Mattt

Oh holy shit if only I had the cash lying around for it!

No it’s not. It’s been well hidden a long way off the road and half of it was under cover where no one would have been able to see it.

Hey thanks for the offer. I will take you up on it once I actually get the car here and spend some time going over it so I can ask any other relevant questions at the same time. I’ve been waiting quite a while to get hold of one. I didn’t want to buy a mint one and chop it up. I’ll check out yours once you post it up. Always keen to see what people are planning and doing to them. I’ll get photos as soon as it turns up. I suspect it had a respray and some bodywork done to it about 15-20 years ago. It has a triple letter number plate and appears to have been reregistered in 2003 so it’ll be interesting to find out how much has been hidden under the fresh paint.......... hopefully it’s not a bog factory as I’m considering going as far as stripping it completely and dipping it before painting. 

If you’ve got anything you’d like to say or discuss please feel free to do it here. 

Hey guys, it’s been a while but I’ve finally picked up a new Oldschool project so thought I would start a new project build.

The car in question is a 78 E21 323i. It’s been sitting in a barn since 2015 and the owner pulled it out the other day and had her fire up. I haven’t got any photos yet as the cars being dropped off in the next few weeks.

The good: 323i so disks all around and various upgrades, factory manual, interiors really tidy, minimal visible rust, rego on hold, engine runs and car was in good condition when parked up so hopefully nothing too major to be done to get her back on the road. 

The bad: has a m20b20 carby engine fitted for who knows what reason. Has a small amount of rust. Won’t currently idle. Paint work looks like it’s matte finish but I suspect a good cut and polish will make it gloss again. The left rear quarter has bog coming away behind the black trim, I suspect there’s previous rust repairs coming back there. It shows signs of a very minor engine bay fire at some point. It’s been sitting for 3 years, so I’m not sure what’s going to start showing up when I start working on it.

Other things worth mentioning. I’m pretty sure it has alpina wheels on it but will confirm if they’re genuine when I get it home and pull a wheel off. It has a body kit of some sort, owner reckons it’s a BBS kit. I hate it and will be removing it and selling it as soon as I can along with the alpina wheels. It’s got the old getag 242 4 speed box still which I’ll probably keep and use for nostalgias sake. 

Plans (subject to change) M44 or M42 engine conversion with ITB, link ecu etc. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to have it built yet as I need to talk to a few engine builders but I’m planing to have it done so that it can rev like hell. Ideally I want a 10,000rpm redline and around 180-200rwhp. I’m going to rebuild the suspension with all new bushes and custom specd BC Gold coilovers. Wilwood 4pot front brake conversion with slotted rotors front and rear. I want to respray the car in a factory BMW colour midnight blue metallic. I’m currently pricing a set of genuine work equip 01s in 15x8 all around. I’d like to try and get the car as close to 1000kg as possible without stripping the interior out. At 1130kg factory I think it should be achievable. 

I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into this car and doing something a little bit different. If anyone has knowledge to share regarding anything please feel free to discuss. The following pics are of a e21 with equip 01s and the colour I’d like to use. As soon as I get the car I’ll chuck pics up, promise x

On a car thats factory fitted with twin round headlights (old BMW for eg) is it legal/wofable/certifiable to remove the inner headlight on one side provided that the remaining headlight has both functions of high and low beam?

I thought that would be the case. Cheers guys.

quick question.

Can a 2 door 4 seater vehicle be certified with fixed back bucket seats?

Thanks man. He's asking $13800. Can't help but feel like it's a bit overpriced. But i really, really like it otherwise. Ticks all the right boxes for me. I just really don't feel like dropping $14k on a car that could end up needing a rebuild in a few kms. I mean, i know what rotaries are like but still.

Anyone know or have any input about this?

Looks ultra tidy cause fresh panel and paint. I'm just wondering if it's worth the money with an engine that's stock as a rock and no mention of a rebuild........

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mazda/auction-1062800344.htm

That's my exact theory. See the a340h is the auto used behind the v6 surf etc as you say and the r150f and r151f is the manual equivalent and the transfer cases swap over between the auto and the manual so I think it should bolt up I'm just hoping the spline etc is the same.

But like I say about welding the center up if I can then I'm fine with that but if I can get the electronic side working with the link ecu then even better.

Shit I was considering using the surf transfer case for 2wd or 4wd options but they're huge and I'd have to modify the driveshafts flanges etc not forgetting the fact that the car is going to be LOW so the higher up that sits the better it'll be.

I haven't got the stuff yet (still sitting at wreckers waiting for payment) but when I get it I'll know more. I suspect the box will bolt up to the transfer case but the internals are some clutched setup. Admittedly I'm a little out of my depth when it comes the that side of things so I'm not sure if you can weld it?

The transfer case internals or the case to the box?

Are altezzas 4wd haha. Max confuse

SOME of the altezza GITA station wagons were 4wd. The only thing im really worried about is making the transfer case fit the manual boax and that the transfer box has an electronically controlled constantly varying system which MAY be controllable by a link ecu according to their technician or i can unplug the whole thing and hope it has a default lock out.

yeah i really dont feel like going much over 450hp. all though im happy to spend the money on this build the idea is more about what i can achieve as a fabricator for little money. Also i dont want to push the limits of the 4wd drivetrain and although its a 30/70 split the front diff is tiny and i suspect after about 500hp things will go boom. As will the vvti bottom end. 

Basically think of the mustang ken block built, then take off about 150k from the budget

Glad you guys aprove though. was always thinking the genral consensus from people would be why? But i think it'll make a really cool project and to be fair the difference between running the 4wd and not is minimal since i was already fabbing up the chassis for altezza front crossmembers etc.

i'm going to go with the custom arms and chassis chop. that way i'll get the experience of building my own arms, fucking it up, rebuilding my front arms, probably fucking it up again and finally getting it bang on

Once I've done some more measurements I can decide if I'll be making new arms or modify the factory ones. I'd love to just buy a 4K mustang front end and weld it on but I don't have the money for that and I wouldn't learn anything from it. I kinda like the idea of finding something at a wreckers that may work and making it fit. It might not be the perfect way and it may not be unique but if I can do it then it will be a great learning curve. Thanks for the help I feel a bit more comfortable in moving forward with it now.

Not keen on bags. Not for any real reason except I just wanna try something a bit different.

That's the plan man. Most of what I'm doing is to learn rather than to get massive results. I'll check out some books and do the research but so far it seems like there's nothing really stopping it from working so that was the main point. Watch this space.......

No holden junk either thanks.

Not race car. Just a good handling road car that I may do the odd classic car event in. I'm not looking to change the height all the time. Its just that having the coilovers for the rear anyway I thought if I could get the fronts to work too would allow me to fine tune the cars height easily and effectively and probably help get the ride right.

1: I'd die before sticking a Ford v8 in my car

2: ideally this should be a cheap but fabrication focused project. Time spent is fine. Money spent is not

I like the book idea. I know there's a layman's guide type thing to nz cert rules etc but is there something you would suggest?

Yeah removing the body and all that jazz. It's gonna be a nightmare but fairly confident in being able to achieve it. I was considering a worst case of fabricating new arms but I'd rather not if I can avoid it. I had considered what you suggested Spence and that may be a good way to do it as well but I'lol measure the distance from the pivot point to make sure it comes close to the altezza.

Ok so i'll try and explain this as well as i can 

As some of you know i have an ms65 crown sedan i'm currently doing an engine conversion on. What you won't know is that i have also just purchased an entire altezza rear end consisting of the subframe, brakes, LSD, arms etc etc so i'm going to mount that in the rear of the crown to run independant rear suspension. The wreckers i was at had an altezza up on the hoist which had Tein adjusties in it as well and the guy did me an ultra sharp deal on them as i wanted to run the rears to make it a bit easier to get ride heights correct etc. However now i want to see if theres a way to make the front coil overs work from the altezza in the front of the crown. So if any suspension gurus can chime in here would be great. I'm thinking about basically removing the old shock and spring and making up a bracket to weld to the lower arm and a bracket to weld to the chassis and mount the coil over however i'm interested to know if because of the way the factory spring sits in between the arms this will mess up geometry or the functionality of it? I mean in my immediate mind i think the way i've described should be fine but i have a bad feeling that i'm missing something here..... does this make sense?

essentially what i want to do is what sheepers did with his crown but instead of running bags in the arm and an external shock i just want to run an external coilover shock and spring. 

Now although i'm not too clued up on the specifics of suspension (hence the question here) i am a qualified fabricator so if it seems possible to those in the know then i will get the advice i need from the certifier etc to make sure it's all done properly etc. cheers in advance.

Basic idea of what altezza coilovers look like: 

sheepers set up: