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a sad day...where to go from here

3K views 48 replies 19 participants last post by  MotorMark 
#1 ·
Ok guys...had a massive hail storm Thursday. I am waiting for insurance to give me some sort of news.

Every body panel has fist sized damage. Assuming they total it (I don't see how they wouldn't) I am planning to buy it back. Should I part it out or sell it as a whole?

Here is what is in it
PSS coilovers with about 1500 miles on them
M5 LSD with remanufactured M5 driveshaft installed 300 miles ago
Pads/rotors SS lines 1000 miles ago
RPM 505 18 inch wheels with good rubber about 8k miles on them
Interior is in decent shape

What should I ask for it selling it as a whole? I remember what I paid for parts and it is making me ill. Runs great and if I put in a new windshield it would be legal to drive on the street. The windshield suffered a crack but no water entered the car at all. I was one of very few people able to drive it home as most others lost all their glass entirely.

Not sure if I want to buy another 540 with a bad drivetrain and swap everything over or just move on and get an e46 m3.


Take care
Steve
 
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#2 ·
if you still have the original parts, I would sell the wheels/tires, coilovers, LSD/shaft, etc and part out what you can.
got pics of the car after the hail?
 
#3 · (Edited)
Ok guys...had a massive hail storm Thursday. I am waiting for insurance to give me some sort of news.

Every body panel has fist sized damage. Assuming they total it (I don't see how they wouldn't) I am planning to buy it back. Should I part it out or sell it as a whole?

Here is what is in it
PSS coilovers with about 1500 miles on them
M5 LSD with remanufactured M5 driveshaft installed 300 miles ago
Pads/rotors SS lines 1000 miles ago
RPM 505 18 inch wheels with good rubber about 8k miles on them
Interior is in decent shape

What should I ask for it selling it as a whole? I remember what I paid for parts and it is making me ill. Runs great and if I put in a new windshield it would be legal to drive on the street. The windshield suffered a crack but no water entered the car at all. I was one of very few people able to drive it home as most others lost all their glass entirely.

Not sure if I want to buy another 540 with a bad drivetrain and swap everything over or just move on and get an e46 m3.

Take care
Steve
Personally I'd fix the windshield and continue driving it. Hail damage wouldn't bother me at all for a driver. I'm sure many people feel the same as me, so I'd sell it as a whole to one of them. Obviously the hail damage and Salvage title will reduce the value, but it's way easier than parting it out (which is a HUGE headache). If you do part it out I'm willing to buy the rear differential.
 
#4 ·
I'd probably buy the coilovers :)
how much for the wheels and tires?
 
#5 ·
Been there done that.
- You will get an offer of about $4,000-$5,000 or whatever current value.
- To buy it back, they take off $1,000, so you should get a check of $3,000-$4,000 or so.
- Keep the car, park it in the sun in the summer. During July and Aug, the hot sun will heat the metal, some of these hail-damage pockets will come back out, not perfect but better than now.
- Then drive the E39 like a "beater car" lol...
 
#6 · (Edited)
My car was also in a hail storm

But the hits were smaller than you described.I would consult with a dent less repair place.Maybe they can push some of the dents out.they did miracles on my car. Only one hit on the roof which he could not repair as headliner would have had to be removed . Other hits were gone,like the car was never in a hail storm.
 
#7 ·
paintless repair is reasonable compared to a body shop. A friend of mine here in KC does it and travels the midwest performing automotive miracles.
his wife is pretty damn hot too ;)
 
#9 ·
The disgusting thing is the car had an $8k respray by the previous owner back in 08! The more I think about the parts and labor both my labor and shop time it's bad. Less than 20k miles ago I had the cooling system replaced and the valley pan gasket replaced. I installed front and rear Eibach swaybars (the front was a real SOB) to get in there. Lets see what else...oh yeah every single suspension component was replaced when I put the coil overs in...I will try to post pics
 
#11 · (Edited)
Here are some picks of the damage. I may try a heat gun and some dry ice to pop some of the dings but it even got my fenders bad and that metal is thick. The chunks of ice in my hand are actually on the smaller side of what was coming down! And yeah the car drives like a champ. I would like to think it is one of the best e39s on the road as far as the mechanical aspect. Even goofy stuff like the SAP are less than a year old. A part out would be so much work I am thinking if I go through all that I may as well buy a shell and swap everything over.
 

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#12 · (Edited)
After all that work -- to have the car damaged by a Hail Storm !!! Even the Side panels sustained damage ??
To be perfectly honest, I don't know what I'd do if a major hail storm moved through our area. Since I have no garage.....I'd probably pull all the covers off the beds and throw them over the Mighty e-39 to try to absorb the damage.

If you could get a hood and a trunk lid from a scrap yard.....could you see your way to keeping your 540 ?? The Interior is still lookin' good, right ??

Or you could take the Animal House approach and do what the Delta boys did to Flounder's Lincoln.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDLARx7M9s15w&v=LARx7M9s15w
 
#13 ·
I could get a hood and trunk and Bondo the roof...need to get the goofy rear antenna as that is gone. I collected a bunch of black mirror covers in the parking lot but I need to sort through them to find out if any of them are actually from my car?! I am going to take a bath on this one no matter how you look at it. I am just glad I didn't put a supercharger on it as was planned to be done in July. Had I bought an m5 rather than a 540 to make my own insurance would pay much better. That is why I am now looking at the e46 m3 as they are near the bottom of their depreciation curve and a decent one can be had for around 15k. That is about ten grand less than I have tied up into my 5 since I got it in 2011.
 
#16 ·
Fixing this thing in its current condition is going to be a pain in the a$$. I totaled an 00 about two years ago and broke even with the insurance settlement. By that I mean the purchase price of the original car (minus 2K parts in 30K miles). I found a loaded 03 with fewer miles. My point is, if you work it right there are still some nice replacement E39s out there. As others have already said, strip the current car of the aftermarket parts if that's what you decide to do.
 
#18 ·
Hi,

Sorry to see the damage etc, depending on what happens with the insurance, you could either buy the car back and sell off the goodies and put the standard stuff back on the car and flog it for what it goes for, or buy back and keep running as it is, or buy back and part the car out totally.

However, with such a heavy hail storm, all those other cars caught in it must be similarly damaged?! the claims coming into the insurance companies must be a real headache I'd imagine!

Hopefully you get a route forward quickly

cheers, Dennis!
 
#21 ·
This is why you should not "get married" to any car, this is my current philosophy.

My 1998 Volvo S70 got the hail damage exactly like yours, the kids use it for high school.
Over the summer of 2013, the July/August sun heat it up and it became better.
Don't fix it, use it like a beater car. Save the money for another E39 lol...
 
#23 ·
Seeing that damage I really don't see any reason to get rid of the car. It's bad as far as hail damage goes, but you'll get thousands from the insurance and essentially have a free car. It's also very possible to fix that damage and the insurance might elect to do that.
 
#25 ·
Out of curiosity, what town exactly was that in? (I see "eastern PA" and I'm about to move to central PA myself, soon....)

Much like a golfball, your car will now be more aerodynamic with the dents and, therefore, faster. You should keep it.

Kidding aside, if it were me I might see what a paintless dent place could do, pocket the insurance $, and keep driving it as a beater until the wheels fall off if it ends up looking bad in the end. That or replace the hood/trunk with scrapyard parts and pocket most of the insurance $. The interior and mechanicals are still what they were and the car is still a great ride in almost all respects.
 
#26 ·
Out of curiosity, what town exactly was that in? (I see "eastern PA" and I'm about to move to central PA myself, soon....)

Much like a golfball, your car will now be more aerodynamic with the dents and, therefore, faster. You should keep it.

Kidding aside, if it were me I might see what a paintless dent place could do, pocket the insurance $, and keep driving it as a beater until the wheels fall off if it ends up looking bad in the end. That or replace the hood/trunk with scrapyard parts and pocket most of the insurance $. The interior and mechanicals are still what they were and the car is still a great ride in almost all respects.
I live in Wyomissing PA about an hour from Philadelphia... About a mile from Reading Pa. Wyomissing is a nice area that people in Philadelphia have most likely never heard of and those in Reading would call the rich area. Lol...it's not a bad area but it isn't rich at all...I would say the area is somewhat stagnant and more than anything lower middle class with lower class surrounding it.
 
#30 ·
Hopefully you saved the old suspension parts so you can swap them back after it gets totaled, along with the LSD. Insurance companies don't give two hoots about any upgrades you did to your car.

Also always argue the price they give you. They offered me 10k for my 540i. I went and printed out some ridiculously priced 540is on cars.com. Got 12.5k for the 540i I paid 8.5k for. So you can come out ahead


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#32 ·
Hopefully you saved the old suspension parts so you can swap them back after it gets totaled, along with the LSD. Insurance companies don't give two hoots about any upgrades you did to your car.

Also always argue the price they give you. They offered me 10k for my 540i. I went and printed out some ridiculously priced 540is on cars.com. Got 12.5k for the 540i I paid 8.5k for. So you can come out ahead

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All OEM parts are still in the aftermarket boxes...I even have the old control arms etc.
 
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