In my humble opinion, the BMW coupes were designed for thin chrome bumpers. That's how they were originally drawn and built in the guise of the late 60s 2000 CS coupes. When the larger 6 cylinder engine was installed, BMW put rubber strips and bumper overriders onto the bumper, ruining the clean look. Even worse, US safety requirements forced BMW to pull the bumpers out away from the body to absorb 5 MPH bumps without damage. Practical perhaps, but ugly. Butt ugly.
 |
| Fitting the custom front bumper |
The remedy for the rear is easy -- the 2000 CS and 3.0 CS coupes share the same back ends so all you have to do is purchase a 2000 CS all-chrome bumper and tuck it in tight. Viola!
Unfortunately, the longer restyled front end of the 3.0 CS coupe is completely different than the shorter 4 cylinder 2000 CS nose so the 2000 CS bumper won't work on a 3.0 CS coupe. Besides, the 2000 CS front bumper isn't all that pretty anyway.
 |
| The 2000 CS rear bumper is super clean. All chrome, no rubber. |
 |
| The 2000 CS front end isn't as pleasing |
Fortunately, the CSL lightweight coupes provide an idea of how the bumpers really should look. The CSLs had clean, one-piece front bumpers but they were made from fiberglass and painted black. I wanted to emulate that shape but in chromed metal.
 |
| The painted fiberglass CSL front bumper serves as inspiration |
I started by purchasing an extra e9 front bumper, disassembling it, removing the rubber and retaining trim, and sandblasting all the chrome off. Then Tyler filled the huge holes in the back where the rubber was tucked in, and also filled the holes from the retaining strip rivets.
 |
| Rubber removed, holes welded in |
 |
| Preliminary fitting to the car as a single piece |
 |
| Tucked in tight |
Then the hard part began -- fitting the three pieces to the car so that they follow the curves of the car but also align with each other without the overriders to cover up the hardware and gaps. It took a lot of effort to weld the pieces together into a seamless unit. Residual copper in the steel make welding a challenge. Furthermore, it has to be perfectly smooth and all steel in order to chrome plate.
 |
| Prototype bracket to hide hardware |
 |
| Ends fit perfect |
 |
| Using rubber end pieces from US bumpers |
 |
| Super clean |
And make custom brackets to hold it tight to the body without any visible bolts.
The end result is super clean, but super expensive. Still need to chrome plate.
You'd think the rear bumper would just bolt on but there are some fitment issues to deal with there also.
 |
| Good gaps on the left |
 |
| Too tight around the curve on the right |
