1978 318 Pastellblau - Norway

[E21noob]

Here we go again - new car, new thread.

This is what he (this one is a boy) looked like when I picked him up:



All very original apart from the obvious: 17" wheels and 60/40 lowering kit...

The good: 318, pop-out windows, tacho, 78500 km, mint interior/windows, dash. Owner history is pretty tidy - on first looks you think ooh so many owners, but first owner had it for 28 years, second owner had it for about 7 years, and then it changed hands four times in about a year before landing with me. Couldn't stop myself from buying

The bad: ofcourse there is rust where one would expect - but nothing too bad sofar.

Plans are to get the 60/40 and 17" off (as quickly as possible) and replace them with the 35/35 H&R springs, and the 15" melbers I got for the 316. In fact I'm replacing all the suspesion and all the bushings. The 5 speed 245 will go in, as will my newly reupholstered italian leather recaros LXs. Maybe I'll do the rest rest of the interior to match.. Also found a 330mm Nardi thats going in.

Already got myself a unit and pulled of the rear subframe and the prop shaft. Front struts are half off, and the gear box is next...

[jimbob]

Great looking car. I nearly got my car painted this colour i think it suits an e21

what colur interior are you having? i love beige interiors on these

[Mihajlo]

I heard rumors that Pastelblau, Biskayblau and Basaltblau are actually primer paints so that is why beemers in that color are soo well preserved... double layer of primer paint must be a reason!

[E21noob]

I totally agree, it is a lovely colour. I'll tryto get some more photos in better light that bring out the blue.

The current orginial interior is beige, the leather is too - just a different nue/nuance.

The interior is so great I think I will put it in the 316 when that goes up for sale - and then I will redo that interior with this leather.

[E21noob]

I heard rumors that Pastelblau, Biskayblau and Basaltblau are actually primer paints so that is why beemers in that color are soo well preserved... double layer of primer paint must be a reason!

Could be! The biscaya 316 has been repainted, but this one is original paint.

[uwbuurman]

Great car, blue as well! Congrats on this one

[Jeroen]

Looks great, have a good time with the car!

[E21noob]

Funny what a differnce wheels make. Here on original steels:




Rear subframe and suspension is gone:



Front struts off:



Bad pic, but the bottom corner of the front wing is rusted through...



So I got hold of a couple of new ones. They turned out the be original BMW old stock from the 80s:



The revshift flexdisc didn't fit




Centering sleeve doesn't look bad, maybe best left alone:




Diff off:



Out with the old:




Dissasembled the strut:



Balljoints took a beating coming out:





Lick of paint for the strut housing and control arms:

[uwbuurman]

Good work beeing done! Keep it up!!

[E21noob]

Strongflex sent me the wrong bushing for the front stabilisor.

Eventhough the image on their website shows a conical bushing, Apparently they are "rare"...

At least they will give me a refund, but now I need to source conical poly bushes.

[MortenM]

Good job mister.

[uwbuurman]

To bad, hope you'll find the right bushes soon! In the dutch section, we had a groupbuy. Gerrit arranged that, maybe he has a solution? Gerrit

[E21noob]

Thanks - I'll drop him a line.

[Jeroen]

Yup what you have are the early bushes/control arms up to production Oct 1978, pretty rare.

[Thegs]

Love this 80's color, to bad there aren't to many around anymore. Love the wheels, you have some more specs of these? Good work on the upgrades, hope to upgrade mine soon to PU bushes as well.