280z Bumper Conversion: Who Kept 280z Lower Valence?

[SteveJ]

12 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

It's the 3125. MSA has them but jegs.com was cheaper.

 

I looked for the Xenon air dams recently at Jegs. It doesn't look like they carry them anymore, at least for the Z car.

[Av8ferg]

It's the 3125. MSA has them but jegs.com was cheaper.
 

Same one. MSAa and everyone on planet earth is out of them. Waited 3 months for this piece of trash.




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[siteunseen]

I heard they were all damaged in Fed Ex cargo planes. 

 

[Av8ferg]

I’m need to work on my landings [emoji23]


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[Muzez]

Thanks for all the inspiration guys! This is great. So much good food for thought, I ran out of likes for the day. Will post back here once it is purchased and installed. 

@cgsheen1 I asked for feedback, thanks for being honest! 

@EuroDat &  @SoCalJim thanks for the before / after. 

@Av8ferg love the lime green one with the eurolights, never seen that config before. Sorry to hear about your nightmare getting your front-end shipped. Is Xenon at least shipping you a new one? Or waiting to find out?

[rturbo 930]

1 hour ago, Av8ferg said:

Same one. MSAa and everyone on planet earth is out of them. Waited 3 months for this piece of trash.




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I can't imagine anything but the urethane air dam being able to bend like that without breaking, so I'm assuming that's the urethane air dam. You need to just lay it out in the sun, since they're flexible they tend to fold them up to ship them. 

Edited October 25, 2021 by rturbo 930

[Av8ferg]

I can't imagine anything but the urethane air dam being able to bend like that without breaking, so I'm assuming that's the urethane air dam. You need to just lay it out in the sun, since they're flexible they tend to fold them up to ship them. 

Okay, I’ll try that today. Hopefully you’re right. Xenon never answered the phone or returned my call yesterday. Maybe they’re closed Monday’s.
I’d like to know where your can buy the Euro/Aussie from valance. It’s essentially the same out the US 240z except the turn signal lights are blanked out. I guess Europe had iss with the low turn light placement because all the ones I’ve seen have the light mounted on the bumper. 280z stock turn lights with the euro 240/260z front valance and a lower lip looks pretty darn good to me. If anyone know where you can buy those let me now. I have little confidence this xenon will work out.


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[EuroDat]

I was all over the place when I started. First tried a 240Z valence, but it is way to high and does not clear the 280Z frame under the larger radiator. Ended up going with the 240Z fibreglas air dam because it is stiffer and self supporting at high speeds. The Xeon PU air dams tend to fold up under the bumper at high wind speeds. You can solve that problem by adding brackets to support the lower edge of the air dam.

The 240Z version which will need some trimming to fit the 280Z. No big deal and easy to do at home. See Airdam-2 & 3.

The grill is a modified 240Z / 280Z combination with 9 bars instead of the original 240Z 7 bar version.

[Av8ferg]

Chas, you did a nice job. I’m undecided on my way forward. I may go back to the 280z stock valance and put a lower lip on it and add two more crossbars on my lower grill to fill the void. I’d rather get the 240z valance without the turn signals and add the lower lip, but can’t find one yet.

Here’s a stock 280z valance with a lower lip. This lip is too big for me but a smaller one might look good.

Chas if you want to sell your stock 280z valance pieces let me know . Mine is pretty trashed .



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[EuroDat]

33 minutes ago, Av8ferg said:

Chas, you did a nice job. I’m undecided on my way forward. I may go back to the 280z stock valance and put a lower lip on it and add two more crossbars on my lower grill to fill the void. I’d rather get the 240z valance without the turn signals and add the lower lip, but can’t find one yet.

Here’s a stock 280z valance with a lower lip. This lip is too big for me but a smaller one might look good.

Chas if you want to sell your stock 280z valance pieces let me know . Mine is pretty trashed .

Hi John,

Just reading your remarks on the 240Z valence. The outer sections of the 240Z valence bolts up no problems. The problem is the frame under the radiator. The frame protudes about 25mm under the 240Z valence center section because the 280Z has a larger radiator.

To make it more challenging, the valence normally goes under the support. I played with the idea of cutting out the section of the valence panel around the frame and buying a BRE spoiler and fitting that to hide the frame. In the end I went with the 240Z spoiler, because it had a smaller gap under the bumper and had a little extra ground clearance.

If you want more photos, I can post them.

Sorry mate, gave the valence to another member 3 or 4 years back. Wish I didn't. I haven't seen that member since and he didn't even say thanks🤔.

I think I gave the bumper ends to Bruce @Captain Obvious so he could play with them.

[siteunseen]

I took the bottom lip thing off before installing the xenon spoiler. Got on the road, ran it up to about 100mph and heard this awful clunking noise. It was the air dam with no support underneath flopping up and down. I put the OE bottom piece back on for support. Worked out great. Now when I go fast my damn wipers start lifting off the windshield. I can live with that though, time to let up before I get a ticket.

 

[Av8ferg]

Chas, thanks for the information, sounds like it might not be worth it to try the 240z valance. I put the Xenon out in the sun all day and it did unroll but it still looks really sloppy. I just can imagine it looking good. I’m going to see if Xenon will taking it back but I predict they won’t.
I will probably go back to getting a stock valance and putting a lip on it. I need the passenger side piece and the center one. My drivers side is good. If anyone has these let me know.
Chas too bad you gave it to an unappreciative person. Can’t let people like that change you though. It’s on them not you.
So I had acquired another lower grill at a junk yard and did a mock up with it today. There are two lower grills on the bottom section in this pic. I wanted to see how it lined up. Will cut the shorter one out as it sit further back and then powder coat like the other one to match. It should take up lots of that gap with my 250z bumper .



Also spent the day on the EFI. AFM, throttle body and put all new harness connections. Slowly she’s coming together. Awaiting cooliing parts to move forward.