Another m3 gonee...

[ian3]

Hey everyone,

I posted a thread about a month or so ago about the accident of my 88 m3. Well I took it to a BMW shop near where I live and I found out some not so good information. The body shop provided by my insurance who fixed the car in the first accident about 8 years ago did not fix the front frame correctly. Over the years it has been bending and the whole chassis has started to rust. I don't know why the steering knuckle broke but I think it was due to the previous impact which caused the most recent accident. The mechanic thinks the same considering the mediocre job provided. The mechanic quoted me $5k to fix the frame but said that "the car is turning into a rust bucket and is not worth to fix." At this point I don't know what to do. I may spend the $5k to fix or I may by an e30 3 series and transfer all of the compatible parts, engine, trans, diff etc. My last resort would be to part the car out. This is a hard time for me as I have spent so much blood, sweat, and tears on this car. Any suggestions on what I should do would be great. Attached is the thread and where you can actually see where the frame bent(based off fender line). If the insurance company did a good job the first time, the mechanic said this wouldn't have happened....

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=228632

Thanks

[Dj Buttchug]

if it were me i would save it no questions asked...

[ian3]

Yea I'm thinking I'm just gonna get some prevent rust spray paint for now...then when I save up the money I will have the frame bent back and have the whole chassis relieved of rust..the car is driveable but the alignment is obviously off and the driver side(left side) vibrates a little bit due to frame and slight chassis damage

[e30lov]

The obvious answer here is to take it to another shop. That frame guy sounds like an idiot

[ian3]

They were a good shop but the guy had a bit of an attitude...He allowed me to even look at the car and parts of the chassis are starting to rust...and do to the mediocre work previously done...the frame actually shifted which was easy to see on the lift....basically they were right in their concept of what was wrong, but I will take it to other shops for more quotes during the week..

[ohthejosh]

save it man. if it can be fixed fix it. These are slowly getting extinct. #OCCUPYE30M3

[F34R]

The obvious answer here is to take it to another shop. That frame guy sounds like an idiot

This^

It does not cost 5k to bend out the frame lol I fix the frame on my e24 in a few hours and it was BENT. If you were closer I would have you stop on by and fix it all up for 1/4 of that lol

[delatlanta1281]

How much you want for the car?

[ian3]

That's what I've been hearing...everyone has been saying $1-$2k...I reside in Northern Virginia so if anyone knows a good shop around my way please tell me.

Thanks.

[ian3]

don't know what the car is really worth...I haven't really thought about selling it yet and probably won't..

[KenC]

That spray paint isn't going to fix the rust that's already there. I'd start shopping for another shell.

[ian3]

I know it won't fix it but it will prevent it from getting worse...And yea I might do that, but if do it won't be another e30 m3...I'm going to try and find some good body shops first.

[QUKBMER]

I don't see any problem with fixing it bro. It isn't R3V'ed bro.

[mbonanni]

Idk much about the difference between the m3 and e30 frames but what about just finding a good frame and swapping it all out?

[///digitalme]

definitely worth fixing...i would fix it in a flash...!!!
here in cali usually fixing a frame and aligning it is fairly cheap...just
fixed my car frame it was bent and was off about 2 inches, and was smashed from the front
collision, it was 250 to get the frame back to specs....so im sure whereever you took your car they are trying to rip you off!!!

id say to fix a frame would be between 500-1500 depending what is wrong with it