[GeoFairbanks]

I've had my '07 328xi since new and recently vinyl wrapped it and got it mechanically sound to give to my daughter to drive. Unfortunately she rear-ended someone and I don't have full coverage on the car so I'm turning it into a project to get it back together again. I'm aware of the sheer number of destroyed plastic parts on the front-end and have so far found reasonably-priced junkyard or otherwise used replacements for everything. Since the car is wrapped and I don't care about hood or bumper cover paint color, I believe I can get it back together for under $2k since I plan to do all of the work myself.

Unfortunately I just got everything taken off of the front and realized that the bumper carrier was a bit more bent on one side than I had originally realized. After unbolting the carrier, I can see that one of the frame rail extensions from the wheel house is a tiny bit bent. I actually don't believe it is bent enough to prevent a new carrier from being bolted on and can't see how a minor bend here would impact drivability of the car, but thought I'd throw it out here for opinions. Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer on safety/drivability concerns.

I'm including pics of both sides for comparison

[Serf27]

You’ll be able to bolt a new bumper bar onto that.
It is crumpled, so the new bumper bar and core support will sitting back Maybe 1/2”? There’s a lot of adjustment points on the front end, so body panels should still line up.

It will drive fine.
That crumpled area is now a weak point and next time around (hopefully not) it will crumple even more and cause more damage, as the crumpled area will compress even more and be pushed further back.

IMO I don’t think that crumpled area will result in serious injury in the future, in a low speed rear end, not a 50+mph incident.

[jsunma]

Ouch. I think insurance (if you had full coverage) would total the car just for the cost of replacing the headlights. :-( You're lucky to be able to purchase all of those parts for $2K.

It's interesting to me that that much damage could be done to the front end without doing more to the internals or deploying any airbags. What did she hit?

[marvinstockman]

You might ask a body shop how much they will charge to do the 'structural' work, and you and your daughter can do the 'body' work.

[GeoFairbanks]

Originally Posted by jsunma

Ouch. I think insurance (if you had full coverage) would total the car just for the cost of replacing the headlights. :-( You're lucky to be able to purchase all of those parts for $2K.

Yeah no kidding - I estimated the parts cost of new/OEM parts at over $10k and that's if you can get them all which isn't 100% possible. This is the only time that I regret having the BiXenon Adaptive headlights since they're so much harder to find and more expensive. The sad part is I spent many hours getting those destroyed ones to look brand new.

Originally Posted by jsunma

It's interesting to me that that much damage could be done to the front end without doing more to the internals or deploying any airbags. What did she hit?

The airbag did deploy. Believe it or not she hit a Mk6 Jetta. I think there wasn't more structural damage to the bumper carrier and frame because both cars probably were in a heavy-braking dive and the E90 went under the Jetta. The bumper of the E90 crushed the gas tank of the Jetta (pushing it forward enough to pop one of the Jetta's coil springs out of the perch) so that left the E90 hood, condenser, radiator and core support to take the brunt of the energy.

The amount of shattered plastic I pulled out of this car was unbelievable.

[GeoFairbanks]

Originally Posted by marvinstockman

You might ask a body shop how much they will charge to do the 'structural' work, and you and your daughter can do the 'body' work.

Yeah - that's not a bad suggestion. If this was a more special car, I'd probably do that. My challenge is, for not much more than parts, I can get a lower-mileage example or a 335. If I have to take it to a frame shop or get structural damage fixed elsewhere, it's probably no longer worth doing and I'd scrap the car.

While the N52 runs smooth as butter, it still has 180k miles on it and needs some deferred maintenance done like a new valve cover and oil pan gasket. It's pretty borderline to fix it at all TBH.

I'm only repairing it because I know the car and even then I'm only doing it if I can do the work myself to save money.

[GeoFairbanks]

Originally Posted by Serf27

You’ll be able to bolt a new bumper bar onto that.
It is crumpled, so the new bumper bar and core support will sitting back Maybe 1/2”? There’s a lot of adjustment points on the front end, so body panels should still line up.

It will drive fine.
That crumpled area is now a weak point and next time around (hopefully not) it will crumple even more and cause more damage, as the crumpled area will compress even more and be pushed further back.

IMO I don’t think that crumpled area will result in serious injury in the future, in a low speed rear end, not a 50+mph incident.

Thanks for the feedback! I was wondering if that's the case - makes sense. I need to figure out what I can measure it from to understand exactly how far off it really is.

If this car gets hit in the front again, I'm not fixing it

[Serf27]

Just by looking at the bulge, I’d say it’s bulging about 1/2”, so it would be pushed back 1/2”?

The rails should have identical spot welds, you can measure from the surface where the bumper bar sits to a spot weld further back on each rail and compare.

[jsunma]

Originally Posted by GeoFairbanks

While the N52 runs smooth as butter, it still has 180k miles on it and needs some deferred maintenance done like a new valve cover and oil pan gasket. It's pretty borderline to fix it at all TBH.

I'm only repairing it because I know the car and even then I'm only doing it if I can do the work myself to save money.

That makes good sense to me. VCG and oil pan are expected maintenance if one is is interested in running one of these cars past 100K. So if you know the car, I'd say fix it and carry on!

[GeoFairbanks]

I was able to finally get out and measure the deviation on the passenger side. Where it's bent outside, it is only short by 1/8" and it's also an 1/8" closer at the top (bent up).

Overall not too bad.

Thanks for all the advice!

[esco002]

I was in a front end collison and i need help getting measurements to get my frame straightened correctly, anyone know any links ? it’s an e93

[Brandoch]

Originally Posted by esco002

I was in a front end collison and i need help getting measurements to get my frame straightened correctly, anyone know any links ? it’s an e93

Take it to a body shop.