Ranger's Car Repair Thread

#1

The details of how I bent the car are here: http://www.spece30.com/forum/31-southeast/56711-re-cmp-stories-and-videos-thread#56719

Drive train shifted over a couple inches so there’s some things that are damaged other than sheetmetal, but I haven’t have much of a chance to evaluate it yet. One of the aluminum tranny mount tangs is sheared off, so I’m either going to have to swap trannies or have someone do some welding on it. Shifter is flopping loose so the movement of the tranny busted something in the linkage.

Driveshaft’s center bearing seems all askew. Engine and fabulous custom radiator met. Radiator lost. One or both fenders will need to be replaced.

Can someone send pics of the front subframe attachment-to-frame points as viewed from underneath. I seem to have some assymmetry there as if front subframe shifted over 5mm or so.

Both front fenders got beat up. I don’t know yet if it’s bang-out or replace. Air dam might need replacing. Door needs to either get banged out or replaced. I have a spare door. Rear sheetmetal is a bang out.

It’s kind of a Brian Jones look, don’t you think?

[attachment=1451]BentBeemerFrontSmall.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1452]BentBeemerFrontQuarterSmall.jpg[/attachment]

[attachment=1453]BentBeemerRearSmall.jpg[/attachment]

#2

Sorry to see this. My first stop would be to go to the frame shop. With engine taking radiator, tranny moving, drive shaft moving, you need to see if the thing is straight first. Then repair the broken parts. My frame guy can even straighten bent sheet metal so don’t take anything off the car just yet. I am sure you can find a similar frame guy there too.

As a side note, I see you jack point arrow. Did you reinforce that area or put a jack tube down from the cage? Just wondering what you did to keep from collapsing the rocker.

#3

[quote=“ilateapex” post=56726]Sorry to see this. My first stop would be to go to the frame shop. With engine taking radiator, tranny moving, drive shaft moving, you need to see if the thing is straight first. Then repair the broken parts. My frame guy can even straighten bent sheet metal so don’t take anything off the car just yet. I am sure you can find a similar frame guy there too.

As a side note, I see you jack point arrow. Did you reinforce that area or put a jack tube down from the cage? Just wondering what you did to keep from collapsing the rocker.[/quote]

Re. frame shop. That’s a good idea.

Re. jack point. PO did that. There’s a piece of square tube steel welded under there. It’s not quite at center-mass, but it’s close. It makes for a very convenient jackpoint.

#4

Is the tube just welded up under the rocker at the seam?

#5

that sucks dude. yeah, frame machine is a good idea.

#6

[quote=“ilateapex” post=56731]Is the tube just welded up under the rocker at the seam?[/quote] Yes.

#7

I hope the tub did not get too twisted and she comes back together with out too much hassle.

#8

Scott - sorry to hear about your misfortune. Good luck with getting the car back together.

#9

The car will drive a little now. A clip had been knocked off of the shift lever and the long shift bar that connects the back of the tranny to the body had pulled free. The fact that it pulled free means the the engine and tranny must have moved forward ~2". That jibes with the damage to the radiator.

There is a brace that goes on the back of the oil pan and abuts the front subframe. I’m told it’s purpose is to prevent the engine from moving forward in a crash. A lot of E30s are missing this piece. If I’d a had one, I bet that it would have helped limit the movement of my drive train.

I had a helova time finding my spare shift linkage clips, but once I finally found them, putting the shift linkage back together was no big deal.

The tranny is back on it’s mounts, even tho one of the flanges is busted. The car goes to the body shop to have it’s frame checked tomorrow.

I talked to a guy today that recommended that instead of doing a tranny swap, I simply swap the rear housing of the tranny out. This guy said it could be done with the tranny in the car and it would be easier then a real tranny swap. It’s the rear of the tranny housing that has the busted flange. Any oomments on this?

#10

I sort of doubt that you are going to find significant frame damage, except maybe on the front. The sheet metal damage on the car tends to suggest that the G loads on the frame weren’t that high. The evidence so far suggests that the driveline damage was from the engine moving forward and the cause of that would be the missing stopper strut. You are going to need new motor & transmission mounts.

I’ve not ever tried to pull the rear transmission cover, so I don’t know how difficut that would be. But I’ll be the folks at DriveGear would know. That might be worth a call to see what they say.

#11

[quote=“jlevie” post=56774]I sort of doubt that you are going to find significant frame damage, except maybe on the front. The sheet metal damage on the car tends to suggest that the G loads on the frame weren’t that high. The evidence so far suggests that the driveline damage was from the engine moving forward and the cause of that would be the missing stopper strut. You are going to need new motor & transmission mounts.

I’ve not ever tried to pull the rear transmission cover, so I don’t know how difficut that would be. But I’ll be the folks at DriveGear would know. That might be worth a call to see what they say.[/quote]

You cannot remove the rear cover without pulling the trans. your best bet is to drop the trans and find a local aluminum welder to fix the tab. we fix them all the time, no big deal.

andrew z
Drive-gear.com

#12

Andrew and Jim, thx for the input.

Car went to a body shop this morning to have the frame checked out. They gave it a cursory look over and said that the front rail might be a little bent where it attaches to the bumper, but that’s no big deal. They are iffy on whether or not they will get to the car today.
[attachment=1455]BeemerWards.jpg[/attachment]

#13

The body shop was moving like pondwater so I went and fetched the car at the end of the day and took it to my favorite indy so they could check out the suspension.

At first glance the suspension seems ok, but the right frame rail looks like it was twisted a little by the engine wanting to move right. It’s pretty subtle, but it is enough that it might move the control arm outboard a little.

Those of you that can’t get -3.5deg front camber…I’ve got a solution for you.

Tomorrow I’ll have feedback on the suspension and I’ll bring it home, check it’s alignment and decide what parts need to be replaced vs. banged back into shape. I’m thinking that the frame issue is minor enough that maybe I don’t need to deal with it before the epic roadtrip to Mid-O for 5 days at the end of the month.

#14

Car is home. Suspension seems ok. Shop says that the alignment is a little off, but alignment shops aren’t much for calibrating their equipment so I’ll confirm that when I have a chance.

Front bumper and sheetmetal is off. One fender is off. I thought that I needed to remove the door to get at fender fasteners, but that turned out to be wrong. Then I regretted taking the door off because it seems to be a 2 person job to put it back on.

The crossmember that the radiator sits on is pushed back a bit so I’ll have to figure out how to pull it out.

#15

I found a parts car between Columbia and Augusta that I’m going to fetch tomorrow. It’s a 5spd e model. Having it in my driveway for a couple weeks will be a lot more civilized then a filthy day sweating and cursing at the pick-n-pull.

#16

In order to pull out the radiator support member I put the front bumper back on and then laid the engine hoist down in front of it. The ram didn’t seem to want to operate at this angle but the strap winch was enough to pull the member out.
[attachment=1462]PullingOutRadiatorSupport.jpg[/attachment]

#17

I can see that photo making its rounds around the Internet as a motivational poster.

#18

Parts car on the trek home. '84 325e sheetmetal is the same as '87 325i, right?

#19

Looks good.

#20

Is that Bill’s Spec E30???

Good luck Scott - get the thing finished and lets go to Mid Ohio