I have a 1990 Firebird. I really like the bumper from the 1991 and 1992. My car got hit recently and I need a new bumper. I want to know if the 91/92 bumper will bolt on and everything will still line up correctly. I looked at some in the junkyard and it looks like I have to do something about the headlights as well, the bezels appear to be different. If anyone has done this and could guide to all that I need to make this conversion work. I would greatly appreciate it. I am also putting an older hood from a Trans Am. I think 83/84 with a factory functional cold air intake (originally for a 4bbl carb). I got the hood the actuater and vacuum control.

Thanks

 

I'd just say to make sure the new headlight covers will meet up with the old hood... that's about all I can offer as far as help.

 

Well the nose should fit and line up no problem, but how ever the bezels will be a problem so you will have to trim off the bottom lip of the existing bezels to use or otherwise, you will have to swap out the whole headlight assembly like it or not!.. you are better off to the alter the existing bezels you have now by trimming the bottom lips and sanding and smoothing it down and then you should not have any problems and if you are planning on using ground f/x too you might have to shave those bottom humps if they're are any to be found but if you can get a picture posted here ,we can get an idea about what you are doing to your car!...if the nose you are gonna install has the ground f/x or not!

 

I guess you are trieing to do something similar to my car, the car is 82 but the noze is 91-92 style. I did not do the conversion myself but if this is what you want I will be glad to help you out any way I can.

 

that looks like one cold bird.... brrrr...

 

Yeah! I dont have a digital camera so I made one of my friends take his camera to work, so the previous night I washed, waxed the car to look nice and shiny for the pic. And woldnt you know it, a snow storm came and covered the car with ice and snow!


YEAH!!! this is my 100 post! Im a Senior Member! :lala:

 

Yea Jyrx, that is what I want to do. I am trying to figure exactly what parts I should get off the junkyard car . From what I can see in the photo, it appears to all line up pretty good.

sheltonw3, I am not using any gfx. Just the Trans Am hood 83/84, on a 1990 base model Bird, with the 91/92 nose/beak. The only photo I have is completey stock.

click here

 

The part wich I circeled on the picture is cut out from the original bumber and then "welded" together with the new one. Other than that everything seems to line up nicely.

 

I couldn't get the image to appear so I post a link above.

 

Okay now that I can see what you are doing ,the nose that you are going to install ,did the car itself have ground f/x or not and if so you will have to shave off the bottom humps like I did mine and then you can alter the top section just like in the previous photo above.


Now in this photo as you can see ,the car is a 91' but I shaved off the humps an added some 1982 ground f/x and it came out real good!

 

just another example!

 

How do you alter the bumper cover? Do you cut it and glue, if so what you cut it with to get a clean cut, and what type of glue. That looks cool still using the lights from the older style.

 

i would just use the 91-92 headlights and turn signals. if you want it to look like a 91-92 front, make it look like a 91-92 front.

 

The real benefit to having the older stock,already there is you can add a really nice set of fog lights!...and altering the nose should be clean,cut to alter as well!

 

nice color

to do the swap the right way you'll need more than just the nose. 91/92s had different headlights, turn signals and foglights. here's a pic of my 1992

 

My question,
instead of replacing the enitre headlight assembly, why not just replace the headlight body, the top (part seen when lights are down) is removeable, as well as the body of it (the "walls" surrounding the headlight, visible when lights are up)..is this possible? would make a lot more sense than replacing the whole thing if you ask me, cause i tried taking one out a few months ago, and that was a real PITA..gave up finally..

 

I'm not sure you need to change the headlights now. When I first put the 91 Formula nose on my 83 I only had the bumper cover, so I ghetto-rigged the stock impact absorber and upper bracket to work. The stock 83 headlights rubbed the front edge of the cover. My thought was that the 91-92 headlights were probably a bit smaller (shorter) to fix that problem. I bought a set of 91 headlights on eBay while my car was in storage. Now that it's home and I'm working on it again, I measured the old lights and the new ones and the headlight doors have the same dimensions. Hmmm.

BTW, you'll have to extend the turn signal wiring to the new location in the 91-92 bumper. No big deal, three wires. You'll also need the correct turn signals and brackets (I have brand new ones for my car still in the GM boxes- I bought them so long ago the dealer still sold them).

 

Actually, I just noticed that Jyrx is using the old-style headlights. Look at the picture of Jyrx's car and then look at Freeze's car. Freeze has the 91-92 headlights- notice that the headlight itself is smaller.

 

i did the 91-92 to 85-90 swap, and i don't think the old headlight bezels (black things around lights) will fit into a 91 bumper. i actually have the small lights with a gap around them until i can fab a filler plate, but the 91-92 bezels won't fit over the old lights, that's the problem. they're meant to sit with the lip on the bumper, the new ones have nothing sticking out. you could probably trim the old ones down, assuming that the light bulb will go down ok with no bezel in place.

 

Yep, that makes complete sense. My headlights work fine now, but the bezels are removed. Now that you mention it, I believe that it was the bezels that were getting caught on the bumper cover when turning the lights on/off. I started this project so long ago that I forgot why I took the bezels off.

I think I'll buy another set of headlight bezels at the junkyard and see if I can modify them to work with the new bumper. I don't want to replace headlights that work perfectly.

 

Great replys. Thanks guys. I was at the junkyard again yesterday and I noticed everything you all said about the headlights. I am having a tuff time finding a good 91/92 nose. Everyone I find is all banged up. I did however find a perfect one like my original one. So I got it. I need the car up and driveable. Only 85.00 for the whole assembly. I am still looking for the 91/92 nose. So this one will get me back up and running till I find a good one.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=36475

 

Wow, this is back from the dead. I have since learned that you DO need to change the headlights because the old-style lights hit the leading edge of the bumper.

Here's a related thread:

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...hreadid=225794

 

You also need to get the plug ends for the head lights bulbs. The 91-92 are differnt plugs than the 85-90.

 

the 91-92 headlight plugs are different from 85-90 so how woulkd you go about wiring 91-92 in a older car like an 86?