Nissan 350Z Body Kit and Aero Guide: Z33 Fitment

Most Nissan 350Z body kit and aero parts fit every Z33 from the 2003 to the 2009 model year, but three things decide what fits yours: whether it is a coupe or a roadster, whether it has the early or the facelift front bumper, and whether it wears a factory Nismo bumper. Get those right and the choice comes down to style: a lip on the factory bumper, Nismo V1 style skirts and spats, a full RB style wide body, or track parts like a splitter, diffuser and GT wing. This guide covers how to tell the versions apart, what each of our 350Z parts does and what to check before you order.

A note on names: "Nismo style", "RB style", "Top Secret style" or "Voltex style" describes the design a part follows. Our parts are made in our own moulds in our UK and EU workshops. They are not genuine Nismo, Rocket Bunny, Top Secret or Voltex parts, and we are not affiliated with Nismo, Top Secret, Voltex or TRA Kyoto, which owns the Rocket Bunny brand.

350Z, Fairlady Z and the Z33 years

Z33 is the chassis code. In Japan the car was sold as the Nissan Fairlady Z, and everywhere else as the 350Z. It went on sale in Japan in July 2002, reached the US in August 2002 as a 2003 model, and came to the UK in 2003 with a 280 hp 3.5-litre V6 and a six-speed manual. Plenty of Japanese imports in the UK still wear Fairlady Z badges. For body parts the badge does not matter: check the bumper version and the body style instead.

When	What changed	Does it matter for aero parts?
2002 to 2003	Coupe launched: Japan July 2002, US August 2002, UK 2003	This is the early (pre-facelift) bumper
2004 (US), 2005 (UK)	Roadster with an electrically folding soft top	Yes, for roof and rear parts
2005	300 hp "Rev-Up" VQ35DE on some versions, standard in the UK from 2006	No
2006 model year	Facelift: revised front bumper, bi-xenon headlights, LED rear lights	Yes, front lips are made for one bumper or the other
2007	VQ35HR "high revving" engine (313 hp in the UK, 306 hp in the US) with a bulged bonnet	No for our parts, but a handy way to spot a late car
2007 to 2008	Nismo versions with their own bumpers, skirts and rear wing	Yes, lips for the standard bumper will not fit

The 370Z (Z34) that replaced it from the 2009 model year is a different car, 100 mm shorter in the wheelbase, so none of the parts in this guide fit it.

Coupe or roadster

The coupe is a hatchback: the whole rear window lifts with the tailgate. The roadster has an electrically folding fabric roof and a separate boot lid. Our customer gallery has roadsters wearing our front splitters, wide arches and rear diffusers.

Blue Nissan 350Z Roadster with the roof down, black bolt-on wide arches front and rear, a ducktail on the boot lid and a rear diffuser, parked on grass by a lake

The blue roadster above shows how far a roadster can go: bolt-on wide arches at both ends, a ducktail on the boot lid and a diffuser under the rear bumper. The parts that only suit the coupe are the ones built around the roof and the hatch glass: the roof skin, which replaces the metal roof on Z33 coupes, and the rear window louvres. The rear is different too: the roadster boot lid is not the same shape as the coupe hatch, and spoilers made for the coupe do not fit it. Our ducktail, boot spoiler and GT wing boot mounts are made for the coupe hatch, so if you own a roadster, contact us before you order any rear spoiler or wing.

Pre-facelift or facelift: check the bumper, not the logbook

The 2006 facelift brought a new front bumper, together with bi-xenon headlights and LED rear lights. To the eye the bumper looks almost the same, but the centre opening, the lower edge and the reflector openings differ, so a lip made for one bumper will not sit properly on the other. Registration dates are a poor guide: in the UK the changeover happened during 2006, so cars registered that year can have either bumper, and some cars have had their bumper swapped since. Look at the bumper instead:

Centre opening: the facelift bumper has two fins in the centre opening.
Lower edge: the facelift bumper has an indent at the bottom centre.
Reflectors: on the facelift bumper the side reflector sits at a straighter angle.

Bi-xenon headlights and LED rear lights are a useful hint, but lights can be swapped too, so the bumper is what decides the lip. The year labels on our lip product pages are older than this guide, so ignore them and go by the bumper: a 2006 car with the facelift bumper needs the facelift lip. Send us a photo of the front of the car through our contact page if you are not sure.

Factory Nismo bumpers

From 2007 Nissan sold Nismo versions of the Z33: the Nismo 350Z in the US (1,607 built for 2007 and 2008) and Nismo models in Japan, including the 300-car Type 380RS. The US car has its own front bumper with a chin spoiler, side skirts, a larger rear bumper with a diffuser, and a rear wing, which makes it longer than the standard coupe. The Japanese Nismo cars carry a similar aero kit. Our front lips are made for the standard factory bumpers only, so they will not fit a factory Nismo bumper. Our Nismo style parts are made for the standard car, to give it that look.

The body kit styles we make for the 350Z

Lips on the factory bumper

The simplest change is a lip under the factory bumper. We make three:

Nismo style front lip, for the pre-facelift bumper.
Version 3 front lip for the pre-facelift bumper.
Version 3 front lip for the facelift bumper.

Blue pre-facelift Nissan 350Z coupe with a black front lip on the factory bumper and black side skirts, parked in a brick-walled garage

The blue coupe above is an early car (note the orange strip in the headlight) with a black lip on the factory bumper and black side skirts. It is the kind of change that suits a road car: the line of the car drops, and nothing hangs low enough to catch on every speed bump.

RB style front bumper and the Version 1 wide body kit

Our RB style front bumper follows the Rocket Bunny look, and it is the front of our Version 1 wide body kit. The kit comes in three versions:

Basic: front bumper, front wings (+50 mm), rear arches (+100 mm) and a ducktail spoiler.
Standard: the Basic kit plus a front splitter, a rear diffuser and two splitter support rods.
Full: the Basic kit plus a front splitter with six support rods, a rear diffuser with centre fins, side extensions and brackets, two side steps and two lower side steps.

The Version 1 ducktail is also sold on its own, for the coupe. The arches add +50 mm at the front and +100 mm at the rear. A wide body is a bigger job than a lip or a set of skirts. Wider arches only make sense with wider wheels or a lower offset, so plan the wheels, tyres and alignment together with the body work, and expect fitting and paint to take longer than on bolt-on parts. We will look at wide 350Z customer builds in a later article.

Nismo V1 style side skirts and rear spats

The Nismo V1 style side skirts and Nismo V1 style rear spats give a standard-width car a lower, more finished line without changing the bumpers. The skirts come as a pair. Pair them with the Nismo style lip on a pre-facelift car for a matching look all round.

Rear diffusers

Under the factory rear bumper you have two styles:

Top Secret style diffuser undertray: the main diffuser comes with four fixing brackets. Side extensions (two types) and centre fins are options on the product page.
Voltex style diffuser: a two-piece main diffuser with centre fins, rivets and four metal brackets. On some cars it needs trimming to clear the exhaust, so offer it up with your exhaust fitted before you paint it.

Rear of an orange Nissan 350Z coupe with a black rear diffuser and black corner extensions under the factory bumper, and a body-coloured spoiler on the hatch

On the orange coupe above, a black diffuser sits between the factory exhaust tips, with black extensions at the bumper corners. If your car has an aftermarket exhaust, check where the tips sit before you order, because the diffuser has to clear them.

Wings, louvres and the coupe roofline

Our 350Z GT style wing comes with a 160 cm or 175 cm blade, in fibreglass or carbon. Its boot mounts are spaced as wide as the 350Z hatch allows, which gives more stability and less blade wobble. The rear window louvres cover the hatch glass. They need a suction tool to fit, so we recommend a professional garage for those.

Grey Nissan 350Z coupe from the rear with black rear window louvres, side window louvres, a GT wing on boot mounts and riveted wide rear arches

The grey coupe above combines most of the coupe-only parts: louvres on the hatch glass and the rear side windows, a GT wing on boot mounts, and riveted wide rear arches. If you plan a big wing on a road car, read our post on body kit and wing rules in the UK first.

Drift and track use

The Z33 has a long competition record. Nissan raced it in Japan's top GT class, where Nismo won the 2004 GT500 championship. In drifting it was a common choice in D1 Grand Prix and Formula Drift, and Chris Forsberg won the 2009 Formula Drift title in a V8-powered 350Z. Front-engined and rear-wheel drive, it still turns up at drift days and track days all over Europe.

Orange Nissan 350Z coupe sliding through a corner on a circuit with tyre smoke from the rear wheels, fitted with a front splitter on support rods and side skirts

The orange coupe above is sliding through a corner with a front splitter on support rods and side skirts. For drift use, think about what happens to a part when it meets a tyre wall or a kerb. A fibreglass part is cheaper to replace and easier to repair than carbon, and a splitter on rods should be set high enough that it is not the first thing to touch the ground. We compare the materials in fibreglass vs carbon fibre body kits.

Grey Nissan 350Z coupe in a circuit pit garage with the bonnet open, front canards, a front splitter on support rods and a GT wing

For track days, the grey coupe in the pit garage above is a good template: a splitter on support rods, canards on the front bumper corners and a GT wing at the back. Add front and rear aero together. A big wing with nothing at the front moves the grip to the rear and leaves the car pushing wide in fast corners. Our front splitter guide covers splitter height and support rods.

Before you order: a 350Z checklist

Coupe or roadster? Roof skins, window louvres, the ducktail, the boot spoiler and the GT wing boot mounts are made for the coupe. Roadster owners: contact us before ordering any rear spoiler or wing.
Which front bumper? Check the centre opening, the lower edge and the reflectors, then pick the matching lip.
Factory Nismo bumper? Our lips will not fit it.
Paint plan: none of our parts come painted, so line up a body shop. Fibreglass comes in black or white gelcoat. Carbon parts come in a carbon finish; the finish options are listed on each product page.
Test fit first: offer every part up before you drill, cut or paint. Check our returns page before you order.

To see the parts on real cars, browse the 350Z builds in our Nissan customer cars gallery, and find everything we make for the Z33 in the 350Z category.

FAQ

Does a 350Z front lip fit both pre-facelift and facelift bumpers?

No. The 2006 facelift changed the front bumper, so we make our Version 3 lip in two versions, one for each bumper. Our Nismo style lip fits the pre-facelift bumper. The facelift bumper has two fins in the centre opening, an indent at the bottom centre and a straighter reflector angle. Go by the bumper, not the registration year.

What is the difference between the Nissan 350Z and the Fairlady Z?

They are the same Z33 car. Nissan sold it as the Fairlady Z in Japan and as the 350Z in other markets. For body parts, what matters is the body style and the bumper version, not the badge.

Do 350Z coupe body kit parts fit the roadster?

The front and side parts often do: our customers run our front splitters, wide arches and rear diffusers on roadsters. The rear is different: the roadster boot lid is not the coupe hatch, and our ducktail, boot spoiler and GT wing boot mounts are made for the coupe. The roof skin and rear window louvres are coupe-only too. Contact us before ordering rear parts for a roadster.

How much wider is the 350Z Version 1 wide body kit?

The front wings add 50 mm and the rear arches add 100 mm. Plan wheels, tyres and alignment together with the arches.

Will an aftermarket front lip fit a 350Z Nismo bumper?

Not ours. The factory Nismo cars from 2007 and 2008 have their own longer front bumper with a chin spoiler, and our lips are made for the standard factory bumpers only.