The Short History of an Old BMW (2002 project)

Ta voiture est d'une beauté! et pour les fogs je trouve que ça lui donne un petit côté "Rally Vintage".
 
Pareille ici, je trouve que les fogs viennent remplir le ''vide'' entre la lip et les headlight. Ça donne encore plus de gueule!

exactement ce que j'allais dire. J,ajouterais que ca fait oublier que c'est un bumper ''inversé'' a ce qu'on est habituer de voir, il entre en dessous du char au lieu de sortir avec une fat lip, genre.
 
Duck it.

Duckbill In Progress.

Ever since I bought my 02, I felt like it needed something on the front-end. The bumper was shaved by the previous owner, which I’m grateful for, but it was missing a final touch.


Back in 2014 (before the restoration), I bought a VW MK1 GTI duckbill/chin spoiler. I test fitted it to see what modifications I could make, to fit it properly but I wasn’t convinced, so I sold it when I started the whole restoration process.

While the car was at paint, I ordered an Ireland Engineering Air Dam (along with other parts) and test fitted it. I also posted photos in this thread but decided against it, so I sold it as well.

Finally this fall, I was willing to give the duckbill idea another go. A company in the US (Kooglewerks) had since started manufacturing aluminum chin spoilers for 2002s, but they’re a little pricey, especially for something I might not want to keep. I also don’t like that the mounting lip is bent upwards instead of being hidden. Also, because that mounting lip is bent upwards, you're expected to screw or rivet it to the body. I did not want to make holes.

If you’ve been following my project you’ll know that I like try to do things myself. So, this was no different, I decided to try making a duckbill out of fibreglass. I figured, if it went well, I might be able to make some other items out of fibreglass down the line.

Since cardboard is easy to work with, I started by making a cardboard template/version of the duckbill. I then "mounted" it, to see how it would look.


I wasn’t sure if I wanted to proceed with the idea, so I decided to give a quick coat of black spray paint on the cardboard, so I’d be able to get a feel for the potential final product.

If I hadn't liked the idea, there wouldn’t be much in this post. It would simply be the story of a piece of cardboard and how it was cut and placed in a recycling bin. Not much substance, needless to say, I decided to proceed with my first fibreglass project.

The plan was to make an MDF mould for me to lay the fibreglass. I used the cardboard template to establish the overall size and angle of the duckbill.

I cut 2x identical pieces of ¼ MDF for the “face” of the duckbill. They fit snug on the driver’s side of the front but not so much on the passenger side. There was a bit of a gap in the middle (1/16th-1/8th), not perfect. I figured it would be difficult to make the mould perfect... on the side that would mounts to the car, at least.

Here are the 2 pieces which make up the face of the duckbill, I added some MDF scraps perpendicular to the mould, to offer some rigidity and keep the proper duckbill angle.


As I mentioned above, I thought it would be difficult to cut the mould to have the perfect contour of the body (on both sides). So my solution to account for the differences was to take a "negative" of the front end. I would lay fibreglass/epoxy on my 02's front end and then use it with my MDF mould, like as a backing. This should allow it to fit perfectly on the car, at least that was the plan.

I was a little scared about spreading epoxy and fibreglass on my car, worried it might somehow stick to the car and f-up paint or panels but I pulled up my socks, put on a condom and went for it.

I covered the front end with masking tape. Then glued some aluminum foil to the masking tape and waxed the foil (to aid in releasing the fibreglass). I then went to town with the fibreglass and epoxy. I was anxious to get it off the car and I am happy to report it went relatively smooth.

Back to the MDF mould. I made the lip, curved portion of the duckbill by bending some 1/8th MDF, using steam to keep it from cracking. You’ll notice in the photo, in my design the lip gets a little wider as it meets the fenders. This 'lip' piece would be separate and screwed to the main “face” portion, so that I could unscrew it to de-mould the fibreglass once it had cured.

I covered the MDF mold with masking tape, glued aluminum foil and then waxed the foil. In retrospect, I should have just went straight to the foil, not sure what I was thinking with the tape.


Photos of lip portion + pieces assembled with aluminum foil coating.




Next, I needed to secure the fibreglass mold of the front to my MDF mold. I would be using this backing as part of the duckbill. I secured it with some clamps.


Time to lay some fibreglass! The next day, I de-moulded my MDF mess and was please with the outcome. I mean it still needed a lot of work but it wasn’t a disaster.

I trimmed away the fibreglass which surpassed the face of the duckbill (top portion). Then remounted it to the car for a test fitment, there were still some gaps where the duckbill would meet the car. :( I secured/clamped it in place and filled the thin voids using some body filler. I then used the some body filler to fill the imperfections left from my mould.

Body Filled

I gave it a coat of Filler primmer and I would like to say that following priming and sanding, I painted it but that didn't happen. Once it was primer I noticed some more imperfections which needed some work. Took care of that with some filler, then re-primed it and painted it.

Fresh paint


So, the reason the title contains "in progress," is because I haven't mounted the duckbill on the car yet, I figured I would wait until next season.


If this works out well, I could make a proper mould out of it. Sell them, make millions of dollars and host the Oscars.
 
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#kimkardashian

I was completely Xhausted halfway threw the reading. You should have been a carpenter,, you're good at it. So this 2oo2 will never see a front chroomium
bumper?? I really like the look,, keep it Black.
 
I like it. Agressive enough without screaming "hey look at me I'm a race car"

Sent from my Moto Z2 Play using Tapatalk
 
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