Just before Christmas, our favourite body mechanic, Arthur Tussik from Russia, had another challenging repair at his garage. This time, the victim was a third generation BMW X5 with a heavy frontal crash. Interestingly, the suspension of the Bavarian SUV was fixed by its owner and Tussik had to only replace the damaged body panels, fix the broken A-pillar, and align all the gaps before the car goes to the paint shop. An easy task, he says.

Once the pillar was restored and welded, it was time for all the components of the front end to be installed. The bonnet of the X5 is made of aluminium so it’s not that easy to bring it back to its original shape, but after some heating of the damaged area and work with the hammer, everything started to look better. Surprisingly, almost all gaps at the front looked great even before special alignment.

Then, it was time for a quick visit at the body paint shop for a respray of the new details. In the final step, Tussik fit all the remaining parts such as headlights, bumper base, grilles, decorative wheel arches, and, of course, the BMW emblem on the bonnet.

According to Tussik, the whole restoration process took seven days – three for the fixing of the broken pillar and fitting the new body components, and four days in the paint shop. That’s indeed looking like an easy repair for the experienced mechanic as we’ve seen him fixing significantly more heavily-damaged vehicles.