Wondering if the Factory Spoiler can be repaired? The Firebird, Formula, Trans Am, GTA 85-90 Wrap Around Rear Spoiler that commonly rusts at mounting points.

I don't understand exactly where the metal is located in the spoiler and what part rusts. Seems like you could weld in new metal, then recover with a polyurethane sheet and then perform traditional urethane bumper repair. You could re-cover the new metal with something like thin urethane sheet:

 

Really can't be repaired. Metal inside there just rots and everything collapses when you remove it. Mine didn't even look bad other than a lil warping until I removed it, then it went south immediately. Sucks these things are like $700 to your door but really that's our only option.

 

Where is all the metal located in these? Is it only at the bottom or is it in every part of the entire spoiler?

 

Heres a pic of mine that was in decent shape before I pulled it. I too had planned on fixing it but..It rots all the way through man. That metal is in more places than the mounting points unfortunately. Good thing about the replacement is that its only a fraction of the weight also, so much lighter.

 

I have taken a look at mine and did a little research on this forum and it’s apparent that all problems start with water entering the metal frame of the spoiler and rusting. The resulting expansion is what damages the spoiler.

So if you have a spoiler that is in fairly good shape it is vital that you rust proof it ASAP. This would probably include removing it and addressing all the points that connect to the body. Probably using a liquid rust converter like Ospho and applying it down into the spoiler openings. Then sealing it as water tight as possible and using corrosion resistant hardware.

Of course, you take a risk when going to try to remove the spoiler. Proceed gently.

 

Along the same lines, any repair is going to have to deal with the metal frame rusting issue or it will eventually suffer the same fate.

 

The more I look at this the more its apparent that this is a tough nut to crack. I guess the first question is what level of repair is going to be necessary to fix the spoiler and the second, why are we not electing to just buy a fiberglass replacement?

It’s probably easier to address the second question first considering we all are in love with 30-year-old cars and the headache we put ourselves through to keep them original.

When it comes to repair, certainly we could just create a fiberglass gelcoat mold of our existing spoiler with any imperfections removed and create one ourselves. And while this may be satisfying on some level we might as well just purchase a replica.

So assuming that our spoiler is not so far gone is there a way we can make it look original and prevent the inevitable warping?

Still working on that question.

 

Guys, I wish you all the best. But this has been a pretty intractable problem on this forum for …, well doggone near as long as the forum has been around. The crux of the problem is that the metal fastening frame(s) are fabbed into the wing, during construction as the polyurethane is poured around it.Problem 1) Fabbing new metal frames to the exact dimension as the original. Problem 2) Getting them positioned, correctly, as the polyurethane is repaired. And last, but not least Problem 3) Repairing the polyurethane. Unlike the bumpers, where most repairs are of a surface/patch nature, this will require a casting/pour type repair. The upside of the replacement unit is that the mounting brackets are smaller, and totally external to the wing structure. I.E much easier to fab replacements at some point in the future. All in all, a much better design job than original GM. Big surprise there. Not to mention several pounds lighter.

LiquidBlue I remember a car like this from some years back in the Hou-Galv. area. One & the same??

 

Ya, lived off Hwy 3, Clear Lake City Blvd, Nasa 1, Egret Bay and a few other places, was in League City a lot, picking up the future wife. There was mine and an '89 that was down off Main St in League City closer to Egret Bay. Only 2 Maui's that I knew of. This was back in 92-96 time frame. Would have most likely been in the 92-94 time frame.

Oh, and now that I looked at your bio - I worked at IBM on station in 92-93 until they sold Fed Systems off Bay Area Blvd. Used to drive it thru JSC alot, still got the old JSC sticker that gets you waved thru - well used to.

 

There was a guy named Tom Wolf who was an attorney in the Pearland area, he owned an 89 Firebird Formula 350, medium blue, had that car from 1993 to 2009 when I last spoke to him. Interestingly enough I have a friend who owned an 89 Firebird Formula 350, medium blue as well that was in the Galveston area until about '98, then moved to west Houston when he got it. There was however an 89 mauie blue car on this site that came up for sale in Minnesota, but was originally from the Houston area. Cool to think it could have been anyone of those cars.

 

I wonder if Tom's car had a black interior and is the one I was thinking of that was in League City. It was for sale in 92 or so, I looked at it, it was an 89 T-tops Formy 350 with Lexan T-Tops, and was what made me want one when I saw it sitting there on main st, for sale. If I recall correctly, it had black interior. After I saw that car, I started hunting for one until I found my 90.

 

It was a black interior car with the factory CD player. He purchased it around 1993. I had a chance to buy Tom's Formula, but at the time, 2010, I had to move to San Antonio for work, just didn't pan out. I lost his number and tried to ask some of the guys he knew but no one ever seem to have his contact information. So, lost in time.

 

I try to keep my 86 TA as stock as possible, or atleast as stock with the modifications it had when my family purchased it as the second owners in 1991. That being said, I too am having the splitting issue and was debating switching to fiberglass. I opted to try and fix the original rubber one. I pulled it off, removed the rust, used “flex glue” to fill the crack, waited for it to harden for a week and then used JB weld plastic to cover it and keep out moisture. I’ll post one pic of the flex clue and I’ll post more tomorrow. My plan now is to sand down the JB weld and then spray a light layer of black “flex seal” over it and call it a day. Then I will use the same method to set a screw into the corners and bolt it down to the hatch. Gotta find the 6 plastic clips for the moulding cause those are broke and that should do it. It might still split in other places later but to me it’s worth it if I can save the original. Hope this helped! Btw, anyone got a link for the plastic clips? I have the part number.

 

Alright gents, I went through the whole process, found the clips on eBay for 25$ from Midwest muscle cars, learned a few things and got it out back together and back on. Pro tips:
don’t lose the metal brackets inside the spoiler that house the clips. Can’t get more and you need them. Use 3/8x1” bolts for the corners, perfect size with a washer and lock nut for the inside. When you put the adhesive around the bolts, put masking tape over the threads or you’ll regret it when you can’t get the nut on and you’re grinding out the hard epoxy. I used JB weld steel epoxy on the bolts which worked well. Flex seal is the bees knees. I also sanded any rusted areas and covered it with flex seal, and that should waterproof a lot of my troubled areas, it’s literally liquid rubber. I recommend buying the paint on because it was hard to be precise with the spray and it leaves an un smooth layer. Lastly, we learned that when reattaching the spoiler, it’s best to put the clips on the car first and then press the spoiler onto it versus putting them in the spoiler first. It’s hard to line it up the second way. Hope all this helps and here are some of the pictures! God speed gents!

Clips from Midwest muscle cars via eBay

Removed spoiler

Flex glue filling


Jb weld plastic

Jb weld steel with 3/8x1” bolt

Flex seal after dried

Flex seal after dried

Finished

 

well, holy cow! nice work. thanks for posting! can the flex seal be sanded smooth? I think there are some urethane based products out there for this sort of job, that may be good as the final step. been a long time since I looked into it. 3M I think.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/collisio...lastic-repair/

 

yeah probably, I just didn’t take the time cause it’s on the inside and I’m not showing it right now. I can always sand it later if I want to. Also dries black so you’d have to paint it to color if it’s a color spoiler. But yeah, I’m no expert so I just used what I could get at Walmart to make it look decent and stop disintegrating lol good luck guy!

 

Adding my question into this with regards to repair, i haven't taken mine off but there is definitely some indication of rusting. I much prefer the style of the pedestal style spoilers anyways my self. My searching has come up with differing opinions. i have a 1990 gta with the aero wing but the previous owner rockguarded the top of it black??? big yikes. anyways would switching over to that style work with my third brake light? or do i have to do a bunch of drilling and modifying? or should i just get a new deck lid? Im new to all of this. Thanks for any input.

 

Glad you were able to remedy your spoiler in this fashion. I fear that most factory spoilers are far too gone for this solution to work well enough due to how far the split open. The other key thing I hate about the factory spoiler is how damn heavy they are!. I needed new hatch struts and kept putting it off,replace the spoiler with fiberglass unit from hawks and jeez the hatch flies open now with little effort.