Anything worth salvaging from burned out car.

[RearWheelNeil]

my e36 was stolen, used in ram-raid and then burned out and has been recovered. or whats left of it...
i havent even seen it yet, just thinking if there anything is worth bothering trying to salvage off it. if there is any point even going to see it as its quite a trek. never had a car fire before. dont know anyone that has, dont know what kind of heat is generated quite a lot i guess.
things i was thinking were it had new coilovers about 100miles old, straight through exhaust and inlet manifold, new wheels about 2 days before
guess its a case of going and seeing but was interested in general opinions or ifits not worth it cos heat exposure or something i havent thought of....
cheers.

[Marc W]

It depends if it entirely burtn out one end to the other or if a bit has survived. Sometimes you see the very front or rear end looking realtively undamaged. If it was like that a few of the bits might be salvagable but otherwise probably nothing.

[vinnie01]

I guess it might be worth looking at it as it would depend on how consuming the fire was

[cianha]

Heat weakens metal. Even if a part looks OK, there's no way to be sure it's safe.

And hydroflouric acid burns are nasty. http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/news/local/chief-...

Sorry for your loss.

[dave7692]

I'd imagine what the fire didn't damage the ram-raiding probably would have?

Gutting to hear though, we had a 4x4 stolen from our farm for the same purpose, although we'd taken it off the road a while back because it was rusted out, when the police called my Dad to say what it had been used for he said he was surprised it didn't fall apart when they tried to ram something haha

[TooMany2cvs]

It's not your car now. It's the insurer's car. They sometimes sell the salvage back, but this'll be Cat B or - more likely - Cat A, so they won't even consider it.

B'sides, assuming the thieves were even vaguely competent at setting fire to it, then there is nothing, not one single bit, useful left on it. They're not always competent - a mate had a Nova nicked years ago, and the eejits lit the driver's seat then shut the door. Unfortunately, they'd got in via the lock rather than smashing a window, and the fire ran out of oxygen before properly catching. One slightly charred seat, and one entirely matt black interior.

[cirian75]

I got the suspension taken off a burned out MG ZR160 for my fitting to my old Rover 200 Vi 1.8 vvc

the inside of it was a mess, but the areas near the suspension was ok

So I had em.

[RearWheelNeil]

thanks all.
yeah my curiosity leads to at least have a gands and see what the extent is. from what they said im not hopeful though.
acid burns sounds pretty mental.

the insurance said i can have it if i want it. interesting about the suspension cirian75.
was it just springs or dampers too?

[cirian75]

just the damper struts with springs

nothing else.

Edited by cirian75 on Saturday 21st June 06:21

[Zerotonine]

Could you not ask someone at the car's location to take a photo of the remains and get them to send it to you? Then you can see if there is any point in going?

EDIT I have had two E36s, fantastic cars. I would love another and a nice 325 sport is on my list!

Edited by Zerotonine on Saturday 21st June 11:10

[iloveboost]

Dam that's terrible sorry for your loss.
I wouldn't go it's never nice finding out your car has been vandalised overnight it's worse driving a long way to see it like that. Move on with the money you get from the insurer and try to find another nice car. I don't think you should buy another E36 unless being reminded of the old one doesn't bother you.