BMW E30 Front End Damage [SHOCKING REPAIR] How To Remove Front Wings, Bonnet, Bumper & Valance | 026
In this BMW E30 build project log episode, I've taken it upon myself to strip off all of the front-end body panels from the car. My reasons for doing this are two-fold.
Firstly, I'm planning to remove the M40B16 4-cylinder engine from this car in anticipation of my M52B28 6-cylinder 24v engine swap, which I'm planning to do this year if possible. By removing the front end body panels such as the e30 bonnet (hood), front wings (fenders), front bumper, lower valance or lip, headlights, and front grilles it should give me more access around the car and around the engine bay to start unhooking the M40 and get ready to lift it out.
Not to mention that these panels being out of the way should help avoid doing unnecessary extra damage to them while I'm working.
Secondly, there are some nasty bits of front end damage lurking around the front of the car that I have been doing my best to ignore since purchasing the BMW E30 project.
The most obvious one being the shoddy paint job the front end and passenger side of the car have received, but also a really shocking poor bodywork repair it had on the front valance at some point in the past. Beside this are just a few patches of rust, a few ugly-looking dents in the fender, and some of the usual crunches to the front bumper, probably the usual dings and prangs from being an unloved car for many years.
I start off by whipping the bonnet off, which is luckily quite easy on this car, bar a minor mishap in taking off the bonnet strut.
Following that I was able to remove the front bumper with the two large T55 Torx bolts and like it off forward, being careful to unhook the indicator wiring as I went. Once the bumper is unbolted is simply slides off forward from two runners on either side.
With the bumper out of the way, I went ahead and took the front grilles and headlights off, an easy job being a combination of Philips head screws and R-clips along the top. Luckily my front grilles, headlamps and kidney grill seems to be in excellent condition.
With those out of the way the trick to removing BMW E30 front fenders, or front wings, is to strip out the arch liner to give access to all the 8mm headed bolts from the inside, then undo all the bolts from the top and pull the fender away.
Unfortunately for me, the big obstacle here was the poor rusty condition of those screws within the arch liner, leading me to need to angle grind most of them off to remove the liners.
With the liners and wings removed, I dropped the car back down onto its wheels and turned my attention to what I think is the most shoddy poor repair I have ever seen on car bodywork.
Looking down at the front valance (and if you know how to properly pronounce that word, please let me know in the comments), this poor BMW E30 has at some point been driven into a bollard, or a rock, or something similar to that. The valance is way past its best, and some fool has screwed on a piece of plastic roofing trim to the front with self-tapping wood screws.
Upon closer inspection with the bumper off, I noticed that there's actually a sheet of metal covering over quite a crease in the front valance, which has been tacked on then fillered over to almost match the original shape of the body.
I can only assume whoever did this repair could not be bothered to remove the radiator and kick the damage out from the inside, which with the front valance removed looked like it wouldn't have been too difficult.
Needless to say, that front valance is most likely bin fodder, despite the fact I'm intending to fit an MTech 2 body kit eventually.
On a positive note, behind the very rough body panels and shockingly poor repairs, the car's chassis seems very solid, the lower front core support is a little misshapen but that's the only tangible damage to contend with. I knew this would be a good base for my E30 project, and this is one I can chalk up as a victory.
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