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Berjjjs 1981 BMW E21


Berjjj

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Discuss: http://oldschool.co....40-berjjjs-e21/

So I finally got a pair and bought myself an older ride.

It's an '81 318i fuel injected 5speed, runs mint, stacks of receipts, picked it up from Christchurch and drove it home overnight to Auckland! One hell of a drive in the stormy weather, stock suspension and minimal tread width made it interesting but we made it.

Planning an m42 swap in the near future depending on if I can suss some garage space, picking up some interior bits from hamilton today so she'll hopefully have a clean dash soon. Otherwise I'd like to go against the grain, pick up some oldschool jap wheels instead of the generic bbs rs/euro combo, should be a bit of fun.

Pictures, obviously what you came here for:

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Alright, so I went down to the tron to have a look at two e21's being wrecked, rumour had it there was a mint dash to be found. Turns out someone had at it an hour before me and managed to crack it at all the mounting points, the fuck, who tries to rip it without undoing a few bolts? :rolleyes:

Anyway still grabbed a rear tail light as mine was a bit stuffed and a window handle thing, swapped them out.

Bent up left rear tail light here:

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Put new old one in like so:

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Hey presto:

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Also, ladies love a man with a baller set of cup holders:

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Now, any recommendations for a reasonably priced panel/paint shop in the Auckland area that does decent work? There's a couple of spots I want sorted, minor, but bugging me nonetheless. Cheers.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a good time finally meeting a couple of OSers at the monthly meet the other day!

Anyway, in my insomnia induced boredom I decided that these minters shall be mine

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Will be on the next container heading our ways, stoked.

Also found a mint dash and heater surround, potentially new door cards that aren't hacked to shit too, suhweeeet. Cut a small recess in a set of rubber floor mats to fit the beemer too, getting there slowly.

To do (in no particular order):

Drop

Sort lower sill, looks like one of the repairs was a shitter, have checked all other skins since and it seems like it's just the one that's dodgy.

M42 when my other ride sells

Ideally would want an LSD too, but they're rare as hens teeth, and big money, fml.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pictureless update, whatever. New (used/less cracked) dash in, swapped tacho for a supposedly working one, which it is, but for an m20 powered e21 so reads stupid low, fffffffffffffffffffffff. Picking up another one, new door cards, momo hub and indy wheel, all new exterior trim, rear chrome bumper and other various bits and pieces sometime next week, will be lush but I'll resist and wait till an eventual repaint to put the new chrome trim on. Also, previous ride just sold so that's freed up a bit of funds.

That is all... for now!

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  • 2 months later...

So I haven't been up to sweet f all as this thread might suggest, plans have been made and changed then changed again. Old engine lost it's shit stuck in traffic about a month ago when that truck flipped just past that fancy underpass heading north, swapped in a temporary replacement since this beast is my daily.

There's a fresh facelift m20b25 sitting in the garage that will be going in 'soon', bought the engine bare so I'll have to sort bits and complete it though. Been rebuilt though so worth the effort I reckon. Along with a parts e21 I bought for the drivetrain, happens to have a rebuilt rear diff and gearbox that mates nicely to the m20 so that's handy.

Had another look under it the other night, lo and behold it's got all the 323i goodies, that includes disk brakes all round, so I'll be pinching them and binning the tired drums currently keeping my car from hitting others/a brick wall/the garage door (sorry mum).

Coilovers seem to be finally sorted thanks to the search efforts of our OS regular Sparkle, cheers bud.

Now waiting on motor mounts, loom and ecu then we're all go.

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See, no lies.

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  • 1 month later...

Well...

imageqsf.jpg

Fuckin' raging at the moment. Driver pulls out in front of me at a roundabout (on my left), causes the crash, then has the nerve to accuse me of being at fault "did you stop at the roundabout?" That's a give way mate.

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Berjjj

The red car above is now owned by a friend who will bring it back to former glory. Worry not though, I have found another!

It's a win win situation really, red will be fixed by someone with the skills and wallet size necessary. And I get another, in better nick all round with cash left over to 'complete' it (yeah right) how I'd like.

imagextxh.jpg

Shipped over in '85, it's a UK Import '81 e21 320/6, 5 speed manual. Stock 6cyl means the swap I've been planning forever will be a piece of piss bar wiring, or maybe webers if funds allow etc.

Best thing is it also has a full ownership history, and every owner so far has been pedantic as hell about service, so much so the service book is full of cool stamps and notes going back 3 decades, fuckin' swoooon.

Speedstars are on with 185/60's /obvious. Coilovers are almost done and ready to go in, fun times.

Laters.

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  • 1 month later...

Thought I'd show where the car is now, nothing much has changed, swapped the springs out, rides pretty average due to stock shocks though. Still saving for cert and swapping rear trailing arms for disk brake conversion before putting coilovers in, will go a bit lower but not much I think, rear needs to be level/not a big fan of rake on these cars.

Also, seriously tempted to offer a trade of these wheels for a set of watanabe's that I've seen for sale that are 14x7.5 -3 (thanks Beaver) all round.

These are x7/7.5 +4 for reference. What do you guys think? I like both and keeping changing my mind ha.

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//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/34440-berjjjs-e21/

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  • 1 month later...

Sold the engine I was hanging on to and finally picked these up, huge thanks to Barry at MPR for his work, welds look awesome and specs are exactly what I was after.

 

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Fitted the rears in, can lay the chassis on the ground without touching preload but decided to be a bit conservative considering the axles are resting on the exhaust and alignment is a bit of a laugh at the moment.

 

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Front install will have to wait, wrist surgery means it's out of action for a good while. A copious amount of beer happens to be in the garage just incase a couple of GC's do randomly stop by and help put in them in though. /ahem

 

Then exhaust reroute,

then alignment tabs,

then slam,

oh also needs a decent cut/polish too, oxidised white is average.

 

k thats my to do list for now.

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  • 2 months later...

Mainly been working through the small things for a while now, 1 vacuum leak sorted, 50 to go.

 

First thing was making some sweet ramps so I can get the jack under

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Colour matched the front valence, didn't strip the chip guard, it's pretty sweet I reckon.

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A bit of maintenance, oils, coolant, filters, plugs, all the essentials done. Air filter was especially bad, this was after trying to vacuum the damn thing, binned it.

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Removed stupid bonnet foam that keeps sagging and filling engine bay with dust, reaaaally messy job, make sure you use drop sheets or whatever over the engine bay 'cause the shit goes everywhere. Also, Desolv-it is the business.

Bit more intake noise coming through to the cabin, stoked!

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Oh, managed to rub through the exhaust, bit too much noise, made me pine for a tractor though,

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Now runs under the axle, inline with the wheels so fairly safe from bumps,

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All in all, shit runs better now. Once the rest of the air leaks are sorted I can work on the timing, isn't much point beforehand since it'll be out of wack every time there's a fix.

 

Think that's about it! Till next time..

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 months later...

Hasn't been much going on here lately, but holidays are coming up and I'd like to get as much done as possible.

 

So next week I'll be pulling this lovely thing
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out of this even lovelier thing

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It's an eta m20b27, but not for long.

 

Plan is to strip it for the block, crank, and rods. Add early m20b25 pistons,  e21 m20b20 cam, and a 731 (preferred) or 885 head.

Should give a nice, free revving motor with a CR of about 10:2:1.

Will rejet the stock carb in the short run, but eventually this car will see triple carbs after a bit of saving.

 

Yes, I just waffled, there has been no actual progress.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 months later...

So at around 7pm last night I got sick of dancing with the stars or whatever and went into the garage.
Stripped all the carpet, underseal etc off.
Use dry ice they said, it'll be fun they said! Well yes but I'm not going to find dry ice at 7pm. When motivation hits you run with it. Heat gun + scraper =
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Removed about 30kg (yes I'm a weirdo and weighed it) in underseal and that rubber/foam underlay shit.

What's that in the corner?
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What you see there is the jack support, footwell skin has completely disintegrated & I can push that square out easily haha, fuck...

New panels on order from Walloth&Nesch.
 

Also had surgery today, nice and high on codeine, so I'll make the most of it and start attacking the tar/glue residue with Paraffin tonight, stay tuned for fun/fails.

OH and if I ever meet the original owner I'd like to buy them a beer. Every surface/nook/cranny is caked in fish oil, saved this car no doubt.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Calling it quits on this piece I think. Have found rust in both rear wheel wells (stupid BMW double skins) which would require replacement of the whole panels + realignment of the shock mounts and all that, just no time/money for that sort of work.

Make me an offer, have a lot of parts/spares to go with.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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