Sometimes, life hits you with the irony stick. Unfortunately, on some occasions, that stick is more like a fully-grown tree falling on a garage and crushing a slammed E30 BMW 3 Series. Nevertheless, the owner of the Bimmer has found the silver lining. And doing a respectable burnout with his ruined car is just the beginning.
The enthusiast in question is known online as Rusty Bucket (aka rusty_f_bucket on Instagram). Based in California, he’s an important part of the BMW community, working on people’s cars and inspiring them through his builds, with his wife also being a gearhead.
The aficionado’s home base used to be a metal garage that included a few of his builds, including the said E30 3-Series sedan, an E21 BMW (the E30’s predecessor) sporting a supercharged M42 four-cylinder, and a Chevy C10 truck. Focusing on the German machines, these custom examples look kike down-to-Earth creations that show careful curation of the aftermarket parts used and tons of attention to detail.
The tree-crushed E30 may still be good for a burnout, but it can’t be saved, at least not entirely
Alas, a tree recently fell on the man’s garage and ended up squashing the E30 3 Series. Now, the BMW sported a rather extreme static suspension setup that saw the car scraping at times, negative camber and all. And this is where the irony kicks in, as the incident pushed the wheels much deeper into the fenders.
However, the enthusiast found the power to transform the situation. So, once he removed the other cars from the mangled metallic structure and managed to free the E30 from the bent roof of the garage, he climbed aboard and started the BMW. The burnout that ensued—this awaits you in the second Instagram clip below—came naturally.
Despite the vehicle having serious sentimental value, it seems this can’t be rescued—for one, the body damage on the 3 Series Sedan is monstrous, with the ruined roof being just one example. Nevertheless, we assume the chassis has also been affected, which would imply that the car is not OK to return to the road. Another possibility is that rebuilding this particular vehicle simply isn’t financially viable.
However, having carefully selected the custom bits adorning the Liquid Blue Metallic exterior (we often see the shade on F30 3 Series, but not this supercharged V8-powered burnout machine) and the brown leather interior, the wasn’t “moved” by the inevitable messages asking if parts like the wheels are for sale—for the record, the majority of the comments showed massive support.
Instead, the man made it clear that the crushed E30 will become a donor car for another E30 he plans to put together: “Nothing on this e30 is for sale, the effort I put into this, the details, is because I truly loved the design of it. This e30 will be the new parts donor to my next e30 build,“
And with this kind of skill and attitude, we’re sure the future project will be a stunner, despite getting these decades-old German machines back into tip-top shape not being an easy task.
