I wanted to get some input about a possible upgrade I want to do with my car. I am toying with the idea of using some of those early 80's tail light panel bird emblems as sail panel birds. The ones with the 3rd gen type silver bird outline. Before I shell out for two new ones, I would like to know for sure if they are what I think they are, having never seen them in person off a car.

Are these things actually thick enameled emblems or just flat and thin like a sticker? And provided they are emblems, are they flat enough or flexible enough to lay against the flat surface of the sail panel?

Thanks in advance !

 

I think what you are thinking about has already been done. I'm not too familiar with the early 80's emblems you're referring to, but the Firebird GTA's actually have plastic "3D" emblems, not stickers...

 

My car had them on the sail panels when I bought it. They are a solid plastic thing & did seem to sit ok on the panel. I did however remove them as they were only stuck with double sided tape.

 

Thats good news, I didnt want to shell out the money for two new ones without knowing if they where thick plastic like GTA birds. Id go with actual GTA birds but they dont come in silver and black, and they are just too small.

 

the '82-'84 taillight emblems are flat, while 85+ are rounded. Good luck finding the '82-84 ones since GM doesn't make them anymore. Junkyard is the only option unless you get lucky on ebay or something. The later ones show up on ebay all the time, but since they are rounded they won't stick flat to the sail panel and you will probably have a hard time keeping them on. I'd stick to the GTA ones. I just don't think a taillight emblem would look right, but it's your car.

 

Dunno if you are still interested in this, but here is a pic of the birds on mine.

 

i would just get a shop to print some for you in whatever dimension you want and color

 

The shops around here cant make raised emblems, just stickers. Since I want a raised plastic emblem that matches my original black and silver sticker birds, these gas tank lid birds are my only real option that I know of.

Jeff87TA that looks excellent, and is precisely the look I'm going for. Are those from the 82-84 type or the later rounded ones? I can get the later models quite easy in great shape, just wondering if I could heat gun them a little and flatten them out without them damaging?

 

I have 2ndgen sail birds on my car , but then again they match the rest of the bandit decals I have.

 

Not sure where you are at with this but I put mine back on for a pic. As far as I can tell they are curved 7 fit the panel fine.