you should always prep. Just in case

i like the stillen front bumper a LOT....but if i get this my parents would flip!! they would be like WTF you change cAR??

haha when I had mine people were like wtf what car is that.

ALWAYS TEST FIT FIRST!!!!ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS!!!!

It won't take long on the 370Z. It's actually pretty easy to do the test fitment on rockers, the standard rockers come off pretty easily and the test fit is really just putting the rocker on and holding it in place to make sure there are no urethane build ups in an area that might prevent a perfect fit. Plus, you might find that an edge needs to be sanded down a little bit to fit perfectly or something like that. It's worth it to do the test fitment first.

The good thing about urethane is that it's very easy to work with. I put some fiberglass fenders on my Titan and I literally spent about 16 hours trying to make them fit half way decently, then my paint shop spent another 4. Urethane is MUCH easier than that! When I put on my roll pan all I had to do was hold it into place, drill a couple mounting holes, then I spent an extra 45 minutes or so because I wanted to retain the factory back up sonars so I removed them from the rear bumper and flush mounted them into the roll pan.

That looks like crap. :)

did a test-fit last night. More to come after Josh responds to my concerns.

Ok guys, pics coming at the end of this post, but first an explanation of how it fit on the first test-fit:

First of all, I have not blended in the "ears" yet, I just left them bolted for now to be sure everything fit before I got into any of the finishing on the bumper.

Pulled my stock bumper and the injen washer fluid bottle (which will not fit with the Stillen bumper BTW), and put the Stillen on. I got one side at the headlights and fender snapped into place, and went to the other side to do the same. Once I snapped that side into place, the other side popped out. This happened 3 times, which leads me to believe that something just isn't fitting correctly. Basically, If I snap all of the clips on the drivers side, the middle section of the bumper where it meets the passenger side headlight will actually hit the headlight instead of sliding in.

At this point, I decided to put in a few of the body pins in just under the hood and try and do the same thing. I'm able to get the fender clips snapped in, but then there is a huge gap at the biggest bend right under the headlight.

I contacted Josh with this info, and he had Kyle tell me that there is a small post under the headlight that helps support the clips that hold the bumper in place there, and that you may have to trim the urethane around that post to get it to fit correctly.

I plan on doing another test fit tomorrow and determining if in fact that post is causing the issue, or if the bumper just isn't fitting correctly. I will update with findings when I have them.

Now, the pictures. Sorry they are dark, but I took them at 10pm

http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...2-100-1281.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...1-100-1280.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...0-100-1279.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...9-100-1278.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...8-100-1276.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...7-100-1275.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...6-100-1274.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...5-100-1273.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/carav...4-100-1272.jpg

*sigh*. What a PITA!

Hopefully you can get it sorted out tomorrow, otherwise send that POS back. I think the design is really nice and it would look good if done right, but if you have to go through this kind of ordeal to get the damn thing to fit it's not worth a penny to me!

That fitment is embarrassing, disappointing, and unattractive. Hopefully stillen will jut give a refund, because I'm not sure that POS can be salvaged.

:iagree:

Maybe they'll give you a free supercharger. Though I don't even know if that's worth anything either... :p

It's worth something, just 50 hp less than what they tell you it's worth ;x

It's kind of like buying a collection of subprime mortgages.

Or paying full price for swamp land?

I would let a professional deal with the bumper, I think it requires a pros touch to get it to look like what it's supposed to look like. I'm like you and I prefer to do my own work and keep the mechanics away from my car. But I don't have the skills to piece together and blend a bumper together.

I feel your pain. Hope it works out for you. Hopefully Stillen can make it right for you.