What parts are needed to swap the ugly beak style nose of the 91+ to the earlier nose with trans am ground effects? And what work is involved? does everything bolt up? same or different headlights? and what is needed to attach the ground effects to a non-fx car?

nobody knows? comon!

you need the trans am nose...the headlight buckets (plastic around the headlight when up) is different...the headlight cover (what is visible when they are down) is different...and i have heard that the whole headlight assembly is differnt...but don't quote me...other than that...straight foward swap. If you have the 91-92 ground effects i do not believe they match up well at all...although if you have a non-ground effects bird or formula...then it should be pretty straight foward...

to make a non-ground effects car a ground effects car...there are some brackets on the front fender ground effects infront of the wheel...and then there is the side skirts...those need a bracket that is spot welded to the body...so do the swap correctly...you need that bracket so that the side skirts don't sag...from there just drill a couple holes in the doors for the door effects. In the back...the bumper is a straight swap, but you need to drill holes for the rear ground effects behind the tire. Straight foward...and if your the one taking them off of a pre-91 trans am...you will very quickly see what holds them in.
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ok, just checked out your sig and noticed you got a formula...just drill holes and bolt up the body kit other than that side bracket needs to be tack welded to your car for good results. If you do take off the kit off of a trans am, take note of where the holes in the body are, so that you can duplicate...and see if someone selling u the kit will do that for you so that you can do it right. Otherwise...measure twice...do it once!
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Oh yea...metal bumper support (says classic industries) and cusioning underneath is differnt in the front, along with the parking/fog lights are different, but you should be able to figure that out as you go along. Also the rear bumper cusioning is different. Just a lil FYI...cause i went from a regular 88 rear bumper to a 91 formula bumper and the rear bumper has like 1/2-1" too much cusioning in the middle because 91/92 recessed the lisence plate a lil deeper. Other than that your good to go!

Like this:

That is the 91-92 ground effects right? My car has no effects on it. I want the 88-90 style TA of GTA nose and effects. Will any of the metal/welded parts of the front bumper/nose need to be changed? Or is it all bolting on and off? Thanks a lot for the help that helped out a ton now i know what to buy

You dont know a thing

The year range was 85-90
Available on:
85-90 T/A
87-90 GTA
89-90 Base model with gfx package

Work involved, alot more than youd think

Parts req'd:
Nose
Front gfx (to look like pictured)
Rockers, doors, rear qtrs and rear bumper to be correct
Honeycomb support
Foglights (yes they are different)
Front light harness
Headlight buckets with lights
Headlight trim

Why you have to change the wiring harness
The 85-90 harness has turn signals near the hood while the 91-92 has signals down in the nose
They also have a different headlight plug

Foglights also change
85-90 housings are rectangles
91-92 have a slight angle to them to follow the shape of the nostrils

82-90 headlights are much larger than the 91-92 lights
It is easier to swap the entire assembly than to remove just the necessary housing, trim and related bits

Note on the rocker gfx brackets
85-90 have a 2 piece bracket design
The outer piece is bolter onto the inner piece which is welded onto the chassis
91-92 have a single piece welded to the rockers





Why not just sell your formula and buy the car you actually want?
By the time you're done hacking up the formmy and getting it painted you could have sold it, bought the car you wanted, and put a few mods on it

Because i like this car and i want to keep it but i dont like the 91 nose. And i wasnt saying 88-90 are the "only" years of that nose i was just specifying which one before you jump out with rude comments. But thanks for the info, and yes I realize there is a lot of work involved

theres actually quite a bit involved in this swap.
The headlights and everything they connect to or close to are different.
example:89 wiper harness is part of eng. harn.
and 91 is part of headlight harn.
Yeah,its true.
If you are swapping a 91-92 car to a 85-90 style you may also need to do some rewiring on the taillights, depending on what you have and what you want to do.
I did the exact oppossite on my car.I love the 91-92 look!
check out my photobucket album

im not going to mess with the rear/tailights if the gfx will bolt onto the 91 bumper. As far as rewiring things, as long as they dont operate a different way, i can just snip the 91 connectors off, and solder on ones from the other car. No biggie. I installed BMW HID lights in ebay supra housings this way and they worked fine.

Why does everyone hate the 91-92 nose, I think it looks 100x better

Base bird/Formula taillights didn't change from '85-'92, so there's nothing to change there.

As for wiring, you're right: just cut-off the '91/'92 connectors and splice on the '85-'90 connectors.

Regarding gfx, however, I believe the gfx on the '85-'90 rear bumper cover is molded into the cover, like it is on the front bumper covers. So you'd have to replace the rear bumper cover, too, if you want gfx.

But in front, all structural and cosmetic parts will need to be changed, all the way down to, and including, the bumper impact bar. But it's all "un-bolt and bolt-on," so there's nothing difficult about it. It's just a lot of parts.

BTW, new, original GM '85-'90 front bumper covers have been discontinued and out of stock for years. So if you don't already have a good one, finding a good used one might be difficult.

And another BTW, you already have a very hard-to-find, in-demand part that you could sell easily, if it's in good shape: a '91/'92 non-gfx front bumper cover. You could make enough money from it to help offset the cost of the swap.

I know this is an old thread, but I had to add this. The 91-92 nose was a tribute to the original Banshee concept car designed by the father of the great Pontiac muscle cars, John Z DeLorean. The Banshee was way to ahead of its time, but it served as the template that became the Firebird.

So the next time one of you haters are scowling at a 91-92 nose, just remember that it was meant to pay homage to a great car designer. Someone who's thinking was WAY!!! ahead of its time. Without him we would be driving mustangs.

Rest in peace John, don't know where we would be without you.
John Zachary DeLorean January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005

I know this is an old thread, but I had to add this. The 91-92 nose was a tribute to the original Banshee concept car designed by the father of the great Pontiac muscle cars, John Z DeLorean. The Banshee was way to ahead of its time, but it served as the template that became the Firebird.

So the next time one of you haters are scowling at a 91-92 nose, just remember that it was meant to pay homage to a great car designer. Someone who's thinking was WAY!!! ahead of its time. Without him we would be driving mustangs.

Rest in peace John, don't know where we would be without you.
John Zachary DeLorean January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005