $$$$!
Also looks like the suspension settled in a bit (moar low LOL):
side again.jpg
Last edited by Petebee; 02-20-2018 at 06:10 PM.
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