I like everything. Great work! The track mount is really clean!

I like that camera mount. There's a lot of ideas in this thread. Good stuff. I want I want I want. :D

My only complaint w/ the mount is the lack of adjust ability for camera angle.

its mounted to a cylinder, can't you adjust the angle just by spinning the entire assembly?

If you mean side to side, I'm sure that would be easy to incorporate.

Not quite - the bar itself is oblong - not perfectly round. You cant rotate it.

Just mount a tripod ballhead to the Z mount. You'll find the camera needs to be higher than that cross bar anyway. Figure you need it about eye level (tried the GoPro on that bar and it's just staring at the center stack).

I'd be interested in purchasing a set of these!

Add me to the list for the emblems! Love that idea!

Wow. You guys have come along way this this.

ZF-2B-O is def the one I like the most. I kinda like the tabs as well. They aren't bad imo. Great work, guys!!!

HAHA, i knew it was a matter of time before someone tells me that idea...i actually have the same thought when I designed it...but I did it all last night and I didn't have time to put that feature in...at the same time, I couldn't wait to post it up. So yea....that's pretty much the only thing missing. I guess I should have spent more time designing the brackets instead of drawing up the flip video camera to detail. :excited: I don't even have a flip!!! I'm planning on having this bracket designed in a way so anyone with any digital camera can simply mount it to their car....so I should probably make it more flexible for that as well as letting it swivel.

By the way, you can already twist it from left to right because the screw under the camera allows for that.

Kevin, I'm interested in your opinion on the new wings/tabs. I'm all for it. For me it's like night and day, it really gets away from the burger look.

So.........when can we order the emblems???!!!!???!!!

thanks for the compliment! :tup: i just hope these stuff I design see daylight.

I agree!!! When!

I also have mutual feeling between the 2 different design for the tabs. I think we can go with either one. Let's go with the one that's easier to make first.

The first one is more like the original emblem and the other one with a lower tab is a little more unique (but I also think it's hard to machine)

Great design guys. Just wondering, is it possible to place the tabs outside the ring? Maybe beef up the thickness of the outside of the ring to accommodate them. The tabs then could be color coded to the car if wanted, to be less visible.
Please excuse my crappy sketch. My tech equipment consists of a pencil tracing over your design on the screen.

Great idea! I'll get at it later today.

Kevin,
I am whole heartedly in favor of the lower tab deisgn. Unless you have any further changes you would like to explore I'm ready to say the design phase of this badge is complete.

The first production will be ZF-2A with low tabs, along with ZR-2A with low tabs (new part number please??...)

I've been in Reno for the past few days so I didn't have any time to work on it this weekend, but I sould be able to start within the next few days.

If you are happy with the design as it stands, please email the .sldprt files for the front and rear w/ lower tabs.

If you have any new ideas lets talk about them before you send the files...
Cheers:tiphat:
Sam.

sruffy- is there a way you can add texture to the background behind the "Z" or is it going to be painted there?

otherwise the Z and background will probably blend in too much(?).

I was going to suggest that as well - I think a rough look around the polished Z would set it off but I'm not sure how easy that would be to machine. Some sort of graveled look or sand texture would really look cool.

Also, has anyone tried to debadge the engine cover? Maybe we could get dimensions for that and replace all the hamburgers at once.

the hamburger on the engine cover can come off in about 90 seconds. unbolt the 2 bolts on the front half of the cover, flip it over and bend back the 4 tabs holding it in place and it comes right off.

wow havent had a chance to read the entire thread but count me in if you make anything even remotely close to that!!!

yah, or maybe it can be a 2 piece unit. front piece with the aluminum Z logo, back piece with just the background (black or CF pattern), screw them together, then mount onto the car with sticky tape... :confused:

otherwise it's going to look like a silver burger with a faint Z on there. :ugh2:

http://www.the370z.com/members/scruf...comparison.jpg

This is the carbon Fiber look. I've also lower the tabs...what do you guys think? I'm afraid that it may be too thin as the new thinkness is only 1mm. This definitely emphasizes the oval shape and takes away the wings (tabs) look. I think it's almost pointless to have the wings to the edges.

But then again, it'd look weird either way with or without tabs because without the tabs you'll have 2 empty holes.

Let's replace the lower tab code name to ZF-2A & ZR-2A:
http://www.the370z.com/members/scruf...m-design-4.jpg

and the super low tab code name to ZF-4A & ZR-4A:
http://www.the370z.com/members/scruf...comparison.jpg
in case people are interested....unless, we're all in favor to the latest modification, (super low tab) then I can send over this revised model as well. (For both the Front & Rear). As for now, I think we should try to make it with a flat surface so we can paint it or whatever...these above examples are only for visual as to how it could look (i.e. Carbon Fiber, textured).

most definitely the CF version for me. :p

Super low 2R-4A is fantastic. As well, having the flat surfaced tabs will give us the opportunity to finally get rid of the burger look.

If the carbon fibre backed badge ends up looking like the side markers, that would be awesome!

and almost impossible for a thief to steal the emblem unless they have a screw driver...

The textured design looks great on the model, but would be near impossible to machine in one piece, a better approach would be to make ZF-2A-O with the "floating Z" and attach a separate piece of CF or knurled aluminum to the back of the emblem. I don't know jack about CF so I most likely would not be able to provide this piece . I think painting/powder coating the emblem two colors (silver & black?) will provide plenty of contrast.

which brings us the the next point in the design. Finish. I would think powder coating would be the best looking and most durable choice, however I do not know if it is possible to powder coat something in two different colors. Any one with experience in this field please offer your advice. Also any powder coaters/painters/platers in the Bay Area looking for some work feel free to quote me a price (2,10,100) and/or post some examples of your work.

Wow we have lots of designs now, but we'll have to agree on just ONE (front and rear) for the time being. I want to make all the popular styles and please all the people following this thread, but realistically I'm afraid that wont happen. It's a lot of work to make these badges, and the window of opportunity for me to get these parts on to a machine is very small, you see its like this....

I do not own the machine shop that these parts will be produced in, but I have been working there for 8 years. The owner is a very good friend of mine and allows me to use the equipment for my own projects from time to time. So... obviously these badges will take a back seat to the day-to-day business of the shop. The owner does not give a sh!t about 370z badges with the new style Z, at least not yet.

This project will not be allowed to disrupt or interfere with the normal flow of the shop in anyway. What that means is basically this:

There are 21 CNC machines in our shop. Only 4 of them meet the criteria required to produce these parts. ( ball nose milling is a PITA) The only time I can use these machines would be from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning 6 am. Since this project can not interferer with the shop's business, I must wait until one of these machines has finished a production run on a Friday/Saturday and would otherwise sit empty over the weekend. I can NOT "tear down" a production set-up, make my parts, and then replace the original set up before the shop re-opens on Monday. Thus I must wait until the perfect opportunity arises. When will that be? I don't know, not too long, but If I were going to make 4 or 5 different styles it would probably take months of waiting.

That said I vote for ZF-2A, and ZR-2A.

I'd like to see the front part of the emblem in a gunmetal finish with a black powder coated background.

Interesting... maybe we could electro-plate the whole badge, then powder coat just the black area.

I don't know if the heat from the powder coating would mess up the plating though. I'll have to research.

Hey Ag, I think it's really great you're putting in all this time an effort into your off hours. Now that we know your situation and available time, I say let's not get bogged down in the details.
Fact is, when you open the forum to ideas, it's going to be pretty much endless.
All the designs you and scruffy have come up with are a hundred times better than looking at that plastic burger.
Now we're getting into C.F., and powder coating, sheeit man, show me billet metal, and I can fine tune it myself!
For my 2 cents, I'm happy with pretty much whatever works best with your equipment, and is cost effective.
Kudos to both you guys!!

Agreed!

I agree with the last post. I like the Nissan symbol so anything like that with a Z on it I am going to buy!

I can totally feel you on this; which is why I would advise everybody to be realistic about which one you pick. Like AGStacker said, he is working really hard to fit a schedule in for these prototype emblems to be made. Unfortunately, these are not parts that we can mass produce and expect people to buy them like candy, so they will never be seen as a high priority in ANY machine shops. Unless of course, hundreds or thousands of these are sold and we're trying to make a business out of this, then that's a different story.

Anyhow, I'm on the same boat as AG with the ZF-2A and ZR-2A right now. As much as we all like to have the middle portion (fillet) of the emblem to be color matched to body color (whether if it's powder coated or painted), it's best to leave that as a second operation (for you guys). I suggest if we're applying any finishing to it, we should do it to the whole badge.

As for the people that don't like the fillet part, you can either paint it yourself, or I think it's best to just have the body shop (or yourself) to shave off whatever tabs that's protruding into the hollow parts of the emblem and paint it prior to applying the emblem. Because at the end of the day, you're spending that much work to get an emblem that's machined, you might as well go all the way and do it right. :tup:

As for the two piece idea, it's a good idea except it's really not ideal because it's not cost effective way just so we can have a 2 tone surface. Double side tape can be really tacky. Another method is we can have (which i don't recommend) is have the top piece pierce through the bottom piece and have it sandwich between the bumper. And then we can have it thread into a lock nut on back side of the bumper. Of course this will require drilling 2 holes, but now for sure it'll be secure and nobody can steal it. But I can see this being super hard to machine and will cost super expensive.

AGstacker, do you need me to send you the files again, or do you have both the front and back? I think you only have the front files.

One more comment tho. For me not wanting to do much to my car it would need to fill in the stock holes and not require a lot of work to install. Just my two cents!

i agree, which is why I think we should shoot for the closed version first, which will cover the tab holes...as for the people who wanna ditch the fillet portion, maybe we can have a non filled version. i.e. ZF-2A-O or ZR-2A-O.

One more note, I hope I didn't discourage anybody with having ideas, I am open to and should be able to easily show you what you want through my CAD drawing, (i.e. color or texture or even shape alterations) but just keep in mind it doesn't necessary mean it can be machined. That being said, we're also trying to come up with a prototype, so let's try to vote on one idea for now.

I just think more people will buy it if it's easy and They don't need to go to a body shop for body work...