Its not my first bmw, had a 78 320i and an 85 528e before, and now have ventured back into the world of bimmers after having a bit of fun with VW's and a few other projects.
I just finished building a rock crawler out of an 89 Isuzu Trooper and needed another project so I found a beat up 78 320i. I never did any mods to my 1st 320 but this one will be much different ;) It has dents on almost every panel, the fenders are a different color than the rest of the car, I've already replaced the rotted floorpan and still need to replace the rockers, but it runs awesome and to me thats good enough to start with for me and it only cost $200 CAD :) .

Plans are tube rollcage/chassis support, t3/t4 hybrid intercooled and water injected, 5 gear swap, posi or spool and diff swap, suspension(thinking GC) 15/7 rims, definitely batt in trunk, strut braces(will fab my own), etc.

sounds like you have some cool ideas already welcome to bimmerforums and keep us informed in the progress of the car

Welcome :) I just got a 320 a week ago, it has one or 2 panels not dented...but there is a nice hole in the passenger floor under the carpet...how hard was that to fix?

korman sells replacement floor pans i think at least someone does I looked into it. All I did was remove the carpet buy a peice of sheet metal and hammer the corners to shape I tried to tack weld it into place but the rust was a major problem so I ended up using rivets and silicone to seel it closed.

welcome to bfc! you've got a helluva plan for your e21. lets see some "before" pictures!
-AO

:) Thanks for the welcome guys
The floor was easy, just cut out the rusty parts(it'll be a bigger hole than you think!), I used sheet aluminum, shaped it, rivetted it into place with some body-panel sealer/adhesive in between, then coated the bottom side with undercoating.

I was initially thinking of building a NA motor, but I've done that too many times before, and have always wanted to build a turbo car. There are a ton o domestic "muscle" cars here as well as the common ricer mobiles, and I love the thought of putting them all to shame with a beat old bimmer. I'll probably deal with the body work and do a decent paint job, but this ones going to be all about power, not about show bling.

I'll post up pics of my junk as soon as I updated my website. I know its not bimmer related, but to show my fab skills, heres a before and after of my Trooper. I yanked the whole drivetrain in favour of a chev 283 on propane, one ton tranny 4 gear, modified the transfer case internally to shift front and rear axles independently, massive body mods etc...the list is way to big and there are build-up threads elsewhere on the net, but you get the idea

If the mods get annoyed, feel free to remove the pics as they have nothing to do with bmw's :D
Before
http://www.members.shaw.ca/penner.1/images/stock.jpg

During fab(yeah thats me)
http://www.members.shaw.ca/penner.1/images/truck3.JPG

After. those are 37" tires :eek:
http://www.members.shaw.ca/penner.1/images/2004_1101Image0110.JPG
Side view
http://www.members.shaw.ca/penner.1/images/driversidenew.JPG

Nice

Welcome :wave

how big was your hole in the drivers floor mine was pretty bad

nice Trooper, running DANA 60s?? I like it how you made it into a pickup....

welcome...

Yonkers, not D60's(I wish) front is a 44, rear is a stock Isuzu(bout the same strenght as a 60)

Bread320, the hole I had to cut was from the middle of the driver seat area to past the pedals :eek: Pass side was perfect and didnt need replacing


I'm not looking forward to doing the rockers, but I'm going to try to do a good job and weld in all new metal... I have to pull dents in the roof, trunk, rear quarters on both sides, pass door... :rolleyes

The front seats were destroyed like most are, but I scored a set of black leather buckets out of a 70's 911... stiff, tall, and deep bolsters to keep me in, and electric ;) I think I might install a set of RCI's or similar in the rear instead of the bench so I can have 5 pt safety for my kids, and I just think it'd be cool. Lighter too I'd imagine.

I'm kind of dreading the body work on mine...I know it's got rust and I have no fabrication/welding skill....I'll have to fix that hole in the floor pan soon since the carpet pad is poking out under the car.

this is mine

Oh noes its on the frame rail, get it off, get it off :eyecrazy

Mine was similar to the pic, but bigger. My gas pedal was falling through the carpet because there was no floor at all right up to the front. I'm contemplating adding tube to the "frame rails" and tying it into the cage... it just seems a little flimsy to me.
I'm sure at some point I'll end up rallying my car on the many forestry roads here and I know how it kicked the sh#t outa my jetta so I want this car to be beefy. he only prob I can see is that I'll be adding weight with the cage and frame supports, and I cant really think of any way to lose an equal amount from the car elsewhere. Maybe lexan windows? hmmmm