I am prepping a 1976 280z for paint.  I'm assuming most people separate the sugar scoop from the fender when painting the car and paint both separately?  Is there a gasket or anything that sits between them?

 

Anyone have any experience or pictures where the scoop is welded to the fender?   Obviously there would be a chance to warp the metal.  But given they are tightly bolted together, curved surfaces, and it's a flanged butt joint, seems like it would be fairly resistant to warping.  Seems straightforward to jump around making a lot of tack welds, grind smooth and finish with a skim coat of filler.

 

 

 

But I wanted to get some opinions.  Any pictures would be great.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance.

Exactly what I did on my car. I really like the look and have (somewhat surprisingly) only seen a couple other cars where it's been done. Probably not great for the value of the car since it's not original, but my guess is Nissan would have made them this way if they could have.

Hardest part of the job is not banging the fender into something when moving it around in the garage...the headlight bucket adds a surprising amount of length!

Some photos in my build log starting here: 

And two pictures I took today after finishing the repairs from a fender bender last summer:

 

Thanks man, looks great.  Any issues with warpage?  Anything you would have done differently?

Nope, no issues with warping that I could see, and I'm a very inexperienced welder. Did just what you said: a bunch of tack welds, grinder, filler.

Nothing I would do differently, other than maybe a bit of extra metal work to cut down on the amount of filler that I used. That could be said about the whole car, though 😉 

I'm pretty sure making the fender and sugar scoop two separate pieces was a cost cutting effort by Nissan, making them one piece is a good look IMO but if it isn't done perfectly it looks terrible.  Once they are welded you'll have to spend extra time and effort with a hammer/dolly and a long board sanding block to make sure there are no traces left of the seam.

Let's not forget that the sugar scoops on first couple model years were fiberglass, not metal.  Must have originally been easier, or less expensive, to make the curved pieces out of fiberglass than stamp them out of metal.  I imagine that stamping a one piece metal fender with included sugar scoop would have added complications.

Edited July 12, 20213 yr by psdenno

I fiberglassed the seam.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1287361148056433&id=555679747891247

 

Edited July 13, 20213 yr by 240 ZeffR

Welded that seam and even the two seams between the three valance panels. Absolutely no downside, fender comes off and on just fine, no issue other than handling length as mentioned.  Same for the valance. The look is much cleaner and more modern.

Edited September 6, 20213 yr by zKars