Gerrits 1982 Hartge

Where should I begin this presentation. Maybe with the fact that I had a weak spot for the e21 323i since a car seller delivered my dad's second hand 320/6 back in 1982. He came with a friend in a beautifull black 323i. Although I was only 8 at the time the black 323i always stayed in the back of my head.

Facts:

Bmw series:	323i
Production date:	23 March 1982
Color:	Polaris-metallic
Owner:	Gerrit
Country	Belgium

After some years of hard work and house issues finally in 2004 I bought a 323i in fairly good condition. The car had some factory options like sun roof, power steering, metallic paint, original blaupunkt radio and original 13" alloys.

I had it restored in the winter 2006/2007.

I was very happy with the result but ... I started playing with the idea of building a special e21.

I always liked e30 hartge cars so while browsing the net I found out Hartge made e21 versions (H3 and H3S) aswell and that their early e21 conversions didn't have specific chassis nr or numbered type plates. If you can source all the hartge parts you can still build a hartge today. I started off by buying every e21 hartge review I could find and lots of hartge folders and parts lists with their specific nr. On that base I knew which parts should be on the car and which don't. The parts list helped me couple of times to differ real from fake parts. So since april 2007 finding the parts begun and I quickly found out they where not plentifull and most of the time expensive, so it took me 3 years to source them all over Europe.

Hartge parts needed: front spoiler, rear spoiler, Bilstein shocks + springs, striping, steering wheel, cylinder head, rocker cover, trunklid badge, frontgrill badge, recaro interior, mirrors painted in car color, brake upgrade to 4 pots, complete exaust line.

2007 brought me the wheels BBS/Mahle 6x15 in front 7x15 at the back and the hartge trunklid badge. I also bought Bilstein shocks and H&R springs and the exaust manifold.

In 2008 I found the Foha trunklid spoiler, the hartge steering wheel and an m20 hartge rocker cover.

In December of that year I was able to buy the most important part of the rebuild the cylinder head.
The head was original Hartge stamped with the hartge logo and nr 0688. The 280 schrick cam was still inside. I had this head completely refurbished with new valves, valve seats, valve springs, valve guides and rockers.

In april 2009 I swapped original vs Hartge head, at the same time the side mirrors where painted in car color and the hartge rocker cover was refurbished with heat resistant paint

For a couple of months the car didn't change a lot because no parts I needed came to sale until September, the original hartge striping.

From then time on everything went a bit faster. In a couple of months I found all the missing parts needed to complete the rebuild. In December 2009 I bought a grey recaro interior which has been reconditioned in blue leather and the frontgrill badge. I also converted the front brakes from 2 to 4 pots with a wilwood kit.

In 2010 I bought the last 2 and the most difficult hartge parts to find, the front spoiler and the exaust line.

The spoiler has been repaired and resprayed in the right color and since a few weeks the exaust is under the car aswell. So since march 2010 the hartge rebuild is complete.

I only drive the e21 when the weather is fine and for e21 specific trips/meetings.

This E21 is also registered on this website.