I will get the best "advice" out of the way and say it before someone else does.........."buy an OEM lip"

My car came with a replica fiberglass lip. It had some cracks in it, but the fitment was good. I decided to replace it with a urethane lip. When I took the hardware out, the fiberglass lip was removed in 3 pieces, it was cracked all the way through in 2 spots. If one piece of hardware had loosend the lip probably would have just fallen off into the street when I was driving.

Now to the new urethane lip. I did some searching around, and ended up purchasing an AP1 replica lip off Ebay. This lip had been used by others with good fitment results. I now have the urethane lip on the car and am trying to tweak the fitment before sending to a friend for paint. I sat the lip in the driveway on a sunny day to "loosen up" before fitting it. I have fiddled with it for an hour or so now and am still not happy with the fitment. Some of the brackets had to be tweaked, which wasn't a big deal, but it still isn't the way I would like it to be. I'd say about 80% of the lip looks good, but there is one area where I can't get the gap corret. I plan to use the OEM weatherstripping, or equivalent, but I don't have it yet. I assume that will make up some of the difference, but in this one area I severly doubt it will fill that gap.

So, any suggestions?

 

Pics? I once bought a lip for my 335i that claimed perfect fitment pre painted and poly urethane it came with glue... Lol

 

Here are a couple of pics. Drivers side has the worst gap issue. I have ordered some OEM weatherstripping.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/78070225@N07/6845378954/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78070225@N07/6991411851/

 

How was your lip shipped to you? In a big box without it being bent or small box with it being little bent to fit for shipment.

 

I think if you get the rubber line piece thing it should cover that gap

 

Maybe this'll help, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR6nKelWTlM

I would suggest the OEM rubber tape to cover the gap, regardless if you fix the gap or not.

 

Wow, that pic looks identical to the scene I had... Silverstone AP1 with a poorly fitting lip, on ramps haha. I installed the lip with the supplied hardware. Fitment was about 75%. It was "okay", but like you, I had a few large gaps.The biggest was right in the middle, about 1/4 inch. After about a week or 2 of the lip being on, its a little better adjusted, just by sitting in the sun and having some stretching. Then, I took some brake cleaner (anything that cleans VERY well, enough to really hurt a paint job, will do), and cleaned the surfaces of the lip and the bumper where the lip was going. Took some 3M trim panel tape and stuck it all together (taped the lip, kept the other side of the tape covered with the wax paper stuff and installed the lip with the hardware again, and finally removed the rest of the wax paper stuff and firmly pressed it all together). Its been taped for 2 or 3 weeks now and its holding up quite well. In fact, the bumper is off my car, awaiting paint, and the lip is still firmly attached, by nothing but a single line of tape across the top edge of the lip. Fitment with the tape is about 90%-95%. The only complaint I have is at the edge near the wheel well on one side, the corner doesnt quite line up with the corner on the bumper. PM me if you need any more info