How To Repair Holes After Removing License Plate

My new i3 came preinstalled with the front end license plate bracket. I wasn't likewise happy about that, so I looked into ways to fill up the holes made by the 4 self-borer screws. There seems to be two camps on how to practise this:

1. Fill upward the holes with Bondo or your favorite plastic filler and paint
2. Use a body-colored plastic plug to fill the pigsty

I ended up going the Bondo road, but I did experiment with painting some plastic plugs. I used this Bondo kit. Here's my process:

Bumper with the bracket removed. Note the screws acquired the surrounding material to swell up. Utilise a razor to shave off these parts to make edges of the holes flush with the body.

Mask up the area well. I do my own impact-up and detailing, and stand up by the philosophy that the less factory pigment you touch the meliorate. I've seen some tutorials that sand and patch the surrounding one-2 inches effectually the damage, but I retrieve information technology's overkill here. Clean and make full up the holes per package instructions. In one case dry, I used a razor to fifty-fifty out the filler to keep it flush with the panel.

Mask a larger footprint for priming, to avoid getting the stuff on a panel (my error here). Then sand with 380 grit sandpaper. I skipped some of the coarse grit stuff. Prime the holes per packet instructions. My fault here was existence impatient and not allowing extra time to dry before sanding. I gave it the minimum 30 minutes earlier sanding fifty-fifty and ended up taking some of the primer off.

Time to pigment. Utilize your favorite bear on upward paint or matched spray paint. I used OEM BMW touch up along with some touch up sticks. Touch up method I used is similar to that of Ammo NYC's. Allow to dry (I permit it become overnight) and wet sand with one thousand grit sandpaper to even and shine. I repeated this with another 2 coats.

Employ clear coat. Allow to dry (I let information technology become overnight) and moisture sand with 1000 dust sandpaper to even and smooth. I repeated this with an boosted coat.

Once everything is dry out and ready for the final touch on. Moisture sand with 2500 dust sandpaper to get out the deep marring from the 1000 grit. Compound and polish abroad with your buffer.

It'due south not perfect. You lot can definitely run across there was some work done here up close. I rushed the priming and drying process and that acquired some issues in the final product. But from a 3-5 feet away information technology looks perfect. The flat white paint helps too.

For the tabs, I followed the same process on some Hillman #881201 tabs I bought from Lowes. They turned out improve than I idea. I think the key is to put down enough paint such that the surface tension of the liquid volition naturally create a smooth layer of paint or clear coat. Having the surface horizontal and letting gravity do some of the work helps too .

Source: https://bmwi.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1784937

Posted by: wetherbeewitteper1989.blogspot.com

Share this post