I never meant to own this many BMW's

[OBEEWON]

Facebook and IG has gotten very weird and I'm greatful this forum is still around and kicking. Zilvia has disappeared and probably 2 people will ever view this but I like it that way.

Cars that used to be cheap are getting expensive and I wanted to retire my old drift car for something more economical before I destroyed it. I bought a manual 97 ti to start drifting but spotted 99 328i M sport for a very low sum of money.

I'd always wanted a vert with a removable hardtop so I ended up buying it and using the ti as a donor for a manual swap on the 328.

I also did Cliq Tunning 50mm over fenders and some cheapo suspension stuff, and set to doing a roll cage. I started drifting at Club Loose in NJ but had moved away to NC and wanted to put together a car for A group to take up there at least twice a year. So I pulled the CL and SCCA (I wanted to do some track days as well) rule book and started piecing together something that would hopefully be legal.
I've helped folks with cages but this was my first on my own so I really had no idea what I was doing.


The plan for the car


tbc

[protomor]

zilvia went down? daaamn. And yea I still check here daily lol. I think it's a catch 22. people think it's dead so they don't post but they don't see posts so they think it's dead.

[OBEEWON]

Yep. It was still pushing along but West is mia and the servers were having issues. A few people have tried to get together to buy it from him but no one can contact him. Its a shame. That whole forum should be archived for future generations.

[OBEEWON]

Here is the middle of the story. Going to update current events after this.

https://speeddumpers.com/2021/12/28/...his-many-bmws/

[protomor]

lol speed dumpers. Yea sounds like what happened to e30tech. I screen scraped the whole forum minus what I was banned from and it's still around.

[OBEEWON]

Its sad. Wish we could save these joints.

I let my pile of wreckage sit on the trailer for weeks. I wasn't devastated but I was upset that I only had one event after finishing it to enjoy. I hadn't even washed it. Speaking to the owner of Spirit he saw that I had entered way too early right in a dip that gripped the car up and shot me straight at the wall. He had stopped me earlier telling me that the car looked to be way too gripped up on the Kendas. It had so much grip the front was pushing despite them being RS-RR's. He suggested going up in air pressure. I decided to drive around it since I had spent so much time working on the car that day. I just wanted to drive. Big mistake. The spot I hit I was told was hit a number of times by other drivers which is why folks are told not to manji the straight. I was entering but since it was so early and aggressive I might as well have been manjiing.


The car had served its purpose. I crashed it and not the SC which I had driven at the previous spirit events. Those K-Rails are what pushed me to find a car that I would not regret crashing.


Now I had a choice to make. I just spent a lot of time and energy making a cage for the car. I could buy a new shell and cut it out or try to fix the smashed shell. It was kind of special since it was an M sport. I loved the color combo, and I had zero desire to put that amount of work in again any time soon.
Some local friends suggested a guy who they had used for frame damage previously. So I contacted him and sent detailed photos for assessment. He was confident it could be fixed as long as the center of the car was straight. The roll cage made the odds pretty good that would be the case. He estimated no more than $2,500 for the job. I was 100% ok with that. So I took the car back to my homies shop to get it rolling. I collected some super cheap parts in case I was going to end up not following through and got the car rolling. New wheels, new front coils, new steering rack, knuckles.






he only devastating part of the damage was my equips. I have owned these wheels longer than any car. They were boofed. Original lips and barrels. It took months to find someone willing to attempt to fix them. Most people laughing at what I wanted to do.





I had a Juneteenth event up in Wisconsin that I needed to get to immediately so I pulled the SC out and drove to Wisconsin to forget about the 28 for a while.
When I returned I got the news the passenger cell of the car was straight and that I should pick up the car and pull the engine and return it for the actual work.
When I went to pick up the car the vibe was 100% different. The frame guy was giving me everything he could to discourage me from fixing the car. I had explained to him before that I JUST finished building the cage and had no desire to build another or cut it out and put into another vehicle. I just had a son and I had less time than money. When I pressed him he confirmed it was still fixable but he was about to move to a new house, he had other projects, it was going to take a long time etc. but it was fixable. So I told him I would take the car home, pull the motor and bring it back. He informed me that he spent more time on the car than he was going to charge me, at least $400 worth.





When I went to load the car up he informed me that the engine block had broken when he attempted to pull the frame. The engine block is the hardest part of an entire car and the mounts were broken so this made zero sense. Underneath the car was a massive oil puddle. He pulled the dipstick and sure enough there was no oil in the car. I asked him how he knew it was the block and not the oil pan which is aluminum. He told me he saw it leaking from the block after a pull. Immediately I figured this was the reason for the 180 in his confidence in fixing the car. He reminded me that he had more hours into the car than he was charging me, at least $700 worth. I decided to get out of there before the figure went over $1000.


I paid him the $300 for the frame time and took the car home. Frustrated at my wasted time and money. As I backed the trailer into its space I saw the passenger side over fender had blown off. I determined in my mind I was scrapping the car at that very moment. That was the final straw. I was not ordering another kit from overseas especially now when covid had slowed delivery globally. But when I got out I saw something that was a sign to not give up...




I had driven 2 hours at 90mph and the tire and strap saved the entire car. It sat on the trailer untouched for another 4 or 5 months. I didn't even move the over fender.

During this time I checked various outlets for cheap cars. 300ZX, E36, S14, anything to switch to. But prices had gotten out of control. I also was able to pick up my wheels after they were most expertly repaired by Ehrlich Wheels. I paid a pretty good amount but the wheels were saved. Thanks to those guys again and jog off to everyone that said it couldn't be done. I intended on putting the wheels back on the M3 fresh from paint. But when I put the car on the ground I instantly and inexplicably hated it.





So I put the Sparcos back on and sold the wheels to a homie who will take good care of them. He has dope style and drives real fancy.



- - - Updated - - -

Good lord the photos are huge.

At this point I started searching for another frame shop. Of the ones that responded, none were willing to take on the job. Finally I found a shop less than 10 min from me on Google that looked promising. An old school body guy from Detroit. So I emailed photos and his response was "We have fixed worse." So I took the car for him to assess. It was bad but he was confident they could fix it. He warned me it would not be cheap. But at $50 an hour I was hopeful. He said they would need to find another car to take a front clip off of as well as measurements. So I stopped by the local junkyard and found a junked vert. The body shop planned to send their guys to the yard to cut off the front end that weekend. Sunday night browsing marketplace I found a deal that was like the older days. A complete 97 328i in MANUAL. Blown headgasket, asking price very reasonable. I just so happened to be off work the next day. So I messaged the seller and arranged to go get the car. Monday morning I pulled the 99 off the trailer and into my garage in the rain. I had just pulled the engine out which made it slightly easier. The rain however did not.




So my son and I drove 2 hours north to the Richmond area. Ironically where I had crashed the 99. I didn't even negotiate the price. Paid, and loaded up the car for the drive home.



The frame guy from earlier saw the IG photos of the new car and messaged me telling me he was glad I went the route of re-shelling as it would have been too much work and too expensive. about 5 or 6 months of silence, and this was the first time he messaged me. I informed him I bought the car to cut up to fix the silver one and he stopped responding.
This purchase was perfect. Every bracket, clip, body piece, pump, line, I had put into my shopping carts pre-emptively I deleted. Not only could I use the body parts, the transmission that had been damaged in the crash would be usable. The PS pump, AC pump had also taken damage and I would have all of that for the sum of the car. MAJOR BOOST. The only things I would need to purchase would be the headers I planned to upgrade to, stiffer motor mounts, and glass headlights. I would be able to sell off the rest of the parts that I would not use and scrap the rest for whatever I could get. I would also have a spare engine to build for boost if I so chose. But first, I put everything up for sale. Both cars as a package deal. This was my last out before I went head first into the project.




This brings things current. I dropped both cars off at the body shop. I'm praying this is a good and straight forward experience because God knows that I have had too many bad shop experiences.

[circuit.heart]

Heartfelt. From saving a crashed car to awful shop experiences, I empathize with all of this a million percent. Hope you find it worth the perseverance in the end.

[Piner]

Damn, such a bummer. Get the car built and finished out like that just to put it in the wall. Gonna be alot of work but I definitely understand going the route you are. Also I'm amazed they were able to repair your wheels. That's flat out incredible.