Betty the Black E21 BMW 320i

[TaylorGoesFast]

Thank you both for the warm welcome! This thread is a trimmed down version of my progress I've track on another forum that's for the car club I was a member of when in college, which hopefully explains the personal tone.

Glad to be here and a part of the e21 community.

[323baur]

Most welcome!

[uwbuurman]

Oh, we like that tone, since we're all friends here. And it is always good to meet new friends! Early 2019 I was in TX, and had a look at the only US e21 on ebay at that time. That was a heap of rust, yours is a much better find!

[TaylorGoesFast]

I'm slowly finding other E21 owners in the area. I'm right outside of Washington DC which is one of the best places to be for a BMW enthusiast, I find.

[BertjeConti]

What a amazing find and entertaining writeup. Such a story would be impossible here in Europe.

Enjoy Betty as long as you can.

[Peter V.]

Welcome here. Nice to see that the BMW E21 has fans al over the world.

[TaylorGoesFast]

New master cylinder installed and the car is a completely transformed. It went from being something that was a hassle to drive to a car that feels modern and simple. It's great having brakes! Previously even with the pedal to the floor, I was unable to knock the rust off the rotors. With the new master cylinder, I knocked the rust off on the first stop and it locks up the front wheels at like 50% brake pressure.



I debated doing a bumper tuck as I enjoy keeping cars stock or OEM+ at the most. Eventually did it since it's easily reversed.



Another tank of gas down!

The reflector of one of the headlight bulbs was oxidized so it put out zero useful light. $13 and 15 minutes later, we have lots of light!

I've always diagnosed the rough idle at start to be a slipping alternator belt. It slips and doesn't provide enough current to the coil and the car misfires. (Originally thought it was running rich, which is almost partially true here). I've had a new belt and alternator bushing sitting in the garage, I've just been lazy.

Cars and Coffee Pics.

First is pre bumper tuck.

[BertjeConti]

Nice your brakes are fixed now.

A eurospec bumper swap is what this car needs!

[TaylorGoesFast]

Yes! I forgot to mention the right rear brake line was completely clogged. Even pressurized to 120PSI, I could not get any air or fluid through it. Swapped it out and now have equal brake pressure to all 4 corners!

[Jeroen]

This bumper mod already is a huge improvement!

[uwbuurman]

Nice steps made!! Good brakes are a basic need and that front bumper looks much better. Nice work, dude.

[TaylorGoesFast]

First improvement! E21 sport wheel from an IS model!

Swapped tan 02 seats out (thanks Dave!) And installed real tan e21 seats. In the photo, you can see the e21 seat on the driver side and the 02 seat from Dave on the passenger side. You may remember I modified and installed those a while ago to get rid of the disgusting cloth seats. The 02 seats are a very old, spring design and not comfortable or supportive.

Poached the toolkit from the parts car, which mine was missing.

Also snagged the steering column trim on the bottom I was missing from the other car.

Center console side panel was torn in my car, parts car had a minty one.

Shift knob

Mirror in much better shape

Better, but not great sun visor. All of them turn to mush after 30 years.

More to come!

[TaylorGoesFast]

Swapped out this piece of trim that's been bent forever and got the center console piece swapped out. Drove it to cars and coffee and met up with my e21 mentor. Whenever I need to see how something is supposed to be on these cars, I look at his.

I also spent about 3 hours tonight swapping sunroof parts around. I eventually got it worked! Then it stopped working! The screws holes are stripped on one side and it let's everything come apart and get wonky so I'll need to take it all apart again.

It's a shame that it is actually 100% impossible to replace the sunroof cables without destroying the headliner, hence why mine is so messed up. My plan is to get the sunroof 100% working so I never need to touch it again, and then get an upholstery shop to do the headliner. It's a full glass out procedure to replace the headliner so it's not something I want to do and risk messing up.

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[uwbuurman]

So you bougth a breaker to supply you with parts? Nice! Got some pics from the sunroof parts? An e30 roof will fit. Only differensce is in de roof itselve and the sliders on the cable. If you scroll thru my topic, you will find pics of the difference, as I installed and e30 roof, so I could had the wind deflector.

[TaylorGoesFast]

Exactly! Bought a parts car this week (9 hours of driving!) but it came with lots of good stuff I needed.

I bought this car with the sunroof COMPLETELY stuck halfway open. The cables were stripped, gearbox destroyed, and the sunroof was slanted and jammed in the roof. It took a lot of work, but I eventually got it freed, cleaned out all of the leaves in the roof skin, and got the sunroof shut. I pulled the cables,sliders, and gear box out of the parts car and installed them in my car last night. The sunroof worked flawlessly a few times, then the plate that holds the left side cable down popped off and the cable came out.

I have all of the parts to fix the sunroof, but the issue is the screw holes in the BODY of my car are stripped. I'm going to take it all apart again and try to put some larger screws in.

The other issue is, I can't figure out how the rear of the sunroof panel is supposed to connect. I have it connected to the panel slider rail with those rods, but it doesn't seem to tilt when the sunroof itself does because the tabs on the sunroof panel don't hook over that roller. It's really frustrating because the headliner gets destroyed immediately when messing with this stuff.