Diving boards VS plastic bumpers aging differently?

[agent]

87is > *

[nando]

it would still look goofy and the muffler still hangs down.

[e30onBBSs]

Diving boards VS plastic bumpers aging differently?

I just had an interesting thought.. Because the spare well is pretty ugly on the earlies.. Spare tire well delete? It would look way better. Cut it out weld in a flat piece of metal yess

[nando]

I like early mtech cars a lot. regular euro bumpers though.. meh. the facelift E30s just look way better even if they are stock.

I don't like diving boards at all. The rear of early US E30s looks ridiculous. There's no real rear valance, the car basically just ends at the bumper. you can see the muffler and spare tire - ugly.

I do kind of like the 87 325is but it has to be suuuuper clean and original. Otherwise it looks like a haggard POS.

Vulva lips are still as horrible as they were when people first started doing them.

[e30onBBSs]

Euro bumpers (barely beats plastics)-> plastics -> diving boards IMO. The first time I saw a euro car on here I was stunned like whoa that's what it's supposed to look like?? Seems more sporty to me while still acknowledging that it's an older car.

[aegul44]

I definitely agree on that. They age way differently. Early model has more classic look but U.S early model is just silly and ugly. Instead of facelifting, I would rather tuck them put late model valance for front and rear and maybe volvo lip as kiriew posted.

[yesman003]

I have seen both types and think they look good if the car is done tastefully. I own an 89 cabrio with the diving boards and like them fine but I keep her mostly stock with a 3" drop in the front and 16" wheels. I have a few friends who have the euros and they look good as well. I guess I am the type of guy that likes what he has. I was taught the key to happiness is wanting what you have.

[Hooffenstein HD]

Plastics are lightest.

Not only are proper "euro" early bumpers lighter than plastic/composite bumpers by roughly 3kg each, they use much lighter simple brackets instead of heavy bumper shocks.

[88BlackS-ETA]

I like the '88 diving boards because they are slightly "tucked" from factory. And when they are polished up they are even better.

[e30crazie]

Me myself I've always been drawn to the plastic bumpers of the late models, however there is a part of me that also loves those big diving boards and as the OP said with the cow catcher attached. Its sexy as fuck. My next car will be an 88 "is" and have the lower valance with the fogs and the bumpers made of chrome.

[mr2peak]

I'll stick with an MTech 2 car as my favorite.

Diving boards are my least favorite. Plastics are lightest and fit a modified car, chrome looks best on stock a stock or near-stock car.

[YosemiteSam]

In my opinion it goes like this:

Euro M-Tech I > Plastic Bumpers > Normal Euro > Diving Boards > Body Color Normal Euro > Body Color Diving Boards

Not to say all cars follow this flow, there are definitely a few diving board cars that I would never change the bumpers on just because they sinply look right, just in general the diving board cars have no rear valence so the rear end just looks wierd.

[uturn]

Euro chrome bumpers or later plastic bumpers are what I prefer. The diving boards were an afterthought as BMW scrambled to meet U.S. crash regs.

[KIRIEIW]

I used to hate the look of diving boards and was all about the plastic bumpers, but I've come around to early models. With a front air damn they actually look pretty good. I'll actually even go so far to say that I wish my 325i was a early model. I also prefer the small tail lights.

A late model valance on diving boards is a must in my book! Volvo lip, not so much.

[lukeADE335i]

I also think both are great (especially since in Australia we got euro spec cars & didn't have to put up with diving boards like the US - the e21s and e28s suffer even more than the e30 with diving boards).

For me it'll be facelift car every time. The trick with them is to paint the black bumpers like the 318iS, so they look more like an e34.

The rear valence covering the spare wheel well looks a lot neater, and the galvanising is much, much better than the earlies, although I wish BMW had left the rear arches alone.

An early with M-tech 1 kit though... Solves the wheel well problem, and looks tough.

I'd take a genuine 333i over an M3.