E21 Project Thread - Part 2

[Bassboy3313]

Yeah I'm excited. I did get damn good with the flux core, but MIG will be much nicer especially for sheet metal work.

[straight6pwr]

holy crap 700 for a used diff? is it 2002 guys picking the e21 stuff up?

[Bassboy3313]

Yeah it was a 2002 guy who bought it. They just have to use half shaft spacers and switch over the 2002 diff cover to use an e21 diff. Which is an upgrade for them. I also rebuilt it a few years back and its only got about 200 miles since then. Looks brand new from the outside honestly. But ive seen dirty/rusty e21 lsd's sell for around the same price to 2002 guys tho.

[Bassboy3313]

Welder is finally setup. My first gas cylinder regulator took a shit after the first weld bead, so I had to buy a better one from northern tool. You get what you pay for I guess.

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[Bassboy3313]

Today I got the old rear end parts completely disassembled. Next step with that is replacing the wheel bearings in the trailing arms, paint the arms and start reassembling with the new custom subframe.

I also starting installing more outlets in the workshed since I'm tired of tripping over extension cords and having to switch plugs whenever I wanna use something. Ill be putting an outlet in garage too on other side of wall. Cleaning and organizing comes next.

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[straight6pwr]

nice. workshop mods are as good as car mods.

and how did the crab legs taste?

[B C]

Crab legs, lol

[Bassboy3313]

straight6pwr said:

nice. workshop mods are as good as car mods.

and how did the crab legs taste? 

Priceless!!!

[Earl]

straight6pwr said:

and how did the crab legs taste? 

Post of the year lol

[Bassboy3313]

All done!

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[Bassboy3313]

After further looking and comparing the H4 lights with the e21 headlight buckets, it seemed like it was going to be lots of tedious work that may not even be correct. I ended up selling those lights and picking up a set of vw mk2 smoked crosshairs instead. These come with the buckets and adjusters already attached.

Talking to a guy who has done this retrofit before, looks like just a bit of trimming on the vw bucket to fit the shape and size of e21 bucket. Then just clearance a few spots on e21 bucket and tack weld them together. Shouldn't bad. Here are some pics he sent me of what he did.

My initial thought was to just trim up the vw bucket and weld on mounting tabs to bolt to existing location on core support. That would involve a lot more careful measuring that this guy's way since using the e21 buckets will position the lights correctly to fit flush with the grilles.

That's where I'm at right now with those.

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[Earl]

Do you still need your euro parts with this fix?

[Bassboy3313]

Nope. That was one of the reasons why I decided to go this route instead too.

[Jdesign]

Those will look awesome. Good choice.

[Bassboy3313]

Ordered a 90mm wheel stud kit for black friday and also made my hvac gauge/switch panel. Added some texture which turned out to be a little overkill, but whatevs. Looks kind of military-ish.

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[straight6pwr]

better make another for Earl, I know he's drooling over that. (from the aneurysm)

the visible layers of past versions are a little meh, but it's a race car so function>form.

[Bassboy3313]

Wheel studs showed up super quick!

Also finished up my custom headlight buckets for the vw golf crosshairs. Needs to be adjusted till straight but gives a good idea what it will look like.

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[HipMF]

Wow, guess I haven't been following this recently...

1. I dig the lights. Reminds me of all the old-school customs that used to use lucas tri-bars.

2. $700! damn. Glad I managed to get a good deal on mine. I got a super-clean one from California with an aluminum/polyurethane dogbone off of bimmerforums for $400

3. Hope you put a chase nipple or something between those two handy-boxes (picture with the amputated crab and Jack Daniels bottle). It's been a while since I've picked up a code book, but I'm pretty sure that wire running through holes in a metal box in direct contact with wood is generally not acceptable.

[Bassboy3313]

HipMF said:

3. Hope you put a chase nipple or something between those two handy-boxes (picture with the amputated crab and Jack Daniels bottle). It's been a while since I've picked up a code book, but I'm pretty sure that wire running through holes in a metal box in direct contact with wood is generally not acceptable.

I used romex for all wiring, which is acceptable to run through wood studs without EMT. Should be fine between those 2 boxes and double protected with romex through EMT everywhere else.

[HipMF]

Puting romex inside EMT is actually also illegal for heat-disipation reasons. Although there's an exception for verticle runs less than 6 feet in residential basements (IIRC)

Not saying that it's a problem, or that it's going to start on fire, just that it would be a code violation if you hired someone to put it in. Owner-installed electrical is usually exempt.