Fitting 240Z bumpers and Valences to a 280Z

[EuroDat]

A little more progress on the grill today. The M3 thread die didn't come in today, so ill have to wait until Friday to pick it up. I need to shorten two long bolts and recut the threads. Its not needed for testing.

 

I had to do some drill in the horizontal bars to get the 280Z sections and the 240Z grill to match up. See red circles for where bars needed to be drilled out.

 

 

 

The two outer vertical section from the 240Z had to be shortened as well and the short 280Z had to be altered for the end of the top bar. I drilled the top bar, but I didn't want to try to form it like the other holes. I was afraid it would distort and go out of shape.

 

 

 

Now its back together for testing. 

First problem. Its hitting the old turn signal indicator supports. I used two 20mm tube spacers to move it out and clear the supports. Just misses the bonnet by a couple of mm when I open it. Ill have to look into this further. An option would be to remove a section of the indicator support thats hitting the grill.

Next problem; The lower support hits the back edge of the air dam. Might need to take another 20mm of the back edge of the spoiler.

 

 

 

Chas

[Patcon]

Chas,

Are you gonna put the front signals back in the grill where the bars are shorter? I wanted to do a grill similar to this when I put the airdam on the car I am working on. The factory grill doesn't fill the whole area up when you add the airdam.

[EuroDat]

Chas,

Are you gonna put the front signals back in the grill where the bars are shorter? I wanted to do a grill similar to this when I put the airdam on the car I am working on. The factory grill doesn't fill the whole area up when you add the airdam.

Hi Charles,

 

The grill will be coming apart again. Your remarks got me thinking about it again, sometimes not a good thing. I want to put two of the 240Z bars under the two short ones so the grill will go all the way to the airdam.

 

The short bars are needed because Im using the old bumper shock mounting position. That is about 80mm closer to the car centerline. Ill take some photos tomorrow so you can see what I mean.

I am now considering some more alterations like cutting a section of the old turn signal supports (see red line in photo) away so the grill can be set a little further back towards the original position. Also looking at straightening the bent up panel to the left in the photo (red circle) so I can mount the bumper like the original bracket position on the 240Z.

 

 

Plenty of experimenting to do over the weekend

Chas

[tamo3]

Hi Chas,

 

Looks good fitting. Cutting turn signal supports is one of the difficult thing I have experienced....

[EuroDat]

Hi Tamo,

Im trying to convince myself its not that hard to do, but your not helping with that remark😐 Only joking, I realise its not that simple and I don't want it to look like a hack job when its finished.

I want to do it so I can set the grill a little further back. Because its moved forward the bonnet just misses the grill when you open it.

Ill take step by step photos if and when I decide to go that way.

[Patcon]

Can you not remove the turn signal bracket completely or do you need it to support the grill? I would think a few spot welds drilled out and it would come out.

[EuroDat]

Can you not remove the turn signal bracket completely or do you need it to support the grill? I would think a few spot welds drilled out and it would come out.

I have thought about that as well. They are held in place by 4 big spot welds of about 1cm in diameter. If I do that, I will need to make brackets to hold the grill.

[EuroDat]

I revised my grill again today. Spent most of the afternoon making new vertical bars so I copuld extend the grill all the way down to the airdam.

It won't work with my bumper brackets in the present situation, but Im planning to move then out to the 240Z position.

 

To add the extra too "long" bars I needed to remove the top bar from the little grill under the 280Z bumper. Second was to try and repair the old top bar from the 240Z grill. Someone drilled extra holes in it and it was bent up a bit.

 

I heated it red hot to straighten it and flatten the indentations for the vertical bars.

 

Here are the "custom" parts I made to extend the grill.

 

Here are some pics of the grill and a trial fit in the car. Its held in place with some wire. The two centre vertical bars will attach to the frame mounting where the old 280Z grill under the bumper mounted.

 

 

 

 

 

[Patcon]

There, that's it. That was exactly what I was thinking of doing! Well done! What did you fab your vertical bars out of, Aluminum?

[EuroDat]

The vertical bars are made out of a h-profile. I had to cut a section off to make it a u-profile. The end result was a u-profile 12x10x12x1mm.

Then I made a jig to cut the slots. I can make a couple of sets with the left over profile. First to get my proto type werking right.....

[EuroDat]

Removed the old turn signal supports today. I managed to get them out without butchering them, so I can reuse them if I ever decide to go back.

 

 

 

Now buzy making new brackets to mount the grill.

 

Charles, Here is a photo of the back of one of the vertical bars.

 

 

Chas

[Patcon]

Thanks for the good pictures. I thought the light brackets would come out like that. Much easier than having to work around them. So the vertical with the slots is Aluminum? Is the all thread stainless or Zinc?