Big, nasty bumpers

[MEZZZ]

OK, Cool. Now all of these bumper alterations are haunting me. Should I, or shouldn't I?? Hmmmm....

Well, I am glad that I did it,I was never a fan of the taxi cab bumpers. Some think you should leave the car alone, if you wanted small bumpers, get a 240. There were other reasons that factored into my decision on the 280 when I went looking.

Anyway, the swap was not without some pain. The front was easy enough, remove the bumper and old mounts, bolt up the new mounts from the link posted above, done.

The rear however is more involved. You have to remove the old bumper, then the mounts. The drivers side is easy enough, the passenger side requires the removal of the gas tank to remove the mount. The holes in the body do not line up for the 240 bumper, new holes must be drilled. Once again, driver side requires removing the rear interior panel to access the bolt and nut. The passenger side though, I could not get into by removing the rear panel from the interior panel. The fill tube for the gas tank is in the way.

I ended up drilling through to the underside of the body while the gas tank was out and fitting a longer bolt to catch the bumper. Then there is an issue with holes left over. You will have the 2 oblong holes where the struts passed through. You will also have alot of small holes under the tail light finsher from where the trim piece screwed on. I closed off the 2 oblong holes with sheet metal when the tank was out and will fill the small holes during the bodywork/repaint phase.

Hope this helps in your decision process.

[Shade133]

id like to know exactly how to fill in all the holes and go bumperless as thats the way i want to go with mine. he stated he welded them? as in welded plated behind and filled them in.. or what?

[cegrover]

I finally have some outdoor shots because the car is running! Again, I had the bumpers installed when all the body work was done, so I don't have details, but I believe they welded up the holes in the rear valance and fabricated brackets to fit the bumpers. Don't be fooled, the car isn't done, as it has no interior...

[Jeff G 78]

Looks great cegrover

[72 OJ]

yep....the skinny 240 bumpers gives the 280 more character , imitation is in some cases is tolerable , hey the put L28 in 240's,so the bumper thing is OK.

[cegrover]

And...I moved across the Country and the Z is now a regular at Irvine Cars and Coffee! :-)

[cegrover]

Double post...

[240260280z]

"Big, nasty bumpers" Maybe the "Boobs" thread should be renamed to this thread's title?

Edited June 19, 2012 by Blue