Euro Bumpers on 87 325is

[Tavern Gnome]

I searched and searched but couldn't find an answer. If I swapped to euro bumpers can I use my stock air damn valance? Just curious. If anyone has done this and has pics that would be awesome. Thanks,

-Ryan

[JasonC]

It has been done, but i have no pictures of it.

[hendrixvodu]

http://www.e30tech.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45214

looks odd, but the bumpers go right over it... get euro valance....i have one for cheap if you are looking, but it needs work

[JasonC]

I thought he was talking about this one here?

[Tavern Gnome]

I thought he was talking about this one here?

yep. that "is" air damn with the euros.

[JasonC]

PM scabzzzz about this. He'll fill you in on the details and pictures.

[scabzzzz]

Hey Jason!

So basically, yes it can be done. Whether or not it should be done is up to you. On my 86 car (yours as well i think), there is a little half ass metal valence underneath the plastic valence you see in the above picture. You're better off just using that and finding an "i" lip like what Backtrail69 did on his red euro bumpered car.

Here are some pictures of what I did with my front air dam "Cow catcher".











My buddy and I got it fitted to the front. We did a WHOLE LOT of cutting and Dremeling to get it to even look halfway correct. From the vents in the front end, they are too long to be able to mount in the front. There was a few options though, but none of them I was really satisfied with. Unless you cut the metal valence behind the cow catcher, you will loose your fogs. We ended up trimming some of the fog light housing off (but left just enough to be able to mount the fog buckets). We trimmed about 5 inches off of EVERYTHING in the middle of the air dam so that it would fit SOMEWHAT flush. See the pictures above. It looks great from a distance, but once you see the fitment up close it gets worse. Because of how the air dam is designed, it just doesnt want to work. Now, you may be a bit better at fabricating, but we only spent like 2 hours from start to finish. It wasnt nearly as easy as what I had predicted it to be. Another issue we ran into was the sides. They have a beveled clean rounded edge to it. I did not want to lose that, but you pretty much are forced to cut the sides off to be able to push the air dam far enough under the euro bumper to make it look clean.

I was going to start a thread on this, but I ended up just putting my euro valence from an 85 car on my front end with the correct lip. It looks ten times cleaner. However, if somehow done properly, YOU CAN MAKE THE ES or IS AIR DAM LOOK GOOD. It kind of reminds me of a poor mans Mtech 1 hehe. :)

You can choose your destiny on it though. Just remember its going to take a decent selection of cutting devices and dremel bits and shears to get everything right. I just didnt see a way for me to have functioning fog lights and that to me made the conversion not worth it.

Hope that helps. I could propbably take a picture of the air dam if you're interested in doing this conversion so you can see where I cut it.

Edit: From the pics, you also can see where I left off the euro plate center of the euro bumper. Because of how the plate holder is shaped, it protrudes backward and into the air dam. I left it off while I figured out what to do, but basically the only option around it was to either set the air dam back more or trim the plate holder. I was going to trim the plate holder. But in the pictures, you can barely tell I have a euro thin bumper on anymore because of how its placed on there. Glad I switched to my current setup now. :-\

Bye bye

[Tavern Gnome]

Thanks a bunch for clearing it all up! Very informative. Maybe I'll just tuck my diving boards for now.

[scabzzzz]

Just get a late model valence with IS lip and tuck the bumpers just a LITTLE. Just as effective. Slam the car. Be done.

[hendrixvodu]

hey scabzzzz if you are looking for the front trim piece for your euro bumpers i have one sitting in my basement if you are interested

[einstein57]

i think the plastic bumper looks better

[Aptyp]

i love euro metals over plastic bumpers, they look classier and more unique.

[scabzzzz]

hey scabzzzz if you are looking for the front trim piece for your euro bumpers i have one sitting in my basement if you are interested

I just came back to this thread sorry. No thanks though, I have another set of bumpers. I was never missing the piece, just didnt have it on at the time of pictures. See "Das ist mein Alpine" in members rides. Thanks

And Einstein, that front end looks weird but kind of good at the same time. Nice paint.