bmwe21.net forums

Has anyone tried to fit an e36 suspension, arms, hubs, etc up front in there e21.

I ask because it's a simple bolt up swap on an e30, so is an e36 compact rear end ?

No problem cost about £3k in fabrication plus parts which was the complete front and rear subframes
From an mz3

Jason

£3k, ha ha .
Have you tried it, I'm interested if it's anywhere near close.

Why do laugh at 3k why have you done it for less

£3k, I could build a car for that .
I could space frame an e21 and run anything of my choice for half that.

I'm not looking for unhelpful answers, I was wondering if someone had tried it. I could have asked the same question 5 years ago on e30zone and got the same reasponse you gave, now it's common place and a simple job.
E46 front ends are now slowly become the next thing to fit to e30's and e36's.

Have you actually looked at the front end of an e21 before you asked the question? and yes I have worked on an e21 with this conversion. as well as e36 to e30 and e46 to e36.

If you can space frame a car for 1.5k you must be a busy guy as decent cage is 3k

And to answer your question

None of the e36 or e30 stuff bolts over, e30/compact rear subframes are close.

e30 front uses a different style off lower wish bone than the e21 not the same at all , best way is to use the e36 subframe, esp if you want to fit an s50 which means a lot of bulkhead cutting to fit it, to get the geometry right with the e36 lower arm the rear lolly pop bush end up in the middle of the trans tunnel and blocks the route for the exhaust, unless you make up some e30 dtm style lower arms to relocate the rear pick up.

Then it is the issue of the body work mods subtly flair the arches to take the wider track larger wheels etc, oh and mod the steering column as the rack is now the other side of the front cross member, and probably loads of small stuff i can't remeber of the top of my head.

Swapping over sx200 front and rear sub frames is probably easier and would give a better handling platform.

Cheers, awesome info, just what I was after .
I guess for the price of fab work and cages it's all about who you know .

The cage in the e30 v8 in this months pbmw worked out at just over £1k, it's annoying the price of steal has gone up.

Cages are also about what you want bolt in safety devices £750, t45 weld in kit 1.5k, want FIA certification at least 1k for a 1 off cage, and when I was at M-sport the price for the WRC cage was about 50k (but they build the shell flat pack style around the cage).

I'm talking custom made weld in fia cage.
Bolt in cages are just one step up from a show cage.