Please vote for a spoiler and paint option.....


The plates are expiring, and i didnt get a chance to go renew them. Also since its gonna be rainy for the next couple weeks, i took the insurance off, and decided to take advantage of my freind's garage space and use the time to repaint the firebird!

Its been on the "to do" list since i bought the car two years ago, but $$$ has always been an issue. Not to mention, i promised myself, it would be the "LAST" thing i do to the car, before it can be deemed "done". Anything after that is just addons that i dont really need.

Anyway, theres still some uncertainties like, what colour its going to be, but its between black, white, or gold.

THIS thread is about something i thought of last night. Ive always liked the wrap around spoilers, but ive never wanted to dish out $400 for a new fiberglass one. As such, ive collected two of the crappy urethane ones, and the hatch that it mounts to, but no clips. Also, they are both a little wavy. I havent gotten around to slaving over them with body work.

Because of this, ive just been driving around the last two seasons with no spoiler at all, and i have to say, the look is kind of growing on me.

So the question is, SPOILER or NO SPOILER???? and BLACK, WHITE, or GOLD?

I like the fact that the firebird isnt the first car to turn heads on the street, but its "different". Every thirdgen yo see nowadays has GFX, and some kind of high optioned spoiler, so this one is a little dfferent.

heres some specs, and pictures to help you decide and vote on the pole.

First off, the interior is TAN, and it will always stay tan as far as im concerned.

The wheels are WHITE, and BARE ALUMINUM, and will probably stay like that. THey are 17".

The colour of the car wll be black, white or gold, but im leaning towards black or gold, because they will complement the white wheels and still match the tan interior.

As for the spoilers, it would obviously have either the wrap around, the original trans am spoiler, or no spoiler at all.

The hood, will probably stay the trans am nostril hood that it has now. OR, i may decide to go with a cowl hood if i can ever afford it. It would be the shortest cowl i could get, 2.5" or so? I think the hood is a big factor in spoiler choice.

Heres some pictures of the car, in bits and peices of all those configrations.

Current hood.


White wheels, black paint, tan interior, and mocked up wrap around spoiler.




best shot of no spoiler;





PLEASE VOTE! Any comments appreciated.

 

Definately Black with the T/A Spoiler.

 

No spoiler.. and a new hood..

 

the nostril hood is stayin unless i can find a cowl hood.

Meanwhile, the sanding is going WAY quicker than i thought it was going to. 3 guys spent 6 hours over two days, and the car is almost half done. We should be done sanding by tommorow, and it should be in good shape for first coat of primer by next weekend.

SO i need to make a decision soon!.

Heres some old pix of the trans am spoiler. This is how i bought the car. I never really liked it, but alot of other folks seem to. So im not sure about the trans am spoiler.... However, it will probably be black, because ive ruled out white. And gold is proving difficult to choose because of the many variations.

KEEP THE VOTES COMIN!

 

black with silver stripes would be sweet, maybe even a silver tail stripe

 

nah no stripes..... Im not a fan of those on cars with no exterior chrome. Just a personal preference. Ill shoot some pix of the thing today, its almost done being sanded.

 

I always have liked the Bright Red Birds. I have a white bird myself and I am also stuck on what color to paint it. I really like white though also. I would go black for you because your car is already black. What is up with the white rims though?

 

I really can't imagine white wheels on a black car. To me those white rims would stick out like a sore thumb, I'd see all rim and no car. Look back at the '84 T/A (and many other Pontiacs), there's a reason the white rims came ONLY on a white car. I vote for the stock spoiler too, unless you'd prefer the Formula look with the "wrap around".

 

I think the base-bodied birds generally don't look right without a rear spoiler. Oddly, I think the GFX cars do look good withuot.
Anyway, I would go white with the wraparound rear spoiler. Then leave the wheels as-is, or paint the centers gold.

 

Ok the paint choice is definately BLACK! But the spoiler will depend on how easy it is to get my old hatch back from its new owner.....

I saw the car in most of its original primer today, and i dont like the white. I think the 80's Fbody's are two "flat" looking and not bulky, and it doesnt have the same "mean" look. Also, i dont like the way those fake bumper things stick out with any other colour, other than black. SInce i dont have early 80's bumpers, black it is.

As for the rims, i really wanted 17" wheels, and wide ones at that. Since im not made of money, i found these off a board member for a good price, and i decided to get them. On top of that, they resemble GTA rims somewhat. They are "white" but they look much worse in pix than in person for some reason.

If you look close, you will notice, very little of the wheel is actually "white". Most of it is brushed aluminum. Which could easily be polished. So in real, they are closer to "chrome" or aluminum rims, than white.

The BLACK paint votes are clearly winning, but everytime i check back, the spoiler votes are all over the place. However, im leaning towards no spoiler. Again, it just looks meaner. Theres a few birds on this board with no spoiler, and they just look mean and super cool. So its really growin on me, but im still unsure.

 

leave the old spoiler, black paint and dual exhaust

 

THANKS FOR EVERYONE WHOS VOTING! Its kinda helping.

In the meantime, heres an update.

The new owner of my original hatch has agreed to give it back (for a price) but i shouldnt have let it go in the first place....

Anyway, the spoiler options are neck in neck, but i think everyone agrees there SHOULD be one. However, im split 33% for each of the three choices. SO heres what im going to do.

Paint the car, and the original hatch (with the trans am spoiler). Then IF i have any paint left i will
1) Paint the wrap around hatch and spoiler
2) Paint the bare berlinetta decklid.

yes i have all three seperately.

I dont think ill be able to make up my mind until i actually see the final product, so if i dont like one, ill just switch it.

In the meantime, heres some more pix, cuz i know everyone loves them.

This was accomplished in 2 days!!! I spent another 3 hours tonight, but it was mostly fighting with the nose to come off with the fenders.

FROM THIS:



TO THIS, in TWO DAYS!:











However, when you strip a car THAT fast by hand, theres a price to be paid. The purple is NOT normal, and the flash picture shows the blisters better.

 

looks smooth i wanna paint my a darker green. I say do yours with a flat color for the hood then a metalic for the rear.

What did you use to sand it?

 

Nah, no metallic. I dont wanna do fancy paint on the car, just simple solid colour.

As for sanding, its FAR from smooth right now, the pix dont really show it. The body is in pretty good shape, so we got lucky.

But whoever painted it black, used some really really bad paint. We started with 180 on the roof, and 4 hours, and alot of greif later, we decided it wasnt working. The paint was clogging the sandpaper pours and just turning into a smooth surface. The best way i can describe it, is it seemed like we were sanding wet paint!

So we brought out the big guns and bought some heavy duty 120 grit. Its not 3M, but some other brand. Ill check if someone really wants to know. But this paper just ate through the paint.

So were going to skip the 180 step, and go straight to 320 after the 120. Then it will get spot putty on saturday in minor scratches and dents, then epoxy primer on sunday.

Speaking of which, whats the best way to remove ROCK GUARD??? Its a really tough undercoating. See second pic in post #10, notice the bumpy paint towards the bottom. I dont want to wire wheel it, but it doesnt stand a chance against sand paper.

 

I'm no car expert but if you go to a advanced auto parts they have a paintstripper called "Tal-strip" made to take paint off airplanes. I have used it to take of powdercoated paint off my bmx bike (WAY stronger then car paint) and it works great. You leave it sit on the car for 30 secounds and wipe the paint film off.

So you actually sanded it by hand?!! i used a angle grinder for mine

 

For a black car, get a wrap-around spoiler, but get a 4th gen one. You can easily get them for $100 or less, every day. And they are fiberglass, so MUCH lighter than the OEM urethane 3rd gen ones.

You don't need the clips & only hafta drill 4 mounting holes. The 3rd brake light plug is a DIRECT plug-in, no modding needed for the wiring. Just hafta extend the center 2 posts, but that's not hard either. Just use dome layers of plexiglass (or something) to extend them.

 

I dont think the 4th gen spoiler would like without GFX. I really like the late third gen spoilers though. (91 or 92?).

As for sanding, i didnt want to use chemicals. All the hard work is gonna pay off in the end. I would like to take advantage of the factory primer thats already there, , and the chemicals would just go down to bare metal, leaving me with alot more filler work. So thats why i chose hand sanding.

Grinder is also an option, but i find those swirl marks are also tough to get rid of.

Its all in the prep work, so i get to be picky.

 

I just got my car, and didn't know hand sanding was a option till now

 

Keep the old spoiler. You call it a trans am spoiler, but actually its not. Thats the spoiler that comes on the base birds. Its my fav spoiler actually but most people like the wrap around spoiler(the real trans am spoiler lol) but I rather the old one.
What color black are you going with? Paint code?

 

Ofcourse hand sanding is an option! Its just alot harder/longer. Thats why you get three guys to do it, and bribe them with food and beer.

Also, i always think of it as the trans am spoiler. But you know what i mean. The car is actually a formula (1987) but that year there wasnt a 350 option, or the wrap around spoiler option. The spoiler did come on base birds, but it also came on trans ams and formulas until 1988.

Ill let you decide which you think is the REAL trans am spoiler, but i always think of the wrap around as a Formula spoiler. We all know what im talkin about though so its all good.

As for the paint, i havent even bought the primer yet, let alone the paint. We figured this would take atleast a month, between us, because we all work 9-5, and take 1/2 hour to get home. Which leaves us about 3 hours a night during the week, and weekends. Not alot of time, so we just got the sand paper and some spot putty. We didnt think it was gonna be done the weekend we started!!! So i better sit down and plan it out a bit better. Ill be buying the primer this week sometime. And the paint will be a base/clear. Im spending most of the money on the primer, and ill go for the cheapest "decent quality" black paint. Its lack of quality will be made up in the wetsanding.

All i know is im not going with Laquer. Itll prolly be an enamel, or an acrylic enamel. Any suggestions on which is better?

 

not sure which is better, but I am putting base and clear on my 92 bird and I am putting her back to her original color. I flirted with the idea of metallic black but quickly changed my mind. My paint code I believe is 8555, which used to be known as Pontiac Black, I don't know if your car uses the same paint or not. I would imagine it will be something similar.

 

Would i get that paint at a GM dealership?? Im probably buying the paint from "Cote", its a paint supply/ auto performance shop about 20 mins from my house. Theres also a NAPA paint supply store about 5 mins from my house, but they charge an arm and a leg for paint.

Luckily black is a paint that is not ranged in too many different variations. White and gold are much tougher. You can have different hues in white, and gold is very close to green.

Its really dependant on the price to tell you the truth. I will check that paint code, and if its a good price ill get it.

 

I'm not trying to nitpick, but the T/A's started using the wraparound spoiler in '86 (but without built-in brake light). '87 Formula's also came with wraparound spoilers standard from the factory(with brake light). I used to have an '85 T/A when I was a teenager and I always wondered why my spoiler was different from other 85-90 T/A's, but now I know.

 

I stand corrected;

from the TGO database on firebirds:

"Wrap-around spoiler updated and now standard on 1987 Firebird Trans Am and 1987 Firebird Formula. Regular flat wing spoiler from earlier Trans Am now standard on 1987 Pontiac Firebird."


Maybe my car isnt a formula then? Ill have to check the vin and RPO list next time im there.

 

your car is still a Formie I can almost guarantee.

To answer your earlier question; You can indeed buy that paint from any retailer as long as you have the code. You may be able to find your exact paint code as well. My paint code was located in that hidden storage compartment in the trunk, have a look and yours may be still in tact. You need the key to open the compartment.

With regards to price, I would imagine its competitive with any base black color, I believe they are all close in price.

 

Figured id keep updating this thread, because i dont know what im gonna use until its painted.

Im planning on painting all 3 spoilers and just trying it out to see what works best.

In the meantime, you think we'd be done by now eh? We were able to sand the whole car in 18 hours, but cant get moving on the fine sanding and actual spray....... I blame the heat......

Anyways, heres whats happening. We had planned to remove all the "rock guard" off and fine sand it to 320 grit last weekend. The car needs some spot putty in a couple of places to fill in cracks or corrosion, and we had planned to do that during the week.

However, the temperature rose from 21*? to about 28* plus 80% humidity bringing it to 32*C roughly. (thats 70, 82, and 90 respectively) reaching up to about 94*F at points).

However, the ground below the garage floor likes to stay moist because there is a natural spring (small one) near it, so it feels like its air conditioned. Take a dry cool garage, and 84% humidity on a hot day, and mix the (even a little) and you get condensation, to insane degrees.

We opened one of the doors, and both cars in the garage were instantly soaked. So we decided to open the doors and let it all equalize, because the water was doing more harm than the moist air.

Most of the day was spent, going over any spots we had exposed bare metal, and treating it with zinc chromate. When we got to the rock guard, no abrasive we had on hand was working. Wire wheel, 80 grit sand paper, and an abrasive sanding wheel (kind of a mix bewteen a wire wheel and a sanding disc). So i will have to pick up some aircraft stripper (i havent had time to) and do that over the course of the week.

Im planning on shooting the primer this weekend, and paint next weekend. But if the humidity keeps up like this, it will have to wait till next weekend. Id like to just do it all in one weekend, but we shall see.

I live 20 mins away from my freind's place (thats his garage and 69 cutlass in the pix), so when we both get off work at 530 and meet up after dinner, its about 630. Which leaves us about 2.5 hours to work, before we have to be home and in bed..... To deal with this, i brought the fenders, nose, and rear bumper home, and ill be sanding away at them all week.

Heres the car at the moment.

 

P.S.

HOW DO I GET MY MIRROR OFF WITHOUT BREAKING ANYTHING???

Its the manual adjust one (driver's side).

 

Once the trim bezel is removed, snake the cable and adjusting **** out of the door.

8555 is the code GM has used on nearly every solid black vehicle for a loooong time, and still use it to this day.

 

Thats the part im having an issue with. I can see the trim bezel (im assuming the interior plastic part that the "****" is inserted in is what youre talking about) is housing the ****. But i dont know how to safely remove it. Are there pins, or something?

As for not being able to decide, i was referring to spoiler options, not paint. Ive decided to go with black, a few freinds who recently painted cars recomended a shop to me. They sell dupont products, probably going with that.

 

On a Camaro, there is a flat metal retainer that you rotate to remove, then the **** slides out of the bezel. I know the birds used the same trim in '86, not sure after that.

 

In my 87 GTA, the light "switch" is a roller wheel, not a ****.

 

Stephen, my light switch is also a roller, thats not what were talking about here.

Were talking about the "****" that controls the mirror angle. It is attached to a plastic bezel, that is screwed into the door, in front of the interior door handle. I wanted to know how to seperate the ****/cable assembly from the plastic bezel, because it cant be squeezed out of the little hole where the mirror mounts as is.

86iroc, i think what you described resembles what i saw in the firebird. Illl try it out next time im out. My bro just bought a car that needs to go to my freind's house so we'll be paying it a visit

 

Sorry. Guess I missed that.

I guess your talkingabout manual mirors. I've alwauys had electric mirrors.

 

No worries. they are manual ones, not electric..... Which is whas able to get one off, and not the other

 

Ok ok, so as if this wasnt confusing enough, i found another colour i am toying with painting the firebird. The only thing holding me back is the "cursed red". Its a little superstition we have in my circle of car freinds. Every red car we've ever bought had rotten frames that were covered up real well, and didnt turn up till much later....


Anyways, while i was cleaning off one of the fender's last night, i sprayed brake cleaner on one of the fenders so i could seal the bare metal afterwards. While the brake cleaner was still there, it looked like clear coat. The paint is the original factory colour, and i thought it looked STUNNING for a minute.

Anybody know what the paint code is?



Im starting to get a little bored with black. Every car ive owned was black, and its not as exciting without chrome. However, if i DID paint it black, it would probably turn out very very close to this.

 

Check it out. I think i just might paint it this colour. Maybe a little darker.

 

I had that color on my '83 T/A and I did not like it at all. I vote a bright color, get the newer style formula nose and tail and spoiler, then it would be perfect.

 

I chose the Wrap Around Spoiler.. I'm not sure how that's different from a T/A spoiler, however. Personally, I like the spoiler that came on the Firebird Formula from 87-91 or the one on the Trans Am of the same years. 87 or 88 - I forget which year they started with that spoiler.

It must be painted the same color as the rest of the car...

 

For those of you who want to follow the progress, i started a new thread.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/body...-firebird.html