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The Volvo/Girling front brake upgrade is the biggest bang for the buck in E21 brakes. This allows you to run the stock 323i vented rotors without the price tag of upgrading to the 323i vented calipers. For much less than stock 323i calipers you can get 4 piston calipers with about 30% more pad area.
Parts List:
L Girling Caliper '75-'91 Volvo 240 w/ Vented Front Rotors - Volvo P/N 5002028
R Girling Caliper '75-'91 Volvo 240 w/ Vented Front Rotors - Volvo P/N 5002029
Pads of your choice - I'm running PBR Metal Masters, for a hi performance street pad you can run the Hawk HPS.
Brake Hardware Kit (does both wheels)
'77 320i vented rotors (or 323i rotors from any year - same part number)
(4) m12 or 7/16" washers, 1.5 mm to 2.5mm thick
(2) Metric Brake Line Tee - http://www.jbugs.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=113611755&Category_Code
(2) M6 x 1 x 1 bolt (to mount tee to strut)
(2) 10" or shorter metric brake line (from braided line to tee, cut to fit)
Tools needed:
tin snips (to trim the backing plate)
dremel tool/die grinder & carbide bit (to slot holes in calipers)
Brake line tubing cutter
Brake line flare tool
I bought my calipers brand new for about $60 each including core charge at fcpgroton.com, but prices have gone up since then. You can also find reman calipers for less at rockauto or your local autoparts store.
First off, the backing plate needs to be trimmed to make room for the caliper:
This is a fairly straight forward swap, bolt the calipers on using the washers as a spacer to center the caliper over the rotors. Unslotted calipers will overhang the rotors by 6 to 7mm.
To help correct this, slot the mounting holes by 5mm to get down to a 1mm overhang (I used a carbide bit and die grinder). An m12 washer with thickness of 1.5mm to 2.5mm will work to center the caliper. 7/16" washers may provide a better fit, the last set of calipers I did I had to buy 7/16" washers because the metric washers my hardware store had were too large and would interfere with the dust boots. Make sure you measure the washer thickness to keep them all equal. I actually go to the hardware store with measuring calipers and measure washers to make sure I have all the same thickness since washer tolerances aren't very tight.
Slotting the mounting holes put the caliper so far back that I had to grind a little material off of the front strut where the caliper mounting bolt holes are for brake pad clearance, and also had to grind some material off of the pad backing plate. Note: As seen in the pic, I ran double spacers up front until I could get custom made hub centric spacers for my wheels (the wheel center bore is much larger than the E21's hub dia.). This was a temporary setup, I don't recommend this.
Calipers mounted after slotting the holes, only 1mm overhang. Note: clips installed backwards in the pic, they should be over the metal backing plate on the pads.
I decided to use the E21 master cylinder for now because I already had a new one. I used a metric brake "T", bought mine from Jbugs.com (a VW supplier), but its the exact same "T" that is used in the rear brake circuit of the E21. I bought brake metric brake lines at Autozone for a few bucks (along with their rent-a-tool flare kit) and bent my lines by hand. Despite the single circuit split to 2, the brake pedal feel isn't too soft for my tastes. An E12 cylinder is the best way to go though.
Front brake lines installed:
If you are doing a big front brake swap and a rear disk conversion, you should consider an adjustable proportioning valve. I bought a Wilwood valve from summitracing.com for around $50. I had to use a combination of metic and SAE bubble and inverted bubble flares to adapt it into the system. I bypassed and removed the stock proportioning valve by re-flaring the lines for a line connector. Summit's wilwood valve is SAE, but a modifed metric version is available from Ireland Engineering.
323i Rear Disc Rebuild
I started with a set of completely seized rear calipers. Vise grips, penetrating oil and a torch got them free'd up enough to get the pistons out. I then sand blasted them, honed the bores, and rebuilt them with new seals and dust boots. I threw several coats of high temp caliper paint to keep them clean. The stainless lines were from Bavauto, but note that I also had to buy new bango bolts as the stainless lines were too small for the stock bango bolts.
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