91 318is Front Lip - Painted or Black When New?

[trusted-1]

I bought an Alpine White 1991 318is last year that had a 1987 325is air dam added to it by a PO for an unknown reason.
I now have the correct valance and lip but cannot determine if the late model 325is and 318is were delivered with the lip painted to match the car or if they were black.
The brochures of the era of red cars are painted but there are many other photos of black lips.
My preference is to paint the lip the car color, especially since the valance need to go AWII anyway but trying to keep the look OEM if possible.
If someone knows for sure how they were delivered, please weigh in.

Thanks, Trusted-1

[roguetoaster]

Pretty sure it breaks down like this:

All i/is earlies had black lips
All late i models had black lips
All late is models had body colored lips

I also think that E36s carried this same setup with the split in sedans coming in 93 model cars, and 318i/ti and lesser models after 95.

[trusted-1]

roguetoaster Thanks for chiming in.

That seems to match the photos and brochures I have found.

[nando]

The 318is definitely came with a painted lip.

Also, to add confusion to rouguetoaster's post, some 325ix models came with the painted iS lip, others came with the black i lip.. :p

[roguetoaster]

True, another way to put it, small lip=black, is=body colored, earlies=black.

Clearly, single piece valances like early es units and M3s are body colored.

[nando]

Are you saying early model "facelift" E30s came with black iS lips? Because I've never seen one. I don't think that's what you're saying - I'm asking because there are almost certainly people totally new to the E30 scene here who might not know that difference.

[roguetoaster]

Maybe the better way to look at it is in general if your standard E30 came equipped with what we refer to as an "is" lip it would be body colored. Everything else that can be viewed as a lip attached below the valence, below the bumper would be black.

If your E30 has a single piece valence with no add on spoiler or lip the entire valence should be body colored.

As to the M3, it can have a two piece front valence, the lower part of which is body colored, possibly with an additional black colored lip or splitter below it.

Are there special cases, like oddball UK or ZA sport models, quite possibly.

I also believe it may have been possible to order a series 2 E30 with black painted bumpers and a black is spoiler no matter the body color of the car, but I cannot confirm this.