Well i guess there is always a silver lining behind every cloud or what ever the saying is. i was rear ended today by the owner of the shop i work at. the fool was day dreaming or something but now my lights, bumper and hatch are messed up. its not severe but now i have the motivation to get my mods goin, so . . .

What do you think i should do?

I was going to try and go with a set of GTR tail lights and have the rear end either fiberglassed up to fit them, or mold them in to the existing tail light assembly. or something along the lines of either. then i was going to do the MSA rear bumper and a custom front, or a custome front and rear. i really dont know what all i could do, but any ideas or suggestions would help. thanks.

 

Replacement hatch, MSA bodykit. (fiberglass, covers front and rear bumpers)
Replace stock tail light. Forget the stupid Skyline lights.

That was barely a bump.

 

holy crap that sux man.. i jsut seen your car yesterday too.. like they say when it rains it pours... cuz i know you still gotta fix your wheel bearing and now this.. oh well ... yeah just replace the rear hatch and tail lights.. guess now you can get your car repainted... by this time next year your cars gonna be bad ***.. maybe this was just a lil sign to tell you that you need to get started on it... good luck jake..

 

Omg, I can't believe what bad luck we're having! I normally never drive my "good" 280ZX to work (I have 2), but on the one night I did (Friday), I hit something on the freeway! The damage isn't huge, but it's still time and money I now have to shell out on repairs. ~_~ I feel ya, my brotha.

 

I would do a taillight conversion, the zx tails look pretty bad in my opinion. I plan on doing it by just cutting and fabbing sheet metal over the whole rear end and just forgetting about a bumper (or maybe hidden one). In the end a vette looking tail would be nice... but we will see what happens. Good Luck and keep us updated!!

 

driver side? you cant see the driver side( although its all busted up too). the passenger side looks ok . . .now you got me wondering.
the hatch is repairable, i just need to have it straightend and make sure to align the lock cuz it doesnt open very easily anymore. As for the bumpers, ive decided to go with a custom set up in front. the rear bumper and the lights are my main focus now. So if i were to go the GTR route, where would i get those? i called nissan and they cant get them, said i have to get them from japan, but from whome?

 

I would say do the tail light conversion, is it me or does the driver side tail light tilt a little bit??

 

I see GTR lights for sale every now and then on Ebay, Craigslist, or other importing businesses.

I'd been considering a Corvette-style bumper (where it rolls under, rather than projecting out), but I have no idea how to go about this. I saw it done on a 280ZX before but I couldn't tell if he'd taken the bumper off another car and molded it to fit, or if he somehow completely fabbed one up.

 

i saw one done up like that, its not too hard. there is a yellow ZX with a large bruce lee graphic on the hood on cardomain that has the exact mod were talking about. I too was considering it, but i dont know if i would have the funds to do that, i think in my case it might be cheaper to go with a msa or something else.

 

Yeah, that's the exact same one I was thinking of. Since my ZX is going to be my long term project, I don't mind splurging on it, if I knew it could be done practically. Though the only thing I like about having a rear bumper projection is so that I can leverage off it when I get in/out of the trunk area (I frequently chill in the back of my ZX ^^; )

 

i say get the MSA front... but for back, i've been considering going with the Daytona kit on ztrix.com ... i just don't care for the front. Too 80ish

 

so, work finaly started on my Z and it couldnt have been at a more inopportune time. plus now they are telling me i should go with a used hatch and hood cuz there was cancer, once again, forming under the hood and the damage to the rear is more expensive to fix than if i were to get a used decent one. so that aside, MSA is less than 2 weeks. is it worth bringing her down fiberglassed, primerd and patched?

 

pics fo the work done so far . . .

 

Looks like it's comin' along! Mine is still dis-assembled... ;(



I did get the seats put in yesterday though... Small consolation.

Got a temp DMV permit to drive it until the end of July too.

That'll at least get me through MSA if I actually make it.

 

Wow lww, that's coming along nicely! Is that your 3.1 ZXT? Again, I say very nice. I spy a 2+2 beside it ... yours as well? Mighty fine looking shop you have there, as well.

 

apollo just make sure you take yer time and do it all right, even if it pisses you off, still do it right...better once right with bleeding knucles then to redo it

damn llw thats why you suggested white instead of my blacked out theme hehe...looks good tho...mines all in pieces too but not painted n stuff...

 

Yup. 400hp worth of stroked and blown pure satisfaction!

Nope. No 2+2's in my stable yet. I'm looking at a Z32 2+2 though. I got kids now... After a VG30DETT engine swap it'll be mighty fine even as a 2+2.

That was a meticulously restored 1982 280ZX 2+2 NA that was just totaled by the insurance company. Owner was side swiped on the passenger side by an SFB.

He didn't have collectors insurance on it and after dumping about $20k into the restoration the insurance company totaled it...

I've had too many black cars in the past and I spent more time washing and hand drying them than I did driving them...

That is 350Z Pike's Peak White. It looks better in person and it's a paint code that will be around for a LONG time!

 

Can you even get collector's insurance on a car as "new" as a 280ZX?

 

Yup. It generally needs to be well documented and it never hurts for it to have some special characteristic to give it 'providence' and make it worth insuring.

For instance, a limited run like the 1980 Anniversary Edition or better yet the 1979 ZX-R. Or a special or famous owner like one of the Paul Newman IMSA 280ZX's or the 280ZX Turbo that Jim Cook built as a showcase for his racing engineering and after market parts business...

 

so you have collectors insurance then? is collectors insurance available through any angency like AAA or state farm? im not planning on getting it any time soon, but i have never really understood the whole thing

 

Wow, LWW. Nice paint job and shop. I really want to paint my car now...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=34207

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33716

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33716

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=38661

here are a few tail lights I saw on e-bay .

 

Dude, I would definitely go for these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=34207

Keep it clean and simple.

 

I AGREE!!!!! i think the 79 - 81 tail lights look the best.. even nicer when you smoke them out...

 

I'll have to agree with lww ... ZXs look better - in my opinion - with the stock lights. I'm not a fan of the '82-'83 lights, but the '79-'81 assemblies looks hot. I was thinking about reconfiguring the stock taillights with LED lights, while still using the stock lenses.

Didn't EuroZX have Skyline tails on his car? By the way, where'd he go?