And so a new project begins...

I'll make a build thread once it gets to my house (it's at Pat Henry's up in W.Va right now since I didn't want to tow it 100 miles on a dolly with old tires).

$200 and change (has good title as well) 1977 e21 320i non-sunroof.

Engine may or may not be any good, but I have a $150 running M42 engine and drivetrain sitting in my garage (spare for the rallycross e30).

The rust you see in the pics is basically "the rust." It's all surface, the floors and trunk and everything is amazingly solid and almost rust-free after pretty close inspection (car has been parked on a gravel pad for 7 years since it last drove). The PO says he thinks he remembers that "some work was done on the floors" about a decade ago when it was his sister's college car.

Interior is 100% complete with no signs that it has ever had a leak (it's been rainy recently, and nothing was damp in there. Trunk had a good leak and is a bit moldy and very wet, but surprisingly almost no sign of rust in there, even in the spare tire well.

All trim and brightwork is still there, so basically looks like it was well-taken care of until it was parked in 2008. Guess we'll see.

The plan is possibly to turn it into a Chump/Lemons car in the short term and built toward a trackday toy in the longer term I think. We shall see...

we had to use a pair of e30 wheels on the back and the two e21 spares on the front (e30 wheels won't clear the e21 brakes) for the tow since the stock Alpina-look wheels had rotten tires..

on the road

a few shots of the car rust on the hood is not nearly as bad as it looks

ditto on the trunk

interior in remarkably good shape except for a broken tilt lock mechanism on driver's seat (shocker...)

Looks like this to me

Does that count as "patina"?

Also this morning finished up the paint on the Lemons/Chump e30 and it departed my house to one of the team member's place for some other work..one project done, another one started within hours of each other.

I know of another E21 for $200 or less, looks to be in similar condition if you need any spares. Also located in WV.

OOH! Looks a little bit worse than mine did when I pulled it out of the woods. The FAQ in the E21 section of bimmerforums is loaded with good information.

nicksta43 wrote: OOH! Looks a little bit worse than mine did when I pulled it out of the woods. The FAQ in the E21 section of bimmerforums is loaded with good information.

Thanks, will check it out.

Surprised you didnt use the 4runner to tow, given the 4runners absolute perfection for that task as well as all other known tasks.

Dude give me the info on the other one. I need a project car. I'll even pay someone to tow it to me from WV. I'm serious. I need a project car so I can do car stuff, meet car people while in Va, and get out of the house besides exercise.

Vigo wrote: Surprised you didnt use the 4runner to tow, given the 4runners absolute perfection for that task as well as all other known tasks.

The 4Runner was 300 miles away at the outer banks with my wife and the girls. The 4Runner is indeed perfect for any task of course, but towing something that is 300 miles away is probably (barely) beyond its capability.

Pat lives 15 miles from where this car is (I'm more like 100 miles away), so I just called him up and he was happy to come pick it up to get it "in possession" and to his house. I'll get it in a couple weeks. With the 4Runner. Need to find a trailer to borrow :)

I see you haggled your way to almost half the asking price! Nice work http://martinsburg.craigslist.org/cto/3792290288.html

DirtyBird222 wrote: I see you haggled your way to almost half the asking price! Nice work http://martinsburg.craigslist.org/cto/3792290288.html

They apparently had some offers from scrappers for around that but didn't want it to turn into scrap, so hooked me up :)

Also funny that the original ad said it was a '75, then he found the title and told me it was actually a '79. But I have the title now, and it's a '77......

Man I really wanted this car, glad someone got that will do it up right. I may have to check out that other one for sale...

I'm pretty sure that 320i's were the first non-Dino European cars that I cared about.

Very envious and glad it didn't go to scrap.

that looks like a nice Comanche

It's a very nice Comanche (belongs to Pat Henry - phenryvi here). He put a lot of work into it, and just painted it last year.

Uncoiled wrote: Man I really wanted this car, glad someone got that will do it up right. I may have to check out that other one for sale...

well, we'll see if I do it up "right" or not, lol....