Caged track car meets tire wall, what now? (Maybe bodywork question...or a broader "what do we do?")

Sadly my buddy's 330 E46 track car met the tire wall at the bottom of T10 at VIR yesterday. He's fine, car is not. We have no experience in body work, nor budget for a lot of professional intervention here, but I'm not sure where to start on deciding what can be beat "close enough" vs what matters, and we can't fix with anything in our toolbox/skills.

My thought as a step one is take it to a body shop and just ask for their thoughts/a quote, keeping in mind that aesthetics are of very low concern. 

If body can be economically salvaged, then that path forward is clear. Fix it. But if the shell is either not fixable, or not affordably fixable and parts get transferred to a new shell, can cages be salvaged to a degree that makes it worth it? B-pillar looks like it may have moved in 1/2" and is just touching the cage, but no other body damage appears to have touched the cage at all, and it doesn't appear to be tweaked in any way, so my totally unprofessional opinion is that the cage is fine. But again, I don't know what I don't know. Balled up track cars are new to us.

As an aside, my own recently completed E46 held up great, and I didn't meet any tire walls, so at least 50% of us had a good weekend!

 Body work is expensive...expect an unacceptable number. I rolled a race GTI once and it was cheaper to re-shell the car and pay for a new cage than to fix the old one. 

Edit: From that picture , it looks like two doors and a fender to change. The rocker panel still looks straight. Rear quarter panel could be beat out and be left ugly. How bent are the B-pillar and the area where the rear door meets the quarter panel. That looks bent up.

Edit#2: ...and the hood and trunk are bent. Are both areas still OK with just the bolt on parts bent? Did any of the suspension bend? Looks like a re-shell so far.

I'm not sure I would trust my life to a roll cage that has been crashed, cut out of the totaled shell, and then re-welded into a new one. 

As far as body shops go, in my experience you need one that has a lot of experience with race cars otherwise they get hung up on things like insurance and paint blending and so forth.  Is there a local race shop that specializes in Spec E46s and other BMWs?  If so, I would take it there and ask for an opinion on what to do with the car, see if you can pay them for an inspection and report or something like that.

I'm glad he's OK, and sorry to hear about the crash!

If I had to try to salvage a cage (and I don't know if you're allowed to), I might be interested in cutting out the main hoop and reusing that. Maybe the forward tubes, too? Those are the hardest to get right, and if he's got those made already, making a new cage should be significantly easier. I don't know if he'd be able to reuse the cross tubes (like the windshield tube, dash bar, etc.) because he'd have to cut something to get it out and those will end up shortened.

Edit: Oh, now I see the pictures. That's worse than I was picturing. Did the front-end get pinched inward? Maybe it's time to build a new cage. I was kind of expecting sub-frame damage and a broken window.

If the suspension pick up points and the cage haven't moved then the damage is just aesthetic and you can replace the bolt on parts and hammer the rest of the stuff out.  since you're new this it probably won't be pretty but it'll be safe and as competitive as it ever was.  A body shop can measure the suspension points but they're not going to want to mess with the cage.  If you have access to them the original cage builder may be able to evaluate it.  I document specific dimensions when I build a cage for this very situation. 

APEowner said:

I document specific dimensions when I build a cage for this very situation. 

Good idea! I'm going to do this next weekend. 

We haven't put it on the lift yet to see the underside carnage. Beyond the obvious doors, fender, rear quarter, trunk and hood, it sheared a motor mount, broke something in the steering linkage (assume tie rod, but pushing it into the trailer was interesting with the tires pointing at each other), but from a limited jacking up and peering in, the struts looked okay. Which is good, MCS setup with like 2 weekends on it.

The only thing that gave me "hope" for the shell was that the rocker line appears straight as does the roof line. Under the hood, the frame horn on that side doesn't have an obvious bend, but that was using my best eyeball, no measurements were taken to validate that eyeball. He has a shell at his house, but obviously swapping body panels onto current caged shell would be the path of least resistance, just not sure how feasible that is.

Opinions in the paddock varied wildly. Everyone was very friendly, understanding, and most had a story of their own meeting with a trackside barrier.

I'd check alignment and send it back out there.

That looks like it hit a tire wall.  Tire walls are notorious for flattening sheetmetal but not having enough resistance to do a lot of structural damage.

To me, it just looks like a racecar now.

I would look at where the cage is welded in and if it doesn't look like the sheetmetal is buckled or cracked or bent, I believe you can safely say its fine.

wvumtnbkr said:

I'd check alignment and send it back out there.

That looks like it hit a tire wall.  Tire walls are notorious for flattening sheetmetal but not having enough resistance to do a lot of structural damage.

 

To me, it just looks like a racecar now.

I would look at where the cage is welded in and if it doesn't look like the sheetmetal is buckled or cracked or bent, I believe you can safely say its fine.

Your answer is my favorite, speaking on buddy's behalf!

wvumtnbkr said:

I'd check alignment and send it back out there.

That looks like it hit a tire wall.  Tire walls are notorious for flattening sheetmetal but not having enough resistance to do a lot of structural damage.

 

To me, it just looks like a racecar now.

I would look at where the cage is welded in and if it doesn't look like the sheetmetal is buckled or cracked or bent, I believe you can safely say its fine.

i agree with wvumtnbkr.  in addition, i would remove trunklid, doors, fender, and hood, and take it to either (1) your cage builder or (2) the sanctioning body's recommended cage builder / inspector, and pay for a couple hours of their time to give it a thorough look.

i'd also check the rulebook to see if you're allowed to pin doors in place vs attaching with functional hinges and strikers/latches.

Well, I assess this stuff for a living. And, I have put my own silver BMW into a tire wall, so know how this feels.

Source a used fender, pair of doors, and whatever else you need. I found a local guy who dismantled BMWs and got most of my parts from him. The rest came from Ebay. The quarter panel is toast; you'd need a shop to chop that off and replace it. You can have them section in a used quarter but often the extra labor to prep the used one burns up whatever you'd save over a new panel. The center post can probably be pulled on a frame machine. They will need the replacement doors to help line it all up. A proper frame set up and measure is only 2 hours of labor 90% of the time. Provided the cage isn't welded to the B post it shouldn't be a problem. 

What you'd need to do is figure out what all the parts and associated labor would be, then what it would cost to get another shell and re-cage it. You could possibly re-use the main hoop and maybe the front bars (the bent ones are the expensive ones). The other straight tubes you are just a tubing notcher and a lot of spare time away from duplicating the cage in the new shell. Either way, it's a lot of work and expense. It's one of the reasons I quit racing.

 I'd go as far as I could reusing the shell you have provided the important stuff is still straight or can be returned to straight without too much difficulty.

With the number of panels it needs I'd still be shopping for another 4 door 330i as a donor and if you can get the same colour that would be ideal. Having a full parts car could come in handy considering both of you are tracking the same chassis, you're also prepared if he finds the tire wall on the other side or needs the full shell.

Good luck!

adam525i said:

 I'd go as far as I could reusing the shell you have provided the important stuff is still straight or can be returned to straight without too much difficulty.

With the number of panels it needs I'd still be shopping for another 4 door 330i as a donor and if you can get the same colour that would be ideal. Having a full parts car could come in handy considering both of you are tracking the same chassis, you're also prepared if he finds the tire wall on the other side or needs the full shell.

Good luck!

He's already got it sitting beside the house (silver 4 door parts car). Though the hood from the donor is the one that met the tire wall. Original hood taught us that we're not great with installing Aerocatch's...so most body panels are already "on hand". 

How is the alignment (particularly toe) on the rear wheels?  One area I would be concerned about is if the impact moved the trailing arm pocket in the unibody.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

How is the alignment (particularly toe) on the rear wheels?  One area I would be concerned about is if the impact moved the trailing arm pocket in the unibody.

 

An excellent question. Trailer will get to my house tonight, but probably won't even open the door until the weekend, and have to clean shop before we can try wrestling it out of the trailer. Not where I expected to use toe plates next. 

Note that even if there's some movement in the chassis it's possible to DIY some repairs.

That the hood is visibly buckled but the panel gaps still line up makes me worried that the UPPER chassis rail may have shifted.  Contariwise, that should also shift the base of the A pillar, and given that the windshield isn't broken, the A pillar and its supporting metal appears to be fine, so this may not necessarily be the case, just a mangled hood hinge.

In reply to APEowner :

Is it possible to pull the b-pillar this way?

APEowner said:

Note that even if there's some movement in the chassis it's possible to DIY some repairs.

I've done that in the paddock at racetracks and went on to podium.  Sheetmetal bends fairly easily.

Great job!  That looks fairly straight!

In reply to APEowner :

The fact that you have successfully installed Aerocatch's on your hood tells me your skill level eclipses ours.

In reply to E46squeeze :

It's possible, I imagine your BMW is more solid than the old Sentra we did it on but we pulled a B pillar back into place with a come along and some straps anchored to a truck bumper. 

Front structure can be ghetto checked with a tape measure. Just 'X' across some of the fender bolts L to R. Measurements should be within a few mm.

Find out where the circle track guys are getting their stuff pulled; those guys hit stuff for fun and keep showing up the next week. There is one local to me and he charges like $1000 to put suspension points back in place with some consideration to doors and gaps being where they should be. That's Cnd $ so like $2 fiddy for u guys. He would also tell you if the car is toast.

The reality is that frame pulling is a dying industry. There may or may not be a shop in your area.

A regular body shop would charge a fortune if they even took the job.

Who built the cage that is in the car now?  He would be the one to ask about recycling cage parts. Or was the car bought as a reacecar with a cage?