bumper swap

[alberto of the kings]

Can anyone help me either if you have a spare 74 240z bumper I hate my 77 280z's huge bumper and was wonder if that swap was possible and if so if anyone had an extra.

[SteveJ]

I will have one in the future, though it's far from perfect. However, shipping may be high.

[alberto of the kings]

Where are you located and whats wrong with it

[SteveJ]

I'm located where I say I'm located. It's more of an issue of where YOU are located since "United States" is a pretty large area.

The bumpers aren't perfect. I have some earlier bumpers that I'm going to put on eventually. They have 40 years of wear and evidence of some minor taps here and there. The car passed through many hands before I got it.

I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them.

[EuroDat]

Hi alberto,

I changed my 280Z bumper for the 240Z. To do the swap I used a bumper from MSA and plan to upgrade to a Harrington SS bumper.

You can't use any of the valence from the 240Z because the subframe drops down about 50mm lower for the 280Z radiator.

I ordered a 240Z airdam and now waiting for it to come in. It has a smaller gap between the top section of the airdam and the bumper.

. Tamo3 is also going through the same process, but he is probably a lot further than I am, mostly because I couldnt decide on what to do about the valences and which airdam.

Here is an "ongoing" thread on the swap

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/body-paint-s30/48611-fitting-240z-bumpers-valences-280z.html

Chas

[ajmcforester]

Is that company that was making new stainless steel bumpers, still doing it?

[SteveJ]

Is that company that was making new stainless steel bumpers, still doing it?

Yes. I bought two sets from them this year.

[EuroDat]

Is that company that was making new stainless steel bumpers, still doing it?

This is the company I was refering to Datsun 240Z and 260Z Bumpers | Harrington Group

Chas

[Zed Head]

There are a couple or more people on the forum who have discharged the 5 mph shock absorbers and pushed the big bumpers in. They're the same size but they don't stick out as far. I haven't seen a good picture though so can't say what it looks like.

[ajmcforester]

You could just mount the bumpers the way they did on the early Z, if you fabricated some new brackets. What they did was put three bends in a piece of ~3/16" that was 2 1/2-3" wide then mounted with two bolts to the inner-fender with nut welded to the inner fender and two smaller nut and bolts to the bumper. That's it nothing fancy.

[EuroDat]

Im not sure if the bracket mounting positions are the same, because datsun modified the frame rails to fit the shock absorbers.

I made my brackets out of aluminium plate 40x2mm. It was easy to bend, drill and shape. The idea is to make them out of Stainless later and use these as a template when I change over to the SS bumper.

They are drilled to match two of the shock mounting nuts in the frame.

I also reused the trim behind the original bumper.

In the link to the other thread (see post#5) you can see the brackets I made in post#6. Tamo3 did a more radical approach and modified/removed the shock mounts to get better alignment for the bumper.

I can post more photos later if you want, but Im now on my ipad.

Chas

[ajmcforester]

Im not sure if the bracket mounting positions are the same, because datsun modified the frame rails to fit the shock absorbers . . .

Chas

I know your right about that change and never had a chance with a 240Z bumper with brackets to match it up to a 280Z. To see how much difference the brackets would need, you might be able to modify 240Z brackets. Also I think you need to remove the bumper shocks. The funny thing is the 240Z bumper does not even mount to the rails they are bolted to the inner fender.