Can you post some pics of the inside of the spoiler where it comes off the decklid onto the glass??? I think this is the area he's talking about.

You can only sand so much away before you are through the fiberglass in this area. Material needs to be added on this inside edge. That was the one part of mine that I wish I would have done before it was painted.

 

You did a very nice job on your mod of the arms,I just like mine better than the fourth gen modded ones.Just my opinion.

 

i think it looks great man! i love and enjoy stealing 4th gen parts for my THIRDGENS!!! Thats where those parts belong! lol

 

Wat was involved in rounding those arms? Just sanding to reshape them? Or sanding, then rebuilding them with 'glass? I REALLY like those tips you modded...

 

I believe my wing was off a 95 T/A. I did not have to add anything for material. I just looked at the old wing and started sanding until I had the same point as the original aerowing. It just flowed better with the bodylines IMO. It also allowed me to move the wing ahead a bit before I drilled my mounting holes in the decklid.

 

Hmmmm,,,,My wing is going on Sat, (in2 days! ) along with the 4th gen TA mirrors. Something tells me, I'm gonna be sanding a lot tomorrow! I'll drill a small pilot hole from the bottom first, to see the inner structure first.

 

good luck, post lots of pics!

 

So, how did it go?

I’m curious, has anyone weighed one of these things?

I took the stock TA/Formula style wing off of my TA last week and was surprised by 2 things. First it weighed 26lbs 5oz, and second, I sawed it in half and instead of having the steel supports inside that everyone said it had it had an extruded aluminum airfoil section.

I also weighed a normal firebird/early TA wing and it came in at 9lbs 6oz.

 

It's on. But the weather wouldn't cooperate, and it was all done outside, between the rain bursts.

Cool air wouldn't let the paint dry, so when I flipped it to paint the other side, the painted side was still tacky, and I had to color sand it good.

The paint finish on mine isn't quite good, certainly not "show" quality, BUT....the errors in the paint, help it blend in to my 20 year old paint job & missing clear coat sections, down to the primer area, etc. Kinda gives it that "aged" look, making it look more original.

The tips are solid, not sure how far back, so simple sanding/grinding was all that was needed. I might reshape them. FYRCHKN curved them, per my request, but I had another idea for them yesterday. Anybody know how far back the solid section goes, before it gets hollow?

The 4th gen 3rd brake light, used the same wire colors & plug as mine, so it simply plugged right in. And the wire was like 3 feet long. To connect it, I drilled a hole through the deck, under the left pedestal, over to the pedestal, down through it, and simply plugged it in!

We did discover though...Apparently LS1 and LT1 4th gens have different deck shapes. His sits flat and perfect. My posts are kinda double-curved on the bottom. The inner-front of the bottom, is higher than the outer-rear. So my feet sit....odd. One corner touches, another doesn't. We need to add another layer to the foot, then grind it down to sit flat on the deck. I'll hafta get pics to explain it.

 

is yours an LT1 or LS1?

 

Stephen's is an LS1, mine is an LT1. I had no idea they were different when he got his. I installed both of them the same exact way and for some reason the center posts on Stephen's LS1 wing are angled. The posts on my LT1 wing sit flat.

 

LS1 wing. It came off a 2001, where as his came off a 96.

That's the only thing I can come up with, being different. Different hatches?

 

My fiberglass GTA wing weighs in at 8 or 9lbs, on my scale.

 

shoulda just hung it up with some old wire hangers from a tree or sumthin.LOL!

 

yeah,IIRC,93-96 birds had the flat feet on the wing,and 97& up had the awkward shape.Why,I don't know.

 

Wish I had known that BEFORE I bought the wing....

 

oh well Stephen,not a major catastrophy,I'm sure you'll get it fitted properly.I know that FYRCHKN hates fiberglass,but I'm sure he'll help ya out.

 

Yeah....Only a little tweaking needed now. Just a frustrating set back. Its all good though.

 

We'll get it all fitted up good and tight. It was just an unknown and unexpected set back.

 

I wonder if the year breakdown is really 93-96 and 97 and up. I have a 97 WS6 and I don’t see anything weird/angled funny about the feet, I wish I could see a picture of what you’re talking about.

As in the ‘glass reproduction 3rd gen wing? That would be lighter than even the light firebird wing. You don’t happen to be selling it?

 

We have no idea FOR CERTAIN where the cut off is. LT1 vs LS1 is the only thing I can think of.







From the front....




From the rear...



Yes, my 87 GTA fiberglass repro wing was 8/9 lbs on my scale. And yes, I'm selling it. I want a local buyer first, before I deal with packaging & shipping.

 

Yeah, we definately need to add another layer on the bottom and then shape it out to sit down flat. Then, or course put the rubber under it. Getting the timing and the weather to cooperate is going to be the trick though.

You might want to shoot some paint on the welds on your decklid too keep them from rusting in this weather since it's supposed to rain all weekend.

 

Yeah. It's just so damn cold, I haven't wanted to go out there, pul the wing off, finish grinding the welds, then shoot some paint. Too cold for the paint to cure worth a crap anyways.

I'm thinking I'm gonna skip the rubber on the feet, but your welcome to cut what you need, from my mat. I would have thought you would have cut some out last Saturday for your car.

 

Hey Stephen what did you use on the bottom of the posts??? When I did mine I simply drilled 1/4 inch holes into the bottom of each piece so that material could flow inside the holes to aid in the bonding. I then took a roll of 3" duct tape and wrapped it around the bottom of the base with roughly 2 1/2 inches of tape sticking past the base. This created a shaped pocket with the same contour.

I filled the pocket with fibreglass and waited a few hours for it to dry. All I had to do then was a quick sanding to get the base to fit even with the decklid. Drilled a new hole into the base and installed the mounting studs just like the 4th gen piece was designed.

Do you have your studs legthened to be long enough to go through all those spacres and bolt onto the underside of the decklid or were the studs long enough already?????

 

Fyrchkn deserves all the credit...I just sanded, painted, and drilled a hole for the 3rd brake light wires.

But, the pieces are lexan, maybe plex, But, the whole thing is only attached by the 2 rear outer bolts! On the 2 inner posts, the post extensions are bolted on to the wing using the factory 4th gen bolts, but nothingto the deck itself.

We need to add another layer or 2 to the posts, then sand/grind them flat to the deck, and run new or longer bolts up.

How did you do the 'glass? Chopped up bits, mixed with the exopy, then poured it in??

 

It was a while ago, but I *think* it was kitty hair or dyna hair. The rason why I drilled the holes into the original base(where the studs were mounted) was to add strength to the extension so that when bolted down it would not crack. I made sure that my fiberglass went deep into these holes to give a very strong bond.

If you look at my pics in the link I posted you can see the original 4th gen studs already mounted into the middle pieces after I added the fiberglass. You can also see the marks for the holes that I driled into my rear deck for the studs to go through. I had all 4 holes marked out on the deck.

Like I posted earlier and as you can see in your pics, on the inside of the wing where the arm comes onto the glass there is a large gap. I tried to get rid of the gap by sanding down the outside of the arm so that the inside would sit lower. It helped, but there was still a gap. If I had it all to do over again I would add more material to this area and take the extra time to sand it down to make the perfect fit.

 

I’d bet that it’s an LS1 vs LT1 thing (97 vs 98) rather than a 96 vs97 thing, I don’t see any reason why my ’97 would sit like that. You said earlier that it messes up the center posts,but the outer pieces aren’t right on the inside edge either, is this what the earlier wing is like?

FWIW, It looks like a lot of the issue with the angles could be cleared up with some aggressive sanding on the outside/back parts. Looking at the rest of it, I would have done it slightly differently. I probably would have carved and shaped the adaptor pieces out of wood, attached them to the bottom and then put a layer or 2 of ‘glass cloth around them and the bases then blended them together. A little bit of sanding and they’d look perfect, and then you can use the wood to mount fasteners like they do with wood insets in original style mount ‘glass hoods. Besides the final fitting it would have taken shorter then what you did and cost less than a stack of plexy.

Funny, the angles of your shots are nowhere near as flattering as FYRCHKN’s, especially this one:



I wonder if his shot from that angle would look as mismatched, and it’s the curves that I wanted to do something about that’s the problem also.

Depending on what type of paint you’re using you might be able to cheat. Most solvent based paints will take longer to dry using something like mineral spirits (or similar, stoddard solvent...) based thinners/reducers, and will dry faster with acetone based or actual acetone. You can also use a proper hardener for them but most aren’t rated for low temps. I’ve gotten synthetic enamels to harden in minutes at around 40*F doing this, where they usually won’t harden for days, sometimes even weeks under 55* if you leave them alone. You can do the same with the newer water based stuff by thinning with some ammonia.

 

Well you can add another install to the list. I bought one from 88TransAMfreak on here that he had already extended the feet and did some sanding on the bottom for a better fit. Still had to drill and tap for some bolts and epoxy them in for strength , and drill 4 holes . We bolted all 4 legs down instead of only 2 to add strength. Took me and Aaron91RS about 3 or 4 hours of time. You really need to be careful on the drilling because we only missed the glass by a quarter inch. I'm taking it to someone to have painted tomorrow.

 

HUH? You put a 4th gen wing on your vert?

 

Sorry man I tried to post pics and a link but couldn't get either to work . My brother owns the vert now. My current car is a 92 teal Firebird . I'll be making a new sig-pic soon.

 

And here I was, hoping to get to see a 'vert with a 4th gen wing!

 

Hmmmmm..... i guess it looks ok??

 

It actually might look cool on a vert too, never thought about it. Bet noone has done that yet.
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/8250/p1010017.jpg

 

From T3G

 

Looks great, I just got my new project, an 86 WS6, it didn't come with a spoiler but has a mildly modified hood, with kind of a C5 scoop in the middle, and I think a 4th gen spoiler would fit right in, especially with the LS1 six-speed I have planned for it.

 

Thanks for adding the pics man

 

I was wondering how much of a gap there is between the posts and the trunk lid. I have very little experience with fabricating. Could a body shop fix the gap?

 

Either way, the center posts are too short.....
If you use a 93-97 wing, the gaps on the forward points are minimal & the bottoms can be sanded to get so close, you'll never notice.


Get a 98-02 wing & while the forward points can still be sanded, but the middle 2 posts will still be crooked since the wing bottoms aren't flat.

 

So just so I'm getting all this correct, you have to put 1/2" mdf under the legs?


P.s. I know this is a really old thread

 

No. It was 8 layers of Lexan. How thick is each layer? Dunno. Would hafta measure.

FYRCHKN made mine the same as his and when we put mine on, we discovered the difference between the 93-97 wings & the 98-02 wings. If you do this? Get a 93-97 wing.

 

Ok, I I like the look of the spoiler from far away, but the gap you you have to fill with lexan killed it for me. Good job tho dude

 

Once you smooth the Lexan layers over with a skim coat of body filler, it becomes seamless & makes it all 1 piece, like it was built that way.