E21 what to look for?

I'm going to look at an 1981 320i. It's supposed to be very clean. I'm looking for something that can be a weekend car that I can keep for a long time. Where does rust start on these? What other problems should I be looking for? Is there anything I should know about them? Can I get decent shocks and springs for them? I don't plan to race it as I will just keep racing my miata fleet.

IIRC they rust pretty much anywhere - not quite as bad as the comparable Italian cars, but they're not that much better either.

Rocker panels, inner fenders, window surrounds, doors, etc etc etc.

I don't think the glass rusts .

No idea re the performance parts, there used to be a thriving aftermarket for these but I'm not sure how much of that is still available.

I thought the thing to look for in an E21 was an E30 as the car is better in every manner (including weight).

the E21 is a bigger and more refined 2002. Much of it's running gear is the same. It is bigger, heavier, and rusts just as badly (if not more) but lacks the support to fight the tinworm.

A clean e21 with the Big 7 inch headlights is a thing of beauty.. I never cared for the quad headlight grill on them

I have an e21 and an e30. The e30 is a "better car" but the e21 has so much more character, both in looks and road feel, IMO.

Not a terrible lot of aftermarket for the e21, but simple upgrades really wake it up - for an 81, get the larger 2.0 air sensor plate. Delete belt driven fan for an electric fan, there's an ignition set up with the early distributor cap, really good plug wires, hotter coil, and ar52 autolites that were dyno proven 10hp. Unless the front end is really tight, it will have a slight wobble at 50mph or so - I rebuilt my f/e and no issues. I also have control arms with poly bushings, which I don't think you'll find "commercially" anymore, but a fellow on bimmerforums ("Jester?") was making sets. You can also covert the subframe mounts to poly, there's a DIY for that. Putting it on a diet is helpful (sound deadening is really heavy).

When I first got it, it was so slow that I thought often of selling it, but it was just too much fun to drive and I couldn't. So I did what anyone here would do, and spent more money on it than it'll ever be worth. I've got a rebuilt 2.0 in it (still working small stuff to get if fired for the first tiem...), mild cam, and whence I get it running it should be more fun to drive than before.

I'm in Arizona, what's rust? The e21 section on bimmerforums can probably answer the "where to look" question, but I recall rear shock towers, along the bottom of windows, I'm sure other areas.

As if you couldn't discern, I'm saying "buy it....

Oh, and you can still get springs/struts/shocks for it

pres589 wrote: I thought the thing to look for in an E21 was an E30 as the car is better in every manner (including weight).

I was going to say the same thing, but substitute 2002 for E30. EDIT: I should have said that I was going to suggest 2002 instead of E30. While better in weight and some other subjective areas, the 2002 is clearly not better in every way than an E21...

I actually haven't had an E21, but have had both a 2002 and an E30. Actually still have the 2002.

The E30's much faster and more capable, 2002's got more character and lots of potential. I kinda like the way E21s look, but felt like they weren't as cool as 2002s, and weren't enough better mechanically to offset the weight.

I know that's not exactly what the OP is asking, but I think it's pertinent.

pres589 wrote: I thought the thing to look for in an E21 was an E30 as the car is better in every manner (including weight).

what I was going to write

You guys are hurting my feelings....

Thanks for the tips. Im still interested because I'm looking for something different to drive to the beach with the family and this one is really clean looking and only $2k. You certainly can't get a clean e30 or 2002 around here for anything near that price, so getting one of those isn't an option. I don't really care about the weight as other things I was considering include a buick wildcat.