Resurecting a TI

[rochey6957]

Hello everyone im brand new to the ti forum and i want to share with you the salvage and rebuild of my newly purchased ti. My father helped my puchase it, however it's not the first BMW to be in the garage. About 5 or 6 years ago my Dad bought a 1997 318i from a local dealer(it was his mid life crisis car ). its always run strong and never had any real problems with it.

So 6 months ago he was drivng by another dealership and spoted a dust covered Z3. the dealer said he just got it from a guy who only drove it during the summer and kept it in his garage the rest of the year.the car had less than 90k miles on it. It had a few things wrong with it like the plastic defroster button was broken the back window was faded and cracking. Just minor things like that and he bought it up for less than 6 grand! We fixed her up and shined her untill she looked like a brand new penny.

Almost two weeks after the Z3 was road worthy but in the garage to avoid the harsh PA winter the 318i blows a head gasket! it took almost two weeks to fix that. she ran great for 100miles then it was losing oil pressure and it wouldn't start. we ended up replacing almost every sensor, putting a new exhaust and catalytic converter on plus a buch more parts on and still it wouldn't start! we had the dealer hook it up the computer they have and the bottom half of the engine went, all the seals were no good. so we ended up buying an engine,tranny,intake manifold+fuel injectors and the wiring harness of a salvage yard from $1200. Droped the new engine in and its got more horses and growl then i ever remember.

Sorry for the lengthy back story but we'll move on to the wounded ti. She's a 1998 with around 120k miles. she was in a collision with a tree. we bought for $1500 off the same guy who sold us the engine and tranny. its missing a radio and most likely the power mirror controls(probably stolen when it was sitting at auction). basically all the plastic from the front is garbage. the frame is bent about 5 inches on the driver side and maybe more on the passenger side. the engine mounts are broken also. we got the hood off and bumper/grill area the radiator is salvageable but, the wiper fluid tank has a big gash in it. Amazingly it started right up when the guy dropped it off. so it shouldn't be to bad to nurse this baby back to health.







thanks

[MPWR]

Good luck with it! Makes me feel good to hear that a ti is getting a new lease on life.

[b.u.ti-ful]

Another ti getting back on the road!

[TroyWagner]

man, good luck trying to find some door panels (from looking at the pics, your going to need some) they are few and far between... also dealing with them is a pain... i need to replace my drivers door panel and the two rear interior panels... aside from that it looks like mostly body work, i think you got one hell of a deal on it, they are amazing little cars, but congrats on bringing another ti back to life!

[rochey6957]

well the driver door panel was actually in the trunk along with the panel that goes around the hatchback window. so i wont have to worry about having to buy them but the power mirror control id gone from the door.

[TroyWagner]

ah, well as long as all the mounting brackets are still on it (little black post like things glued to the panel) then you shouldnt have too much work to do, but the little white gromets are probably not there which youll have to buy, but they are really cheap, so thats not a big problem for the most part

[rochey6957]

here are a couple of pics showing the work we got done last night.




And here is a pile of parts that are no good.


these two show how bent the frame is:
passanger side:


Driver side:

[Phamster]

My friend is selling a lot of his stock parts if you need something.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1418073

[tiFreak]

gotta hand it to you, you're brave, not many people would try to fix a car with that kind of frame damage, good luck

[Bimmerella]

Originally Posted by Phamster

My friend is selling a lot of his stock parts if you need something.

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum....php?t=1418073

LOL I sent him message on the exhaust! a few days ago! tell em to give good ol bimmerella a sweet deal on it HAHA!!

Now on that note GOOD LUCK in the end it will be well worth it ti's IMO are one of the sexiest cars on the road =) and another one out there is even better than one less sittin around wasting away! hehe!

[pdxmotorhead]

In my town their is a frame shop that strictly does the cars for dealers, but if you talk with them for projects like this if you have everything ready and with a couple weeks notice they will pull her straight for you for a decent price, usually a few hundred bucks. You may find a shop like this if you look around...

Dave

[rochey6957]

Well there are quite a few repair shops around where i live. the one guy said at the worst it would be like $600 to fix it. but were checking some other places that are a little closer.

[rochey6957]

Woo it's been a while since i posted. well a lot of progress has been made. we ended up not taking it to a shop to have the frame straightened we just did it ourselves. the drivers side we just bent back with a sledge hammer :-D. but the passenger side was kinda crumpled so we cut it out and got the same area off a junk yard. it came out really good u can hardly tell that it was even cut at all!









The hood and fender just need some fine tuning to be lined up just right but they're ok for now. still need the motor mounts though.

[tiFreak]

nice, starting to look like a car again

[TroyWagner]

good progress! keep up the updates