can anyone tell me how to remove all the ground effects for the car and where the screws might be? i tried prying up the side z28 emblems by the looked they were going to snap so i stopped.i also need to sand them to get ready for paint should i use a power sander with what grit down to what grit to finish. i will be bondoing them and then sanding and painting later .

 

screws are on the bottom of the ground effects. once loose u have to push up onthem by the rear wheel and on the front fender. they have a groove on to inthose paces that they actually hang on. the front ground effect unsrews from under the radiator support under the ground effect.

 

Ground effects removal, front to rear. This will be really hard in some cases, because of all the rust that happens to the screws. You will probably break a few bolts or screws. I would start by unclipping the plastic front fenders. Not all of them, just at the bottom on both front and rear of the fender.

NOSE:
1) I would recommend you remove the nose and chinspoiler as one peice. Otherwise, there are bolts all along the bottom of the chin spoiler, pretty easy to find, there lots of them. They also attach to the front of the fenders, dont forget those bolts.

Rear:
2) Open the hatch, remove the side panel for the spare tire. You may want to remove the tire, it makes it much easier. Unbolt the 3? bolts on each side. The other side you will have to remve the side panel as well, or if your glove box is broken, you can just pop the lid and do it through there. Then, theres a million of those little clips at the bottom. You should buy new ones, the old ones will be unusueable by the time they come out. What worked best for me, was a large needle nose plier. I stuck it in, with the pliers clenched on the penetrated clip, and levered downwards from the flat top peice of the clip. Remove entire bumper, its all one peice.

3) Rear side peices. These can be accessed in the fenderwell, where the spare tire is, and the glove box on the other side.

4) Side skirts. Pop off the Z28 symbol, theres 2 bolts in there i beleive. If it feels like its going to snap, get something flatter, like a troul, or a scraper, not a flat head screw driver, and pry from all sides. It will eventually get loose, and pop off. Then theres some bolts on the inside of the front fender. You can access this through the plastic fender you unclipped earlier. Then you will have to remove the interior trim peice below the rear speakers. The ones that kind of look like arm rests. Down inside that well, theres a couple more bolts for the rear of the GFX. Finally, go below the car, and remove all bolts from underneath the side skirt. It should come right off. Repeat for other side.

5) Door trim (upper side skirt). You will have to either, remove, or unclip the interior door panel to do this part. Make sure your window is up, and get a flash light before you start wrenching. If you pop the light in the door, you can see all the bolts for the side skirt. I dont remember how many there are, possibly 3-5? Once you have found them all, get a socket, a ratchet, and an extension. You will notice, the door has holes and grooves constructed, so your socket and extension will fit perfectly through, and actually guide it onto the bolt. Remove these bolts. Then look at the BOTTOM CORNERS of the door. You will see a strange clip on both corners. Looks like a pyramid sort of, but with more "sides", i thought it was a stopper/rubber support, like you have for the hood. This is a clip, and attaches the front and rear of the door peice. It should just "unscrew". Once you remove this, the door peice should come off.

This is for removal of the 85-89 style GFX on a camaro. My description is not 100% accurate, because i focused on WHERE to find all the bolts, rather than how to unscrew them, or how many there are. I think u can figure that part out easily.

Hope that helps.

 

then to prep them for paint: make sure the filler you choose to use is flexible, and dont put it on too thick.
sand all the paint off where you need to apply filler, then apply it, sand it with probably 150-180 then finish with 220 or higher. and only sand where you actually need to, then where ever you just want to paint over just wetsand with 220-400 to get the clear off, once theres no shine, you can prime over it. and just a thought, once your ready to prime everything you may want to spray it with something to help the primer stick to these parts, such as "bulldog"

 

Oh right, i forgot the paint part.

Actually now that you mention is, when you prime, theres a special primer to use for the urethane (rubbery) peices, that flex. Like the chin spoiler.

I dunno about you guys, but for us Candians, it can be found at Canadian Tire. Possibly Walmart, or some large automotive related parts store for you.

But it comes in a regular aerosol can, and it says something to the effect of "NON-METAL primer". Its for stuff that primer doesnt stick to regularly, like plastic, but it also has a "flex" property. I dont know the brand off heart, but im sure theres a few companies that make it. It was probably Duplicolor though.

The directions say, to spray it on, and paint over while the primer is still wet. It bonds with the paint and the surface, and you can flex the body panel slightly, and it wont crack the paint.

A freind showed me that on the nose of his Z-28. Was pretty cool.

 

yeah, that product I mentioned "bulldog" is just an "adhesion promoter" to help the paint or primer stick to the flexible body parts.

 

Gotcha, i didnt realize thats what it was.

 

..

 

Hi,
I'm also trying to remove this side skirt.
I removed the intire interieur in the back, including the seats, belts and carpet. I can't find any bolts for the ground side skirt there.
I unscrewed all other bolts. The side skirt is completely loose, except at the end at the rear wheel. Is there maybe some kind of trick to push or pull the side skirt free ??
Thanks for your help.

 

No need to be removing carpet and seat belts, or even seats.

Start by taking your rear speaker cover off. Then take out the trim panel that the speaker cover was attached to. You will notice in that little "compartment" where the rear speaker lives, way at the bottom, there are some nuts. Its usuallly dirty in there for some reason, because of dust and undercoating, so you will have to feel for them.

The bolts are not on the "floor" they are on the "side" of the car. No need to remove carpet, they are in the sail panel area at the bottom.

 

online170 your car must have been takin apart before you got at it or something cuz theres no bolts inside for the side skirt removal on my 84 they are just hooked on to the back by two round plastic discs and should just slide back and upfor a better idea heres the back of the skirt id show the discs two but they are stashed away in the garage somewhere untill my car is painted and the front just has two screws under the badge and theres some obvious screws on top of the rocker and under

 

online170 is right. and on a camaro I think there should only be one bolt in there.

 

maybe they differ from year to year cuz theres no way someone made that up them selves its too factory lookin lol

 

ya they probably changed from 82-84 to 85-90 because that does look factory.

 

well that sucks cuz im lookin for some aero gfx to put on my 84 oh well not a big deal its only 1-2 bolt holes

 

I wrote those steps out by memory, there may only be one bolt in there, but i know in mine it was definately bolts, not sliders like that.

The car was a 1988 RS camaro, V6. It had the low rise spoiler only offered that year, so i think the body kit was original to the car. I could be wrong though.

 

yeah its no big deal, I have camaro aero gfx on my Trans Am, took a good amount of work because I had to re-do every hole (6 in total) plus the 5 or 6 on the door. but maybe the holes on your camaro will be closer to the aero mounting position.

 

Hi Online 170 and others. I found the bolt. On the driversite it is really well hidden. In the "dark compartment" you mentioned, it is once again hidden after a rubber piece. There was only one bolt and it is a bit hard to reach to.
Thanks to all.

 

What I found interesting about this saga for me was that I have the original service manual from GM for the 1985 model year F body which is was i have and when i read the instructions it stated there were the 2 plastic clips. Before I just about broke the hell out of everything there I read this thread. I wonder how many were broken at the dealer until this manual was revised.

 

those are the clips im talkin about in my 84 plastic "discs"

 

Yea im curious to know which cars had discs and which cars had bolts....

Ive only removed 85-90 GFX, so id imagine they are the same. I have a freind who i sold those GFX to, who has 82-84 ones currently. If he has discs, maybe thats the way they did it.

P.S.
The pic i posted is of my 87 formula (no GFX). I didnt have any pix of the RS camaro, or my other camaro in such good quality, so that one served good to make my point. Yes its factory looking, but its not the car in question

The 88 i stripped defincately was not well taken care of, but i think the GFX were original to the car, simply because it came with that spoiler.

 

I can't get the side skirts off my vert.... the thing is completely loose. The only thing left is the rear bold or clip. I cant get it off. am I doing something wrong? Is the process different on a convertible?

 

mine is the same way as shown in photo it is a 89

 

I tried lifting pushing and pulling all to no fix. there is sheet metal right above this bolt, I can't get to it. how did they put this thing on??

 

my side skirts are damaged, I wanna fix them but can't take them off. can anyone help?
I can take more pix if needed.

 

if its the one im thinking of u have to slide the gfx either to the front or to the back

 

if ur second picture is the front of the gfx, the screw is located behind the emblem u had to take it off to get to it

 

okay, I got all but the rear off.. still stuck on that one. I will post when I make more progress.

 

depends on the car, but mine are just hooked in the rear and slide back to come off. others i hear are screwed on from the inside

 

thats what i told him too, i've replaced 3 different types of gfx and that was one of them where u would need to slide it

 

I tried sliding up, pushing down, left, right... that ish will not come off. I even tried forcing it. There is no possible way there is a screw holding it on (unless they make ratchets longer then 3 ft). It has to be the hook type, but it seems stuck. may have some sort of glue holding it on. guess I shouldn't be surprised (my seat belt bolts where welded on) lol.

 

okay, I just went outside and tried again. It doesn't just slide off and I can't get to a bolt. This is getting fustrating, I'm ready to break this thing and just buy a new one.

 

Ok man you have the type that bolt on not the type that slide off im pretty sure you have 2 screws behind the z28 or rs logo you have the ones inside the door along the door rail five i bleive and then there is one you have to remove your interior panel armest as shown in the picture by online70 and that shoudl be it if i remmber right

 

oh jesus i already posted in this thread hahaha i actually posted a picture of the inside of my gfx in post # 11. yours has to be screwed from the inside or glued, dont rule anything out.
edit: any screw in the wheel well?

 

do not power sand. hand sand plastic pieces like that. u could take off too much and go into the plastic and not even know it.i im an auto body student and just finished painting my 92 rs. the ground effects have alot of curves so just take your time and it will all be worth it

 

I found a whole set of 91-92 GFX to put on my 89 for 50 bucks but I have to take them off and I would really like to know if the above instructions will work for 91-92 models since it says 85-89 style and if not can someone please point out what is different. this guy also has a perfect dash pad he is selling me for 20 bucks and I have no idea how to remove that dern thing either but for 20 bucks I am gonna find out

 

ok just left the guys house and after I showed him what i wanted he dropped the price to 50 bucks and him take them off. This is for the nose, door, rocker panel on both sides and both quarter panel and rear gfx. the nose has one crack but I think it can be fixed. I also got the whole dash pad for 10 bucks, already brought that bad boy home and it is in perfect condition

 

not to say that you dont know what your talking about, but i would stay away from aerosol can primers. get a 2-part epoxy primer, a true primer.

 

Thats exactly what was used. This was the "flex" agent part of it in a can.

It sprayed on clear and was tacky like glue almost. Then a 2 part epoxy high build primer was sprayed in 3 coats. Blocked, and base/clear sprayed.

It turned out excellent.

 

anyone have any tips on removing firebird ground effects?

 

Or how to remove front fenders and side ground effects on 85-90 Trans Am's?

 

before you remove fenders, side ground fx will need to be removed.

-start by removing all the small bolts/screws on the top and underside of the rocker panel/gfx (ground effects). the black side air deflector will also come off.
-next, remove the front wheel on the side youre working on.
-next, take off all the clips and screws that hold on the plastic wheel well cover. (there are clips going along the inner fender well and a few misc. screws in the wheel well).
-after this is removed, you can reach behind the fender with a wrench or socket wrench to remove 2 nuts behind the place where the gfx goes onto the fender. this will release the front of gfx.
-to release the rear of gfx im guessing you can remove the interior trim next to the rear seat to access a single nut of the same kind. also remove this. after this, the gfx should come off. (how i did it, was i removed the front, and i slid the back up out of the bracket, but my gfx tore and i had to repair it. id recommend looking for the nut behind the interior trim)



now, the fender.

-after you have the gfx off, you can start by removing the hood of the car.
-remove all of the bolts on top of the fender
-if you look near the pinch weld (under the car, around beneath where the door hinges are) there are 2 bolts attatching brackets on the fender to the pinch weld on the body of the car; (the place where the rocker panel and the floor panels come together, under the doors.) remove these 2 bolts.
- you will need to remove the front spoiler/air dam
-next, you will need to reach behind the inside front of the fender, and remove three more ground fx nuts from behind the front fender gfx.
- also remove all screws/bolts on the bottom side of this front fender gfx.
- remove this front fender gfx peice.
-you will now be able to see a larger bracket going from the fender to the framerail under the front of the fender. either remove all three attatching bolts from this bracket, or if you dont need to, you can just unbolt the bracket from the framerail and remove the fender with the bracket attatched.
-remove the clips securing the small rectangle light near the front of the fender, and remove the light from the back of fender.
- last thing, you will need to really squeeze for these, attatching the very front of the fender to the front bumper cover, ther are 2 nuts and 1 or 2 bolts you will need to remove.
-after ALL mounting hardware is removed, you will be able to slide the fender back a little bit to get it off of the fromt bumper, then lift the fender off.



hope this helps! hope i didnt forget anything either. if you have any questions at all feel free to ask! this operation was more work then i thought it was going to be at first, but ya gotta do what you gotta do.

 

need to know how to remover the rocker GFX on a 90 rs, i've got all the screws along the bottom of the door off all the screws on the bottom are off, seems there is one bolt inside the panel holding it on, which i can't get to because of some sheet metal in the way

 

I just took off my 85' camaro side ground effects, pretty easy just remove screws on top and nuts on bottom and pry off the emblem and unscrew the two screws and open the door and slide off the back of it. Hope this helps

 

If ypu use a electric power sander you will leave high and low spots all over the car, you will need to block sand the snot out of it to get it straight. Once you finish and get ready to prime you will need a good build primmer (not in a can) you will need to block sand by hand with a nice straight level block. Use a large block for the doors and hood, speckle the car so you can see the lows and highs, good luck

 

Great explanation. Thank you. Now I know what to do when I remove my GFX.