My e30 caught on fire :(

[Massive Lee]

Hmm.. Do I see pavement thru the floorpan? To me it clearly indicates major rust issues. Which defines a rustbucket as it is not just surface rust but major weakening of the structure. Just because the paint is shinny on top dosn't mean the car is solid.

[Massive Lee]

There was no soft spot in the floor and definitely no hole in the floor before the fire happened.

So the 1 square foot hole appeared just by magic? I suspect it was hidden behind bondo or tar. Fire that you can extinguish by tapping on it with you hand while driving will not make such a hole on the pan's heavy steel gauge. Some shady shops or previous owners are experts are selling cars of questionable safety by hiding rust in many ways. And don't worry, we have all fallen for such a car. I did. You did. Lesson learn. ;-)

[Zaun]

So the 1 square foot hole appeared just by magic? I suspect it was hidden behind bondo or tar.

[Massive Lee]

He, he. I don't believe in magic. Which is why the description of your problem points to a pan that had a major pre-existing rust hole, hidden with bondo or tar (if you say you didn't see it before), with the hot exhaust igniting the plastic and the foam pad.



Compare a picture of a clean floor pan sprayed with paint, and your picture - pan should be red. Seems your pan was bathed in rust protecting tar, which indicates a previous "condition". If the rest of the car is fine, then you could cut apart a pan from another car and do an expert welding, but most likley even the frame rail may need changing.

[Pac1373]

dude,
it is highly unlikley that that hole was caused by a fire.

Lee is almost certainly right about an existing rust hole, that is not to say im might have been covered with undercoating or some shit.

I have seen holes in many things patcher over with body filler, tar, you name it, and any of these things could be flamable.

metal would not burn at that low of a temprature.

more exhaust heat from the cat, could have been a cause of igniton of the "patch".


my .02,


*edit* holy fuck 4 posts in the time I took to reply...shizzzz. double edit...he even cited the same reason I did...I got beat.

oh Op, btw Lee is "sometimes" less than Subtle...jus' sayin. Knowledgable YES, subtle...not so much...lol

[Massive Lee]

It is not always pleasant to be told the bad news. Which makes it worst for the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger, cut old rust and weld new steel

That car may have a few more years in it. BTW My first e21 had two square wood boards under the foam carpet, held to the pan with bondo... I was young and fell fo the shark nose and shinny paint.

[McGyver]

so in light of recent discussion, how much for the lip shipped to 23220?

[Pac1373]

^^ Haha, fuck yea.

[Zaun]

It is not always pleasant to be told the bad news. Which makes it worst for the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger, cut old rust and weld new steel

That car may have a few more years in it. BTW My first e21 had two square wood boards under the foam carpet, held to the pan with bondo... I was young and fell fo the shark nose and shinny paint.

its all good. I just woke up and shouldnt of posted tbh. I think i just took your statements the wrong way. and got butt hurt :P . Once the insurance comes out i will pull the rest of the carpet up and see what damage we are looking at and go from there. It may be a simple cut out weld up, splice wires,fix exhaust replace carpet. Or it may be find a clean body and swap everything over. Either way im not doing anything till insurance comes around.

so in light of recent discussion, how much for the lip shipped to 23220?

Bahaha. Will see...will see

[Massive Lee]

If you are handy with a plasma cutter, it should be easy to cut a good pan out of another e30 and cut the exact same shape on your car, then proceed with a butt weld with a TIG. Now take a screwdriver and probe the rear passengers and driverside pans...

[Zaun]

If you are handy with a plasma cutter, it should be easy to cut a good pan out of another e30 and cut the exact same shape on your car, then proceed with a butt weld with a TIG. Now take a screwdriver and probe the rear passengers and driverside pans...

Yeah i am handy with that stuff just gotta find a place to do it. Plus i dont own any of that stuff anymore. Use to have a tig rig but sold it to an apprentice when i got out of pipefitting(sold him all my welding stuff cheap :/). I need to see how much it will cost to buy all that stuff back used somewhere.

[325ix]

Don't wear shorts. I learned that the hard way. I forgot I had welding one day at school and wore shorts. When I realized I had that class I then found out it was my day on the plasma cutter.

[Zaun]

Insurance came out today. He said the dreaded words....totaled...Says i will here something in a few days. he tooks pictures and they have a department that handles what a car is worth so i have to wait on them. He told me to go ahead and have a list of everything that is on the car so that if they lowball me i can tell them it has a 2.8l blah blah blah cam blah blah, m3 interior out of a 91 blah blah all that good stuff. But he also said it can be a double edge sword on that. The more they pay out the more the salvage cost is to buy it back. But we will see.

[Zaun]

Well looks like i have to find some comparables early 80 325's. They are telling me its totaled and worth 1k....lol

errr saying fairmarket value they say is 1k lol...i was like well to replace would be this.. And she argued fairmarket fairmarket value blah blah. I said if that is fairmarket for my car then i should be able to buy one like it for 1k....and i cant...she didnt have anything to say.

[T Verdier]

Try to get old postings of super clean e30s on r3vs for sale section I found one 87 325is completely stock with 70,000 miles that was up for $10,000 I printed it out with others and my service records, got it profesionaly detailed then had the insurance company pay an appraiser to come out and make an assesment. $1,500 to $5,400 in one week!