Much as I liked the spec of my black e21 it just never felt like MIB. I had never owned any one car as long as MIB and to be honest black just never really did it for me. It was also a right PITA to keep clean. Anyway, there was no shortage of offers for it so it has now gone to its new owner.
This meant I was able to buy another tidy e21, with a view to re-shelling MIB. I actually found a super tidy 316 that had been waxoyled from new and stored for several years. It cost a bit more than I'd hoped to pay but it was worth it not to have to have to do loads of welding etc. It really is about as rock solid as any e21 I've seen.
If it wasn't for the fact that Jamie has already built what is one of the nicest (if not
the nicest!) Sahara beige cars out there I might have stuck with the original colour, but really I just want MIB back. So I decided to go get MIB back and strip everything off ready to rebuild MIB2.
The new shell has never been smoked in and has a really nice, clean interior although that's all coming out anyway. I'm going with Recaro style seats up front but will be losing the back seat and carpeting that whole area. I've got a Nakamichi head unit and JBL speakers to go in and replace the Blaupunkt. I just want to make the interior a nice place to be.
I'm not going with coilovers etc this time as it's strictly a daily driver road car. I'm looking at Bilstein, Koni or Spax depending on availability and cost. I'll be dropping the ride height as far as the local speed humps will allow, which is about -60/70mm. Brakes will be the larger Cossie set-up on the front and a disc brake rear end, LSD and new bushes all round. I think I'm going to go with some properly dished 13'' rims as opposed to going with 15's.
I had considered dropping an s50 or s54 in to replace the m10 1.8 but, having talked things over with Mick @ Pristine, we've decided to go with an m52/2.8 running standalone ignition and a low-pressure turbo set-up. Hopefully we should see 280-300 brake but it's reliability I want, as opposed to ultimate power. I'm also going to fit the twin exit 323 style exhaust as it's one of my favourite styling cues from the 323. What we also want to do is install the M52 but keep it at the correct angle. We're also opting for standalone ignition so we can junk all that bloody wiring!
Finally, as well as going with the original orange of MIB, I am also going with a single wiper and Engelmann door mirrors. I also want to fit factory Motorsport front and rear spoilers. This time though, I am going to bond a fibreglass rear spoiler to the bootlid and paint the whole thing body colour much like the Capri RS3100 of the same era. I know the look I'm after but I also want to keep it as an unmistakable e21.
So, with MIB stripped of everything I could use, the 316 is now at Pristine Bodyworks for a full strip, colour change and re-sealing of the underside.
