Hello All,
I just finished doing the bumper refresh and will not sugar coat this sh**. i have attached a .pdf which has almost all the things that you may find necessary to do the conversion. the schematics are missing the lower grill duct & under bumper tray.
Here's what I did: Bought a bumper from ebay locally ($225) then went to local auto paint shop and purchased paint matched primer, PPG base, & clear coat ($300).I was quoted $1000 to do this and it pissed me off so I decided to do it myself in my garage . Got the bumper home and had to seal up the parking sensors-so I used my plastic welder with metal mesh on back side until flush (1.5 hrs). Followed by using plastic filler to make it super flush after sanding (0.5 hrs). Sanded the entire bumper with 220 grit sand paper then sprayed primer over the whole thing--and sanded (3 hrs). Sprayed 4 layers of base coat then sanded with 600 grit the next day (3 hrs). Sprayed 3 coats of clear then sanded with 600 grit next day (3 hrs). Sprayed 3 more clear coats and sanded with 1000,2000, then buffed with polishing compound until glassy. Finally bumper is painted!
Pulled the car onto my ramps and easily removed the bumper with 10 mm bolts, 2 torx screws, and a bunch plastic holders (20 min first time ever). There's a center radiator plastic that needs to be removed fromt he car as well (2 min). Removed the louvers from each side (torx screws) then the fog lights. Installed the fog lights on the new bumper and attempted to do the louvers but the hole is not the same (that's what she said). I had to cut away the new bumper hole to make it more shallow and used the old bumper as a template (do not freestyle it!). After getting and acceptable fit- I had to plastic weld 2 mounting screw holes for each side louver closest to the center line of the bumper. there are 4 total (2 screw into the fog light) center 2 are non existent. At this point I realized this kind of stuff is all about problem solving (4 hrs). Bumper is ready!
Mounted the bumper (5 min). Done! I will upload some pics of what I did later. Hope this helps wrap your brain around whats needed. This should be considered enjoyment BTW b/c a lot of time was spent sweating in the garage.
