1980 323i daily driver

butternut · Post by **butternut** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 7:07 pm

Hey all

I've had my car since November 2005 and I've been viewing this forum for longer than that so I thought it was about time I put my car on here!!

When I brought the car it was in a bit of a sorry state. The guy I brought it off was the 2nd owner and had owned it since 1986. He had never really got his hands dirty with it and just used to give it to his mechanic to fix, which is why any repair work that had been done were all a bit naff!!!

The car is a 09/1980 323i (change over model) and had cover 199,000 miles but it had had a new engine block at 101,000 miles so in theroy its only done a 100,000 miles (that the way I keep telling myself anyway

). It came with a 4speed box and a factory tilt and slide sunroof. A blue cloth interiour which the drivers seat springs have all gone in though there are no rips or tears in them. The following pics are of the car when I brought it.....

Since I have owned the car I have done the following to it:
Full engine service with new cam belt and stock style K&N filter,
new water pump
I've fitted a good used 5sp overdrive box (from Fritz Bits) with matching prop with new center bearing
a good used 3.45 diff also from Fritz Bits as the old one was on its last legs
a pair of new axles
new disks all round
new pads all round
I rebuilt the calipers on the front with new seals and pistons
a pair of new rear exhaust boxes (paint black with BBQ paint) with home made stainless exhaust hangers and NOS chrome tail pipes
full injector clean and the KJet system reset and tuned
new steering rack bushes
full set of 60mm SPAX lowering springs (dumping is the only way!!)
a set of 15x7 BBS rims with Toyo tires all round
new windscreen
full set of new window seals
clear front indicator lenses
E12 chrome door handles
new 3spoke sport steering wheel
new stereo with MP3 conection and 4 new alpine speakers
and 7 or 8 patches of welding in the usual places

The car now looks like this:

There are still things to do on it as always but so far I'm pretty happy with it.Things still to do are:
find and fit set of Recaros
make and fit home made sainless 6 branch exhaust manifold
make and fit front and rear Aluminium strut braces
relocate battery to the boot
fit new fuel pipe though out the car
fit oil pressure and oil temp gauges
fit e30 smiley head lights
pinstripe the boot lid
and maybe a front and rear alpina spoilers if I can find them at the right price

arshad76 · Post by **arshad76** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 10:00 pm

Nice mods butternut, impressive what you've done with the car in a relatively short time and it looks very smart lowered, with the alloys. One question though, don't your back boxes sit a little too low? Or is there a reason for that?

butternut · Post by **butternut** » Sun Jun 18, 2006 11:03 pm

Yeah I supose they do, something else to sort out in the coming weeks.

They haven't caught anything tho, I'm more worried about the center box as thats the lowest point on the car. When my cousin had the car the other week to tune up the KJet he managed to catch the center box when taking it off the ramp and it cracked the rear manifold!!Oops

!! So I had to fit another one of those last week.

I'm going to make a titanium skid pan for the center box and the engine sump to hopefully prevent this from happening again. Plus if it does bottem out the titanium will make some great sparks!!!

Jubilee21 · Post by **Jubilee21** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:35 am

Man, that's nice! Wouldn't change a thing on it!

Nils · Post by **Nils** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 10:26 pm

God, how I would love to get my hands on that almost unused left seat..... think about that

!

E21Dane · Post by **E21Dane** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:54 pm

Looks excellent Butternut!! The dark-centered crossspokes look awesome (hmmm... guess I might have to do that with my BBS alloys too...) and the lowered suspension is quite serious too!! I think the only E21 on this forum which is lower would be Steens Jubilee 323i...

Really nice work mate - and amazing that you've come this far in such short time!! Good luck with the future projects...

mbuus · Post by **mbuus** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 11:25 am

from average looking 323 to a much better looking 323

gerrit323 · Post by **gerrit323** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 8:33 pm

Totaly my taste of an e21 look also ... good work

butternut · Post by **butternut** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:00 pm

Sorted out the low tail pipes, it was the mounting donuts they were a little worn.
So I've fitted the custom brackets I've made up with new donuts. The brackets are identical to the factory BMW ones only made out of 1.2mm Stainless.

[/img]

arshad76 · Post by **arshad76** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 7:37 pm

Thats more like it

mbuus · Post by **mbuus** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:54 am

mate looking good! Keep up the work and the pics!

Orjan · Post by **Orjan** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:32 am

Sweet car! and the dark centered wheels are magnificent!

butternut · Post by **butternut** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:43 pm

Hey,

Finally got round to fitting the E30 smiley headlight to my 323. Was a bit of a mission as I decided to retain the orginal metal light mountian units instead of the E30 plastic brackets. I had to cut and shut the brackets somewhat but the lights fit, they are central and I have full adjustment on them. They really improve vision at night, a mod that I would do to any E21 I own in the future.

Oh and I finally found and fitted some recaro seats to my daily 323. I got them from a 2002 so I had to make some mounting brackets for them, which was simple. Just need to get them recovered to match the rest of my interiour, so I won't show them you yet...

ronaldo · Post by **ronaldo** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:06 pm

Very nice improvement

Do you also have some pic's from unter the hood?

e21_ritch · Post by **e21_ritch** » Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:32 am

wow very nice very tastefully done, love those wheels.

where abouts are you based in the uk? i recognise the car for some reason, don't suppose your ever in the Loughborough Leicestershire area??

Ritch