Freshly washed, freshly R3V'd **Update post 27**

[MR 325]

Wow that's a bad one! You came out lucky though. I agree, if the frame rails are fine there's no worries on pulling out the bottom of the radiator support! I have to say it's pretty damn amazing that the 24v pan made it out safely!

This is your other option for a skidplate. The thing I don't like about these is if something similar to your incident were to happen with this plate it would make direct contact to the frame rails of the car because of the way the plate mounts...

http://e30motorwerks.com/index/services/fabrication/19-skid-plates

[Rugbyfan]

OK Im going to order the Peerless skid plate. I didn't see where to "add to cart" on the website, how the heck do I order it?
I also found out that the radiator that I trashed was the $490 one from Zionsville, fahck. I would like to stay all aluminum, any cheap options?

The last part I need is a front valence.

[Holland]

He really did hit the tire.

Damage doesn't seem too severe though.

[merlinfe]

Glad you and the car are ok man, that looked rough.

[Roysneon]

Honestly, if it doesn't leak, I'd re use that rad, but then again I do some stupid stuff.

[flying_violin]

Well, at least you didn't "pope the tire!"

[e30_dan]

I am sorry for you. That sucks.

BTW Why is there so many stuff on roads in the US? I nearly never see tires or other obstacles on (western) european roads. When I drive in the US there are tires, dead animals and all that bs on the roads.

[Gerta]

OK Im going to order the Peerless skid plate. I didn't see where to "add to cart" on the website, how the heck do I order it?
I also found out that the radiator that I trashed was the $490 one from Zionsville, fahck. I would like to stay all aluminum, any cheap options?

The last part I need is a front valence.

Shoot Robert an email: Fabrication@E30MotorWerks.com

[Rugbyfan]

Honestly, if it doesn't leak, I'd re use that rad, but then again I do some stupid stuff.

Leaking like crazy and smashed. I wish.

[Rugbyfan]

I am sorry for you. That sucks.

BTW Why is there so many stuff on roads in the US? I nearly never see tires or other obstacles on (western) european roads. When I drive in the US there are tires, dead animals and all that bs on the roads.

When I lived in New England, the roads were worse but the debris was non existent. Here in GA the roads are constantly littered with tires/scrap/abandoned cars.

[Rugbyfan]

I got my skid plate in, so i'll need to find some help welding.
I need to source a farm puller/come along (my method for fixing radiator support), and I need to find a front valence stat.

I also replaced the radiator with a mishimoto unit. Not for any performance reason, but the warranty. Good for life, and that includes ACCIDENTS AND COLLISIONS. I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that will do that.

[Rugbyfan]

Ok it's been awhile and I figured that I'd update. Sorry that I didn't get more pictures, but I was under a time crunch. I have been driving the car for the past week.

I bent the front rad support back via a 2 ton come-along that I got from home depot, along with a scrap metal dumpster and some strategically placed metal bars.









Testing the radiator fit, and it's perfect.



mounting the SPAL pusher back on. While this seemed easy, it actually was the biggest headache. I cleaned up the wiring and accidently had polarity reversed, which I had to re-do, but the biggest part was that the radiator switch ground had been damaged in the crash, but looked to be perfectly intact. I couldn't figure out the problem, so the test light came out. After some troubleshooting the fan works perfectly.



I don't have pictures but I went with a Peerless skidplate. They only had a bare metal version in stock so I ordered that and painted it with 7 or 8 coats of truck bed liner. It came out looking awesome. The welding was tack welds all around the mounts with a wire feed. it looked really easy so I'll go in and practice on some scrap the next chance I get.

Finally I couldn't source a 325is front valence replacement so the old one will have to do. I ran it over, as did a car behind me but it's intact. Many structural zipties were used



Overall the car runs great, and the alignment was still good. No one ever updates their crash threads so I figured I would. Thanks for the help and suggestions.

[MR 325]

Good work cleaning it up!

[bruner]

Good work cleaning it up!

Agreed

[mikeedler]

Nice!