Well, I decided to tackle the center section the other day... below is the progression of the problem and the temporary fix for now:

Before I bought the car:


After I bought the car and washed and waxed it:



After I tried tire shine, and it corroded the plastic:



As it is now:






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What I did, was I was washing the car. I took some 1500 grit, and wetsanded it using the hose for plenty of water. I tried to keep the "grain" in one direction, but as you can see there are still some swirls. After I sanded all the stains out, and got a uniform color, I washed the whole car, and washed that area real good.

I went to my buddies house to borrow some 3M compound, but he was letting another person use his bottles. All he had in his attic was some 3M perfect-it 3000 Swirl Mark Remover, and those blue "polishing cloth" paper towels. So I hand rubbed it with that, and you see the result.

Eventually, I plan on maybe sanding some more, but with 2000 grit next. Then, I will try using his "extra cutting" compound, regualr compound, and probably rub some final glaze on it. But for now, it looks better than most of the 3rd gen firebirds on the road lol. Better than before at least.

 

Yeah, I tried doing this too. I went through 3 different center sections before I just found one that was in the best shape that I didn't have to restore. Yours looks even better than my untouched, decent condition one.

I also had the red bird. Liked the gold better so I went with that color. Silver ones are everywhere!

 

I believe that the bird is recessed and painted on the other ones, right?

Mine is just the base model one, but it has the bird that is underlaid below the clear plastic.

 

I bet you are right, about it looking better than 90% of the other birds on the road after you are done.

Perfection is an interesting thing it takes many hours to achieve it, and just seconds to end it.

 

Only the GTAs (and TTAs, but they got a different red reflector strip) got the recessed 'bird emblems. All others got the screen printed 'birds.

 

weird...my 85 has the recessed bird

 

anybody got a pic of the recessed bird. i dont think ive ever seen one.

slow_90firebird, looks good. i guess im gonna hafta to do that with mine. i have the red bird and its all cloudy lookin.

 

Here's mine, but 99% of the time, it has a simple red reflective strip, like the lenses, without PONTIAC on it.

 

my 86 has a recessed bird emblem, but no Pontiac on the reflector. Does your car also have Pontiac recessed on the bumper cover?

 

Yep. Best I've been able to figure out, 82-84 DIDN'T have PONTIAC in the bumper cover, but on the reflective strip, and somebody swapped the reflector strips on my GTA section. Dunno?

 

I suspect your center piece isn't original then, if your 86 no-GTA has it.

 

ALL 85-90 T/A's (GTA's included) have the recessed stick on bird. My lights came off of an 85 T/A and they have the recessed bird too.

 

It may have been on a 85, but it wasn't original. The embedded birds were GTA specific. TTAs got one, but with TURBO o the red stripe where mine says PONTIAC.

 

Sorry man, but you're wrong. They were on ALL T/A grid tail lights. All it takes is a few Google searches, a peek or two on Flea-bay, and just generally asking the good folks on here that have original 85-90 T/A's to find out the truth.

 

But I went through this a couple of years ago, when I asked about the PONTIAC portion. Everything was embedded emblem = GTA. PONTIAC red strip = 82-84.

 

My 88 Trans Am has a recessed Bird.