Stuff happens, I'm glad that nobody got hurt! These things take a beating and I'm surprised at how much they don't show damage

I've had the car put back togeather for a couple of weeks now but just got back into the swing of the forum. I will say, the new exhaust really sets off the back of the car now. I'm very pleased with the way that the repair turned out.

I bought a parts car about a week before the accident happened and I was really exited to put the 4.4 mufflers on the X, but something didn't feel right and I didn't get around to doing the work. 3 days after I turned down the opportunity to install the exhaust I got rear ended. How convienient was that? I've got an excuse to put these Bad A$$ tips on The Black One.

The damage was actually kinda bad once we took the bumper off. Everything in the exhaust was bent and both of the rear most exhaust mounts had bent into the battery box and cracked/punched through the box. The crash bars absorbed a lot of the impact and are still a little bent down.The insurance company tried totaling the car since the KBB value is only like 2K freeking dollars we argued and ended up keeping the X's clean title.

The swap was pretty easy, 1 torxs (T55 I think) bolt above each of the muffler tips and 2 (10mm?) bolts in each wheel well hold the bumper on. I found that it helps to have 2 people when removing the torx bolts to hold the tips out of the way to keep them from getting scratched (it was a close fit for me).

After the bumper was off, we ended up using a jack to bend the push bars back up and a skid loader to pull the exhaust mount out of the battery box. We took measurements off of the parts car to make sure all of the brackets were in the correct orientation. I ended up leaving all of the rubber mounts attached to the new exhaust and it was a pretty straight forward plug and play install. The tips are still pushed back a little bit but it's not too noticeable

It took about half a day to complete mainly because ALL of the bolts were seized on both cars. It was really helpful having two 2 post lifts right next to each other but it's still do-able with a jack or a set of ramps.

There is a little bit of a panel gap between the new pumper and the body, but I'm not too concerned about it. This was the second time that I've been rear ended in this particular car and I'm convinced that it's going to happen again. Maybe next time I can get the 4.6is bumper spoiler?

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Running:
2001 E53 3.0i Black 5MT Style 87, Eibach Swaybars, Headers, Turner Monoball Bushings, Oil pump nut fix, E60 short shifter + ZHP shift knob, Sport Swap 204K (G-power supercharger coming soon)
2011 E70 35d Blue Style 214 3" exhaust, Dudmd stage 2, 2" HR lowering springs
2012 E70 35d Black Style 215

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2002 e39 540i 6MT Black sport, M5 LSD, M60 Intake manifold
2003 e39 525i Auto Grey Sport