theosinc930
Member
In 2021, when I turned 18, I received a 2003 BMW Z4 2.5i as a gift from my parents. I had saved a few thousand euros for the car since I was a child, the rest came from my parents. The car was a dream for me. Inline six-cylinder, manual transmission, rear-wheel drive, convertible... simply wonderful. According to the VIN, the Z4 was only 3 weeks younger than me! In the first three years, I drove almost 43,000km through 10 countries in the Z4.

My favorite memories by car were the trips through the Alps: Stelvio Pass, Furka Pass, Pordoi Pass, Bernina Pass and the others that you can see in the second picture with the stickers

Well, unfortunately I had bad luck during my second Alps trip in September 2024. After I had enjoyed the Stelvio Pass for the second time, a woman behind me was distracted at the wheel, didn't see that I braked and drove into me...

My girlfriend and I weren't hurt, and the woman in the other car was ok too. After we were done with the police, I looked at the car. The engine didn't want to start anymore, but eventually I managed to repair it. The battery safety terminal was to blame. I then secured the bumper with wire, closed the trunk with a rope and decided to drive the car back home.

After a 1500km drive, I arrived home without any further problems. The airbag light was on because of the belt tensioners, but otherwise the car drove exactly as before. Then the fun with insurance began. Since I have Romanian license plates and the woman had Italian license plates, the whole process with the insurance company took 2 months.

I then went to a body shop where the car was dismantled to estimate the repair costs. My trunk floor was quite badly deformed, but the mechanics thought it was repairable. The verdict was unfortunately quite sad, because the insurance company decided that the repair would cost more than the value of the car. In addition, many spare parts were no longer available. But I didn't want to accept a total loss. I had invested far too much money in mechanical repairs since 2021 to lose the car.
I looked for another solution after that. I had the idea to buy another Z4 as a parts donor. In the UK I found a 2005 Z4 2.5i with sports seats and Style 108 wheels. I ended up buying the car for £1000 but unfortunately, I had quite a bit of trouble finding someone to deliver the car to my home. But after a few weeks I managed to do it.

The red Z4 arrived and I took the two cars to another workshop. Here, the mechanics would use the entire rear part (including the trunk floor) of the parts car to repair my Z4. They then started to disassemble the parts car by removing the spot welds holding the sheet metal parts together.


After they were done with the parts car and prepared all the spare parts, the whole process was repeated with my car. Everything was slowly dismantled until all deformed body parts were removed.

Now the actual repair begins. The sheet metal parts of the parts car are welded on my car. The picture you see below was sent yesterday from the workshop:

And so my Z4 gets a new ass
Part 2 of the story will hopefully be here soon.
As a small bonus, my Z4 will now also get sports seats with heating. We will install the whole beige interior of the parts car, along with the extra speakers and style 108 rims. In the end, the car will be even better than before the accident!

My favorite memories by car were the trips through the Alps: Stelvio Pass, Furka Pass, Pordoi Pass, Bernina Pass and the others that you can see in the second picture with the stickers


Well, unfortunately I had bad luck during my second Alps trip in September 2024. After I had enjoyed the Stelvio Pass for the second time, a woman behind me was distracted at the wheel, didn't see that I braked and drove into me...

My girlfriend and I weren't hurt, and the woman in the other car was ok too. After we were done with the police, I looked at the car. The engine didn't want to start anymore, but eventually I managed to repair it. The battery safety terminal was to blame. I then secured the bumper with wire, closed the trunk with a rope and decided to drive the car back home.

After a 1500km drive, I arrived home without any further problems. The airbag light was on because of the belt tensioners, but otherwise the car drove exactly as before. Then the fun with insurance began. Since I have Romanian license plates and the woman had Italian license plates, the whole process with the insurance company took 2 months.

I then went to a body shop where the car was dismantled to estimate the repair costs. My trunk floor was quite badly deformed, but the mechanics thought it was repairable. The verdict was unfortunately quite sad, because the insurance company decided that the repair would cost more than the value of the car. In addition, many spare parts were no longer available. But I didn't want to accept a total loss. I had invested far too much money in mechanical repairs since 2021 to lose the car.
I looked for another solution after that. I had the idea to buy another Z4 as a parts donor. In the UK I found a 2005 Z4 2.5i with sports seats and Style 108 wheels. I ended up buying the car for £1000 but unfortunately, I had quite a bit of trouble finding someone to deliver the car to my home. But after a few weeks I managed to do it.

The red Z4 arrived and I took the two cars to another workshop. Here, the mechanics would use the entire rear part (including the trunk floor) of the parts car to repair my Z4. They then started to disassemble the parts car by removing the spot welds holding the sheet metal parts together.


After they were done with the parts car and prepared all the spare parts, the whole process was repeated with my car. Everything was slowly dismantled until all deformed body parts were removed.

Now the actual repair begins. The sheet metal parts of the parts car are welded on my car. The picture you see below was sent yesterday from the workshop:

And so my Z4 gets a new ass

Part 2 of the story will hopefully be here soon.
As a small bonus, my Z4 will now also get sports seats with heating. We will install the whole beige interior of the parts car, along with the extra speakers and style 108 rims. In the end, the car will be even better than before the accident!