I am the proud owner of an 88 Trans Am GTA that I bought new off the dealers floor in May 1988. It needs a little bit of bodywork here and there, just filling a few scratches. However, the spoiler (whale tail) has had the paint chip off of it in large portions. Because it was unsightly, I took the whole spoiler off. The car looks naked without it.

i’m not sure how to go about removing the rest of the paint, so that I can either repaint it, or gelcoat it. I would be a little bit leery of using chemical strippers. Sandblasting is a thought; I also wonder if anybody had any experience with a heat gun. Any assistance you could provide to me would be greatly appreciated. Best regards, Mark

 

Does it have cracks in the corners?

 

Its made of rubber and inner is bare metal... best would be to get a fiberglass replacement and change it before it rots / deforms like they all eventually do.


Mine is starting to rot :/

 

It is worse than cracks .There are large chunks of paint missing. I have already looked into getting a fiberglass one. I’ll probably consider it more in depth if I have an extra 800 bucks lying around. The car is original, except for the tires and the wipers. I would like to keep it that way if possible. Hence, trying to figure out how to get the paint off of the spoiler so I can repaint/gelcoat it.
many thanks for the help.

 

The cracks are actually a worse problem then the paint coming off. The inner structure is rusting which caused the cracks and repairing it will be futile as the cracks will come back. The fiberglass replacement is the best alternative. I have one on my car and it looks good.

 

I think they mean cracks in the rubber itself, not paint... like at the base where it mounts and into the spoiler where it always cracks... usually on the inside part.......best bet would be to the thing blasted like they do with other rubber / urethane parts... I think they use crushed walnut shells for rubber parts?

However, if the paint is that bad, It makes me wonder if the internal metal structure is bad as well... ... the internal frame was made from bare metal because GM.... I THINK if you look from the bottom though you can see if the metal is bubbling and rusting.


Sooo economically id guess you're correct... Im guessing $800 for a new repro including shipping / paint / install.

You'll probably be paying I estimate $500 to have the old one redone so price is kinda close......... So id check to see if its actually worth saving first. Once that metal goes bad and the rubber starts to crack, it will not stop...you don;t want to redo it and have it last only a couple years. I've been able to slow mine from deteriorating for almost 14 years though!

if its worth fixing, if you can see the bare metal, Id apply some kind of rust paint on the metal structure (I heard you can see it from the bottom)


The original sucks because it falls apart, BUT it attaches better to the hatch / hatch glass brackets than the repros .

 

Many thanks to everyone for your input. I’m going to monkey around with it a little bit more this weekend and see if I can figure out what to do with it. I will check back for any additional advice. Thanks again.

 

you must have had it in a pretty dry environment to make it this far without looking bad. mine looks terrible and sat in a garage most all of its life. as everyone said, its a soft urethane material with an uncoated steel structure inside that rusts and swells up causing all the exterior damage/cracks/etc. if you fixed the original one and made it look good, it will crack again in another year or 2. i am in the same boat and having to buy a fiberglass one as well.

 

Just my $.02, I had my GTA repainted back in 2004. The body man would not warranty the work done on the spoiler. The car sat inside for a month after, and sure enough, the cracks and peeling had begun. A fiberglass piece is next on the list for me. Better to fix it once than to see your hard earned money buying something that puts you back at square one eventually.