IND Painted Center Front Section (V1), Center Mesh Install
I Installed the IND painted center section. I am VERY pleased with how this looks and it really ties together the front of the car for me, especially as I am not going to run a front lip on this car (for that reason it’s a deal!). Paint and color match on this is excellent and OEM level, as you would expect from IND. I installed this before having the front of the car wrapped so that the painted section is now wrapped as well.
At the same time I made and installed a custom cut lower central mesh to protect the radiator. It is the following:
Small Diamond Grill Mesh Sheet - Gloss Black. They have a lot of options online with other materials, worth a look if you're interested in making your own center mesh. Sure there are cheaper options out there but I like the look of this and it is high quality. If this type of mesh is good enough for the Porsche GT3, it's good enough for the M2.
Removing Center Section:
Here is the IND front center section. Note there are four 10 mm bolts along the bottom and 2 locking push pins on the bottom sides. If you’ve never removed these before, first remove the locking pin, then pull out the remaining push pin. IND has a good video of the install and how to deal with the parking sensors here:
IND Front Center Section Install Guide
Pin Removal: Remove the locking pin
Then remove the push-pin.
There are then 8 locking tabs between the top of the center section and the bumper cover, circled. I found using the Y-shaped prybar and pushing straight in worked the best. Mask off the bumper cover before doing this, you can see even then there is some minor trauma to the tape. But the paint remained unscathed.
This is the tool and how I used it to unlock the 8 tabs. Easier if you start with the tabs at one side and work your way tab by tab to the other side, I went left to right but you can be a rebel and go right to left haha:
NOTE: Why won’t the center section just pop off now??? Along the left and right bottom of the center section are 2 tabs. So once all the bolts, push-pins, and 8 tabs are undone you scratch your head wondering why the thing is still really stuck onto the car, yes it is those 2 left and right bottom tabs holding it in. I used a smaller plastic prybar and once one was undone it just came off.
OK now we’re in business!
Mesh/Radiator protection Installation:
Next I mocked up the size of mesh piece I would need and see how it fit. There is a rubber seal all around this area pushed up against the bumper cover (grey section), so it’s easy to wedge something in there.
Overall size of the insert I made 6.5" tall, and 22-3/4 long, although 23" would have been fine. I think 6-3/4” tall would also have been fine, so there is some margin for error if your cut isn’t exactly square.
Then I cut the mesh (
Small Diamond Grill Mesh Sheet - Gloss Black ) – I had a 12x48” piece of mesh and used the cardboard to tape off my measurements on the mesh. Used a Milwaukee 3” cutting wheel to make the cuts, although tin snips would work they might bend the mesh around the edges on the long cut. I then smoothed the edges off reasonably by trimming back some of the “snaggle” ends that were sticking out and smoothing the rest off with a die-grinder. Optional step is to black paint the exposed metal section from the cuts around the edge – on mine some silver was visible in 1 corner, so paint eliminated that (used Eastwood Chassis Black gloss Paint).
Cardboard Mock-up:
Mesh Sheet:
Template on the sheet with planned cuts taped off:
Next the mesh simply slides into position (I went left to right as you can see):
This was the first attempt and I was happy with this:
I then looked at it for a while and decided to attach with zip-ties. Here is it attached with nine 18-pound zip ties (the really small ones). Zip ties are not visible at all, even if you know they are there and go looking for them - completely behind everything, and I seriously dislike zip ties on cars, so the fact they are entirely hidden makes it sort of OK
. I just like the look of the mesh behind the center posts. I drilled five 1/8" holes total--1 into the passenger left side grey central strut and 1 into each corner on the sides. The other 4 zip ties are at the tops and bottoms of each of the 2 posts. 9 Zip-ties total, 5 drilled holes. I think this now qualifies me as a plastic surgeon
.
CENTER SECTION: Zip tied top and bottom to the struts under the black center piece to the mesh. These 4 go completely around and over the grey central struts. The "body" of the zip ties sticks out on these and I was worried they would be too big but when covering with the black center piece it didn't make contact with them:
I also put a zip tie on the passenger side strut by drilling a 1/8" hole and the body of the zip tie is inside that post as that side has the 1 inch indent presumably for the cruise control module which I don't have):
And here is the body of that zip tie, really the only one “visible” now if you really look for it:
Passenger and Driver side attached at all 4 corners. Drilled 1/8" holes and ran the zip ties from the brake duct side of things so the body of the zip tie is behind everything. So overall the insert is 6.5" tall, and 22-3/4 long, although 23" would have been fine. It is held in place by 9 zip ties.
Here is where the body of the zip tie is located on the 4 corners, well hidden:
No zip ties are visible (but at least 9 were harmed for this
). This mesh is very secure. Looks great, I’m very happy with this entire mod.
Brake Ducts: Wow! BMW built brake ducts into the front of this car! What a great surprise...Have to love them. Now I know why the dust goes everywhere
.
Initially I was thinking I would cover the 2 ports on either side of the radiator intake. Wasn't sure if they were accessory radiator tunnels but turns out they are brake ducts going straight to the wheel wells, right through the slats everybody's tires rub on (haha made a funny, but troof
). For this reason I'm leaving them uncovered. I want as much air diverted through those as possible. They are easy enough to clean out. They will stay open. I haven't decided if I will cover the accessory inlets in the "cubes" yet.