i wanted to take my 1984 trans am tail lights apart for a custom project so i searched here on how to do it. i did find some information, but none were super clear to me and none had very many pictures. here's my write up (with pics) on how i did this.
luckily i had a spare tail light set from an '83 bird to mess with so if i screwed up - no big deal. these '82-'84 light assemblies are made up of two pieces held together with two metal clips (on the bottom), two plastic rivets (on the top) and some strong glue around the whole perimeter. first you just gently pry off the metal clips on the bottom.





next i used a heat gun on low setting for the plastic rivets on top of the housing. the heat gun i got at harbor freight for maybe $15. everything i read online said these rivets will most likely break.



i slowly worked the rivet out using a small pry tool i have. sidenote: i inherited this tool from my grandfather and it comes in handy a lot. the rivet top deformed a little, but i got it out in one piece.





next i used the heat gun around the perimeter of the assembly. using a pick and a small screwdriver, i scraped as much of the glue out of the channel as i could while the glue was warm. i heated up maybe 4" of glue at a time. this glue is super strong when cold. eventually the lens just started prying apart from the base. go slow and be careful! with the louvered lens off, the reverse and tail light lenses are exposed. each one has a small screw holding it in place. the front of these lenses are smooth and the backside has texture. you have to remove the reverse lens first as it sits on a lip of the red lens.
when you reassemble the pieces make sure you install the red lens before the reverse lens.









once the lenses are removed, you can see the chrome light reflectors in the base of the assembly.



now you're free to clean, modify, etc... putting them back together should be pretty easy. for the glue, i will probably use 3M weatherstripping adhesive or black RTV. with clips, rivets and glue there should be little chance of the assembly opening up on you. i hope this helps someone.

 

THANKS!!! Im about to do this to my set.

 

Nice thread, do you need new rivets??I have a box of them.

 

Sure! Are they the same black style as the factory ones? I'll take 4 if you got them. Let me know how much. Thanks.

 

GM P/N 16500308,

 

To clarify, I think this only works with the Smoked TA lights, not the regular NON-Smoked Firebird lights... there is no second cover under the main lens...

Rafael

 

I never seen a Stock GM Smoked Tail Light.

 

82 to 84, the TA's had smoked tail lights, the Firebirds were not smoked... kinda hard to tell the difference with flash and stuff, but you can find pics to confirm... I had a spare firebird set and began taking them apart only to find they did not have the secondary lens... my KR buddy told me only the smoked TA lights have em...

 

Also 87-90 GTA tail lights are smoked. The outer lens is has a slight tint to it compared to regular Trans Am tail lights of the same year.

 

learn something new every day. i thought all of the 82-84 louvered tail lights were smoked. i just did a Google image search and you see the difference in the non-smoked lenses.



i revised the thread title to reflect this new information. looks like i posted instructions on how to take apart smoked Trans Am lights.

 

I think you guys are talking about the Grid style(T93) that's on the TA's???I think your confusing the Smoke with the Grid.

 

Nope. Pontiac has been doing the smoked tail lights since the 80-81 Trans Ams. They were darker than firebird tail lights. That was continued till 84. As you know in 85 they came out with the grid tail lights. In 87 they added a smoked lens on grid tail lights for GTAs. It's only slightly smoked. Less than the earlier ones.

 

Pontiac doesn't list them as 2 different parts (smoked,non smoked)their all the same(T93).I think the ones that are Smoked,the owners had them Smoked on their own.

 

 

i've owned / parted multiple '84 Trans Ams and they all had the lights like the pictures i posted. these lights definitely have a darker tint to them from the factory. were T93 tail lights a Trans Am RPO only? maybe there's another RPO for the non-smoked tail lights like the ones a couple posts up that clearly look more red.

 

Also on the standard Firebird set you can see how the reverse section stops 1 groove before the bottom reflector. The T/A smoked one goes all the way meeting the reflector. Also the standard has 6 horizontal red sections. The smoked version only has 5, the very top one is blacked out.

 

All 82-84 trans AM's came with smoked tail lights
firebird had non smokes lights

 

This is how they come from the factory
http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/ta...-90-tail-lamp/
This is how they are smoked,the factory doesn't do this.
http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/ta...l-lights-pair/

 

Right, but that's different from 82-84 style........which came smoked/tinted from the factory.

 

I have owned both a 1983 firebird and a 1983 Trans am , all 82-84 base firebirds came with the non-smoked taillights(red) only the firebird s/e came with the smoked taillights, as it was the precursor to the formula in 87.
all 82-84 trans ams came with smoked taillights(gray).
http://www.firebirdcentral.com/1982_.../lig-2060e.htm


here is an example of original TA taillights, and I also still have my 83 Trans am tail lights from my car when I parted it out in the 90's.

 

I can verify, I had an '82 S/E, same tinted lights at the Trans Am as mentioned. Base models got a non-tinted tail light.

 

I'm not saying the 82-84 tail lights aren't Tinted,I'm saying the 85-90 TA's didn't have two different style tail lights,Smoked and non smoked,they are all the same and only have one P/N.

 

Thanks for that info, man!
Now I can finally remove my abused Peugeot fasteners.

 

Would you be willing to sell 8 of those plastic rivets. For Spares also.
Getting ready to do Refurbishment on my 84 Trans Am
Thanks
Mike