Hello all, im still looking to snatch up my 1st BMW, and i saw this E21 for sale locally. It is a decent price, and being turbo already, naturally, i am interested.:D However, i dont know much about E21's, not many have caught my eye in the past, so i have never really looked into em. I have browsed this section, and i see a lot of good looking ones that people own, but the best looking are the ones with euro bumpers. I know that on some models, the euro bumper is a pain to swap, does the same fall true for the E21? Is compression possible on the E21 aswell? anyone have pics of an E21 with compessed US bumpers?

Like i said, i dont know much about the E21, and this guy says that the turbo and all is a pretty rare setup. I will post the ad, and he has a fair amount of pics. I want to know if this is a good deal, and what i should offer him as a price. This seems like it could be a good opportunity.

Thanks a lot,
Steve

link to ad: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/car/195186914.html

Hi. Welcome to the e21 section.
Euro bumpers can be fitted on a 320i, CJ, JBOB and Cook have done this modification on their cars. You need to toss the USA setup, and maybe even graft in a 323i rear tail section - since the e21 320i ones are different.
Some people have run, euros without doing this on their e21 320i,
however since the euro 323i tail panel is different that the 320i one they look better with the 323i tail panel grafted on. W&N and Bav Auto sells both the euro bumpers and the tail panel.

You can compress the ugly 320i bumpers, but then you still have them on your car, so if it was my car I would toss them.

As far as the car goes, not to sure what it needs to get it going,
but if you could get it cheap like 1500 or so - you could probably source parts
to repair what ever is wrong with it.

M10 turbos have been done on this site by a few and they really like them.
Is it worth it. Yeah if you can get it right and get it running it should be a lot of fun.

http://www.e21motorsports.com/kendanielson/%2778untucked.jpg

http://www.e21motorsports.com/kendanielson/%2778tucked.jpg

Sure Euro's are nice but figure $700 for new if you can find a complete set-used in good shape are hard to find. Or I can sell you the mounts to do this for $30 plus shipping. PM or email me if you are interested.

ken

Speaking from personal experience, if you tuck that front bumper, go with Ken's brackets - great fit, easy to work with (no messing with the factory bumper shocks, the oil going everywhere, etc...). My car looks much better (thanks Ken).

I too am looking, slowly but surely, to aquire Euro bumpers for the eventual swap, but in the mean time you'll get rid of that diving board look.

what type of "brackets" are these? i've got the diving boards :( . thanks, Josh

Speaking from personal experience, if you tuck that front bumper, go with Ken's brackets - great fit, easy to work with (no messing with the factory bumper shocks, the oil going everywhere, etc...). My car looks much better (thanks Ken).

I too am looking, slowly but surely, to aquire Euro bumpers for the eventual swap, but in the mean time you'll get rid of that diving board look.

I bought brackets from Ken, and they are so well made. My car is in the paint shop, but I can see how simple these brackets make the job-I did a test fit, and they are awesome. The big challenge is pulling out the POS original bumper shock on my AC car passenger side.

Kudos on teh find.

what type of "brackets" are these? i've got the diving boards :( . thanks, Josh

Ken makes them, but I don't know if there's a photo of them anywhere; just PM him and he'll get back to you.

Have fun.

Thanks for the plug guys, glad your'e happy with them. There are several dozen cars using them now... My goal is to rid the world of the "diving board syndrome".

http://www.e21motorsports.com/kendanielson/bumpermount.jpg

This pic is the prototype set I built for my '82 without A/C and would not work with A/C as I found when I tried to install them on my '78. The new versions work with or without A/C.

They're not rocket science by any means but they do work well and take some time to build.

Here's a link to the web page... http://www.e21motorsports.com/kendanielson/bumper_tuck.html

You might also want to use the link at the bottom of that page to get to the rest of the pages.

ken

I'm thinking of going this route now. $30 beats the hell out of hundreds & hundreds for Euros.

Nice problem solving.
Does the car look good as a whole, with the stock U.S. rear bumper as is?

I'm thinking of going this route now. $30 beats the hell out of hundreds & hundreds for Euros.

Nice problem solving.
Does the car look good as a whole, with the stock U.S. rear bumper as is?

Yep.

ill sell you my bumpers - you pay shipping from Australia. :P