New guy here saying hello!

[Bimmern00bb]

Hello All.

In the past I’ve mostly been the type to work on Honda’s. Stopped wrenching for a couple years and due to my buddy being a BMW enthusiast, I fell in love with the 635csi. After looking around for a long time, I stumbled across this US- spec manual 83 633csi. Body is straight, paint faded, interiors okay and it drives and shifts well! I’ll be checking in from time to time to ask questions and learn about these beauties!

1st question. The portion under the “diving board” is non existent on my 83. I’ve read after 87, the body style changed to a universal bumper. Is that where the term “world bumper” cane from? Anyways, I was wondering is the piece I’m looking for the “valance”? Does that replace the air damn? Is the valance just bolted on the the diving board? Or do I have to find a bumper than comes complete with valance and diving board? Can’t seem to find any videos on installation.

Also, has anybody does a “bumper tuck” on these e24s? I’ve seen a few videos on it being done on e30s but nothing really on the e24. Anyways! Glad to be here!

PS. How does one post pictures here??

Does this picture work

https://imgur.com/a/00JjNK3

[635sharknose]

Hi, welcome,

After '87 the model was updated with different side trims, headlights and some other updates. The diving boards were exchanged by the World Bumpers, basically the same bumpers, they are however not as far out as the old versions, difference is around 1.5 inch.
Your Shark is a type 2, based on a E28, which as far as I know always came with a valence (perhaps some US models don't, I'm not sure), same as on this model: http://www.classiccarfarm.nl/assets/images/bmw-633csi-resized-17.jpg
The valence is not connected to the bumper, it is connected to the body with sheet metal brackets and to the side trims. They did not connect it to the bumper as otherwise the movement during a slow impact would cause damage, they were designed to prevent this.
The installation is quite straight forward. On eBay you might be lucky in finding a valence.


I wrote an thread how you can tuck your front bumper. If you want additional info for tucking the back, let me know.
https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?2414127-BMW-E24-US-front-bumper-tuck-lipo

You can add photos by clicking on the Insert Image icon.

[Dschart]

Yes, I was able to open the pic...looks nice.

The front air dam does not attach to the bumper. It has a series of ladder type brackets to attach it to the body. To tuck the front bumper, you must cut off the bumper shocks and fabricate panels to cover the rubber pieces that no longer fit on each side. When you remove those ugly rubbers, you will find there is a huge gap because the fenders do not drop to bumper level. You can push the bumper about 4" inwards, and I believe it makes the car look much better, but you lose the 5mph safety capability of the bumper.

The rear bumper is actually more work. There are 3 bumper shocks to remove. The hard part is welding sheet metal to cover the gap above the bumper and fabricating panels to cover the gaps on the sides with removal of the ugly rubbers.

It would be easier to install either Euro bumpers or world bumpers (from the latest US prod). Good luck finding either and expect to pay an arm and a leg.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Bimmern00bb]

Much appreciated for the quick replies! At this moment I can’t really afford the arm and leg for the euro bumpers and to be honest, I don’t mind the US spec rear bumper, it’s just the front bumper that drives me crazy with how far it sticks out. I’ll look into ebay for the valance - just to clarify, will the EURO valance fit? Or will I have to find a US valance? I’ll probably attempt the “bumper tuck” in the next few weeks. I’ll create another thread and update.

For whatever reason maybe because I’m on the mobile device I do not see the icon to post pictures but here’s a few more!

https://imgur.com/gallery/Q78xxlS

[Bimmern00bb]

Thank you for quick replies! At this moment I don’t think I can afford the arm and leg it’ll cost for the euro bumpers and to be honest I don’t hate the US spec rear bumper. It’s just the front bumper that drives me crazy, so I most definitely attempt the tuck.

Just to clarify, will a EURO valance fit? Or do I have to find a US valance?

I will try and attempt the tuck in the next couple of weeks and will post and update!

Here’s some more pics!!

https://imgur.com/gallery/Q78xxlS


Also, where would one source “world bumpers”? Having a hard time finding a legitimate site

[635sharknose]

I'm not sure the Euro valence will fit without some modifications. I have a world bumper valence on my US spec E24, that didn't fit. It was easily solved by making some brackets and drilling some additional holes.

Changing to Euro bumpers or World bumpers is quite a job and costs a lot of money.
Changing to World bumpers might look a bit strange on a 1983 E24 as they were introduced in 1987.

I see one of your shock is already worn, must be an easy job to do the rest.
I assume you could also buy world bumper shocks instead of puncturing the original ones. I am not 100% sure but I would assume these are shorter.

[1986series6]

Realoem has the same part # up to 6/87 for the front air dam.

https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/sho...diagId=51_0502

I have a deposit on my 86 air dam. I swapped to World Bumpers.

If your interested let me know and if the buyer pulls out, I'll let you know.

http://bigcoupe.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=31088

Bob V

[Bimmern00bb]

Hey bob!

Right now I have a donor car lined up. Hoping to be able to pull the air dam/valance off this upcoming Tuesday. But if that falls through and your buyer falls through I’ll let you know!

635 shark nose,

Thanks for the info. Current plan is just to puncture the other (good) shock, using the forum link you wrote up, I’ll drill a hole in the bad shock (outer and inner portion) and just make they both line up. I’m planning on pushing it in about 1-1.5 inches. After that, I’ll install the valence and just drive it for a bit before working on other things.

Here’s some pictures!

The black 6 is the donor

The red one is just a picture I pulled off the web, that’s how I want my bumper to look after the “tuck”

https://imgur.com/gallery/nZ8Hzys

[e24mpwr]

Welcome!

[DaHose]

Welcome to the forum! This is a great place for E24 aficionados.

Jose