No bumpers?

[sonofzzzap]

BK, hehehe

Soccor moms... I do not trust them..

and my shiney new paint job? it hasn't happend yet, but as soon as it does... pictures there will be!

[The Wingnut]

Shiny paint job?

I've owned ONE car in 4 with a shiny paint job, and that didn't last.

This car isn't the one.

[pparaska]

Someone asked me about my Z's rear bumper lately, kind of a related idea.

My Z is a 73 (9/72 production date). It had the 73 front bumper that sits out a few inches more than the 70-72 front bumper, with fill plates between the body and bumper. When I bought the Z, it had the overrider stuff front and back as well. Ugly IMO.

When I redid my Z, I got a straight but rusty 70 bumper and mounting brackets to replace the 73 bumper and heavy brackets. I realize the 73 setup was probably safer for the bodywork, etc., but I decided to use the older, flimsier parts instead. I ground the chrome/nickel/copper layers off the 70 bumper with a flapper disc on an angle grinder, welded shut the holes for the over-rider and rubber strips, and had the body guy smooth the surface and paint it body color. It hides the bumper pretty well, although I think the Z looks better without a front or rear bumper as long as the indents, holes, etc. are removed to make it look right.

For the rear bumper, I decided I really didn't want one at all, but decided that the rear of the car needed some protection from being hit from behind. At the time the rear panel was NLA and not being reproduced. What I did was

remove the bumper ends that go around the car, shortened the depth of the Z bumper by 3/4" (from the rear panel to the rear edge of the bumper, and made short, tapered extensions that go to the side edge of the 1/4 panel, dechromed it and filled the over-rider holes, then had it smoothed painted it body color.

I made up heavy duty 1/4" steel brackets to replace the stock flimsy Z brackets (while making them shorter by 3/4" off the body) and welded a 1" dia piece of black schedule 40 pipe behind them for reinforcement. All welded together as a stiff, strong structure. So the real bumper is now the brackets and black pipe, and the bumper you see is just a cover now (painted body color). Some people see pictures of my car and don't even see a bumper.

[dogma420]

my 2 cents

I would think twice before removing your bumpers. You are probably young, I had a bumperless car when I was young, and I wouldn't think twice about it now...which is good because it's rather difficult to go back to bumpers once you've tossed everything and shaved it all in.

The other thing is, those bumpers are really handy to avoid damage to the rest of the car....accidentally, i've nudged quite a few people, as I *guess* the Z is fun to drive with your foot always on the clutch...anyways, those bumpers have saved me quite a bit of damage, as they do absorb some impacts (mine have always been at crawl speeds like waiting in line at post office, etc)...without the bumpers, I would have very expensive repairs...not to mention if they were shaved off, the added expense of fixing the shaved areas that break pretty easily if it has any bondo in it.

The early 260 had pretty small bumpers if I recall....I can see someone with a 74.5 260 or a 280 saying they don't like the bumpers, but I can't really see an early 260z owner complaining...they look pretty good.

I would not remove the bumpers...they help ya.

Also, removing them is like turning your rig into a rice burner, you are asking the cops to pull you over, without even really asking. It's like a continuous laugh in the direction of the cops!

Good luck with your decision.

[Alfadog]

I decided to leave mine...

Good decision!

[new_2_z]

i know a couple of z that just use a saw to cut the bumper shocks off. of course u will have that part thats bolted up to your rail. people will ask how the hell did u get dual exhaust . yea droping the gas tank is hard. i did it and it took me a day to figure out this and that. like always their is something funny and it was the 180 bend in a hose. it would be a good idea to check under their and make sure all your hoses are in good shape anway. do what u want. its your z. one key thing those bumper shocks cost a pretty penny. more than .02 cents... jk jk. check out in a magazine and u will drop your jaw on its price. just rember have fun. with some oil pentration , good tools, and yelling bad words anything is possible .

[Gav240z]

Anyone experienced a hassle from law enforcement about not having bumpers? I'm thinking about pulling mine off. I saw a 240 running around today without them, and it really cleaned up the overall appearance, despite the car being an obvious work in progress.

I've never been hassled without my rear bar on my 240z. I am tempted to put it back on but I asked pparaska about his treatment on his Z. Yes that was me recently .

I think what he's done is by far one of the best ideas. I actually tried this out on my 2+2 once but didn't have the right tools to make it look right.

[beandip]

I do not have experience with this, but a friend of mine has a 240z and his bumpers were painted the color of the car and the officer was saying that there were no bumpers. Granted, the officer did not know what he was talking about because the bumpers were there, but if there were no bumpers, the officer would have most likely sited him.

I think bumpers look good, but if you have an early 260z and you really want it to look clean with bumpers you could take the bumper shocks out and mount the bumpers like a 240z. There is a member on this site that did that. You could even go further and take off all the rubber on the bumpers, or find a front and rear euro bumper. These are just some suggestions.

Ben

On my '73Z I have the early 240 bumpers and the shock mounts are gone . The mounting is a direct boult up bracket that uses the stock bolt holes. I have removed all the rubber form the front bumper and I used stainless steel carrage bolts to fill the holes . I polished them to a shine that looks just like chrome and they mearly look like mounting bolts. I am not running the vertical over riders either , I prefer the minimal cleaner look. my 2cts

[Devildog19]

I know this thread is a couple months old, but since I am also considering removing my bumpers, I thought I would chime in with another question. Isn't it true that the Z cars ride low enough that the likelyhood of actually making bumper to bumper contact is not very high. I live in colorado and let me tell you it is SUV and truck heaven. It's hard for me to see the safety side of having the bumpers installed, at least the front. If I think I'm about to hit the car in front of me I will hopefully be on the brakes, which, providing there is any kind of traction, will cause the nose(and thus the bumper) to dive even lower. The rear bumper may be more practicle since the car behind will be the one with the diving frontend. All this being said I only plan on driving my Z on pristine days with no chance of adverse weather, hopefully reducing my chances of being in an accident. Now as far as the legal aspect, I hadn't even considered that. I guess i will have to look it up and see.

Here is a link to a local 240Z that met a nasty end. Don't think the bumpers did much. I know it is an extreme example but it looks to me that the car was impacted well above the bumper line.

http://www.klode.com/Kws/Napplications/display_pics.aspx?Stockid=722551&Exit=Close

[Ricklandia]

Here is a link to a local 240Z that met a nasty end. Don't think the bumpers did much. I know it is an extreme example but it looks to me that the car was impacted well above the bumper line.

http://www.klode.com/Kws/Napplications/display_pics.aspx?Stockid=722551&Exit=Close

Extreme example? Probably not. I'd venture to guess that the impact speed on this collision was probably significatly lower than you'd think. In all honesty, when these cars were built, safety was NOT necessarily an issue, or at least not one addressed very seriously. I would say that even the cheapest POS car out on the showroom floor today is SIGNIFICANTLY safer than nearly every car built pre 1975, if only for the fact of computer design. "Crumple Zone" was virtually unheard of in those days. I'm afraid in these days of massive SUV's, the most you can expect is driver diligence and a little luck. My daily driver is a Miata, so believe you me, I KNOW what the bumper of an SUV looks like, I stare at them eye to eye every day! :paranoid: :rambo:

[Bambikiller240]

Rick is correct. I'd be surprised if that accident was more than a 20 mph impact. BTDT a long time ago, and not ready to repeat it.

[Hypertek]

i just read this thread.. and come to say : If you are worried about crashing, then dont remove it.. The worst of accidents will still OWN your car... Little things are a price to pay when modding your car.. If