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

[siteunseen]

Here's some I just did without moving the car or jacking it up. I CAN do mo' better later but these should show the piece I had to leave. It's like a skid plate maybe? for running over small animals or kids .

Looking at them they're crap pics with my phone and nosey dog in the way. It's the middle piece with the brace but without it at above 100mph that started flapping and banging like a $20 crack head.

 

 

 

[Patcon]

I will look around this weekend

PS: 6 hours is alot of time for that dent...

Edited November 2, 2021 by Patcon

[Av8ferg]

4 minutes ago, Patcon said:

I will look around this weekend

PS: 6 hours is alot of time for that dent...

Thanks Jim and I agree, but we’re living in a different world.  It was hard to find anyone to do this kind work anyway. Paint/Body places where I live have little interest in doing any work except insurance work.  I went to 4 places all said no thanks.  How can I argue with her 6 hrs estimate?  Remember the days when people appreciated your business?  I can’t get people to come and work on anything around my house and when someone finally shows up they do below crap work, take 3x as long and leave a mess behind for me to clean up.    

Cliff, I get it now.  I thought you were talking about the entire valance including the sides which I felt was impossible.  Thanks for the clarification. 

[Muzez]

1 hour ago, Av8ferg said:

 I know you can put on the Skillard lower splitter and it apparently really stiffens up the Xenon Valance

Wait, Ferg, who is this top photo? And are there more of photos of this setup with the xenon, lip, and hopefully bumpers installed? Love that they kept the stock indicators. 
 

Second photo looks like the same car, but with the spook setup instead. 

Edited November 2, 2021 by Muzez

[Muzez]

39 minutes ago, Av8ferg said:

Thanks Jim and I agree, but we’re living in a different world.  It was hard to find anyone to do this kind work anyway. Paint/Body places where I live have little interest in doing any work except insurance work.  I went to 4 places all said no thanks.  How can I argue with her 6 hrs estimate?  Remember the days when people appreciated your business?  I can’t get people to come and work on anything around my house and when someone finally shows up they do below crap work, take 3x as long and leave a mess behind for me to clean up.    

Cliff, I get it now.  I thought you were talking about the entire valance including the sides which I felt was impossible.  Thanks for the clarification. 

Had the same issue. Trying to get a repaint. Went to more than 10 shops. Only 3 would take my Z and 2 had more than a year of wait time. 

[Av8ferg]

13 minutes ago, Muzez said:

Wait, Ferg, who is this top photo? And are there more of photos of this setup with the xenon, lip, and hopefully bumpers installed? Love that they kept the stock indicators. 
 

Second photo looks like the same car, but with the spook setup instead. 

They are different cars.  Top one has the Xenon valance, that pic is off Skillard’ website.  The second is a stock OEM valance with a 240z bumper and BRE lower lip.  

[Jeff G 78]

I have a Xenon airdam, but I have not yet installed it, so this might or might not be 100% feasible.  I might change course, but here is what I plan to do.  Knowing that the Xenon airdam is known to flex down at speed and also knowing that the whole point of the flexible airdam is to not get destroyed all the time, I plan to make a sacrificial brace.  I hope to bend some small tube steel to fit into the back side of the lower front lip and weld two tabs onto it where two pencil braces will go back to the stock center valence mount.  The pencil braces will be thin with a V-shaped cross section.  If the airdam strikes a curb, it will flex and cause the sacrificial pencil brace(s) to buckle.  A simple removal and straightening or replacement of the damaged brace will be easy.  The braces will be just strong enough to keep the airdam in place at all vehicle speeds.  It won't take much strength.  Alternately, the pencil braces could be stiff with a spring in the center which will allow buckling with an automatic spring-back feature.  The spring design might take some trial and error to get right.

Here is a sketch (not to scale or proper shape) of what I plam to make.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Jeff G 78

[EuroDat]

Oke guys. There is a guy on this forum (or he was, he sold the car shortly after completing the build) that had the same high air speed deflection issues with the Xenon pu air dam. It was a white 280Z and he fixed the problem by making several brackets to support the lower lip and that connect to the old lower grill mounting points. It might offer a solution to your problem. Just can't find his build thread.

The clearance issues with the 240Z valence is not the 280Z bumper shock mounts. It is the lower frame section that goes under the 280Z radiator. The center section of the valance goes under the frame on the 240Z, but the 280Z is about 50mm lower than the 240Z valance panel.

[Av8ferg]

5 hours ago, Jeff G 78 said:

I have a Xenon airdam, but I have not yet installed it, so this might or might not be 100% feasible.  I might change course, but here is what I plan to do.  Knowing that the Xenon airdam is known to flex down at speed and also knowing that the whole point of the flexible airdam is to not get destroyed all the time, I plan to make a sacrificial brace.  I hope to bend some small tube steel to fit into the back side of the lower front lip and weld two tabs onto it where two pencil braces will go back to the stock center valence mount.  The pencil braces will be thin with a V-shaped cross section.  If the airdam strikes a curb, it will flex and cause the sacrificial pencil brace(s) to buckle.  A simple removal and straightening or replacement of the damaged brace will be easy.  The braces will be just strong enough to keep the airdam in place at all vehicle speeds.  It won't take much strength.  Alternately, the pencil braces could be stiff with a spring in the center which will allow buckling with an automatic spring-back feature.  The spring design might take some trial and error to get right.

Here is a sketch (not to scale or proper shape) of what I plam to make.

Jeff, I had a similar idea, but less thought out.   I thought of glueing in strips of aluminum along the inside edges on the valance to stiffen it up.  Your idea is probably better.  The Skillard splitter seems to really tighten it all up but then you have a 2” strip sticking out the bottom. Some may not like this look.   Here are some pics of that splitter and how it ties in.  You can adjust how much the splitter stick out too.  

[Jeff G 78]

I like the Skillard splitter for stiffening the airdam at speed and the aero benefit of the splitter itself, but it will certainly negate the flex advantages of buying the Xenon in the first place.  

[EuroDat]

After some searching finally found his thread. It was 6 years ago.....

I could remember the build thread well, because we were both going through the same drama purchasing really crappy bumper brackets and then making our own.

 

In the photo the two identical bars go from the mounting points for the old lower two bar grill. The big bracket is in the center section.

You can read all about it in his thread.

 

 

[Av8ferg]

Thanks Chas, I’ll read that tonight over a cold beer.

So I decided to mock up the Xenon Valance on the car with clamps hoping it will take the original form and stop looking twisted . I’ll let it sit like this for a few days and see how it looks .




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