Rear "euro" bumper center

[2ManyZs]

As anyone who has tried to get one lately knows they are NLA. You can get the side pieces with no problem but up till now the center pieces were not available. I personally have tried every known supplier with no success until this past week.

Charlie Osborne at Zedd Findings in Kingston, ON can get them.

I just received mine by UPS this afternoon. Don't ask me why Nissan Canada has them and Nissan USA cannot get them, but if you want one, you had better get one soon before they are NLA in all of North America....:disappoin

Go to Zedd Findings web-site and get yours before they are all gone.

Many people have the "euro" front bumpers and have been searching for the rear to match, so if you want one, you better get one soon....

BTW, for Alan's piece of mind, we call them the "euro" bumpers here in the US because that is they way Nissan describes them in their catalogs to differentiate them from the stock replacement bumpers....

Nismo used that name to describe them, so it's not something we thought up on our own.....

[mperdue]

I've heard lots of talk about "Euro" front and rear bumpers but I never caught what the differences really are. Could someone enlighten me on this? Also 2ManyZs could you get a pic of a US bumper and Euro bumper side by side?

[HS30-H]

Originally posted by 2ManyZs

BTW, for Alan's piece of mind, we call them the "euro" bumpers here in the US because that is they way Nissan describes them in their catalogs to differentiate them from the stock replacement bumpers....

Nismo used that name to describe them, so it's not something we thought up on our own.....

Hi 2Many,

Would that would be Nissan USA and Nissan Motorsports USA's catalogues by any chance? Nissan Japan and NISMO Japan don't seem to call them "euro" bumpers - so it must be an American thing.

The thing that's strange about it is that over here in Europe we all got the rubber-trimmed bumpers like the Japanese market Fairlady ZL, and never the untrimmed ( and undrilled even ) bumpers of the Fairlady Z and 432R. That's what's daffy about calling them "euro" bumpers.........

I reckon this must be an American colloquialism when it comes to bumpers. I remember when I used to hang around in vintage VW and Porsche circles many years ago, and the non USA-market ( and therefore somewhat sought-after by USA-based collectors ) bumpers were always called "Euro" bumpers. It makes sense for a German-made product, but not for a Japanese-made one!

Alan T.

[2ManyZs]

Don't ask me why they call them that. I can't answer that question any more than I can answer the question of why Nissan Canada has them and Nissan USA doesn't....

They have been called that for as long as I can remember. All the catalogs from Nismo Parts, and all the suppliers call them "euro" so I guess they figure if they weren't offered here they must have been offered somewhere in Europe.. guess Europe could be construed as anywhere except the North American continent...

I guess if they called them Fairlady or 432R bumpers no one would would know what they were since very few people ever saw a true Fairlady or 432R.

These have holes for only the bumper guards and not for the rubber "rub" strips. So, really they aren't quite the same as the Fairlady or 432R bumpers as they didn't have the holes for the bumper guards correct? So that gives us 3 different types of bumpers that were available.....

Sorry Michael, for now they are staying in the bubble wrap until it's time to mount them... I'll post a pic when I decide to unpack them.:cross-eye

[HS30-H]

Originally posted by 2ManyZs

These have holes for only the bumper guards and not for the rubber "rub" strips. So, really they aren't quite the same as the Fairlady or 432R bumpers as they didn't have the holes for the bumper guards correct? So that gives us 3 different types of bumpers that were available.....

Don't worry 2Many, I'm not blaming you personally for the misnomer!

The Fairlady Z ( S30-S ) and 432R ( PS30-SB ) bumpers DID have the drillings for the bumper guards ( we call them Overiders in the UK - you call them Bumper Guards out there? ) which were plugged with plastic grommets if unused. What they did NOT have were the little holes for the mounting of the rubber corner trims, so I think it is only two designs of bumper after all.

Did I make it clear with my garbled ramblings that the Fairlady ZL ( S30 - "luxury" model ) and the 'ordinary' 432 ( PS30 ) DID have the rubber corner trims? It was the base-model cheapo S30-S and the stripped-out 432R that did not have the rubber trim or the holes to mount them with.

All Japanese-market S30-series Z cars had the extra front corner rubbers on the leading edges of the rear bumper. This was a large C-shaped piece of rubber that had a slot moulded into it - enabling it to be push-fitted between the bumper corner and the body of the car. This was designed to stop pedestrians being 'hooked' by a passing Z in Japan's narrow backstreets. I think they work very well and give an extra mount for the bumper which is sometimes useful. Don't know why other markets didn't get them too.

I believe that the Factory is still making a few of these trim-less bumpers from time to time, so maybe that's why supply is somewhat intermittent in certain territories. Did you know that the structure for the ordering / distribution and manufacturing of genuine Nissan parts for these older models is incredibly complicated and esoteric? My friend in Japan, who deals in vintage parts and is also a restorer, tells me that the system is enormously frustrating. He says that he has to order the parts from one of Nissan's subsidiary companies that deals with spare parts, and they pass the orders on to the Factory. Nissan actually sell these parts to their own subsidiary, and the whole relationship between the two is not as tight as you might expect or want it to be! The Factory gather together orders and when they have enough to do a small production run they contact their suppliers and make a little order. If the supplier does not have the time or the raw materials / moulds / tooling to hand then it gets shelved for a while. In the meantime, some of the original orders get cancelled - and the whole thing turns into anarchy. My friend tells me that he sometimes receives parts that he had totally forgotten about ordering as it was so long ago. He says that the lack of concrete and reliable information, and the fact that there seems to be almost no rhyme or reason to what turns up and what does not, is the most frustrating part of it all.

Added to this, the new regime at Nissan is doing away with a lot of the old ways of the company - so when some parts become 'no longer available' it really will be true. In the meantime, when Nissan get enough orders on their books, they can produce certain items. I know its true as I've bought stuff in Japan that is no longer available elsewhere, and its not NOS or deadstock either.

However, it seems that the communication system and the structure of the company determines that the Japanese orders get dealt with as a priority, which is just a fact of life I guess.......

All the best,

Alan T.