I have a 1987 Formula and I'm getting a lot of body work done to the car. My question is how would i go about installing trans am ground effects? would i need to replace the passengers side fender as well to make it match? and my hood is in awesome condition would i need to replace the hood to make it all fit the appearance?

 

You'll need to replace the front and rear bumpers since the GFX are molded to them. The pieces that go down the sides of the car are mounted to metal brackets that are riveted to the car. Honestly, it's a MAJOR PITA to correctly put GFX on a non GFX car.

Oh, and your hood with the hump in it will really make the car look like crap when you put the GFX on so you really should just send it to me.

 

lol nice one. but i do agree... the plain hood or gta hood would look good.

 

thanks for your response. And ya i was thinking the formula hood would look weird with the whole look of the trans am. but heck if you have a trans am hood or a gta hood i would swap but i am not convinced i want to do the whole transform into a trans am look but it would be unique.

 

You do not need to replace any panels to install the gfx, though you would need to replace the bumper cores as already stated. White Knight did a 91-92 GFX conversion on an 88 Formula, and, IMO, it looked good, especially with the Corvette wheels. You will need to drill holes in the bottom of the fenders, doors and quarters to install the effects kit. You would need a donor car to use as a template to mark the holes, at least that's how I would do it to make sure it was right. The GFX are not rivited to the car, at least not on the ones I have torn down. The door GFX have studs in them that go through holes in the door and are fastened with a funky split acorn type nut...very odd, never seen one like those before, but any self-threading nut correct for the stud diameter would work. The front, rear and rocker GFX have a metal bar with studs that slips into the back of them and then the studs are fastened through the sheetmetal with normal speed nuts. The part everyone forgets about is the rockers also have an additional support bar spot-welded and bolted to the rocker panel that that takes 4 screws from the top side of the rocker effect. Additionally, the rocker is also screwed to the lower rocker pinch weld seam with 5 or 6 standard 7mm head self-tapping screws. The only way to do this properly would be to find or have someone part out a Trans Am or GTA and give you all the necessary pieces and allow you to make templates from the body panels to drill your holes. Its sounds way bigger than it is, but that is all the stuff you need to make it work. And I can take or leave the hood thing...I like my RA I, and I'll like it better when its on the car. Good luck!

 

I did this conversion and its something that you should have some level of understanding before you start taking a drill to your 3rd gen...Also, I chose to do the bulge hood also....remember these were the original 3rd hen hoods for trans am before the formula took the look of the bulge hood. In any case. I took different favorite parts from each of the years to make my own unique car....its all up to you...