Pudgypepper X5D Rebuild Log (crunchy)

[Pudgypepper]

Hello all!

I am finally getting around to organizing my photos from this repair journey. Quick story time.

October 2018, I took a road trip with a couple musician friends up to GA for a gig with a local orchestra and ended up hydroplaning into a guard rail on I-95 during a heavy rainstorm on the way up. We were all safe and fortunately, my vehicle was the only one involved in the incident. After consulting with my father, we decided it'd would be better to repair the truck ourselves instead of getting insurance involved, as they would likely have totaled the vehicle and slapped me with 5 years of steeply hiked insurance premiums. We had also been talking about doing another father son project as we were itching to rebuild another car (My dad is an engineer and savant with restoring, repairing, and maintaining vehicles).

Starting in November 2018, we took our time as I have other cars available to use, but mostly due to both of us having busy schedules with me in the orchestra, and him and I running a family property flipping business, as well as Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years/Vacations/etc. Finishing up early in May of 2019, it was a very fun rebuild, and I can confidently say that the car is in even better condition than when I bought it.

Please enjoy the photos!


First set of photos is just after the hit, where I logged initial location, and then after it was towed to my brother's home in Jacksonville where I gathered a tally of broken parts and took a chance to better inspect the damage.

[Pudgypepper]

While in Jacksonville, I took a few days off to spend time with my brother and begin the search for parts. I luckily found the biggest items at a local scrapyard that happened to have an X5 in BSM with a clear left side! I paid them $900 for the quarter panel and left rear door and was on my way. They had already sold the left front door so I ended up deciding to repair it with my dad.

I don't know how to upload video on this forum.. Not included here is a video of my uncle's 2018 Silverado 1500 with only 800 miles on the clock towing it down to South Florida with my dad's all aluminum car trailer. I'm so thankful they let me borrow the truck and trailer!

[Pudgypepper]

Finally home and in the garage for it's extensive surgery.

We began taking it apart almost immediately to further assess the damage and begin cataloging parts. We also took the opportunity the remove the rear quarter glass (carefully!!!) as well as scraping seam sealer/sanding/drilling out spot welds/cutting the quarter panel.

I returned to Jacksonville a few weeks later to bring the wheels to a friend who repaired the aluminum and refinished them. More on that to come.

[pdX5M]

Glad you made it out OK and the damage wasn't worse than it is. Good luck with the repair and looking forward to seeing photos of it all sorted out!

You're a far braver man than I tackling all that body work. I'll do most anything mechanical but I feel body work takes a certain form of patience and attention to detail.

[Pudgypepper]

Originally Posted by pdX5M

Glad you made it out OK and the damage wasn't worse than it is. Good luck with the repair and looking forward to seeing photos of it all sorted out!

You're a far braver man than I tackling all that body work. I'll do most anything mechanical but I feel body work takes a certain form of patience and attention to detail.

It really did take a lot of work! I'll be posting the rest of the photos hopefully by end of the weekend. I got roped into cleaning just as I was beginning to post everything up!

[Pudgypepper]

Below are more of the process of drilling out spot welds and pulling the quarter panel off with a little celebratory shots. I believe we were well into 200 spot welds to remove it!

[Pudgypepper]

Donor Quarter Panel mock up and line up which took weeks because we wanted to make sure it was ABSOLUTELY perfect. Welding tends to make things very permanent

Dad taught me how to weld on this project so It's not perfect but we are confident the welds were secure and done properly. Filler was applied to begin the process of evening the body panels out. Primer applied afterwards and then the process of sanding the doors and quarter was underway.

[Pudgypepper]

Amongst the sanding, I received pictures of the progress on the wheels. I knew it would take quite a bit of work to repair the rear left as the guard rail had taken a good chunk out of the aluminum.

The shop I left them with had them for a month but took great care to assure they were in better condition than new. He even sanded the "13" and "15" logos properly so the numbers could show clearly unlike the caked up factory finish.

I had a fresh pair of Continental DWS06 sent to them for mounting and balancing..I'm sure the crap quality Nexen tires were the culprit of my hydroplaning. I will never waver from Continental or Michelin from now on, saving a few bucks is just not worth the increased risk of getting into an accident. My brother brought the wheels down for me and I noticed the shop even put aluminum hardware for the stem cap! Nice touch and very appreciated.

In between sanding/deep cleaning sessions I set out to repair the rear AC vent that had likely been kicked up by the previous owner's children. For having three kids, I'm surprised the interior wasn't in worse condition than just a broken vent. A little plastic welding and small metal rod modification made it better than new.

[Pudgypepper]

A final attentive sanding and black primer prepared us to paint. Since the beginning of the project, we had set out to do everything at home in place of outsourcing. With that spirit in mind, we built a paint booth with PVC pipe and large sheets of tarp from Harbor Freight. We fashioned filters and fans with pvc fittings and zip ties and tested the "booth" for air leaks as best as we could

The cleaning process was arduous but well worth it as we ended up with minimal dust and particulates in the paint finish. After letting the paint cure, I sanded the clear coat down to 1800-2000-2500 and then compound-polish-finish polished with a rotary and various 3M products.

Here the rear quarter glass is only mocked up. I did not realize that you could buy the glue online and ended up driving to my local glass shop to have them install it for $75.00. They were also quite generous to let me look on and learn their process, which I am very grateful for. Before that was to take place, I first needed to assemble the truck! Running boards going in here.

[Pudgypepper]

With the paint finished, I decided to refresh the brakes. I cleaned, sanded, and painted the dust shields in silver, calipers in a beautiful blue I found at the local auto parts store, and silver for the retainer clips. I took great care to mask the rubbers that I did not want to remove but also removed and cleaned the rubber sleeves that some of the caliper bolts run through. New Rotors and Pads left a clean look, and I applied anti seize on the hubs after a good wire brushing.

After having a bear of a time looking for a used rear bumper, I opted to purchase a new OEM bumper from the dealership. He gave me discounts on top of our shop pricing (through my uncle's shop) so it really helped offset the added expense. I'm glad I went for it though as painting a brand new bumper was a much more relaxed process. Saving money where I could, I found a used Left Rear Bumper support on eBay from an X5M which is the exact part number as the sport bumper and bolted that it. I also purchased a used rear left bumper support and bolted that in.

I chose to continue my search for a used OEM rear fender flare in good condition as I couldn't justify the price of a new OEM one and didn't feel comfortable with the aftermarket flares available. I eventually found one about a week and a half later, but it was funny to drive to the glass shop with a lop sided looking truck and missing rear quarter window.

New OEM rubber side mouldings, wheel center caps (aligned with the numbers on the wheel, 13 and 15 respectively), OEM X6 LCI kidney grilles, aftermarket rear reflectors and smoked front reflectors helped complete the look I was going for. I had purchased a new set of "xDrive35d" badges for the sides but am still on the fence about installing them or removing and have been rocking the two face look for a while. I also used Solution finish on all the plastics to revive and color them to a near new look. I highly recommend.

I also purchased an CarPlay retrofit unit from the group buy a while back here on the forum. I've been loving it, with the provided microphone being my only complaint. I routed the USB connection to the cup holder area and used a dremel to open up a large enough hole to house it while keeping it snug.

[Pudgypepper]

I cleaned it up and immediately put it back on the road!

I'm still chasing some suspension vibrations so I've have ordered a complete set of Meyle HD front thrust, front rear, and front upper adjustable arms, sway bar links F/R, and tie rod ends.

In the meantime, I took it back up to Jacksonville for a working trip, had it professionally polished back in South Florida as I was tired of doing the rebuild and wanted to treat myself to a pro job paid for. Also had it re-tinted with 20% fronts and 10% rears as the old tint had a slightly purple hue and zero heat rejection. Took it back up to GA afterwards (again! and with no accidents!) and then brought it back down for a photoshoot by my buddy at the airport where he houses his plane in a hangar.

Thats all for now, cheers all!

[chemist_slime]

Great recovery! I have the same car but with roof rails. Everything besides interior color is exactly the same. Happy thanksgiving!

[beskhu3epnm]

That's a pretty badass project... If my family and I had some skills like that I'd be keen to be running into some guardrails now and then!

[Spyro235]

Wow, this turned out wonderfully. Kudos, this looks like some really top notch body work.

[mairomaster]

Awesome result man!

BTW a friend of mine was trying to convince me that X5 is not susceptible to hydroplaning because it's too heavy and stable.

[tmvatlanta]

Nicely done

[Spyro235]

Originally Posted by mairomaster

Awesome result man!

BTW a friend of mine was trying to convince me that X5 is not susceptible to hydroplaning because it's too heavy and stable.

No matter what, hydroplaining is a tire problem, not a vehicle problem.

[X5 MAN]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

No matter what, hydroplaining is a tire problem, not a vehicle problem.

18-wheelers do hydroplane

[sunny_j]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

No matter what, hydroplaining is a tire problem, not a vehicle problem.

My x5d with 18" winters hydroplane so much more than the summer 20s. In fact I don't think I've ever hydroplaned in the 20s

[wayne3546]

Good job of documenting. Your Dad is a talented person. I would do the mechanical, but not the bodywork. Well done.

[Pudgypepper]

Originally Posted by wayne3546

Good job of documenting. Your Dad is a talented person. I would do the mechanical, but not the bodywork. Well done.

Originally Posted by wayne3546

Good job of documenting. Your Dad is a talented person. I would do the mechanical, but not the bodywork. Well done.

Thanks! We've done a few cars together. Motor rebuild and repaint on our '90 300zx, motor swap on our '84 Porsche 928 and '05 330Ci, CJ5 restoration, BMW 2002 builds etc. This is the first time I've had the time to really be hands on during the whole process for body work so it was pretty special for me

[Spyro235]

Originally Posted by X5 MAN

18-wheelers do hydroplane

Well of course, hydroplaning will occur if you overwhelm ANY tire's water evacuating capabilities. Tires that handle water better only increases the speed at which you can safely navigate the same amount of water. No tire is immune, but some tires are MUCH better at handling water on the road than others.

Originally Posted by sunny_j

My x5d with 18" winters hydroplane so much more than the summer 20s. In fact I don't think I've ever hydroplaned in the 20s

Interesting! What winters do you use? in my personal experience with my acura TL and my 335i, by blizzaks /pirelli sottozero3 winters both handles deep water better than my Michelin pilot sport 3 a/s's. the michelins PS3as handles water infinitely better than the conti DSW06 on my TL and 335i.

I haven't put my hakkapelitta R3 SUV winters on my X5 yet, but the Mich Defender LTX's handle water MUCH better than the DSW06's that were on the X5 before. Hydroplaning really has nothing at all to do with wheel size/ tire aspect ratio, but rather the tread depth and more importantly the tread design, as those are the defining factors of how the water is evacuated.