mounting front plastic bumper

[Guest]

So, you know those bracket things that the bumper cover slides onto in front of the wheels, is the late model valence required to mount those? Can you mount those brackets onto an early model valence?

[brandondan1]

IIRC you can as long as you drill a new hole. Or you can be ghetto and tighten a single bolt really tight.

[E30 Wagen]

IIRC you can as long as you drill a new hole. Or you can be ghetto and tighten a single bolt really tight.

anybody else confirm this? It would really be nice to not have to buy a late model valence

[MR 325]

Why wouldn't you WANT a late model valance?

[E30 Wagen]

Why wouldn't you WANT a late model valance?

It's not that I don't want it, but I've always wanted to try and fit an '87 iS front spoiler with a plastic bumper. Everybody does the late model valence with some kind of lip and I want to try something different; if it doesn't look so good, then oh well, i tried.

[e30 Luv]

It's not that I don't want it, but I've always wanted to try and fit an '87 iS front spoiler with a plastic bumper. Everybody does the late model valence with some kind of lip and I want to try something different; if it doesn't look so good, then oh well, i tried.

Im in the process of fitting my early es lip to later painted bumper. took some cutting but its working. I had to use late valence because there is a difference in how the valence bends where the side bumper mounts are attached. it sounds hard to describe, ill go shoot some pics...

[e30 Luv]

ok so apparently I don't know how to use r3v's upload picture function very well, but I got them hosted...
keep in mind these pictures are of a ROUGH fitment, the final product will look much cleaner

early valence side bumper mount location:

late valence side bumper mount locations:

with the mount:


so I don't know how well you can mount the plastic bumper mounts to the early valence. you can see in the pictures there is a little step difference in the height of the mounting points. I guess if you wanted you could pound out the valence to match the bumper mounts but im not sure how well that would work.

here are some rough pictures of how the final fitment will look:


there is this ugly metal piece still poking out (this is on both sides just in front of the wheel well). Im going to try and plastic weld a piece to the spoiler to go up and over the metal lip:


and then there is the edge where the lip must meet the inner fender wall. I going to try and put on another piece here:


the pictures dont do it justice as they look like shit. but in reality I think it looks pretty good. it keeps that 80's feel with out the bullshit diving boards

[E30 Wagen]

thanks for beating me to the idea, jerk! J/K :) Seriously doesn't look too bad. That's pretty much exactly how I pictured it looking.

And for the plastic bumper mounts, I just cut away part of the early valence and just mounted it through the top whole with the bolt nice and tight. I put the bumper on and it's not going anywhere. If imageshack was working, I'd put up a picture.