Is this beyond repair?

[Panici]

Hey guys,

First off, full story and more pictures here:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?p=4070920

So I have an '86 E30 (that I picked up complete for $500) which I though was in relatively good shape. The visible body has no rust, and there is little rust on the undercarrage (for the year, mileage, and this area)

Until I pulled the carpets, and found a rotted away driver's side floor (and frame rail). There are a few water leaks into the interior, and they were never addressed by previous owners. So the car rusted from the inside out. (The rubber undercoating just hid all of this damage, and trapped the water)

After attempting to jack from the front of the subframe, I heard that painful crunching noise, which was my frame rail collapsing. (Note the angle of the control arm mount.)

I thought this was something I could fix with some effort, by cutting out a piece of framerail and floorpan from a donar car.

But after reading the BMW repair manual, it looks like the repair needs to be done on a "straightening bench", which I assume is a chassis straightener machine?

It makes sense that if the repair isn't perfect, the front geometry will be off, and the car won't drive properly.


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So down to the most important question. Is it possible for me to save this chassis? Or should I be looking for a new shell?

[Farbin Kaiber]

If you see some of the stuff old Hot Rod guys deal with, anything is repairable with enough money, but the work needed here would be better suited for a classic car that's worth $75,000-100,000+, not an e30 you picked up for $500. Consider this your parts car, and find a $2,000 shell and you'll still come out on top of trying to fix this. Truespeak.

[rturbo 930]

Find another car.

[ELVA164]

If you see some of the stuff old Hot Rod guys deal with, anything is repairable with enough money, but the work needed here would be better suited for a classic car that's worth $75,000-100,000+, not an e30 you picked up for $500. Consider this your parts car, and find a $2,000 shell and you'll still come out on top of trying to fix this. Truespeak.

^ Pretty much this. At this point in time, the investment to properly complete a restoration like that would far, far outweigh the end result. E30s are great, but sometimes you need to throw in the towel and break a car for parts.

[mitchlikesbikes]

if it were just the floor pan i'd say go for it. but with the frame rail in that condition it's probably not worth it

[KI4UJO]

Usually I would say to fix it, but in this case that is gone. As for the hot rod stuff, I can agree with that. I have a 1965 Dodge D100 that is farther gone than that, but it has been in my family for 40 years.

Can it be fixed-yes. Is it worth fixing-probably not.

[TurboJake]

I'm not one for saying this. But, new shell. You have a parts car.

[Shock(/\)ave]

As much as I would enjoy driving all of my cars throughout the year, not "saving them for their eventual next owner to enjoy" (though that might well be a future child of mine), this is the reason I can't bring myself to do it.

That is one scary image. :(

I hate to type this, but the crunching sound that you heard was the car being totaled.

With persistence you'll find another shell in much better condition than this one is in. Please don't despair and give up: a nice E30 is an excellent and very rewarding car to own and enjoy. :)

[flyboyx]

holy shit! that is scary bad.

[jhaurimn]

$500? Take all the parts out of the car you can, and scrap it. Around here, you can get $250 for scrapping a car, hopefully its that case around you as well.

Definitely not worth saving, especially since you only have $500 into it.

[nando]

when I originally saw your thread I thought that car is way, way too rusty to be worth fixing. I didn't say anything but since you're asking - part it out and find another shell.

[petrolhead]

So down to the most important question. Is it possible for me to save this chassis?

Probably no one here knows how skilled you are.

Or should I be looking for a new shell?

Absolutely you should. You've only seen a glimpse of the total rust until you've taken the car completely apart. Trust me. Even when the shell is without any parts, you'll find more rust inderneath/behind the stuff you cut off. That chassis member and floor isn't particularly difficult to replace. Cut, grind, fit, weld.. But they're only the tip of the iceberg I suspect.

That shell is totally doable, there's no such thing as beyond repair.. But there are better E30 shells out there. Click the link in my sig. There's my project, end result will be around 30% of all shell parts replaced. Honestly can't recommend such an undertaking to anyone, since were not talking about rare cars here.

-Jarno

[Roysneon]

Drop the front and rear subframes and drivetrain, call a scrapper to come get the shell. I wouldn't even bother keeping any of that interior, personally. If you don't want or need the bottlecaps you can probably sell them to someone with an old Honda for a couple hundred if they're in decent shape. Then you have front strut housings, trailing arms and rear subframe to rebuild/sandblast/replace bushings/ reinforce for the decent shell you'll be looking for.

[heatmakerz]

That chassis has stage 4 terminal cancerous rust that is honestly beyond repair. For $500, scavenge all the parts you can off of it, find another cheap rust proof chassis to start your build with and roll that chassis into an alley and just walk away. All in all, not a bad pick up for $500.

[ThatOneEuroE30]

75% of me wants you to keep that cause fixing rust isn't really a hard process just time consuming. The rest of me however realizes that you have never welded and would probably have to go buy a lot of the tool to get it done properly. I say strip it down to the bare metal and have a scrapper come take the rest. Use the parts from that car to put on another (if needed).