DrPhantum

Hey, guys... I just got a new front bumper (picture below), and I have VERY LITTLE ground clearance. In fact, the paint is already starting to rub off on the left and right sides on the bottom from my girlfriend's hilly gravel driveway.


Are there any options for me to protect this? I wish I had the money for an airbag suspension, so I can hike it up like the go-go-gadget mobile. Can I put longer springs on, or would that be stupid? I guess bigger wheels might raise me off the ground another inch or so if I go from 17" to 19"... How about those metal plates that you see on the fanciest of show cars? The ones with the turnbuckle holding the plate to the front of the car? Like this...

Ruthless18x

iTrader: (59)

You drive a sports car what do you expect? I still scrape my stock bumper sometimes. APR makes a splitter like what you are talking about, there are also some front end diffusers that will cover that area, but they are gonna scrape too. It's just a fact of life bud, your car is gonna scrape no matter what.

Zridder19

iTrader: (14)

Get a 3 inch body lift off of a 2002 Ford F150, fits pretty good with little modification.

cubu

iTrader: (21)

go slow and at an angle

MR_X

iTrader: (5)

I made something similar to this for another car I had. I had access to large sheets of Ti and I made one for it. I traced the shape I wanted on cardboard and I had the sheet of Ti cut and I just bolt it to the bottom. Even though you still scrap but it doesn't ruin your paint nor tears your bumper/lip apart with time.

ColecatZ

iTrader: (1)

The huge increase in front overhang with that particular bumper is hurting you more that the actual ground clearance. I always liked that bumper but the increased overhang eventually turned me away. It looks great but I'm afraid it is somehting you'll have to get used to. Approaching at angles will help, but can only do so much. It simply pushes the nose out too far and gradual elevation changes are exagerated because the bumper impacts before the front tires begin to ascend.

Good luck finding a work around brotha and post pics of whatever you come up with.

synth19

iTrader: (11)

sux... you just have to be super careful, take it slow, and drive up at angles for ALL inclines/ramps. Also, jut get some touch up paint for the bottom scrapes.

DrPhantum

I wish I could do this and not get laughed at... you sounded oddly serious, though. Your lack of obvious sarcasm makes me think this may be a valid direction to follow... 3" isn't THAT MUCH, is it? Lifting my car is an acceptable solution for me... I know the common notion is "make it lower" but I want to lift my car an inch or two. What are my options?

I will be putting a larger-diameter wheel on soon. Will 19s make the car an inch higher than 17s, because they'll add an inch to the top and bottom, or will the car still sit at the same height regardless because the suspension and weight of the car determine ride height? I'm thinking the latter of the two... Wheel diameter probably has little impact on ride height, right?

Colecat, I don't think the bumper is that much longer than the stock bumper... but the new bumper does have that extra lip at the bottom where the stock bumper starts to recede. I think this makes a big difference, and you're right about the elevation changes and approaching at angles thing. I just have to get the hang of how to pull out of certain driveways... and I need to learn fast.

I like the idea of the boomerang skid plate... I was thinking something like this, only with teflon tape. Let's assume that this skid plate gets scraped a LOT... the plate will get scraped, and that's fine... but will repeated scraping of the plate eventually lead to cracking of the bumper from repeated loads on the mounting location (bolts, washers, etc), or will the bumper eventually get marred behind the plate from the interface between bumper and scrape plate? That's why I was hoping that some sort of abrasion-resistant, low-friction tape would be the solution to my problem. Or...

I was also considering the idea of getting the bottom of the bumper RHINO-LINE'd. That stuff is pretty tough and relatively thin. Plus, they can mix in paint to match, so it may not look that bad. It's not like I'm getting the whole thing sprayed... just the underside.

Any thoughts? Does anyone have any suggestions for lifting the car? I'm not going Monster Truck w/ my Z, I just want to get back the few inches that I lost with the new bumper. Better ride quality wouldn't be too bad, either. I'm not going to show the car or anything...

three fifty

here ya go

thats exactly what you're looking for - ground clearance will once again lessen, but your PAINTED bumper won't scratch, just your CF. its made by APR - chances are its the same one in the Evo pic you posted.
-Chris

DrPhantum

I saw this... and considered it. I think it's on the same site as the Evo pic. However, at $320, it's more than I paid for the bumper, and more than I paid for the paint job. Does it have to be carbon fiber? Can't I make a template and get something like this done in diamond plate steel? Wouldn't it be tougher, too?

Chebosto

iTrader: (43)

if you're seriously afraid of scratching it up just get some thin aluminum sheeting via Home Depot and attach it to the underside of the lip portion or areas in which you think you'll rub.. heat gun it and tap to fit the shape of the underside... the APR splitter is nice, but overkill for what the application you want.

three fifty

you can usually find them new for around $280 shipped on ebay. however, if you really don't want that then i guess your only alternative is to custom make one out of any material you want. however, if you have metal visible like the CF on the APR piece (sticking out past the bumper), it might look ghetto. like how the civic guys used to use home depot chicken wire for their grilles.
-Chris

UHATEIT

iTrader: (7)

hey dude I have the SAME esprit bodykit and my Z is also blue. Mine is low as hell as well. I would definately recommend getting larger sized rims (19's at least) to help lift the car. Someone who posted up earlier in the thread "MR_X" helped install lowering springs on it as well and yes it is low! But I have 19's on my car and it is lowered and it gives about 4 inches of clearence all around, which appears to be better than you have currently. You get used to driving slow into driveways and speed bumps.

Good luck on what you plan to do. Here is a picture of my DBZ with the esprit kit, fully molded:

three fifty

what happens if you smash up your front bumper and need a new one? how does the repair go since its molded?
-Chris

UHATEIT

iTrader: (7)

it already happened once, just remolded it. Once you know how to do fiberglass correctly and blend paint its a pretty easy process. I can always buy a new or different bumper and then remold it. Process just takes a few days. here is a picture of the molding process after some jackass ran a stop sign and clipped my passanger side front. got paid for the full job by the insurance of the other guy but my stepdad and I did it in the driveway.


Sorry to thread jack, But I do like seeing another EDBZ with the esprit kit! I don't see too many esprit kits out there, especially on a DBZ

DrPhantum

UHATEIT...

Actually, ILOVEIT! I hope you're the modest type... because your car was one of the reasons I bought the kit. I have pictures of your car saved on my PC that I used to convince myself that the Esprit kit was the one for my DBZ. So... you can give you car a nice pat on the roof for me...

So, putting 19's on your Z helped you lift it up a little? I know that it's easy to jump to the conclusion that bigger wheels will lift a car... but I thought ultimately the springs and the weight of the car would determine how low the car sits. But, I guess if it's resting (for simplicity's sake) on the axle, the axle will be higher with a larger rim and/or thicker tires.

What is the thickest rubber I can put on a set of 19s?

gsazabi

iTrader: (51)

Wow Kyle I didn't know you molded your front bumper and sideskirts as well!

gsazabi

iTrader: (51)

Are you on your stockers right now? 17" or 18"?
Putting on 19" won't help that much since you need to get lower profile tires.
I wouldn't get anything bigger than 35 profile on the 19" personally..anything bigger will look pretty funny.
How low is your front? My old setup was literally 2.5" from the ground, but was pretty livable.

Zilvia

iTrader: (1)

you have plenty of space


not mine...
only pussies are scared to scrap...

**** ill prolly need a new cat soon..

UHATEIT

iTrader: (7)

Nice compliments to hear! I am a modest person yet I have had a few nice cars in my day and love the attention they attract, reason for my custom license plate saying "UHATEIT" was back in high school to get back at all the haters who hated on me. Thats a whole nuther story tho. As far as the kit I personally liked the esprit kit, I used to be an exotic type of person that liked the extra outgoing bodykits but they attract almost too much attention so something simple like the esprit kit looks clean. Oh yeah on your second pic up there of the yellow evo with the cf lower splitter, I had the same type of this on my widebody toyota mr2 and it REALLY HELPED! all the bottom of the cf splitter was scraped to death but the bumper looked good as new. Here is a picture of the lower lip that I used installed on the MR2, you can get one of those if you like, they look pretty cool and will save your front bumper! here is the pic:

and a closer up picture of the cf splitter:


The rims were already on the car before the kit was added to the 350z and yes gszabi is true you will need lower profile tires (I currently have 35 on the rear and 35 on the front) and it has been lowered somewhere around 1.5 inch after the springs settled. The bigger wheels will still lift it up a bit which is what you want, but are you planning to drop it as well? Really depends on your road conditions in PA as well. My wife is from Bloomsburg, PA and I have been out there and thats hwy 80 is a rough *** road. Plus you have to deal with snow storms in the winter. Hopefully this will be parked in the garage during the wintertime!

Post more pics of what the car looks like from the sides and back. I am interested to see other DBZ with the esprit kit on it! In your best bet just throw on the 19's if you can afford to buy a nice set and see how you like it, then make the decision whether or not to drop it, so you can see it you really want to deal with the extra scrapping or are happy with how it sits on the wheels alone before a drop.