My new E21

[sleepy]

Hi All,

I am now an E21 owner
Picked it up at the weekend:









I'll get some pics up once i've done a few things ie. taking tow bar off, chrome arches off etc.

Looking for some help on a few things such as:

Where can i source single headlights and grill?

I'm looking for some nice deep dish alloys...was thinking of 16" 7.5j on front and 9.0 on rear, has anyone fitted this kind of size and what issues did you come accross.

Any suggestions on how i get the chrome arches off?

All comments welcome

Chris

[e21-Mark]

Welcome and good choice of car!

Those chrome arch things should just pull off although there may be a couple of pop rivets to drill out. Single headlight set-ups do come up for sale but are quite popular now. Put a wanted ad up and keep searching ebay etc.

I have 8's & 9's x 15 but all depends on off-set and tyre walls.

[DrGonzoPOW]

Nice base for a cool looking car that mate, welcome to the forum.

[nas80]

welcome!

I like red e21s. looks like it just needs a bit of elbow grease.

[sleepy]

Cheers guys

I'll be giving it attention this week, good clean and maybe service.

Is it ok to use t-cut or similar based products on this old paintwork, its in good condition, no fading just needs good polish.

[e21-Mark]

Use plenty of soapy water with t-cut as its pretty harsh stuff.

[sleepy]

Is it, I thought it was quite mild....do u think I should get thinner cutting paste instead then? I've got a machine polisher to but wanted to give it a go by hand, think it should come up really well without too much effort.

[uwbuurman]

nice car!, needs a good polish, but great color! Those headlightwipers are cool too!

[ac/dennis]

Welcome !
Nice car mate, good luck with the single headlight search. If you ever want to sell the headlightwipers, give me a pm

[e21-Mark]

Is it, I thought it was quite mild....do u think I should get thinner cutting paste instead then? I've got a machine polisher to but wanted to give it a go by hand, think it should come up really well without too much effort.

T-cut and a bucket of soapy water works fine. It's better to take paint off slowly than be hard on it and take off too much. Polishers are fine but be careful not to scorch the paint or go thru to the primer on edges & corners.

[sleepy]

too wet to give it a good clean today so just changed sparks and removed tow bar which was a genuine bmw item...still got the receipt for it from 1983 lol. What oil would be best for this engine (2.0 m20 webber carbs) going to change oil and sparks again soon and need to get carb tuned as sparks were black!

noticed some oil on engine block....does anyone have any idea's where the leak could be:





Again any help appreciated and thanks for the comments

[e21-Mark]

Use good quality mineral oil. Millers or something like that.

[DrGonzoPOW]

Is the rocker cover gasket leaking at all ?

[sleepy]

Thats was my thoughts too...never got a chance to investigate this w/e, will have a proper look this weekend. If it were the rocker i'm guessing that should be an easy fix.

Fixed the brakes as the were pulling to left badly...new pads and cleaned them up and perfect again...rubber was on its very last legs though...fealt more like plastic.

Car feels so much better for the jobs i've done this w/e

[sleepy]

Well the rain stopped long enough for me to have a quick look under the bonnet again....no trace of oil from rocker cover area, it appears to be leaking from just below the distributor somewhere....still haven't been able to inspect fully.

What sits around the distributor that could be leaking?