How bad could it be? Right?

So looking for salvage cars is about luck as much as anything else. Well, arm yourself with knowledge and get lucky. 

What I mean by that is, learn all you can about the car you want. Specifically any weird quirks. Learn how your car is put together. 

For BMW's and Mini's, Realoem is your parts bible. Enter your chassis number and away you go. It shows you all the parts for your vehicle in an exploded diagram. From it you can easily identify parts (obviously with basic car knowledge). 

Also find out what the car was worth pre-accident. I find Autotrader valuations a decent tool.

You can also find out the options specified on sites like BMW Vin if you have the chassis number (you can get chassis number from the reg on some parts websites, google it).

Doing the above will help you can figure out what's wrong a car visually (mostly... always go and see in the flesh and take another pair of eyes with you, the excitement of buying a vehicle can blind you to the obvious). This way you can decide if the car is a good buy at a good price, and roughly how much money it will cost to put right. Use this for the bargaining process.

Highly desirable cars will pop up occasionally and won't hang around, especially with minimal damage. So chances are the car you end up buying will either cost you more than you wanted or have more damage than you'd have liked.

I waited a few months before a M135i was available om the colour/options combo I was happy with.

Here's what i bought:

List of damage i can see (so far):

Both headlights (adaptive) smashed (front of one near non existent) - auto levellers damaged too (was able to salvage drivers modules, LED modules and Xenon bulbs with ballasts)
Front bumper (obviously)
Both front wings and bonnet
Bumper carrier/reinforcement - Air ducts
Crosslink/Whole support structure
Radiator and fan and pipes
Intercooler
Under shield
Air filter and collector
Air con compressor (not sure if you can repair as BMW don't sell separate parts for this unit, but do on the old 1 series)
Air con bracket (split down where deflector pulley is mounted)
Serpentine belt (shredded)
NSF chassis leg off centre along with wheel house support (possibly OSF as well) getting quotes from several body shops
OSF tension strut (lower control arm) & wishbone (see pics)
NSF tie rod (see pics)
Airbags - passenger, driver and strangely NS curtain
Bonnet
Both wings to some degree
Bumper (missing lol)
 

Why I bought this car?

This example was relatively straight considering (i obviously would have preferred no jig work, but that said it's not bad. Watch Authur Tussik's body repairs and you see what i'm on about.
Front sub-frame was not damaged at all from what I could see, and although not starting fully, the crank was very strong and there was no signs block damage or leaking oil.

Car was also fairly well spec'd too (auto, pro nav, adaptive headlights etc) and was fairly new being a 14 reg with 33k miles (interior is mint, still had new car smell) and was a good price considering the car is worth £18k (according to Autotrader valuation)
 

Due diligence prior to buying

Full HPI check with confirmation of VIN (weren't able to check log book as insurance company's destroy cat C categorised V5's. Went with my mechanically minded Uncle to view the car and spent 2 hour examining. Got a battery pack on the car and brought a ODB reader to read fault codes.

I've given myself a couple months to put right (going slow saves money).

Delivery

Trying to unload a non-running auto with front wheels that don't steer is time very consuming. Took me and 2 guys over an hour to move it from the transporter 10m on to my drive.

What I've done so far:

Bought a decent car cover - Halfords Advanced car cover Large size (supposed to be able to cover an E90 saloon, just covers the F20) £49


Bought a decent trolley jack (Sealey) and a Ring intelligent battery charger (charged battery for 2 days and all good)


NOTE: If you ever remove the battery from the car, do not fully close tailgate as you cannot open without power. there is no emergency tailgate pull on inside. and the owner's handbook suggest taking a screwdriver and moving the latch (which i couldn't do, well not without damaging something). In end had to remover boot floor and drop in very awkwardly.
Other than that I've just started stripping down front end. Removed damaged reinforcement structure and lots of broken plastic

Next steps

Sort steering out (right now front wheels trying to run away from each other.
Get quotes for jig work
Replace air con pump and serpentine belt and get car started
Source genuine parts (not using any pattern parts)
Stay tuned....