Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Bumper brackets

I've noticed when taking passengers in the vehicle, the front left wheel (passenger side here in Australia) is scrubbing.

A closer inspection shows it to be scrubbing on the front bumper, which seems to come within 5mm at static height (compared to 10+mm on the RHS) of the tyre when turned ever so slightly to one side.

I believed that this was caused by the front bumper, which is not mounted with the standard mounts that normally go from the chassis rail to the bumper; and whose standard location would put them through the end tanks of the radiator. 



As a result, the only thing that was holding the bumper on were the side bolts through the guards; I figured this was causing a bit of warpage and getting the guard too close to the wheel.


So, I took the mounts, grabbed a spare piece of thick walled scrap steel RHS and tack welded the mount to it to maintain it's overall length and shape, then marked out the position each side of the radiator.




And cut.


Welded on enough extra to clear the radiator,


A bit more.


Test fitted, trimmed.


Another shot showing the location of the radiator. If it wasn't for the BBS front bumper, I'd need custom aero to conceal the radiator. Perhaps that's not such a bad idea....



The front bumper appears to have a pretty big bulge/dent on it. I don't remember putting it there - perhaps the car was in a minor fender bender in the past? Might explain the guard clearance issue? Thanks to Nas80 on the forums over at bmwe21.net I now have a list of dimensions to check against the suspension/chassis rail points to verify if the vehicle is straight.


Nothing a pile of hammers won't fix.



Completed brackets.

Bolted the front bumper back on, also trimmed the BBS bar where it had been rubbing for good measure.



End result, car looks the same and guard looks still too close to the tyre.

I need to measure the radiator support bracket I made; from memory it was a tight fit to install - so it's possible it's pushing on the top of the guard causing the bottom to flex inwards slightly. Nothing a grinder can't fix (or a washer or two/some shims, if it's actually too narrow!)


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