My next project for the P75 is converting from the heavy US shock absorber front bumper struts to the hollow tube Euro bumper struts.
I deconstructed the front bumper and valance, removed the fog lamps and removed the windshield washer system (reservoir, pump and tubing back to the dash) - I don't use either of these and I had been carrying around 2 gal of washer fluid for the last 18 years.
The rubber front molding strip on the front of the front bumper is secured by a series of plastic rivets and a plastic retaining strip across the face of the bumper and secured at each end by a Phillips head sheet metal screw. To remove, I took out the screws at each end and then carefully peeled the rubber molding strip off its plastic retaining strip. This reveals the bumper mounting nuts hidden underneath the rubber molding strip.
It took me a bit to figure out the side mounting bolts for the valance are beneath the bumper and that the front valance is not attached to the front bumper like the rear valance is attached to the rear bumper. Therefore, I came to understand that I had to remove the front bumper first (which included detaching the front turn signal lamp housings from the bumper before I could pull the front bumper away from the car), then the valance side mounting bolts were exposed and I could remove the front valance. I also removed the fog lamps from the front valance before I could pull the front valance away from the car.
Next, I replaced the old US style bumper struts with the Euro struts. The Euro struts have an M12 stud at the base of the strut (versus M8 on the US strut) so I used a Dremel tool with a metal cutting bit to open up the slot at the strut attachment point on the body.
I also wanted to pull in (i.e. tuck) the front bumper into the body, so I deleted the rubber bumpers at both ends of the strut which meant I needed to add 3 M12-40mm washers to take up the extra M12 stud length protruding thru the slot in the attachment point on the body. Since the body tub is getting wider from the front end back to the windshield, I had to trim one of the M12-40mm washers to get it to fit.
Next, I mounted the bumper to check fit. I was high on the left side, low on the right side, so I removed the bumper, loosened the bumper strut mounting nuts, remounted the bumper and used a floor jack to persuade the bumper into correct alignment then tightened the strut mounting nuts, then removed the bumper.
Now I could mount the front valance. Once it was tightened into place, I mounted the front bumper, reinstalled the front turn signal lamp housings and tightened down for the final time the bumper mounting nuts. I had installed and tightened down the rubber side accordion pieces to the bumper before the final bumper mounting, so now I connected the accordion pieces to the front fender extensions and tightened the fender extensions to the front fenders and the front valance.
I used a split fork tool to carefully remove the plastic rivets and the plastic retaining strip from the face of the bumper. Then I carefully worked the rubber molding strip back onto the plastic retaining strip. Now I could "pop" the rubber molding strip back onto the face of the bumper by pushing the plastic rivets into their plastic cups in the bumper and secure the ends of the rubber molding strip by inserting the Phillips screw at each end of the rubber molding strip.
Before the front bumper tuck:
After the front bumper tuck (and fog lamps removal):
