Tucking 260z bumpers

[HermanM]

I've been looking through the posts from here and other sites, but can't seem to find any info on tucking the early bumpers without replacing them with 240z bumpers.

If anyone happens to have cut the stock mounts and modified the length, please give me some insight and pics if you have any. My mechanic/body work shop was going to cut the stock mounts to shorten them then reattach them. But never having done it, I was hoping to know/learn anything to look out for.

[EuroDat]

Sorry, cant help you, but what your planning to do sounds interesting. It would clean up the lines of the 260Z.

Good luck with it. It would be nice if you post progress photos.

Chas

[HermanM]

Sorry, cant help you, but what your planning to do sounds interesting. It would clean up the lines of the 260Z.

Good luck with it. It would be nice if you post progress photos.

Chas

Once I get into the shop, I'll have tons of after pics for sure. From that to the rebuilt engine being dropped

[palosfv3]

The amount of work and parts needed will depend on how close in you move the bumper to the body. A couple of years ago I tucked and modified the front and rear bumpers on this 260Z . These are about a 1/4" (8mm) from the body. This was quite more than just new brackets since the point of the front bumper was radiused and the rear shaved and seams welded . The amount of work involved is really dependent on what look you want to have . The 260Z bumpers have some heavy brackets bolted to the face bar . The easiest way to do the front is to just remove these as well as the bumper shocks w/ brackets and fabricate new mounting brackets. If memory serves me correctly 240Z brackets will not bolt right up to the 260Z because of some small changes made to the isolator mounting area on the front of the rail. On the rear you are in a similar situation but will have to contend with the fuel tank (will need to drop the tank to remove r/side bracket and absorber) and the bumper cut outs in the quarter panels . You will have to either shorten the rear bumper ends , extend the bumper cutout in the quarter or like we did fill the cut out to fit the side of the rear bumper .

There are captured nuts that are at the end of both rear rails that can be used for attaching a new bracket to the body. On both bumpers you will need to fabricate side mounting brackets.

On the minimal side of things you could remove the fillers and remove the side mounting insulators and drill the absorber to release the oil , push the bumper in as far as it will go and the weld the end of the absorber to keep it in place. I dont believe this will pull the bumpers all the way in to the body but will move them back a couple of inches..

Build pics of this car are at https://picasaweb.google.com/wgmauto/WgmautoGregScar

I don't think there are pics of the actual fab of the brackets and such in this folder . I may have some pics of this saved on disc somewhere and will post if they exist .

[palosfv3]

Unfortunately I don't have any detailed pics of the bumpers or the brackets . I also forgot to mention that the rear bumper on this 260 has been moved upward about 1 to 1 1/2 inches .

[HermanM]

Thank you very much for the information. I didn't think about cleaning the lines up at all yes, want to, just didn't think about it. I was hoping that just cutting the brackets on my early 260 would give me a nicer look easier with less fab. You have proved me wrong on the fab side, haha, but righ with the looks. It's something that must be done at all costs.

Thanks for the heads up Larry

[Rainman]

Wanted to add my two cents before you cut your bumper brackets.. You might not need to cut these at all... I used the bumper mounts as the attachment point for the rotisserie on my 260Z, but I needed to compress the bumper mounts about four inches so the whole contraption would fit in my garage, so I released the compressed gas from the shock absorbers which are the bumper mounts on the 260Z to get the length reduction I needed.

All I did was loosen the philips head screw in the center of each bumper mount.. When I did, I heard the hiss of some type of compressed gas escaping the bumper mount, afterwards I was able to push the bumper mount in without it extending back to the original length. You have to remove the bumper to access the philips head screw I am referring to.. Maybe this will allow you to move the bumper closer to the body without cutting the mount at all. Give it a shot..

Edited April 10, 2013 by Rainman

[LeonV]

Wanted to add my two cents before you cut your bumper brackets.. You might not need to cut these at all... I used the bumper mounts as the attachment point for the rotisserie on my 260Z, but I needed to compress the bumper mounts about four inches so the whole contraption would fit in my garage, so I released the compressed gas from the shock absorbers which are the bumper mounts on the 260Z to get the length reduction I needed.

All I did was loosen the philips head screw in the center of each bumper mount.. When I did, I heard the hiss of some type of compressed gas escaping the bumper mount, afterwards I was able to push the bumper mount in without it extending back to the original length. You have to remove the bumper to access the philips head screw I am referring to.. Maybe this will allow you to move the bumper closer to the body without cutting the mount at all. Give it a shot..

I was planning to do the same thing before deciding not to. Another 260Z owner told me about his mistake, cutting the bumper shock before realizing that it can be depressurized and compressed!

[260 z]

I have also looked through past threads about this subject on this forum, Hybrid Z and on Desert Datsun and would appreciate some clarifications. My z is early 1974 and the bumpers are off. I removed the phillips head screws and heard the gas bleeding out of both front shocks. The shock on the passenger side was depressed with a rubber mallet and "stayed in". The one on the driver's side would not move. I do not have a clap that I could get over the shock while it was installed so I removed the assemble and put it in a vise. There I was able to depress it but when I removed the clap, it extended. I recompressed it and installed the center screw but it still extended when I removed the clap. I mounted it back on the frame and when I hit it with a rubber mallet, it just bounced ( compressed about 1/4" and sprung back ). I have not removed the mounting bracket on the rear shocks yet. What an I doing wrong or missing?

Could use some help? Thanks

[siteunseen]

Just a thought, could you get it depressed and run a self tapping screw through the tube some where that's not noticeable? Maybe on both so as not to slowly creep out on down the road?

[260 z]

I thought about that but did not want to damage the shock, just in case I would ever want to go back to the fillers.

[FastWoman]

It might be possible to fabricate a cable that would run from a body mounting bolt to a bumper mounting bolt. The trick would be figuring out how to compress the bumper shock on the vehicle in order to mount up the cable. But if you can do it, this would leave you with an intact bumper shock.