Bumpers, bumpers, bumpers!

[willsol]

Ok Im a LITTLE confused on this I have an 89 325Ic and I want to convert to plastic bumpers.

Apparently the front is just pop and swap...

After that Im confused on the rear. Im not exactly sure what people mean by rear valence is part of the unibody... yes Im dumb can I get some pics please?

If this is true how hard will it be to fit a plastic rear on my vert? Will I need extra parts or need to keep some of my own.

Thanks and I appreciate the help... Im trying to learn as much as possible before doing this swap.

[Stephen]

I didnt see it mentioned, that you can use 88 numper shocks, which are shorter.. by i about at inch form looking at them... not much of a tuck, but you get shocks out of the deal

just a thought

Edit: im going to try plastic bumper shocks soon, i think

[e34biturbo]

Ok here is my latest project

I have a 10/88 e30 325ic and have the short plastic bumpers and have access to the front valence, what else do I need?

[fporro]

I did by eye.

Mount bracket to bumper, line up bumper to wheel arch, then use the bumper shocks to hold it in place.

If I remeber correctly, bracket uses 2 mounting screws, but you'll only need to drill 1 hole per side ???

:)

[thereisnoyun]

yea you have to drill. as for as where, I'm not certain. I just looped mine with a tietie and its on tehre for over a year now. :P

[Kwaaahhh]

Hey guys, I started working on my rear plastic bumper swap today and not sure how to mount the rear bumper bracket to the body of the car. My car is a 90' vert and I got the plastic rear bumper, reinforcement, shocks, and brackets from a late model 325. The arches near the rear wheel well matches up fine, but I can't figure out how to mount the bracket. Do I drill new holes? If so where? Thank you!

[fporro]

Mine is an 11/87 build. Before and after pics below... rear valence, skirts, and front lip are from eurostyle (www.maxbimmer.com)

Hey,

So those side skirts are (eurostyle} mt2 cabrio units, or, coupe/sedan ones ?

Asking since you retained that lower black trim piece, hence, I wonder how would you add mt2 door/fender & 1/4 panel mt2 cards to them.

I have a oem mt2 cario kit, those side panels slide into skirts as they act as the lower retention point.

Aloha

[fporro]

fporro, good addition to my comments. Everything is indeed factual. I've recently been through the whole deal until I settled on my euro bumpers with euro front early valence with US front lip with brake ducts only. Looks better in my opinion. You can however make the US metal early valence look nice with euro bumpers. Fabricating fog plate covers (or lack thereof) is pretty simple and would cost next to nothing to have some made out of scrab metal or plastic.

Yeap, that's the beuty of having actual parts on hand.
You get to try them on and be able to factually comment about them.

Tell you the true, I think early euro valence with euro bumpers give the best visual effect when looking at car lenght wise.
I love the way that valence follows the fenders contour without sitcking forward as with all other valences, be it mt1, mt2 or plastics.

I settle with mt1 on delphi iC and plastics on Zinno iC.

At the moment I'm helping a friend install euros and mt1 kit on his 1/87 coupe, we trimmed the US valence and keep section between bumper and grills, I could clearly see section where the missing material is from above, I mentioned and we concluded that recyling the corners from the section we removed would deffently work.

Aloha :)

[scabzzzz]

fporro, good addition to my comments. Everything is indeed factual. I've recently been through the whole deal until I settled on my euro bumpers with euro front early valence with US front lip with brake ducts only. Looks better in my opinion. You can however make the US metal early valence look nice with euro bumpers. Fabricating fog plate covers (or lack thereof) is pretty simple and would cost next to nothing to have some made out of scrab metal or plastic.

[talltorontoguy]

Mine is an 11/87 build. Before and after pics below... rear valence, skirts, and front lip are from eurostyle (www.maxbimmer.com)

[fporro]

^ Yeap, MT2 kits still available from BMW. not cheap, then again, neither is sitting at a bar due to running out of mods to do ;(

Here's a set of front euros,

With early euro valence (short rubber strip).
You can't see this but this valence upper corners are not cut off (above fog light openings) as on US early versions (with non integraded fog lights), that makes US versions look odd when euros or plastics are swap onto them., also notice that there's openings for left & right tow hooks.




Look at second pic, just below bumper, running from turn signals towards outer corners, see that ?
Well, it is more notible when looking from above, specially if you use this US early valence with a Euro bumper.



As far as the rubber lips goes, there's 2 corner lenghts I know of on early valences, be it Euro or US came with shorter ones, but, ealy iC convertible valences came with longer lips thst do fit onto late style (plastic bumpered / integraded fog lights) valences., as i did here ...

I recycled my early (external fog light valence) iC convertible lip and color matched it to late style valence...


Then, euro bumper & mt1 valence, in this case there's no need for full valence, but you'll need to save your oem section between bumper and headlight grills, it is very easy to trim off the rest of metal valence and a must do if going this route. There is an oem piece that is basically "just" that section. as seen on realoem.com

[scabzzzz]

Where do I buy plastic bumpers for my 12/89 cabrio? and the Mtech II for that matter?
TIA

You do a full sweep and check of the For Sale sections on R3V every day until something pops up. As soon as someone is selling, you shoot a PM. You then reply into the thread "Dibs on this shit".

Then you can Paypal. Post count usual matters with sellers.
Mtech II seems to be still available at the dealer? I know a couple of kids that have bought pieces straight from BMW USA which whom shipped it in from Germany.
For plastic bumpers, you can also try BMA or something for used stuff. I usually find them in my local junkyards.

[scabzzzz]

any one have pictures of early model euro bumpers with front valence options [late valence or mtech1]

Well, you have tons of options if you choose to modify and make shit work. I tried several valences on my euro bumper swap but only found 2 choices as far as decent fitment and little to no modification. Refer to the below for fitment choices.


Here another tid bit of info I never found in this thread. This applies to euro and usdm versions.

84-85 - Different front valence. Only the lips, euro or not, from those year models work on the shorty front valence from these years. ALSO, the body piece that fits under neath the lights and grills that take up the space between the bumper and grills is a SEPERATE piece. The lip on these cars usually are warped and not really desirable compared to a late IS lip. They DO have brake ducts and Ambient Temp Sensor build into them though.

86 -87 - This also has a different front valence. When I say valence, I mean the metal portion. The lip is different as well. It quite longer on the sides than the 84-85. You can also buy more of an IS lip type lip for it as well, without the cool center stepped section. In these years you could get the eS/iS models with the plastic cow catchers but it still had the typical metal valence behind it with an ALWAYS broken bracket system mounting it. These years also have a ONE PIECE valence/body line filler between the grills and bumper. Therefore if you use 84-85 parts like the valence, you'll have to either get the donor cars body filler piece or cut the existing one off your car. Either way works and looks the same after the bumpers are mounted.

All the other years should be heavily covered. Again, you can use a late model valence on early cars, but with euro bumpers it requires modification to look right. You will need to cut off at least 1 1/2 inches from the bumper strip indention and weld it back together. Tack weld every few inches is fine too. If you dont do this, it looks like ass because you see a huge section of the valence you arent meant to see because plastic bumpers are thicker than euro thin metal bumpers.

:up:

[platanos]

Where do I buy plastic bumpers for my 12/89 cabrio? and the Mtech II for that matter?
TIA

[thuibers]

any one have pictures of early model euro bumpers with front valence options [late valence or mtech1]