Bent 7 Series repair

[VonRibnChop]

Wonder if the new owner knows the pre accident condition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2f-q4WPfs&fe...

[rassi]

Clearly very talented but can’t help but think “only in Russia” as that car would/should have been scrapped anywhere else. Wonder how it drives/alignment and structural integrity?

[CarsOrBikes]

Brilliant! If only we saw those opportunities in this throw away country. Well done, that car will be fine, and better than some on the road here! Thanks for posting.

[crankedup]

rassi said:

Clearly very talented but can’t help but think “only in Russia” as that car would/should have been scrapped anywhere else. Wonder how it drives/alignment and structural integrity?

This very much so, to think all the work car manufacturers put into safety design, and then this.
Beggars belief!

[Pioneer]

Why would anyone bother? If it was rare or exotic then probably ... but a 7 series?! I can't imagine anyone would go to that much effort in the UK unless they were bored. Would make the drive a bit more exhilarating though ... just waiting for the head-on or shunt up the rear.

[Riggie]

The guy is undoubtedly skilled in what he does. Would I want to buy it after all that structural damage? probably not.

[cptsideways]

Have worked on race cars with this sort of damage & even worse. He's done a god job as major surgery goes, quite impressive, its amazing what you can fix with a dozer. It's also great seeing how cars are built, though factory tolerances are somewhat tighter than a stick.


If you've ever wondered where the foreign transporter loads of very bent cars are going, its places like Poland/Hungary/Russia that take them & fix em up. I'd be happy with this one as fixers go but this is a rare thing to be done to this level. Thankfully we can buy a straight original leggy 7 series for £5k in the UK.


There are some cars now where this just wont be possible, eg bonded shells & those with lots of high tensile steel.

Having seen a demonstration of a firecrew cutting the roof off of a side impact crash tested Jaguar XE with its ally shell. Gotta be an easy one we were thinking.....

Errrr no, turns out the shell has inner layer of high tensile steel, they're cutting chopper gear would hardly touch it! What was going to be a 30min demo job turned into two hours. The jaw cutters simply failed to cut the steel bits, the metal just deformed a bit & sprang back. An impressive sight indeed.

[bmwmike]

Surprised how flimsy that 7er is. Not like the XE mentioned with the high tensile bars etc.

That guy did an amazing job though, reckon those panel gaps would stand up to close scrutiny?

[Nine-Eighty-Six]

bmwmike said:

Surprised how flimsy that 7er is. Not like the XE mentioned with the high tensile bars etc.

That guy did an amazing job though, reckon those panel gaps would stand up to close scrutiny?

That's a very old 7 series now, though - a generation of design behind the XE.

[bmwmike]

Nine-Eighty-Six said:

That's a very old 7 series now, though - a generation of design behind the XE.

Is that f10 generation in 5 series parlance? Not clued up on 7's

[Nine-Eighty-Six]

bmwmike said:

Nine-Eighty-Six said:

That's a very old 7 series now, though - a generation of design behind the XE.

Is that f10 generation in 5 series parlance? Not clued up on 7's

Pretty much - F01, I think? - launched in 2008. Nice cars, but quite an old design.

[njw1]

My mate bashed up his 3 series quite severely a while back, it wasn't quite as bad as the above but it did involve a bent sill, squashed B pillar, two fked doors and two bent rims, strangely the airbags didn't deploy and it was quite a wallop, ask me how I know.....
Anyway, everyone I spoke too said 'strip it and scrap it' but his cousin, who happens to be a panel beater, said no, fix it, and that's what he did. To look at the car now you would never know. As to how it drives, after replacing the bent wheels it drove perfectly when it was still bashed up which I think says a lot for BMW build quality, however, how the car would fair if it had another bump in the same place I wouldn't like to say, obviously there is going to be a lot of metal fatigue present.

[to3m]

When I rolled my 320d a few years ago, the airbags didn't go off. I suppose there was no sudden decrease of forward motion so perhaps the car could detect this and avoid deploying the airbags.

I replaced it with a 330d and about 6 months later somebody pulled out in front of me without being good enough to leave enough distance for my car to stop before hitting theirs. Again, no airbags went off in my car... though it looked like all of them deployed in theirs! Well, I'd had time to at least hit the brakes, I suppose, so I was probably going no more than 20mph, so maybe it was that.

But then some tt drove into the side of my 330d a couple of months ago, twisting it round and pushing it into a van... and the airbags didn't go off then either. I was probably going <20mph, as I was making a turn at the time (they went straight through an opposite Give Way, right into my car, the wker) - so, again, maybe the speed is a factor.

But I think the more likely explanation is that they just don't work

[iSore]

Pioneer said:

Why would anyone bother?

Money. That car would have been a Cat B here, around £5000 for a 2012/3 730d. Repaired it's worth rather more. The F01 left production in 2015 and that one was clearly quite new, hardly a 'very old car'.........

I like this guy's videos - he's extremely good at what he does and not a bodger. Some will get sand in their fanny over it but it wouldn't bother me as long as it was cheap enough.

[Pioneer]

iSore said:

Pioneer said:

Why would anyone bother?

Money. That car would have been a Cat B here, around £5000 for a 2012/3 730d. Repaired it's worth rather more. The F01 left production in 2015 and that one was clearly quite new, hardly a 'very old car'.........

I like this guy's videos - he's extremely good at what he does and not a bodger. Some will get sand in their fanny over it but it wouldn't bother me as long as it was cheap enough.

It's worth peanuts here. Have you ever tried selling a cat-b car? Unless it's to a mate down the pub, good luck! And who would actually want to go out in cat-b with the family on-board. Unless they want the 'prestige' of something they can't actually afford. Has to be Russia, Eastern Europe. They don't give a damm and probably could get if off any register with a wave of a few quid.

[Nine-Eighty-Six]

iSore said:

Money. That car would have been a Cat B here, around £5000 for a 2012/3 730d. Repaired it's worth rather more. The F01 left production in 2015 and that one was clearly quite new, hardly a 'very old car'.........

'Very old' was in reference to the design - and why it doesn't include some of the more recently adopted construction techniques.

[iSore]

Pioneer said:

It's worth peanuts here. Have you ever tried selling a cat-b car? Unless it's to a mate down the pub, good luck! And who would actually want to go out in cat-b with the family on-board. Unless they want the 'prestige' of something they can't actually afford. Has to be Russia, Eastern Europe. They don't give a damm and probably could get if off any register with a wave of a few quid.

The car was repaired in Russia, where it has a considerable value. A Cat B can be reimported and re-registered here as an import, a loophole DVLA haven't quite closed yet. It's worth rather more than peanuts. That's kinda why they're doing it............

[iSore]

Nine-Eighty-Six said:

'Very old' was in reference to the design - and why it doesn't include some of the more recently adopted construction techniques.

The F01 is very old? Okay then.

[Pioneer]

iSore said:

Pioneer said:

It's worth peanuts here. Have you ever tried selling a cat-b car? Unless it's to a mate down the pub, good luck! And who would actually want to go out in cat-b with the family on-board. Unless they want the 'prestige' of something they can't actually afford. Has to be Russia, Eastern Europe. They don't give a damm and probably could get if off any register with a wave of a few quid.

The car was repaired in Russia, where it has a considerable value. A Cat B can be reimported and re-registered here as an import, a loophole DVLA haven't quite closed yet. It's worth rather more than peanuts. That's kinda why they're doing it............

Re-import and re-register to sell a mass produced, older car that has hemorrhaged most of it's value already in a market place that already has 700+ RFN UK models. Mental note, look out for a bargain 7 series import from Russia, what could possibly go wrong. The only chance this dude has of making money is selling it in his region without declaring it's history or to some gopnik who doesn't give a damm. His work is impressive though.

[Ninja59]

iSore said:

Money. That car would have been a Cat B here, around £5000 for a 2012/3 730d. Repaired it's worth rather more. The F01 left production in 2015 and that one was clearly quite new, hardly a 'very old car'.........

I like this guy's videos - he's extremely good at what he does and not a bodger. Some will get sand in their fanny over it but it wouldn't bother me as long as it was cheap enough.

Not a bodger? He was straightening parts of a flippin chassis leg FFS and welding it back! It would have been quicker to cut the leg off and replace with a new partial leg and far less risky (although risk is open to question i agree as a family no where near it)

At no point did i see any form of actual jig to make sure it went back to factory spec either (he admitted in that video only approx values being used with his measuring tool).

Even just minor look showed the front bumper not lining uo properly, the front driver door looked out of alignment and the rear driver side wheel looked to be sitting incorrectly in comparison with the passenger side.

Need I say anymore....