removing front impact strip clips

[braino]

Is there a trick to remove these clips from the bumper? I've tried pinching them with a needle nose vice grips but no luck. The metal is surprisingly tough and only barely flexible.

Any help would be appreciated.

cheers,
Brian

[T.Hanson]

https://www.bmwtechinfo.com/repair/main ... Repair.htm

Without looking,...I believe the rubber is one long slot, channel in the back. The clips need to be squeezed, lubricated enough to slide along in the slot to reach a more square, larger opening somewhere along the slot, to facilitate their removal.

Either that or pinch and twist ?

[braino]

Yeah - it's pretty easy to see how to get the new clips into the impact strip. The challenge I'm having is getting the old clips out of the bumper. They have little spring metal tangs that hold them into the bumper - in order to get them out you have to compress the tangs somehow. It's fairly difficult to get inside the bumper with vise grips. I'm wondering if it's necessary to remove the bumper entirely?

cheers,
Brian

[T.Hanson]

I've only done it on a 6 series, but suspect it's the same. If you've got the time and it's not below freezing, pulling the bumper off isn't too difficult, and not a bad idea for inspecting, cleaning 35 years of crud and rust.

The rubber side pieces come off with three or four hex nuts, turning the wheels or removing them for access. A dab scarey, using rust penetrant, patience, maybe a Dremel wire brush tool to make dang sure all the nuts come off; and leave the bolts in the rubber.

It takes an impact wrench, maybe a few hours of penetrant, a long extension to pull the shock bolts out of the frame up front. That should free up the bumper assembly for pulling, wiggling, bashing with a rubber hammer to remove.

Way much easier after that to access all the fasteners.

No, sanding off little blemishes in the anodized bumper can't be done. Massive, major grinding, sanding off the rock hard finish, polishing,...to be polishing forever, or buy a new bumper.

If you remove or loosen the shocks, be aware lining up the bolt holes in the frame for easy starting of the big bolt threads can be annoying.

[Mike W.]

I just swapped a rubber strip, I should know but I'm reaching. I think it's more a screwdriver than a vice grips thing, do one side, the top, then the bottom, and there is the little locking tab which is the whole problem. But just plain squeezing didn't work.