You can do this in your kitchen oven if you're careful. Nothing smoked, smelled at all, or discolored, and the adhesive tape feels like it will still stick.

I just did this in my shop oven to flatten an 87 GTA taillight bird for an 83 black/gold T/A, but I didn't know what kind of plastic it was made of or what temperature to use, so yours should turn out even better than mine.

The magic temperature is about 225F.

1. Preheat the oven with a cookie sheet on the middle rack. Your wife might appreciate it if you put foil or paper on the cookie sheet, but it's probably fine either way.
   • If you need to make a very specific shape, put something smooth and heavy that's the right shape in the oven with it. If I did it again, I'd have a smooth pyrex dish in the oven with it to press it against.
2. Put your part FACE UP on the cookie sheet after the oven is preheated. The backside and adhesive tape won't be affected much unless you overheat it significantly.
3. Bake the part for 10 minutes
4. Try to bend it (wear gloves). You get less than 30 seconds to bend it before you need to reheat it.

When the part is at the right temperature, it won't be mushy or saggy, but you can bend it easily. If you are bending hard enough you feel like you might break it, it's not hot enough. If your part has cooked 20 minutes and it still won't bend for you, increase the temperature 5 degrees or the next smallest amount your oven allows every 10 minutes, and quickly retry bending every 5 minutes. You'll know when it's right.

Don't increase the temperature any more from the point it becomes bendable, just put it back in as needed.

Don't do exactly what I did in the pictures below. It did work, but I came very close to ruining it. I had no idea what temperature was needed, so I left the part between two iron plates, let them stabilize at 180, then increased the temperature 20 degrees every 10 minutes. My plates reached 238 according to the IR gun, and that was a little too hot because it warped a little to the surface of the plate. It didn't get hot enough to actually stick, but now I have to polish a small spot on one of the wings that has a ripple the shape of my weight.



Curvature before I started



Flat after bending.


There's some warping where the right wing got too hot and conformed to the surface of the weights. It's minor and will polish out fine.


My mistake polished right out. The gap is about the same with the later model bird as the original, only the tail notch is even slightly different. I still need to paint the PONTIAC to match.