As most of the grunt work is finished on 'Project Front Bumper' I thought I'd do a write up and give an update.
I started with the grilles. The mesh pieces I bought to replace it were designed to sit over the existing slats. This wasn't the look I wanted so decided to see if I could remove the slats but still keep the frame of the kidney grilles. Out came the hacksaw and after a couple of hours careful sawing I had removed the slats and was able to slot the mesh grilles around the silver frame. They went back in nice and easy and overall I was very happy with the result. I've still got a bit of tweaking to do to get them to fit absolutely perfectly but for now they're good enough:
Next it was onto the lower grille...to do this I needed to remove the front bumper. I followed the guides from the forum and had it done in no time - it’s worth mentioning that the guide I used didn't mention disconnection the washer jets or the fog lights. The fog lights are easy, just a simple clip, but I didn’t want mesh with the washer jets, but thankfully there was enough give to pull the bumper out far enough to do what I wanted:
I've replaced a lower plastic grille on a Corsa before, so I assumed it would be similar...take the bumper off, unclip the plastic and bobs your trouser leg. Sadly, it wasn't that simple! The lower grille piece on a 3.0si also forms part of the skid plate (basically it’s all one piece) and the fog lights obstruct you removing the plastic grille:
Thankfully I already had the replacement covers for the fog lights which I'm getting sprayed as part of this project, so it was three screws and away they go. Next, what to do with the grille...out came the hacksaw again and after an hour of 'hacking' I managed to remove the central part of the grille. Unfortunately, I couldn't do the left and right solid pieces (I wanted a clear gap in the lower section) as the mesh piece I was installing screwed into the front of the grille at the left and right hand side.
Hacking done, I clipped the grille piece back in and began retracing my steps. Everything was going well...I even managed to line the bonnet up with the bumper pretty much dead on, until it came to the last piece the plastic rivets for the arch lining:
There are 8 of these to go in, and nowhere does it explain in the bumper removal guide when you follow the steps backwards you'll have any issues. I spent over 1 hour trying to get these little bits of plastic to go back in - I even recruited my neighbour to try and help. I genuinely thought I was being an idiot. So, when all hope was gone, I called on the forum. Thankfully some kind sole pointed me in the direction of another thread on another forum and alerted me to the fact they are 'one time use only' (cheers BMW). So, I hopped in the Mr’s motor and off to Halfords to get some new ones. They fit perfectly, and weirdly, can be used as many times as I want!
With everything back together I set about fixing the grille. Four screws into the plastic and it was done. I really wanted it to sit flush at the back of the grille area, but as the piece was designed to go over the existing plastic (although god knows how with how far the lip comes out on the standard si bumper) it flexes to curve towards the front of bumper - that is the only thing I don't like about the new mesh grille - it curves towards the front of the lower lip. Other than that though I'm really happy. The Mr’s says it makes it look more modern and aggressive, so if she says that (and she really has very little interest in cars) then it must at least look better.
Now I just have to wait several weeks to get it resprayed (along with the foglight covers) and then fit the black rubber splitter.
Here is the before and after from the front:
And a before and after from distance to see the complete effect: