A few months ago a friend of mine buys (without consulting anyone) a reasonably priced salvage F90.
It was originally purchased by someone from copart who quickly realised that they had bitten off more than they could chew and sold it on to my friend at an allegedly small loss just to get it off their hands.
He very excitedly calls me to inform me has bought an M5 that needs a little work and if I would be interested in project managing it for him.
He assures me its “just a light front ender” that has gone to the rad pack.
I go round to have a look at the car and instantly understand why the first guy got rid of it as quickly as possible and advised him that he should do the same.
He is adamant that he wants to keep it and it repair it, and gleefully shows me that he has already ordered all the obvious parts that are required, 90% brand new from BMW, 10% used but OEM.
Now bare in mind that at this stage without him even having looked under the car or put it on a ramp, the obvious parts are already an entire front end all the way to and including the rad pack, seatbelts, airbags, dashboard and a set of rims and tyres.
Also a rear door that we thought was damaged prior to the write off. (More on that later)
I advised him that once the garage start stripping back the car it is highly likely that it will be full of hidden, unpleasant and expensive surprises and advise him that he can sell it with the parts he has ordered and he will not loose any money. If anything he will be up.
He is adamant he wants to see it through, he tells me he is not doing it to make any money on the car and he intends to have it as a weekend toy for many years to come which he already has future projects planned for and asks me again to project manage it for him.
I reluctantly took the project on and got it done for him within two months. (It would have been quicker but some parts took ages to arrive.)
It was not cheap. In fact even with todays inflated used car prices, it got to the point where he could have almost got a straight car for his money.
If I had actually charged him a fee he would have been at that point.
Got the car recovered (another one of those costs he forgot to factor in) to the garage that I had marked for the mechanical work who stripped it back and gave me the full break down.
In their opinion the car had spun (so that explained the out of place damage on the rear door) and they showed me it also had suspension damage on one side at the front.
Thankfully there was no chassis damage, but the hidden surprises didn’t end there though.
There were also two broken engine mounts, and broken inlet manifolds.
I got priced up what was needed from BMW and asked him repeatedly if he was sure he wanted to carry on with it to which he insisted he was. So on I cracked.
If enough of you are interested in the hundreds of part numbers involved in this project, I have copy’s of all of the invoices that I can scan and upload.
Now bare in mind that there are loads of bits of plastic, nuts and bolts and bits of trim that I can’t remember off the top of my head but the gist of it was:
Entire front end all the way to and including the rad packs
Front and feet airbags
Side curtain airbags
Roof lining
Seatbelts
Dashboard
Windscreen
Rear door
Engine mounts
Inlet manifolds
Full suspension arm, hub and all associated legs
Driveshaft
Wheel bearings
Pads and discs
Brake calliper
Wheels and tyres
Full major service
KDS
Coding
There was also the cost of recovering it to the body shop and their cost for painting and alignment of the panels.
I am pleased to say he was delighted with the job.
Now if any of you are thinking about buying a salvage F90, the advice I would give you is that unless it is really light damage, you should probably walk away from it.
To repair these cars to a decent standard can very quickly become uneconomical.
