i have an 87 base model bird, im finding that it has the same nose as the formula until 91... i hate the bumpers i want the nose to look like a t/a without the chin spoiler, has anyone taken a ta nose and taken off the chin? i want to know if it is the same length as the fenders or not, thanks for your input

 

if you're referring to the 85-90 Trans Am front bumper cover, the chin spoiler is molded into the bumper cover so it can't be removed without cutting... and that won't look right. You can go with an 82-84 style nose or a 91 firebird nose (and headlight trim that goes with it) if you want a different non-gfx style front bumper.

 

the 82/84 is ugly too lol and i dont really like the 91/92, without the chin spoiler, the ta nose will be the right length then correct?? cause i could use FG to make it look nice maybe graph the bottom of mine on there, the other thing i was thinking of doing was FG the holes were the bumpers are to be flush it would just be ALOT of work

 

The 1985-1990 Trans Am nose will hang down too far on a Firebird. Without the side skirts and rear bumper to match its going to look like a snow plow. If you don't like the bumperettes on the 1985-1990 Firebird then you don't have many options. The 1991-1992 Firebird and Formula nose is different than the Trans Am version of it beyond the addition of the ground effects. There is no integrated chin spoiler on that one. The ground effects are only on the sides of it. The inserts look very different when compared to the Firebird. The Firebird has turn signals and no fog lights. They also have a rubber trim piece that goes next to the turn signals. Even if you do like the 1991-1992 Trans Am nose it still won't look right on a Firebird as the ground effects will have it hanging down too low.

So again if you don't like the bumperettes you have to decide which look you hate the least:

1982-1984 Firebird/Trans Am nose with louvered inserts.
1982-1984 Firebird/Trans Am nose with solid inserts. (1984 only)
1985-1990 Trans Am nose for that snow plow look.
1991-1992 Firebird/Formula nose
1991-1992 Trans Am nose. (Not sure what that would look like but I can't imagine it would look good.)
1985-1990 Firebird nose with bumperettes.

You can delete the bumperettes but unless you fill in the large holes behind them the car will look like ****.

 

yeah i think ill just take them out and paint the backround flat black, then put some corrugated stell there and paint IT flat black... itll just look like *** untill i feel like FG'n it

 

I'd just leave the bumperettes in place until you are ready to do something about the holes. That's just going to look way worse than the bumperettes do.

 

lol i dont even drive the car so its not like im worried about other ppl thinking my car looks ugly

 

Two things:

First: You should be careful about calling certain stock items ugly because you will invariably end up insulting cars owned by many members on this site. I have an 84 Trans Am and I could've gone with any nose I wanted but happen to like that style of bumper cover best.

Second: You need to learn more about what you can and can't do with fiberglass. It's a great product, but it isn't a miracle worker. You can't just add fiberglass to a urethane bumper cover or between urethane and a steel fender and expect it not to crack.

If you want to go the fiberglass route, I suggest starting with an aftermarket 85-90 T/A bumber that's already produced in fiberglass. You can then cut off the bottom and build the smaller bottom lip into it using additional fiberglass and an epoxy resin. I also suggest some kind of mechanical bond between the old and new fiberglass in the back of the bumper cover. If you're gonna do a project like that, I'd suggest picking up a book about it. I did and it was interesting reading.

 

nah no book my uncle owns a body shop he'll steer me in the right direction, thanks for the tips though, the front bumpers of those cars are ugly IMO in my opinion means how i feel. i respect how you feel and reserve the right to my own opinion, thanks i also think pintos are ugly and wood side station wagons and if someone is offended then they are worried too much about what other ppl think, thanks

 

I think you missed my point. Of course you can have your own opinion and I'm not trying to change your opinion... that would be pointless and I have no interest in that. And I wasn't offended by your comment, but it did make me think about whether or not I want to help you with your question. That's how society works. You don't have to be nice to people, but you get a lot further if you are. not a big deal, but if you said you didn't like it instead of saying it's ugly, i probably wouldn't have even brought it up.

 

Its unimportant. You know what they say about opinions? I just wonder why someone would buy a car when they don't like how the thing looks.

 

Well I can see modifying the looks of a car after you buy it. I sure did it with mine. Anyway yea I wouldn't have even posted about that if i weren't bored. However FlippindaBird, I saw your other thread about the bumper mod... the urethane insert is purely cosmetic so there's no safety issue removing that and doing whatever you want in that space. If you want a perforated metal, Mcmaster has a nice hexagon style here:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#perforated-metal/=7cg1q7
and here are other styles:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#perforated-metal/=7cg1nx
You can get a big enough sheet to do both sides.

But you also said that you removed your impact bar for weight reduction.... That bar is there to help absorb the impact of an accident so your head doesn't absorb it. The impact bar also provides several mounting points for the front bumper cover, so even if you don't care about your brain, maybe you care about your bumper cover warping. If you want to save weight, there are also stock aluminum impact bars out there that you can swap in its place and not make your car less safe in the process. The argument that your bird is mostly used at the track wouldn't help either. The faster you go and the more you race, the more important that bar is for your safety!

 

lol i like fbodys... my father bought the bird brand new... i just want it to be different... i understand what you mean and i apologize for saying ugly it was not the right term to use, i personally dont feel that those lines look good on the car i do however appreciate the fact that you like them and care for them and your car is probably very nice, again i do apologize for using the wrong terminology if its not painted brown then i think every Fbody looks good... i just want mine to be unique and unlike factory offerings and i just think that the bumperettes take away from the smoothness of the vehicle

 

lol @ safety! its weight, its gone, nuff said. i think i covered that in the first post of this thread thanks for your input though

 

I wish you'd reconsider how you look at it, but that's your decision.

 

dude the car runs 13s at best so im not scared, relax what are you 70 years old... the car barely gets driven, ill have a helmet, its getting roll bars eventually as well as sub frame connectors... its fine :2 thumbs up:

 

I'm 30, and an engineer in case you were wondering that too. How old are you, 17? Just think about the benefit and cost of removing that impact bar. You lose 40 lbs of weight, which equals about .04 seconds faster in the quarter mile. That's a very small benefit. Drag Radials would buy you A LOT more! the impact bar is there to deform in a collision and absorb a lot of the energy and distributing the energy to the rest of the front subframe in a way that the subframe absorbs as much of the energy as possible, making your head and internal organs decelerate more slowly.

Does the benefit really outweigh the cost? Especially considering you can still save half the weight and lose no level of safety by replacing it with an aluminum version instead? In my opinion, knowing all of this and still deciding that removing the impact bar is a good way to do some weight reduction is just being lazy, stubborn and foolish. Think about it some more and come up with better ways to reduce weight. Remove options you don't use, replace parts with aluminum wherever possible (impact bar, calipers, heads, intake manifold), or get a fiberglass hood. Those are all safe ways to reduce weight.

I also have to point out the irony of having a roll bar and no impact bar. Why would you do that? It's too slow to worry about an impact bar, but fast enough to need a roll bar. that makes lots of sense.

 

Well said.

 

There's a guy from my state that's on this site. He has a red Formula he painted the bumpers red to match his car. I think it looks hot! I would say go with the 91-92 bumper. You could add all the ground effects and the TA front/rear bumper but that would add weight which u probably don't want.

 

Too each their own. I think painting the bumperettes always looks like ****. The nose on my car was changed by one of the previous owners from the 1991-1992 nose to a nose from a 90 Firebird. He painted the bumperettes and I hate it. Fortunately I recently picked up a new nose with everything I need to turn it back to stock on the cheap.

I've just got to prep it and paint it but that's another story.

 

never said it was fast mr safe engineer im 32 it will have a roll bar because it will be doing some road racing some autocross and some drag racing and eventually im hoping it will run 11s... there are many ppl on this board who removed 40lbs of impact bar are you going to reprimand everyone??and if you can find me the aluminum one for a decent price then ill buy it have you ever even tried to do so??? why are you so concerned with my safety when i am not??? makes no sense 40lbs is 40lbs and add it to other little stuff and it adds up fast 40 is actually alot of weight to remove from a 3400lb vehicle, we dont see eye to eye i already stated that i did not want to hear "thats not safe" yet you still reply i guess you wanted me to know your an engineer... what did you go to purdue with drew brees????? have fun crashing into stuff and not getting hurt because of your super important bumper lmao just relax and worry about yourself, thanks

 

1984 is the ugliest T/A ever produced

 

just an FYI, the impact bar in the front and rear, also tie the frame section together. Without them, the car will flex a lot more. You mentioned auto-x? The car will really suck at it without something replaceing the impact bars.

I would like a couple screen names of people who have removed the impact bars and not replaced them with anything. Bet you cant get 1 other sane person.

Typically when people do remove it, they replace it with a fabricated impact bar made from round tubing. Its lighter, safer, and holds the car together like the factory one does.

As for the aluminum ones, i have one i picked up for around 75bux. weighs almost nothing.

 

theres actually a whole weight reduction thread with ppl who took off the bumpers and yes some of them probably did replace it with a bar, i never said i wouldnt do that. but as for paying 75$ for something that i may or may not find... i highly doubt it, since you are all so concerned for my safety how about you come pay my car insurance or buy me some good seats a good racing suit and a nice helmet maybe a fire extinguisher too how about some good tires and brakes?? im thinking you are just taking the time to berate someone who doesnt agree with you (pointless)... again, thanks for the advice ill take it into consideration when im driving recklessly

check this out
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/exte...ml#post4565088

 

you being pretty arrogant here

the car without the front bumper is unsafe for you and everybody else on the road. When you hit something, the car will probably split since there is not NOTHING absorbing the inpact, and the engine will end up implanted in your face. Then i have to pay you medical bills with my tax money for the rest of your life while you lay around eating through a straw in your neck.

For that matter, without it, the front of the car can move so much, its quite possible for you to simply loose control when turning and wreck.

put "something" there, either the stock bar with lightening holes drilled/cut in it, removes a lot of weight just need a sawzall and some hole saws, the aluminum one, if you can find one for a decent price, or make something.

Im not trying to belittle anybody here, im pointing out a serious lapse in judgment thats going to end up hurting/killing somebody

As for you want ad, looks like you have a hit already

Removing it and not replacing it with something is ****ing retarded, period, hands down, end of story.

 

As for the whole point of this thread,

i dont see why you couldnt use the 85-90 ta nose and cut the bottom off if you dont want the lower part, the trick would be grafting the underisde pieces back on to support the nose and tie it back to the bumper, which you will have to put back in. That way it wont just flap around in the breeze when you drive.

Fiberglass wont stick really well to the rubber/plastic nose, might be easier to cut the lower half vertical in a couple places, then try to heat and bend the lower part back and under the car, leaving something to attach the under pieces to.

Or, as its already been mentioned, you can get the nose already in fiberglass, and then just cut and re-build it whoever you see fit.

 

now that im looking at some pics, if you cut the bottom of a TA nose, you end up with the stock nose that you already have, minus the inserts? Not sure what else you can do

 

I was thinking about creating a mold of the 1985-1990 Firebird nose minus the bumperettes and creating provisions for fog lights not unlike the Trans Ams. Then I got a 1992 Formula and it became FAR less important to me.

 

yeah i feel that the 91-92 does look alot better then what i got, but supposedly there is more to change then just the bumper, not sure if thats true but someone did post that
the fberglass sounds like a great idea...
as for the arrogance, normally i wouldnt respond in such a way but when i clearly state in the begining of the thread that i dont want to hear about the bumper and then ppl continuously post about it, its pretty annoying so i was trying to be annoying too i did get a hit about the bumper so i will be getting an aluminum one shortly, again i BARELY DRIVE ON THE ROAD so that "danger" is moot, last year i drove the car 1 time in my developement and didnt get over 35mph this year ill probably drive it 2-3 times and maybe drag race 1x... next year when i get the suspension done ill be autocrossing, but again the car is not going to get driven but maybe 5-7 times next year and less then that on the street i have 3 cars and 2 trucks i drive the firebird when its beautiful and theres no one else home to ride with me the car now has no AC, no backseats and its loud as hell so its not exactly comfortable. im also trying not to put mileage on it because in 15 years i will give it to my son (with AC, bumpers, seats, carpet, headliner, center console and a new paint job) im just having some fun with it until then so again thanks for the advice

 

There is. The impact absorber changed, the turn signals changed, the headlights, and headlight bezels changed as well. The mounts for the headlights, motors, and the painted cover parts are the same but the actual head lamp changed. The bezels are shaped differently. I believe this is so they don't catch on the nose itself which comes up higher for a more flush look on the top part of the bumper cover where it meets the hood. I believe the bumper itself might even be different. One diagram I looked at on GMPartsdirect appeared to mount the fog lights/turn signals in the bumper directly, but I haven't pulled my 91 nose apart to look at it. The lower air dam is also different, but the earlier ones can be made to work with the newer style nose.

I'm in the process of converting mine back to the 1991-1992 nose and picked up the pieces this last weekend. I knew they had changed before that, but once I got all the parts I got to see the differences for myself.

 

very good info there thank you 87