600HP V8 280Z: That front bumper has to go

Honestly, I don’t think there’s a single part on this car that won’t need removed, so I’m just starting at the front.

Off with the hood.

The front bumper next. These are famous for being ugly.

Reputation well earned.

Despite this being a garage-kept California car, the fasteners were rusty, dirty, and a pain to get off.

I also worked on getting the hood hinges off. These are a pretty wild design, not to mention really heavy. These won’t be going back on.

It looks like the car might have been in a bit of fender bender on the front passenger side. I talked to my dad on the phone, who repainted the car sometime in the 80’s, and he vaguely remembered something about there being a bit of damage in that area.

We’ll find out as we get deeper, but I’m pretty sure the mounting method here is not factory:

The bumper, including the mounts and shocks, weighs 50 lbs! And that’s just the front.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do about front and rear bumpers, but these certainly will not be going back on. The low-profile 240Z bumpers look nice, but we’re a couple years away from having to make a decision on that, I’m afraid.

Moving right along, I pulled off the two horns and their mounts, which are also ridiculously beefy and heavy. They’re held on with two 13mm hex head bolts each!

That was all I had time for, but I got a nice pile started. Anybody need parts?

Nik worked on shop organization the whole time; it’s looking really good.

We got the last of the big shelves up, dividing the fab side from the car area. They hold a lot.

Anyhow, I’ll keep moving along next time.

Thanks for reading!

damen

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