Betty the Black E21 BMW 320i

[Senor_Taylor]

Hello and welcome back to another adventure brought to you by Taylor. 

The track car isn't finished, the Fiesta needs things fixed, the truck has been neglected, I've got student loans, car loans, credit card bills, and like $1000 in my savings account. The only sensible thing to do is to buy a car. Dave, Jackson, and a few other BMW lunatics from MM usually send cars along to each other, and I've expressed my interest in getting something a bit older than the various E30s I've had. Dave sent along a clean-ish looking E21 320i on craigslist with little information, fuzzy photos, no price, and some incorrect information about what engine was in it. Best of all, it had 90,000 miles, zero rust, and 1 owner. Worst of all, the tags on the license plates read 1991 and it hasn't ran since before I was born. I shot him an email while I was sitting on the porch drinking some coffee and offered $500 and left my phone number.

I was spending my labor day weekend replacing the clutch in my neighbor's XJ to try to make some side money and crawled out to check my phone. There's a text message from this guy and he basically said "okay, I don't know anything about BMWs but some other guy wants to come next week and he said $500 is too low, but you can come tomorrow to look" (I'm paraphrasing). I prepped my girlfriend for the inevitable bad decision and set out with all of my tools, the trailer, a hand winch, and cleared out my savings account at a sheetz ATM. We arrived and I started looking over the car. It was true, zero rust. The trunk floor, floorboards, shock towers, rockers, all sparkly clean. I knew I wanted it. Farther up the hill, in his garage, I spotted a pretty red convertible E30 and decided to ask some questions about it. He told me he was going to keep that one and try to restore it, but as I probed him for more answers, I could tell he knew nothing about it as well. I peaked inside and noticed it was a 5 speed, had a crack free dash, and was completely intact. I checked for rust and found none, and I started to realize this was a diamond in the rough. Curious, I asked how much he wanted for both as a package deal. He threw out a number that was very very very good. Like, almost unbelievable. I was so surprised that I wasn't sure what to do, so of course, I called Dave. The Puppet Master himself didn't want it, but was kind enough to do me a solid and front me some money to pick this up since it was a sure fire winner. THANK YOU DAVE. I threw caution to the wind and made a deal. 

Time to load them up. The e21 was first to go. The tires were ready to pop at any minute, it had no brakes, no clutch, nothing. With some heaving, pushing, and ratcheting, we got it on the trailer and set off to my house to drop it off. My mind was racing and anxiety was setting up. What would I do with these things? Now I owe someone money, why did he let them go for so cheap? Was this all a mistake? Oh well. #sendit. We went back and grabbed the e30 and I sent him the rest of the money. By this time, the whole neighborhood was out watching the circus and the operation went very smooth the second time around. We got a running start, and with the help of a gentle downhill slope, i rammed the pretty red e30 up on the trailer and we headed home. Jake was looking for an e30 vert, so he came over to take a look to see if he wanted to buy this one. As all e30s, the allure of the photos and sexy 80s styling wear s off when you sit inside it, smell it, and struggle to get the trashed convertible top up for 20 minutes. Jake passed, but that was alright by me as I knew it would be an easy sell.

The next morning I listed it in the usual places for a price I thought was kind of high. I was immediately met with an onslaught of interested parties and before lunch had several people lined up to view it. I was wrapping up that Jeep and would have to roll out from under the thing every 5 minutes to respond to the messages and texts. Eventually a guy and his brother from PA messaged me saying they had a vert that was wrecked and it had all of the parts that this one needed. They sent me a deposit and they're supposed to come down in a few hours to pay me asking price and take it away.


But wait, isn't this about an e21? Shut up, I know. So now that the E30 has paid for the e21, what do I plan to do with it? Well, for now, the plan is to get it running if possible for cheap, put around in it for a bit, and maybe flip it for some cash later. That may be a long road, so I figured I'd document my pain and suffering here for your enjoyment. More details to come.