So when I bought my fenders used from Hawks, he could not find any for a trans am. So I opted to just take the base firebird type. This was almost a year ago.

Now that my car is out of commission, waiting for paint and drivetrain I decided to take care of the passenger side fender (the driver side was ruined in crash) and turn it into a Trans Am fender

Original


After cutting it up and measuring (tedious)


Not pretty welds, but it gets the job done


They may be ugly, but they pentratrated and are strong
]

Slapped onthe bondo to cover seems


Pretty smooth and seamless after sanding


With the vent in place
]


Not the best job inthe world, but I am pleased with it. And it was free (minus 3 1/2 hours of my life). How much would this of cost me at a bodyshop?

-Eric

 

I dnt know how much it would cost but it looks good! :hail:

 

Definately looks like you did a good job. Now, if you can do that.. flush doorhandles are just w/in your grasp....

 

For the price you'd pay a bodyshop, it might be easier to buy the fender with the hole in it.

I thought about doing what you did, but laziness kicked in, and I bought them already done.

 

Which handles did you use? Never seen the door finished, looks really good

 

ya wat handles did u use???
they look imaculate!!!

good job on the fender too!!!
if it was me i would have just gone junkyarding to find a t/a fender

 

Great job!

BTW What color you going to paint the '83?

 

:lala: :lala: :lala:


Always a fan of fender vents, they just didn't come on the stock 3rd Gen camaro , so i borrowed it from earlier generations.........

 

yeah so did i....im your less powerfull twin

 

Black.

I might go with some gold leaf or at least gold pinstripes... But that will be later.

 

After checking his website, they're Dodge Intrepid handles. Theres one in my buddy's shop right now and it has the same handles. Only thing I don't like about them since now I've seen them in person is they bubble out a bit. I'd like to find something flush for a cleaner line, they still look damn good though on the car

 

I have seen the older chevy truck handles put on a 3rd gen door. They sit flush, but they are also known for being broke into easy.

 

I was looking at my friend's Nissan. And they looked perfect.

He has a 1990 240sx. And he told me that his generation of car is pretty abundant at most salvage yards.

 

Yeah I see a bunch of 240's at the yards here.

 

(My apologies to Midnight for the thread hijack)
Thanks (and also to badazz).
I'm not sure how flush you want flush to be (and I'm not taking it as critisism) but.. mine are about as flat as any handle I found rummaging through the boneyard. Granted, mass produced, recycled (used on a few other models too) econobox handles aren't going to be precision, but, they (the door lines) matched the f-body door/body extremely well (curvature). I though they were nice and.. that whole rattle problem will never happen again ( )....

 

Look pretty damn flush to me.......

Almost as cool as shaved door handles.......

 

Yeah... almost:lala:

No worries about the hijack Deadbird. Between your doorhandles, paintjob and home made exhaust you are sort of serving as my example.

Two things.

1) What is the full story on having shaved door handles?
-If I shave it myself, how much do actuators run for?
-What are the NHRA/IHRA rules about them?

2) Deadbird, I like the handles you used, but, it looks like it is two parts, the handle itself, and then the bottome portion under it. How hard would it be to make the lower portion flush, so then the only lines would be the handle itself?

 

Rouhly 100-200 for the autuators.....

They aren't legal at the track......I have gone to a track with them, but i leaned againist my door and never moved once during tech inspection......

However they can kick you off a track for not having handles, if you are big into drag racing (which i'm not) then it's not a wise idea.......

 

wow that fender vent looks amazingly flush, I really really want to do that, but I don't think I'll be able to find a trans am fender at the yard I've looked.

and p.s, is that a different vent than what flynlow92 has? I like that look alot better than flynlow's. (no offense flynlow, you have one of the baddest cars you can get and I envy you hehe, and the vents are awesome, I've just always thought it would look even better if the vent was perfectly flush)

 

Thanks Midnight ... as far as the handles go, I don't think they could be made 'seamless' easily due to them being plastic (like filling in bumper to fender seams). I'm guessing you're talking aobut something similar to this right ?....

 

Nice work bro. THe welds dont look bad at all, being a welder i can tell you body work is not the easiest to do. Not enough weld and it wont hold too much weld and you'll shoot right through it. ANd there is not a big margin for error especially after a few welds when the metal is hot. Shave the antenna and handles and you'll be cool!

 

Huh that's pretty damn flush compaired to the handles I saw in person. Probably just a design change between the years.

 

Thanks, that is really encouraging And the antenna is already gone, but I think I gotta keep the handles so I can get at least one ETA.

That is exactly what i am talking about. heh, I am surprised my description made any sense at all.

Yes, he used fender vents for the 79-81 Camaros (I think). I just used the stock vents that are supposed to be on an 83 Trans Am. As for finding them. I bet it shouldn't be too hard to find some smashed up Trans Am fenders and cut the vents out and put them in a firebird fender. But, it might be cheaper to just go to Hawks and buy new Trans Am fenders. I just happend to have all tools and parts needed to do it.

 

oh hehe, I didn't even know the third-gen trans ams still kept the fender vents hehe. I focus on the camaro's almost exclusively
And would the 3rd gen ta vent work on a camaro fender? I want one to sit flush, 'cause with the 91 gfx having a vent go the opposite direction really clashes imo, but if you can hardly see it from the front it'd be pretty bad imo

 

It sits flush compared to what Flyinlow has. But they arent molded into the body. They have a little frame type of thing that is made of sheet metal, and then the vent is made of plastic and clips into that frame. The vent frame and my fender are flush, but there is still a gap from the actual plastic Vent and the metal of the fender. Which is how it looks stick

What I did was cut the frame out of my smashed T/A fender, and then cut a space out for it into my Firebird fender. Then welded tabs to the frame and then welded the tabs to the body, and filled the seems with bondo.

Firebird fender(black)
T/A vent frame(red)
Tabs welded to frame (blue)
Bondo (Yellow)
Arrows point to the places where I welded


In this hi-res picture you can the see the gap between the plastic piece and the sheet metal better.



But... to answer your question, I think they would look great on a camaro with GFX. I am putting new GFX on my car, and all it does is accent. Also... they are nut just pretty they are functional, they let air out of the front end of the car so at high speeds there is a place for it to escape so your front end will ride lower. Also, if you take out your plastic shield things inside of the fender, it will allow a place for air to run in through and get into your brakes and cool them off a little.

 

with my old Camaro, I acutally molded the TA Fender Vents into the lower portion of the fender...I posted picture of it aloooong time ago..I'll see if I can find'em.

 

I would also liek to know if the contour of the camaro fender is the same as the t/a i had considered this on my camaro but could not find a single one with teh vents still on it around here. Now im kinda thinking of not doign them becasue i really dont want to hack a hoel in fenders that are in perfect shape.

 

does this answer your question?

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...t=Fender+Vents