Article by: Whit Lowell
Article applies to: most early BMW models.
The youngest E30 is almost 30 years old so your bumper trims have probably faded and collected scratches and marks over the years. You can either replace them or restore them yourself. It’s really easy and cheap and it makes your BMW look a lot younger.
For the really lazy, Bavarian Autosport sells a restore kit for $12.95. It includes a bottle of cleaner and a bottle of conditioner. The conditioner applies like modern shoe polish so you won’t even have to take your bumper trim off. But I like to take the long way to get what I want. Here’s what a I got from a local PepBoys store:
- A bottle of spray paint bumper trim finish, I chose semi-gloss black. $6.00
- Sand paper, 600 grit
- Gently pry out the side-marker lights on the bumper trims. Be careful not to brake its plastic housing, I messed up one. Turn and pull the light bulb and socket out.
- Pull the bumper trims off. This might require quite a bit of pulling prying here and there.
- Clean the bumper trims well and start sanding them.
- Time to paint the trims, follow the directions on the bottle carefully.
And here’s how it came out:
Before:
After:
