Here's the day I've been waiting for...
I came home to this, a giant package on my doorstep and a freshly washed car in the driveway.
Besides the big package, I got two silver centercaps and a red intensive wash cap. Now, for those of you who don't know, the red intensive wash caps are somewhat rare. They used to produce the intensive wash caps in red, much like the red screwdrivers, and now they have replaced the red cap, with the clear cap with the same part number. You can see in this picture the red cap I got has the hole in the top, that means it is for an e28 because the e28 has a little valve that sticks in the top of it and sucks the water out. The good news is, I bought another red intensive cap without the hole in it which means it is a genuine e30 intensive wash cap. Anyways it was a bit dirty and even though it's getting replaced I decided to wash it a bit.
Traded the "Intensive Wash" Label tag for the one I currently have on since the one i had on my tank was brand new.
White Intensive Wash Cap
Red Intensive Wash Cap
I also filled in the wheel without any centercap's hole with one of the centercaps and replaced one of my chrome centercaps with the silver centercap. It looks a whole lot better.
Before:
After:
Then it was time to open the package. I got the supplies I bought in preparation
Opened the top of the box
It was packaged incredibly well! Thanks Atomic;)
Here it is
And the insides
The insides have the slightest bit of surface rust, but for a used bumper you have to expect that. At some point, i'll sand it off and paint it with primer to prevent future rust, same with the front bumper.
This is the weapon of choice to treat the bumper in the end
Now to start the disassembly process...
Center apron off
Left Apron off (one screw was a bitch to get off, at a horrible angle and I didn't have the right socket to get it off so i continued disassembling)
Metal bumper itself off
Shocks out
Finally got the left apron out. It's amazing how dirty it was underneath the apron and diving board. For those who don't know, this is the vent that lets water out of the trunk.
The way I got that bitch of a screw out was like this
And wouldn't you know it, after further continuing the project, I found I had the correct socket all along. Don't you just love those kind of things?
Right Apron Off
For the Sidemarkers, instead of taking the entire rubber seals and wiring out, I decided to cut the wiring, and leave them in, since they are rubber, they will keep the trunk sealed well.
Then I cleaned the rear valence. Came out better than before but it isn't perfect.
Then I had to drill the hole to fit the brackets. I missed the first time, the left and bigger hole is the correct hole
Center of bumper on
Looking at the picture above I realized I was never going to be able to assemble the bumper from that kind of angle while it's on the car, So I took it back off and assembled it inside.
I then found that for the trim end caps, the euro fog light delete panel clips work in place of whatever clip should go in that place that I don't have. So I used those.
So full bumper on without trim
Trim on. This part was a bitch, I had to take all the clips and re-bend them so that they would snap back into the bumper and stay there, even after bending them I really had to whack the trim to let the clips snap into place. I almost considered buying a new mounting kit but in the end it turned out nicely.
This is what it looks like without the end cap
With. In this pic you can see just below the bumper, there is a bracket that's actually built into the valence that held the diving board apron. I'll have to see what I can do about that.
Left side end cap, two different views
So in the end it looked awesome! Unfortunately I worked on installing it straight from the time I got out of school to the time it got dark, so I just barely finished before I ran out of light. I didn't have enough time to deal with any of the holes left over from the diving board removal but fortunate for me, I live in southern california, and it rains once in a blue moon here so I have a long time before I have to worry about water entering my trunk. To be neat though, i'll try to finish the project by doing something about those holes either tomorrow or the next day. I don't have any good pictures but tomorrow morning I'll do a little photoshoot for you guys and myself. I do have these two pics though
I came home to this, a giant package on my doorstep and a freshly washed car in the driveway.
Besides the big package, I got two silver centercaps and a red intensive wash cap. Now, for those of you who don't know, the red intensive wash caps are somewhat rare. They used to produce the intensive wash caps in red, much like the red screwdrivers, and now they have replaced the red cap, with the clear cap with the same part number. You can see in this picture the red cap I got has the hole in the top, that means it is for an e28 because the e28 has a little valve that sticks in the top of it and sucks the water out. The good news is, I bought another red intensive cap without the hole in it which means it is a genuine e30 intensive wash cap. Anyways it was a bit dirty and even though it's getting replaced I decided to wash it a bit.
Traded the "Intensive Wash" Label tag for the one I currently have on since the one i had on my tank was brand new.
White Intensive Wash Cap
Red Intensive Wash Cap
I also filled in the wheel without any centercap's hole with one of the centercaps and replaced one of my chrome centercaps with the silver centercap. It looks a whole lot better.
Before:
After:
Then it was time to open the package. I got the supplies I bought in preparation
Opened the top of the box
It was packaged incredibly well! Thanks Atomic;)
Here it is
And the insides
The insides have the slightest bit of surface rust, but for a used bumper you have to expect that. At some point, i'll sand it off and paint it with primer to prevent future rust, same with the front bumper.
This is the weapon of choice to treat the bumper in the end
Now to start the disassembly process...
Center apron off
Left Apron off (one screw was a bitch to get off, at a horrible angle and I didn't have the right socket to get it off so i continued disassembling)
Metal bumper itself off
Shocks out
Finally got the left apron out. It's amazing how dirty it was underneath the apron and diving board. For those who don't know, this is the vent that lets water out of the trunk.
The way I got that bitch of a screw out was like this
And wouldn't you know it, after further continuing the project, I found I had the correct socket all along. Don't you just love those kind of things?
Right Apron Off
For the Sidemarkers, instead of taking the entire rubber seals and wiring out, I decided to cut the wiring, and leave them in, since they are rubber, they will keep the trunk sealed well.
Then I cleaned the rear valence. Came out better than before but it isn't perfect.
Then I had to drill the hole to fit the brackets. I missed the first time, the left and bigger hole is the correct hole
Center of bumper on
Looking at the picture above I realized I was never going to be able to assemble the bumper from that kind of angle while it's on the car, So I took it back off and assembled it inside.
I then found that for the trim end caps, the euro fog light delete panel clips work in place of whatever clip should go in that place that I don't have. So I used those.
So full bumper on without trim
Trim on. This part was a bitch, I had to take all the clips and re-bend them so that they would snap back into the bumper and stay there, even after bending them I really had to whack the trim to let the clips snap into place. I almost considered buying a new mounting kit but in the end it turned out nicely.
This is what it looks like without the end cap
With. In this pic you can see just below the bumper, there is a bracket that's actually built into the valence that held the diving board apron. I'll have to see what I can do about that.
Left side end cap, two different views
So in the end it looked awesome! Unfortunately I worked on installing it straight from the time I got out of school to the time it got dark, so I just barely finished before I ran out of light. I didn't have enough time to deal with any of the holes left over from the diving board removal but fortunate for me, I live in southern california, and it rains once in a blue moon here so I have a long time before I have to worry about water entering my trunk. To be neat though, i'll try to finish the project by doing something about those holes either tomorrow or the next day. I don't have any good pictures but tomorrow morning I'll do a little photoshoot for you guys and myself. I do have these two pics though
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