[Aircooledrules]

So a few months ago we decided to sell my wife’s 2009 VW Touareg TDI and search for a GTI or Golf R.

She is very particular in what spec she likes so this could be a long search, in the meantime I saw this 2008 BMW 328XiT forsale at auction and took a liking to it, so sight unseen we bid on the car.

We were the high bidders but didn’t meet reserve, the insurance company wanted about double our bid if I recall correctly, so we passed and they ran it through again the following week.

The following week I was out of town and relied on my brother to bid on the car for me, he called and said that I’m the high bidder again and again it didn’t meet reserve, but this time they only wanted an extra $300 so I said yeah let’s do it.

I didn’t learn until a few days later that he didn’t reply in time and the car was coming up again for a third time.

The third time I won it agzin and this time they let it go for the winning bid. Each time my high bid was within a few hundred dollars and I think the third time it was the lowest bid.

Anyhow, I had the car towed home and this is the first photo I took.

Oh, I almost forgot, the plan was for this BMW to serve as a place holder until the right GTI or R becomes available!!!

[Aircooledrules]

Now that the car is home, it’s time to assess it and see what I bought.

When bidding on these cars at auction you are relying on a handful of terrible photos, and because this car was dismantled at a body shop prior to being deemed a total loss, it was very difficult to determine from the photos how bad the damage really was.

If a car is intact, you can judge by the damage, how bad it might be under the skin but with this one apart, with the front end laying on the ground in front of the car and the rest of it stuffed into the trunk it was impossible to know the severity of the crash.

In any case I was very pleased with what I saw when I took all the parts out of the trunk and opened the hood to do a visual.



I knew quickly that the damage was minor and not structural and that I would be able to fix this car at home with regular hand tools for the most part.

The body shop that dismantled the car made markings with paint pen all over the frame rails with arrows pointing to the left to indicate that the front end is swayed to the left, as well as markings all over the front end.

I would like to know what shop assessed this car as they totally missed the mark. This car is dead straight with no structural damage.

Here are the markings before I wiped them off and called it fixed !!!





And ofcourse I washed it, to see what it actually looks like under all that dust



Did I mention it’s a 6-Speed ?

[M-technik-3]

And it has a sport package or someone just added sports seats.

[Aircooledrules]

Someone added the sport seats and a surprise bonus, KW V3 Coilovers !!!

The seats I knew about as I saw them in photos, the KW’s I didn’t.

[Aircooledrules]

So I assessed all the front end parts that were in the trunk to see what was damaged, what was repairable/usable and what I needed to purchase.

I like to save what ever parts I can rather then replacing whenever possible, even if I’m making it harder on myself, I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is.

It’s important to note that where I live, in Vancouver BC Canada, this is a $10,000 car all fixed and ready to go. Salvage cars here require 3 inspections before they are allowed back on the road and those inspections alone cost about $600 so that has to be factored into the budget of the build.

My goal is to have this car done for $5000.

After inspecting the front Rad Support Carrier I saw that the tab which supports the passenger side headlight had snapped off and was missing. ( this is why it sucks when you buy a car that was already dismantled, because otherwise that tab would have still been secured to the headlight ), I remember that I still had a busted Rad Support that I took off another E90 that was dismantled for parts and I forgot to throw it away when the car was scrapped.

I was pleased to see that the missing tab was still on that other damaged Rad support.

I didn’t know the Rad Supports on these cars were a weird mixture of metal and plastic, so I cut the end off the busted donor Rad support and carefully dissected the piece to fit perfectly into the Rad support from this car.

After attaching it with JB Weld and painting it black, the repair is undetectable and cost me $20 rather then spending $100 on a used rad support.

[Phil325i]

From the photos I'd say something weird is going on at the rear. I've never seen a wheel set so deep into the wheel arch. Needs checking I think...

[Aircooledrules]

The previous owner kept whatever wheels the car was being driven on before surrendering the car to the insurance company.

The wheels in the photo are crappy E46 wheels with old tires that were installed as rollers. They don’t belong on this car.

[mrjimyjohn]

Cool project, hope you can save it! Will make a great before and after

[Aircooledrules]

Thankyou.

I’m well on my way. These photos posted are from over a month ago.

I will post more progress tonight !

[Aircooledrules]

As I was assessing the parts I was looking over the passenger headlight and the lens was road-rashed and the bottom of the housing had large cracks in 2 places and a little chunk was missing, but….. the inside of the headlight was not damaged.

Usually when modern headlights take an impact the inside will break and flop around inside the housing.

I gave this one the shake test and nothing was loose inside.

I went online and looked for a used headlight, realized I’d have to spend $300+ on a good used headlight, So I went and examined my busted headlight some more.

I decided to give the headlight to a friend who works in a body shop to stitch up for me and then he passed it off to another friend of ours who is a painter at the same shop and he sanded and clear coated both headlights for me and they now look brand new !!!







While I was waiting for the headlights to come back from the body shop I started searching for other front end parts I needed like a bumper cover and front crash bar ( bumper rebar ).

And again that donor rad support came to the rescue as it still had the perfectly straight rebar attached. I went and and robbed that piece but unfortunately it was for a model without headlight washers.

The difference is that headlight washer equipped cars have a series of holes on top of the rebar for clips that hold the headlight washer hose, so I went and and drilled those holes and transferred the clips over and it’s perfect !

I couldn’t find a used pre-lci bumper cover forsale and my brother said to check the pile in our yard, that there is likely one in there, so I went ahead and sure enough there was the exact bumper cover I needed sitting in a pile in our storage yard.

It had a break ( crack ) where the kidney grilles met in the Center, so I repaired it at home and it test fit the front end !



It was great to see the car looking like a car. Even though the frond up was just loosely fitted

[Aircooledrules]

While the headlights were out getting restored I finally found some wheels for the car.

These E46 16” rollers with worn tires made the car look poor and they were not going to pass inspection.



I was looking for wheels for a month now and there was nothing coming up forsale locally that was suitable so I saw a terrible old ad for these E53 X5 Style 99 wheels.

I googled photos and couldn’t find a single photo of them on any E9x but I thought they would look good.

I’m going to be looking for something nice for summer, but for the time being, these will do.

[Aircooledrules]

After procrastinating for a while I finally repaired the crack in the front bumper and sent the bumper and fender to the body shop for paint.

The fender had a dent and I could have purchased a fender for $100 but again, I don’t like being wasteful so I banged the dent out and had the body shop smooth it out and paint it.

[NorthernDancer]

Love these kind of stories. Thanks

[Aircooledrules]

These projects always take longer to finish then anticipated for various reasons.

In this case my deadline was to have the car finished for October 31st, the date my insurance expired on my 1989 VW Jetta that my wife has been driving with our 2 kids while I get this BMW in order.



Maybe I would have met that deadline but it took the body shop 3 weeks to paint my bumper & fender and by the time I got it back, our good weather streak was done and it was raining hard and dark by the time I got home from work, so it took me another 2 weeks to actually button up the car, which I did yesterday!!!





Everything fits great. Everything looks right!

I have a few small things left to do. I have to button up the fender liner and install the headlight washer caps, do a final once over and have the windshield replaced.

Hopefully all that happens next week and then I’m ready for inspections so that it’s road legal.

[Serf27]

Another wagon saved. Great work.

[whyzee125]

Originally Posted by Phil325i

From the photos I'd say something weird is going on at the rear. I've never seen a wheel set so deep into the wheel arch. Needs checking I think...

Those are base model e46 wheels, they're just narrow with a high offset.

[M-technik-3]

Nice looking Jetta II, the Centra wheels nice too. Body shop did a great job on paint and lights.

[Aircooledrules]

Thanks for the nice words.

After some more procrastination I finally got the windshield replaced yesterday.

Now I have to button up a couple loose ends like re-install the fender liner and finish fastening the bottom of the bumper and we can start the inspection process after the weekend.



I always dread the inspection process as they always find something that they don’t like, even on the nicest cleanest car.

If the car is over 10 years old, passing inspections without a redo is unlikely ( in my experience )

So wish me luck.

Once I’m through inspections, I have a few tasteful mods planned but I’ll get into that after the car is road legal.

Secondly, you may have noticed it in the background but I bought another black E91.



This one is a 2010 328i X-Drive. Unfortunately it’s an automatic but it has the sport package and black headliner so I couldn’t say no.

I will rejuvenate that one once the first one is road legal !!!

[M3_Legend]

Wow love it!!!, anytime a BMW is being saved is a plus in my book. Brings back memories of when I saved a 2008 E90 335i Manuel back in 2015 from an auction.

[Aircooledrules]

Thanks for checking out the progress. I also love saving cars, it’s fulfilling.

I just passed all the inspections yesterday and this E91 is finally road legal again.

I’m going to order some spacers for the wheels and a couple other small mods and post some photos next week !!!

After the holidays I’ll start rehab and n the second E91.

[Aircooledrules]

The car is registered & plated and street legal !

It always feels so good to bring one back and especially when it goes smoothly which is especially rare.

This build was super smooth, under budget and full of positive surprises.

Now I have to order a few parts for it to personalize it a little bit and I’ve noticed a clunk in the rear and a few other annoyances but nothing that will keep it from being driven & enjoyed.



Onto the next one. I purchased the first repair part for the second wagon tonight. I need to order a few more items and the goal is to have that one running / driving in January. Once it’s running & driving I will tackle the rest of the general rehab and minor body work/paint and have it road ready, inspected before spring.

[Aircooledrules]

Time certainly does fly.

I have not stuck to my original timeline.

I’m not sure if I was sidetracked more by cold weather and rain or because I stole parts from Wagon number 2 to keep Wagon number 1 running, but either way we are deep into spring and Wagon number 2 is not done.

Here is a photo I took a few weeks ago.

My wife wasn’t fond of the X5 wheels although I thought they looked good. I’ve swapped them for some AC Schnizter wheels.