The tales of a stablemate...

Not about a ZHP, but an e30 318is m42

A little background on this project thread can be found here :

http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showt...206-Stablemate

Now that you are all caught up (lol), on with the show.

We had no intention of just letting this car sit, though where to start was a bit up in the air. Sort of needed to get to know her first. Sarah, my wonderful lovely wife, wanted to get involved and learn more about cars, so I figured we'd start with something easy, like detailing. I had her do the requisite reading and I figured no better place to start than in the rear. Pretty simple area to work with, though not without challenges, especially for the first timer.

As you should have seen in the introduction, the car was pretty clean. Presented herself very well via the love of the previous owner.

On to the trunk. So while she was clean, she still offered plenty of work to be done. Sarah and I stripped and detailed the trunk, which took a good part of Saturday and Sunday.

Let's start with the before pictures i :
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And during .... note the bulbs for each of the license plate lights melted the spade connector cover.

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So now that we've spent a little time getting to know our new friend, she's getting driven a little. One of the reasons for getting this car was to give my 15yo daughter some time on a manual transmission. I had taken my daughter for a little cruise in her after we got her, so today was like nothing special, running errands basically, until she says something about her getting a wierd feeling about her mojo changing - like at that instance. Of course I have no idea what she means, and I try to coax it out of her. Then something pops in the engine bay and I see pieces on the highway in my rear view mirror and my dash indicators are all lit up. I am 3 miles from home and choose to keep flying down the freeway, though I have lost power steering (testing PS delete?).

That last off highway mile seemed like an eternity. I was a bit nervous that I may be taking chances with her getting hot, though we were moving along pretty well.

Finally I get into the driveway, pop the hood and confirm my suspicions about what had happened. The Alternator/water pump belt disintegrated, knocking off the PS belt.

As mentioned, another reason I bought the car was to get my wrench on again. Now I had a project.

I only have a pic of the knocked off PS belt and where the Alternator/water pump belt should be. Replaced the belts without Sarah, so no clean hands to take the pics of the job.

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So we had other things going on most of this weekend, though I did get a couple hours in the evening to give her a rinse. Started picking at the pinstripes and did a quick degrease/wash of the engine bay painted surfaces.

I didn't really have any time or energy, and my next weekend was booked with work, though I did think was a good opportunity to get to know her better and perhaps determine what our next real project was going to be.


The hood and engine bay are going to need some work. Cosmoline is everywhere - this may take awhile to rectify, depending on the priorities and available time and commitment.

Here's a few pix - Two things of note :


#1 - The alarm horn covered in heat resistant tape. I shoved a microfiber in there and duct taped this cover to muffle the awful noise until I can figure out exactly how it all works and what my options may be. I like the keyless entry - hate the noise. I'd like to be able to turn off the auto-locking of the doors - sux if the keys are still in the ignition, though I haven't had this happen the hard way yet.

#2 - The passenger fender VIN has been painted over. How did I miss this? hmmm....

Now you didn't think I would take this long and just show you just us washing our car, right?

So as I mentioned, we bought this car for a few reasons, which brings us to our next reason: Give my wife, daughter and I a car for car control clinics and the like, potentially leading to track days. Didn't take long to realize how necessary this was.

The next morning, 6-4-2012, I took my daughter to school in the 318is and returned home. The weather was really weird for this time of year. Muggy is the best way to put it. I got home and encouraged Sarah to drive the 318is to work, which she did. Not more than 10 minutes later she is calling me. I think to myself, uh oh, she's been in an accident. How is it I sense these things....

The rain had hit about 2 minutes before she enters our onramp. Big grade, hard sweeping right and a fairly hairy merge. As she leaves the right she punches it and loses the backend, until it grabs and sends her into the guardrail, bounces off and the tail pops it too.

I get out to see her pretty quickly. She's shaken up, though she's okay. I tell her not to sweat it and that I have a great set of TV repair tools and I can fix it.

So now while wrenching and track time were on our list, body work wasn't really what I had planned. What am I getting into.

At some point I took her to my favorite body shop and got an estimate. $3K, minimum. Of course they are a top shop servicing high end cars, but I had the baseline I needed. Now do we want to make a claim? I am pretty sure at 3K the insurance company would tell me they are totalling the car.

My last thought here on this post. I popped the hood and looked at the damage and what's interesting is the fender with the painted VIN is showing some red from the accident. Well, doesn't really matter now anyway, does it, though I am now concerned about what else I may find.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some pics of the damage. This story is just beginning...

At this point, It hasn't been 3 weeks we've owned the car. This isn't exactly what I expected, though hey, as I say, everything is an opportunity.

We aren't filing an insurance claim. I tell Sarah we are going to fix this ourselves for nothing and everything is wonderful, get your shop clothes on. This is what we bought this car for. Of course I know NOTHING about body work.

For the record, the accident is my fault. There was a tire I thought was somewhat sketchy and given the perfect conditions of that on-ramp, that car, the first rain in 40 days and her not really knowing the car, well, we are lucky it didn't end up worse, or better, as it turns out.

So putting the chat behind us, let's get to work. I need to know what the damage is. It's time to rip her apart.

The damage :
Fender - toast
Front valance - tweaked
Passenger Headlight - Lamp broken and assembly tweaked 'very little'
Bumper - Structure tweaked, cover TBD.
Hood - no damage! (Sarah realized this was sort of a big deal.
Headlight trim piece - broken, though usable.
Rear taillight - broken.
Read quarter panel - bent
Rear bumper cover trim broken, though functional
Foglight - Assembly broken but functional
Valence Air duct broken retainer (1 of 4) - functional
More?

Now the most important assessment, Structural damage - unknown, hopefully the bumper and bumper shocks took the hit, would have to be measured to be sure.

I decide I am not going to pay to get it looked at. I figure if I can get a straight bumper, fender and valance to align, the wheels don't shimmy and the brakes still work, I don't care.

As more of a joke than anything for my moral booster, my best friend and the guy I bought my first BMW from, I pounded the quarter panel out in the rear with a hockey puck and a hammer, put some orange electrical tape on the taillight, a strip of white electrical tape on the chipped paint on the quarter panel, removed the fender, valence and bumper cover sent him pics and told him I was going with it.

All I need really is a headlight, the fiberglass bumper, and a fender i think to myself. Oh, and paint. Right, me the body guy, and paint. I don't paint. We are going to fix this ourselves. hmm...

The pics below are the front end ripped apart and my redneck repair:
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So now I need panels. I tell my bud up north I am buying some fiberglass flared fenders and front valance/lip in flat white and going with it.

Part of me would do this if it were a track only car and the economics of the deal were right, but I don't think it would fly with my daughter to be SEEN at school in.

What is there to do, but search? Craigslist has TWO ads for AW driver fenders. 100.0 each. The forums have nothing. I see a fender about 60 miles away thats primered for 100.00, so I figure I can fix the fender for 100.00 plus paint. The valence has to be something similar to twice as much, now I need a bumper. New they are 400.00. Like the idea of new when it comes to bumpers, though not the price. I am supposed to be doing this for NOTHING.

It isn't long before the solution was right in front of me. Thank you Craigslist.

That's a good idea!

and a great read.

Good luck.

Damn, this seems like a hodgepodge of fun and nightmares.

Great find on the parts car. Salvage the lights from it too! Much better output than the sealed beam halogens.

This is going to continue to be an awesome thread!