Cheap EBAY Poly Lip (cut/modified) pics

yllwwgn · 02-18-2014, 11:29 PM

I know that I, like a lot of us have researched all of the different front lips available; poly, CF, etc. I personally am partial to the Slek CF lip (

) but I just could not justify the $$$... considering that one rogue tire, critter, or any other object of substance could easily destroy it.

With that said, I decided to pull the trigger on the cheap ebay lip we see floating around, with the intention of cutting off those side wings/canards. To each their own, but I wasn't too fond of them.

Sadly I neglected to take too many pics of how I went about removing them, so this is more of an FYI than DIY, but I'll share the major steps involved and some pics at the end.

1. THIS PART YOU WILL MOST LIKELY HAVE TO DO REGARDLESS IF YOU DECIDE TO CUT OFF THE SIDE WINGS OR NOT. I don't have any pics of this, but when I went about test fitting my lip, the curvature of it did not line up with the bottom of my bumper. Basically with the middle of the lip inline with the bottom of the bumper, both the right and left sides of the lip stuck out about 2-3 inches forward when looking at it from the top-down. There is some SUBSTANTIAL bracing molded into the plastic, and as it is a very hard plastic at that, there was NO way to just attach the center, and pull back and try to screw in the sides. Besides... the last thing I wanted was some $150 plastic part deforming my substantially more expensive OEM front bumper.

The best tool for this? HEATGUN! Yup, just keep heating up the entire length of the lip, back and forth, and pull back on the sides. Heat up, pull back, repeat. Heat up, pull back, repeat. To be honest I had to do this for about 20-25 minutes... but in the end it was well worth the the effort; the curvature of the lip finally matched the bumper perfectly.

2. The side wings/canards are actually SOLID all the way through to the base of the lip itself, so once they are cut off, there are NO holes or empty pockets of material to fill in

. Basically what this means is you can use a saw of your choice to remove them... I used a reciprocating saw for part of it, a hand saw, and even a Dremel in some spots. Point is, you can cut the wings off with the tool of your choice, although I will admit here patience pays off dividends compared to brute force.

3. Once the canards are removed, the rest is just filing/grinding/sanding down of the sides to match the curve of the lip and shape as desired. I also chose NOT to paint the lip. Instead, I sanded it down with 1000 grit sandpaper. This removed the "sheen" of the the bare plastic, and although at 1st looked slightly gray, I just sprayed an Armor All-type wet tire dressing on it. The sanded plastic is actually fairly porous, and once it came into contact with the dressing, instantly took on a dark black oem-plastic shade.... basically the same exact shade as our front bottom vent plastic. 800 miles and a few car washes later, it's still the same dark color. In hindsight, I could probably just remove it and shoot it satin black

. Maybe some other weekend.

Anyway, as promised, attached are some pics. I tried not to duplicate all of the other pics I just recently posted as a new member, but if you want to see those, they are located here: http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...php?p=15455021
Good luck and I hope it helps some fellow members in case you were thinking of doing this! Let me know what you guys think.

Chandon · 02-19-2014, 03:14 AM

wow.. it actually looks reall nice without the "wings", might consider buying one
ty for the diy/info

cheshirecat79 · 02-19-2014, 05:00 AM

came out great- nice to see that the part isn't hollow in the middle. well done. fabricate some side splitters and you'll be set.

twin fed · 02-19-2014, 08:23 AM

great job, very doable!!

Marc08EX · 02-19-2014, 08:48 AM

Thanks for doing this!!! I can't wait to order this lip and install it!

yllwwgn · 02-19-2014, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by viciousgook

wow.. it actually looks reall nice without the "wings", might consider buying one
ty for the diy/info

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheshirecat79

came out great- nice to see that the part isn't hollow in the middle. well done. fabricate some side splitters and you'll be set.

Quote:

Originally Posted by twin fed

great job, very doable!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marc08EX

Thanks for doing this!!! I can't wait to order this lip and install it!

Thanks guys! Yeah it's very doable indeed. Honestly just takes a bunch of patience (what doesn't) and attention to detail with the grinding/sanding down of the edges. If you have a belt sander, it would probably work really well to hit the surface with that, where the wings are cut off. Than just finish it off by hand with some sandpaper.

e36addict · 02-19-2014, 06:50 PM

Sexcellent.... I may just have to buy one of these now. Always need more projects haha.

Joaco135 · 02-19-2014, 08:09 PM

Link to ebay seller?
Thanks,

ShocknAwe · 02-19-2014, 08:09 PM

I like it quite a bit. Good job! You have made this hard for me by making it easy!

yllwwgn · 02-19-2014, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by e36addict

Sexcellent.... I may just have to buy one of these now. Always need more projects haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joaco135

Link to ebay seller?
Thanks,

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

I like it quite a bit. Good job! You have made this hard for me by making it easy!

Thanks everyone... here's the link for the specific seller that I bought mine from: http://www.ebay.com/itm/07-11-BMW-E8...ht_5035wt_1362
but I wouldn't be surprised if they were all the same.

Joaco135 · 02-19-2014, 11:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yllwwgn

Thanks everyone... here's the link for the specific seller that I bought mine from: http://www.ebay.com/itm/07-11-BMW-E8...ht_5035wt_1362
but I wouldn't be surprised if they were all the same.

Thanks,

SuperCNJ · 02-20-2014, 04:30 AM

Thanks a lot for this!

One question though, can you explain a bit more on how you actually heated and bent the lip back?

twin fed · 02-20-2014, 07:18 AM

Seems like you are gonna have lots of copies of this coming this spring......probably myself included, LOL.

BimmerE82 · 02-20-2014, 07:32 AM

Looks great! I hated those wing things! Looks a lot better without them. Good job! If I wasn't planning on carbon fiber splitters I'd go this route for sure!

I35it · 02-20-2014, 08:00 AM

Super pumped!! F*ck yea!!!! (red bull and coffee!!) Thanks for this

Cheeze1 · 02-20-2014, 08:56 AM

Good job, I've always wondered if the little wings were solid all the way through or not. Good write-up.

cheshirecat79 · 02-20-2014, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperCNJ

Thanks a lot for this!
One question though, can you explain a bit more on how you actually heated and bent the lip back?

People typically just use a heat gun. These lips get a bit pliable as they heat up.

yllwwgn · 02-20-2014, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperCNJ

Thanks a lot for this!

One question though, can you explain a bit more on how you actually heated and bent the lip back?

Quote:

Originally Posted by twin fed

Seems like you are gonna have lots of copies of this coming this spring......probably myself included, LOL.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BimmerE82

Looks great! I hated those wing things! Looks a lot better without them. Good job! If I wasn't planning on carbon fiber splitters I'd go this route for sure!

Quote:

Originally Posted by I35it

Super pumped!! F*ck yea!!!! (red bull and coffee!!) Thanks for this

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheeze1

Good job, I've always wondered if the little wings were solid all the way through or not. Good write-up.

thanks guys.

As far as bending it back, it was as technical as heating up the entire thing until it's WARM/PLIABLE basically, and then holding it with your foot in the middle and pulling the sides back... like you're bending a huge polymer bow with gorilla-like strength. I channeled my inner primate and it seemed to work fine.

As far as the "copies" part, cool with me! I doubt few of us on here were "pioneers" of anything, besides it's nice to share with the community anyway

! Post some pics up on here when you're done!

twin fed · 02-20-2014, 02:52 PM

Didn't mean the "copies" comment in a bad way. I appreciate your attempt and will probably try it myself

yllwwgn · 02-20-2014, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twin fed

Didn't mean the "copies" comment in a bad way. I appreciate your attempt and will probably try it myself

No man, I'm with you! Trust me I know what you mean... ironically enough I looked into getting my wheels powdercoated green OR orange even just a few months back. LOVE the fact that you did that on yours...

Cheeze1 · 02-20-2014, 07:01 PM

Could you please take more pics of the lip/car from more angles?

yllwwgn · 02-20-2014, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheeze1

Could you please take more pics of the lip/car from more angles?

Sure, not the best pics, but here you go:

02-18-2014, 11:29 PM	#1
yllwwgn Lieutenant 170 Rep 445 Posts Drives: 2018 X3 M40i Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Milky Way, Earth, North America, Arizona more specifically. iTrader: (0)	Cheap EBAY Poly Lip (cut/modified) pics I know that I, like a lot of us have researched all of the different front lips available; poly, CF, etc. I personally am partial to the Slek CF lip () but I just could not justify the $$$... considering that one rogue tire, critter, or any other object of substance could easily destroy it. With that said, I decided to pull the trigger on the cheap ebay lip we see floating around, with the intention of cutting off those side wings/canards. To each their own, but I wasn't too fond of them. Sadly I neglected to take too many pics of how I went about removing them, so this is more of an FYI than DIY, but I'll share the major steps involved and some pics at the end. 1. THIS PART YOU WILL MOST LIKELY HAVE TO DO REGARDLESS IF YOU DECIDE TO CUT OFF THE SIDE WINGS OR NOT. I don't have any pics of this, but when I went about test fitting my lip, the curvature of it did not line up with the bottom of my bumper. Basically with the middle of the lip inline with the bottom of the bumper, both the right and left sides of the lip stuck out about 2-3 inches forward when looking at it from the top-down. There is some SUBSTANTIAL bracing molded into the plastic, and as it is a very hard plastic at that, there was NO way to just attach the center, and pull back and try to screw in the sides. Besides... the last thing I wanted was some $150 plastic part deforming my substantially more expensive OEM front bumper. The best tool for this? HEATGUN! Yup, just keep heating up the entire length of the lip, back and forth, and pull back on the sides. Heat up, pull back, repeat. Heat up, pull back, repeat. To be honest I had to do this for about 20-25 minutes... but in the end it was well worth the the effort; the curvature of the lip finally matched the bumper perfectly. 2. The side wings/canards are actually SOLID all the way through to the base of the lip itself, so once they are cut off, there are NO holes or empty pockets of material to fill in . Basically what this means is you can use a saw of your choice to remove them... I used a reciprocating saw for part of it, a hand saw, and even a Dremel in some spots. Point is, you can cut the wings off with the tool of your choice, although I will admit here patience pays off dividends compared to brute force. 3. Once the canards are removed, the rest is just filing/grinding/sanding down of the sides to match the curve of the lip and shape as desired. I also chose NOT to paint the lip. Instead, I sanded it down with 1000 grit sandpaper. This removed the "sheen" of the the bare plastic, and although at 1st looked slightly gray, I just sprayed an Armor All-type wet tire dressing on it. The sanded plastic is actually fairly porous, and once it came into contact with the dressing, instantly took on a dark black oem-plastic shade.... basically the same exact shade as our front bottom vent plastic. 800 miles and a few car washes later, it's still the same dark color. In hindsight, I could probably just remove it and shoot it satin black . Maybe some other weekend. Anyway, as promised, attached are some pics. I tried not to duplicate all of the other pics I just recently posted as a new member, but if you want to see those, they are located here: http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showt...php?p=15455021 Good luck and I hope it helps some fellow members in case you were thinking of doing this! Let me know what you guys think. Attached Images __________________ "Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak".
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02-19-2014, 03:14 AM	#2
Chandon Major 99 Rep 1,102 Posts Drives: 1M Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Sydney, Australia iTrader: (1)	wow.. it actually looks reall nice without the "wings", might consider buying one ty for the diy/info
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02-19-2014, 05:00 AM	#3
cheshirecat79 Captain 32 Rep 919 Posts Drives: 370z & 135i Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Port Saint Lucie, FL iTrader: (0)	came out great- nice to see that the part isn't hollow in the middle. well done. fabricate some side splitters and you'll be set.
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02-19-2014, 08:23 AM	#4
twin fed Doc Brown 1176 Rep 2,174 Posts Drives: 2016 MG MT M2 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Isle of Long iTrader: (2)	great job, very doable!! __________________
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02-19-2014, 08:48 AM	#5
Marc08EX Lieutenant 139 Rep 575 Posts Drives: 2011 E82 135i Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: AZ iTrader: (5)	Thanks for doing this!!! I can't wait to order this lip and install it! __________________ 2011 135i 6MT \| Alpine White \| Terracotta Boston Leather \| M-Sport \| BMW Performance Exhaust Resonator Delete \| Active Autowerke Signature Exhaust \| BMW Performance Suspension \| Blackline LCI Taillights \| BMW Performance CF Spoiler \| CF Rear Diffuser \| PPK \| E92 M3 FSB \| Matte Black Kidney Grilles \| VMR V710 Jet Anthracite \| Michelin PSS \| BMW SS Pedals
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02-19-2014, 06:50 PM	#7
e36addict Captain 137 Rep 952 Posts Drives: 2013 X1 35iX Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Tim @ BMW of Dallas iTrader: (5)	Sexcellent.... I may just have to buy one of these now. Always need more projects haha.
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02-19-2014, 08:09 PM	#8
Joaco135 Captain 176 Rep 765 Posts Drives: 2020 M2C LBB Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Killeen, TX iTrader: (6)	Link to ebay seller? Thanks,
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02-19-2014, 08:09 PM	#9
ShocknAwe 1Addict 3231 Rep 7,890 Posts Drives: E82 Mutt, M57 Truck Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Charleston iTrader: (22)	I like it quite a bit. Good job! You have made this hard for me by making it easy! __________________ 2010 135i 6MT Jet Black N54/3 FE82 Mutt \| BUILD THREAD \| GARAGE SALE
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02-20-2014, 04:30 AM	#12
SuperCNJ New Member 0 Rep 20 Posts Drives: Alpine White 135i (N55) Join Date: Mar 2013 Location: London iTrader: (0)	Thanks a lot for this! One question though, can you explain a bit more on how you actually heated and bent the lip back? __________________ _________________________________________ 2011 Alpine White 135i Manual Coupe ///M Sport
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02-20-2014, 07:18 AM	#13
twin fed Doc Brown 1176 Rep 2,174 Posts Drives: 2016 MG MT M2 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Isle of Long iTrader: (2)	Seems like you are gonna have lots of copies of this coming this spring......probably myself included, LOL. __________________
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02-20-2014, 07:32 AM	#14
BimmerE82 Captain 105 Rep 837 Posts Drives: 2009 BMW 135i Sport package Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Tucson, Arizona iTrader: (0) Garage List 2009 BMW 135i [7.00]	Looks great! I hated those wing things! Looks a lot better without them. Good job! If I wasn't planning on carbon fiber splitters I'd go this route for sure! __________________
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02-20-2014, 08:00 AM	#15
I35it all day 48 Rep 1,181 Posts Drives: 2012 135i Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Temple, TX iTrader: (10) Garage List 2004 Toyota Tacoma [0.00] 2009 VW GTI [0.00] 2012 135i [10.00]	Super pumped!! F*ck yea!!!! (red bull and coffee!!) Thanks for this
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02-20-2014, 08:56 AM	#16
Cheeze1 Private First Class 28 Rep 129 Posts Drives: 135i Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: United States iTrader: (0)	Good job, I've always wondered if the little wings were solid all the way through or not. Good write-up.
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02-20-2014, 02:52 PM	#19
twin fed Doc Brown 1176 Rep 2,174 Posts Drives: 2016 MG MT M2 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Isle of Long iTrader: (2)	Didn't mean the "copies" comment in a bad way. I appreciate your attempt and will probably try it myself __________________
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02-20-2014, 07:01 PM	#21
Cheeze1 Private First Class 28 Rep 129 Posts Drives: 135i Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: United States iTrader: (0)	Could you please take more pics of the lip/car from more angles?
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