Fitting 240Z bumpers and Valences to a 280Z

[EuroDat]

Hi Charles,

The vertical bars are aluminium. I thought about using stainless, but decided it was harder to fabricate and the original design has a degree of flexability which the stainless would not equal.

The horizontal bars fit snug in the slots and when you tighten the bolts the vertical bars compress and clamp it all together. The thinkness of the slots is important, too big and the vertical bar will bend and misvorm like a bananna.

I used a sharpening stone to wear down the side of a hacksaw blade to get the right thickness. If you support both ends of the vertical bar and gently push it at its center from the back. That opens the slots a little and then you can easily insert the horizontal bars. If it was made of stainless it would be a lot more difficult to assemble.

The thread is stainless.

Back to the progress report:

I made some test brackets yesterday and fitted then today, but made a mistake measuring the brackets.

To fit the grill I plan to go back to the 240Z top brackets. The 280Z brackets are fitted to one bar and it keeps flexing, but when I measured the 240Z brackets I switched them, left to right, by accident and made the test bracket 20mm to short. It will be enough for a test setup. The next brackets will be 2mm stainless.

In the photos the grill is hanging on the test brackets and the second horizontal bar is removed so I can take measurements. The grill will be lifted 10mm which will center the bars around the bumper better. Next the test bumper brackets, but that will have to wait till Sunday afternoon.

Edited June 3, 2015 by EuroDat

[EuroDat]

Its been slow going the last two weeks. I made the bumper brackets out of aluminium and now they are being fabricated out of stainless.

I told him I wasn't in a rush because I had some other things to do first. That meant he left them in the box and forgot about then until I called last Monday. I should have them this weekend.

 

After so many prototype aluminium brackets I finally got the grill where I wanted it. Then I made all the brackets out of stainless and did the final mounting of the grill today.

[Patcon]

Looks good. Are you gonna paint the air dam?

[EuroDat]

Charles, Im planning to paint it once all the fitting is over. It is easy enough to remove and take it to the paint shop. Matching the colour might be an issue, but the paint work is shoddy at beat so a little mismatch way make it any worse.

 

I have a question, maybe someone can answer.

 

I am making the bumper bracket (or getting them welded together). What is causing me some concern is where to put the holes for the bumper itself.

 

There are two bolts per bracket and they are about 33mm apart, I dont have an original bumper so I dont know how far apart the brackets are from each other. The bumper Im using is fibreglass and has a very long (80mm) slot so there is quite a bit of variance available.

 

The plan is to change to the chrome bumper or maybe a Harrington stainless steel version later. That means if I don't get the brackets right now, Ill have to make them again later.

 

I made a quick drawing to help explain what I mean. The ??? dimension is the one I need. Can't seem to find anything about it on the internet.

 

Any help would be much appriciated.

 

BumperBracket-1.pdf

[CanTechZ]

I measured 770mm ctr to crt of inside bolts, holding tape straight across. This is on my '70 240Z.

 

 

 

 

 

[EuroDat]

Thank you CanTechZ.

Im glad you came with the measurements. My fisrt etimate was 750mm which would have left me 10mm short on both sides.

[tamo3]

That's nice idea moving horn location.

It was hitting my spoiler too.

[EuroDat]

Its been a while, but it been just too bloody hot to work on the car lately.

 

I've had the bumper brackets a couple of days now and decided to brave the heat and fit them today.

 

All the brackets so far are hand made and a little shabby here and there because I have been making corrections, redrilling, rebending etc.

The final brackets will be cut with a laser  and look a lot better than these. Just need to make the same adjustments in the dxf files.

 

The bumper brackets are made from 3mm, but the final brackets will be 4mm. The 3mm would be ok for fibreglass, but I think they would be too flexable for the chrome or stainless steel bumper.

 

Fitting the bumper bracket. Still need some washers and painting here and there. That will happen when it comes apart for the final brackets.

 

Everything back together.

 

If anyone is interested in a set, I plan to cut a couple of sets (while Im at it).

A kit could include:

2x Bumpers brackets with ss bolts and nyloc nuts.

2x Grill top mounts.

2x Grill bottom (side) mounts.

2x Long vertical bars for the grill plus M3 bolts and nyloc nuts.

(These are to convert the grill from 7 to 9 bars and lower the 240z grill centre anchor to connect behind air-dam)

2x Side vertical bars for 9 bars plus M3 bolts and two extra nuts for side mounts.

2x Brackets to mount the horn. (On the 77-78 the horns were mounted on the bumpers shock)

Everything except the 4 verticle bars is made from Stainless steel 304, bolts and nuts are A2-70. The 4 verticle bars are aluminium.

Instruction how to get there (without all the experiments I went through).

 

 

[dirty white boy]

I sent you a PM about a set of the brackets.

 

 

[EuroDat]

Its's been a while and I finished it a couple of weeks ago, but my fuel pump gave up and kept me buzy.

 

This is probably one of the last weekends before it goes into hibernation and I took this photo when I came home.

 

and here is a before and after.

 

Im planning to have the brackets made from stainless steel. Most parts are now aluminium so I could make adjustments.

If anyone is interested in a set, let me know.

 

 

[siteunseen]

That looks great, good job. 

[dmorales-bello]

Great write up and a superb final result, EuroDat.

BTW, did you do the work on the van in the background in the "after"  pic? That turned out nicely as well!