E39 front bumper skin removal

[mpo]

I am working on my friends 2003 530i again. It is the one in my signature. In today's episode, she parked over a too-tall curb stop thing, and when she backed out it pulled one side of the skin away and cracked a few pieces inside that area. My main question is how to remove the skin. It seems that the license plate bracket can come off, and there are some trim strips on either side of it. I am guessing I pry all that off and there are screws behind. But I want confirmation before I bust it more. Are there any diagrams anywhere?

Thanks!

[e39dream]

welcome to bimmerforums. with all due respect you need to search this out. People were telling noobs to search this subject way back when I signed on. There are several write ups.

lil e39dream bonus to add to your bookmarks- www.bmwtips.com

a whole site of e39 how-to for your reference.

[mpo]

In my defense, I did search. I found many threads that did not answer the question. I found this thread:

http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...e+front+bumper

All the info has been "moved". Moved where?

I tried bmwtips but nothing seems to be there and I get a flash error...

Would like to know where all that info got "moved" to.

[e39dream]

try a direct link:
http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/2...2001bumper.htm

that is for a 2001 bumper upgrade but the removal/install is relatively the same. A drunken chimpanzee could swap an e39 bumper without tools in about 4 hours.

also if you are using internet exploder upgrade to firefox or opera at some point, you'll be glad you did.