Saggy front bumper fix doityourself
Below is a little writeup on what I did to fix my saggy front bumper on my 330i.
Things I used:
1 Permatex PermaPoxy - 5 Minute Plastic Weld Epoxy
~20 BMW Plastic Spread Rivets 51118174185
A C Clamp
A flat head screwdriver
wire cutters
~1hr of work
~4hrs to let the plastic weld do its job
**My front bumper didn't have foglights and fender liners so you might additional equipment/parts if you have this.
First some background story. You can skip this and just go down to the pics.
When I got my ZHP the first thing I noticed was that it had a loose front bumper.
At the lot, I couldn't tell what the issue was, I noticed that the bumper brackets didn't seem to be in place so I assumed the brackets needed to be reseated.
I went ahead and purchase the car and decided to deal with the bumper later.
When I took the bumper off, I noticed that both bumper brackets were cracked.
I looked for the bracket panels online but didn't find them even though they both have their own OEM Part #.
At first I thought I had to either get a new bumper or find a used one.
I found a craigslist ad for bumper repairs, I send them pics of my broken brackets but was told that they couldn't fix it.
One day, I was in autozone and saw something called Plastic Weld and decided to give that a try.
There's probably different and better ways of doing this, but below is a description of what I did.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/65...911/QznYNV.jpg
First, I took off all the front black moldings.
I removed all the black rivets and two small bolts from the bumper.
I'm missing the foglights and the fender liners so I didn't have to worry about those.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/65...540/lnkfeq.jpg
I removed both trim pieces below the headlights and pulled the bumper out.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/65...633/ZkyIrD.jpg
This is my right bracket panel.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...743/r18GYk.jpg
Only the top part of the bracket was cracked, the bottom part was fine.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...538/vbT9rG.jpg
I forgot to take a picture of the Plastic Weld I use but here's a pic I found online.
Squeeze, mix and apply.
http://images.oreillyauto.com/parts/.../per_84115.jpg
I applied the plastic weld between the crack and used a C clamp to hold the piece in place.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...673/pj9GSs.jpg
I did a light coat first, above and below the crack.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...537/tY7xbt.jpg
Once it hardened; ~5mins, I removed the C clamp. I got a little happy and applied a generous amount on the top and smeared some in the bottom but made sure I didn't leave any plastic weld bumps so I wouldn't have a problem putting the bumper back.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...540/H1Ik7v.jpg
This is my left side bumper bracket panel.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/33...540/iXOp0S.jpg
The top part was cracked, same as the right side but this one had a broken piece at the bottom.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...661/HaRlZH.jpg
The good thing was that the broken piece was still in the car, somebody had screwed into the plastic piece were the bumper bracket rests.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...538/5ErcZ8.jpg
I plastic welded the broken piece first. Same as before, first with a light coat between the crack, top and bottom.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...537/PqXAZc.jpg
Once the broken piece was welded, I repeated the same procedure I did earlier on the right bracket to weld the crack on top of the left bracket.
I put a light coat of plastic weld between the crack, top and bottom.
I used a C clamp to hold the cracked piece in place for about ~8mins.
Once it hardened, I took the the C clamp off and put a generous amount of plastic weld.
I left the bumper sit for about 4 hours.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/36...538/fQ31an.jpg
After about 4hrs, I checked the plastic weld and it was really hard so I went ahead and put the bumper back into the car. No more saggy bumper for me :roundel.
https://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/65...742/7Hxn4u.jpg
It's been about a month since I did this and the plastic weld is still holding strong.
I hope this writeup helps or at least give you some ideas to do it better.
