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ConvertiblesDiscussed here are problems and solutions to convertible specific questions, including difficult to find part numbers and other convertible tech help.
I made the purchase and before I installed it on my '02 SS, I test fit it on my '89 GTA. It fits pretty well except for a subtle mismatch of the contours around the tops of each rear side panel. I feel like with tweak of the front mounting bracket geometry this wind screen may be something I would consider on my '89 GTA.
My '89 GTA does have a light bar, which I believe may increase the back draft with the top down. As opposed to my '02 SS with the top down the back draft on the '89 GTA does seem more noticeable.
I've put a picture here of the fitment on my '89 GTA. I've also reached out to the vendor to see if they would be interested enough to rework the front brackets.
Let me know what you all think.
Thanks!
Gerry- Front of the screen is lifted up a bit to align with my light bar. Extending the 'reach' of this bracket would make fitment a bit better.
John, it closes well. In this case I lowered the wind screen a bit (i.e. does not align with the light bar). In that position the front brackets are still a tad short, i.e. I have to pull the top of the rear panel over a bit to engage the mounts. ( edit: If I did not have the light bar... I think this is an okay fit as provided by the vendor. Longer mounts would be a plus though. )
I am going to put this on my '89 today and take it for a spin. Its on the 02 SS at the moment, but its a QUICK swap.
Looks a little off with the light bar (as it doesn't follow the contour) but seems to fit otherwise. I contacted them a bout making one specifically for the third gen and they wouldn't even entertain it. I asked if it would be a minimum number order but was blown off like they couldn't be bothered.
I might order a 4th gen and test it out.
Thanks for posting
Last edited by jimmylev; Oct 7, 2021 at 12:39 PM.
Reason: spelling
From: Doghouse ······································ Car: 1989 Formula 350 Vert Engine: 350 L98 Transmission: 700R4 Axle/Gears: B&W 3.27
Car: 87 Formula T-Top, 87 Formula HT
Engine: 5.1L TPI, 5.0L TPI
Transmission: 700R4, M5
Axle/Gears: Sag 3.73, B&W 3.45
Re: Wind Screen - Third Gen Convertible
What would be really a nice touch is if you could attach it to the Tonneau cover, and it would open with the Tonneau. Granted that is on Torsion Springs and it would screw with the weight...
The light bar does impact fitment and perhaps to some degree looks. Functionality is what I am looking for, i.e. how well does it reduce the back draft while cruising with the top down. If it offers significant reduction I'll be looking for a way to mount it a bit better on my GTA. Mounting this to the tonneau cover. could be an option John.. The way it mounts in my '02 is quite simple and allows for quick install and quicker removal.
From my perspective I believe the front and rear mounts being a bit longer on each side would allow it to simply sit down and rest on the side panels like it does on my '02. As they are I needed to pull the top of the rear side panels in quite a bit to get the brackets to rest on the top of those panels. Sort of a 'force fit' until I tighten the hold down straps. Not ideal. On my 4th gen the 4 brackets sit down exactly on the top of the side panels, i.e with no pulling over on the top of the panel. Much better I believe.
Some seat time with it in place on my '89 GTA will impact my decision. If it is effective at reducing back draft/flow that will add weight to making a decision. Add improved fitting brackets and I'd be in.
Jimmylev I emailed a write up with pictures to a staff member for the vendor. Perhaps that will sway them? They replied thanking me and said they are forwarding the pictures I sent to the 'owner'. Whatever feedback I get from that person I will certainly post back here.
Not an aerodynamics expert here but the 2 screens block separate air paths and seat of the pants says they work. The vendors website says this design reduces wind blast and noise by 75%. Well... driving my '89 GTA for a while last night I believe that is a good estimate. Much less breeze up the back of my head and much easier to hold a conversation because the air is now calm inside the car.. My wife and I could talk normally at 45 mph... and a bit faster. Not what we are used to in that car, my '02 Camaro SS has always been the better car for less wind etc with the top down. I believe the light bar on my '89 GTA accentuates the air disturbance felt inside the car... but its staying put.
I will wait for this vendor to get back to me. If they are a no go for some reason my intent is to buy a 2nd one of these anyway. Fabricating some modifications to the existing '4th gen' brackets should not be hard at all. They work pretty good on my 3rd gen just like they are. An exception is the larger of the two hooks that keep the straps tight, they fit okay on the '02 SS but the clearance at the same point on my '89 GTA is tighter as you hook in further toward the rear. An issue that could be resolved by pulling that panel off and perhaps doing some adjusting or put in a separate hook that stays in place.
You guys need to come up with another name for this thing - I saw “windscreen” and thought you were talking about the windshield until I saw the photos, lol.
And yes, if you want to stop the wind noise, put the top up.
From: Doghouse ······································ Car: 1989 Formula 350 Vert Engine: 350 L98 Transmission: 700R4 Axle/Gears: B&W 3.27
Car: 87 Formula T-Top, 87 Formula HT
Engine: 5.1L TPI, 5.0L TPI
Transmission: 700R4, M5
Axle/Gears: Sag 3.73, B&W 3.45
Re: Wind Screen - Third Gen Convertible
In the US and North America, most people use "Windshield" when referring to the front glass of a car
the term Windscreen is used in the UK, for the front Glass
Much like we call the front cover of a car the "Hood" in the UK they call it a "Bonnet"
Here are some other examples
US "Trunk" = UK "Boot"
US "Gas Tank" = UK "Petrol Tank"
US "Rocker Panel" = UK "Sill"
US "Tire" = UK "Tyre"
US "Fender" = UK "Wing"
US "Pillar" = UK "Post"
US "Windshield" = UK "Windscreen"
US "Truck" = UK "Lorry"
US "Sedan" = UK "Saloon"
US "License Plate" = UK "Number Plate"
US "Blinker" = UK "Indicator"
US "Station Wagon" = UK "Estate car"
US "Firewall" = UK "Bulkhead"
I had fun doing this but we get the idea...
Therefore in the US a "Windscreen" is a screen we put in the back seat to block the wind.
If they won't make a different bracket for third gen's, I think if you put some velcro strips like in this picture and than had a longer piece of velcro to connect to both of them would help keep it in place. This would allow you to use it on both cars.
Jimmylev I emailed a write up with pictures to a staff member for the vendor. Perhaps that will sway them? They replied thanking me and said they are forwarding the pictures I sent to the 'owner'. Whatever feedback I get from that person I will certainly post back here.
Gerry-
Don't hold your breath on hearing back. They basically hung up on me when I asked. From memory, I asked about it, they said they don't make on for our model. I asked if they would consider if there was a min. order and the lady said we don't make one and have no plans to, then hung up.
Now, if I recall correctly, there was a spot on the site where you could submit measurements and they would see if one they currently made would fit.
After moving this wind screen back and forth a few times between my '89 GTA and '02 Camaro... I have decided to purchase another one so they can both just stay put. For my '89 I just pull the top of the 'door' panel over and snug it down. On the '02 it just sits right down, no need to pull the top of the 'door' panel over. My original caveat that my light bar was the main reason this was not a better fit.. .looks to be valid to a point. With no light bar this most likely is a more acceptable fitment right out of the box. The contour of the horizontal screen is still not quite ideal (see my picture above) but that does not seem to impact the performance based on driving it in both a 3rd and 4th Gen. This still needs to be mounted back further on the 3rd Gen than on a 4th.... to allow the brackets to sit on the door panel top. But sitting down and back and snugged in with the straps... it does not move.
Bottom line for me is this screen works well to quiet things down. More normal conversation levels are possible and it keeps my navigator wife's tinnitus from flaring up. The vendor says 75% less wind and I have to admit it could be that much. Pretty much my 89 stays parked in the garage for cold or wet weather and I do not put the top up. Power top on the '02 makes it cake... just push the button!! You can leave this installed and both tops can go UP just fine. This is something I should have done years ago. I will post a couple more pictures of the final positioning.
Thanks for all the commentary! Hope this helps some to understand this product better despite the vendor saying '4th Gen' only. If anyone purchases this for their 3rd Gen and does not have the light bar, post back?
This sits back further because of the light bar, and in fact will likely have to sit almost this far back without the light bar... unless you make new brackets.
With the tonneau lid down, this is how it looks. I ended up having the vertical screen at an angle somewhat paralllel to the light bar. I also attached a small piece of flexible foam weather strip between the light bar and the screen to keep the two from making any noise on bumps or chassis flex's.
Can't be that hard to make one. It be easier to start from scratch, so you can bend/shape the bar to fit the 3rd gen, than waiting for that manufacturer to change this minds.
Can't be that hard to make one. It be easier to start from scratch, so you can bend/shape the bar to fit the 3rd gen, than waiting for that manufacturer to change this minds.
Yes, I think at this point that is a good option. This thing works well and an extended bracket would be straight forward to fabricate. Or... install it as is, just a little further back.
All, I heard back from the vendor yesterday (10/9) and they are opting out on 'tweaking' the brackets to specifically fit the 3rd Gen. I continue to believe this is not completely necessary, since I have it installed as is. Their '4th Gen' setup works fine for me on my '89 GTA, and I do plan to fabricate some sort of extension just because I want to. Ha. I ordered another one from them so I can just leave my 2 F-body setups installed. -Gerry
When my good friend Bruce Hawkins of Hawks Third Gen Parts first sent me a picture of this beautiful red GTA convertible I knew I was in trouble.... I had been looking at a red 90 IROC convertible, but the rarity of the GTA far surpasses that of the IROC convertible. Bruce didn't really want to part with the car, but he knew if he did I would take excellent care of it.... Thanks for trusting me with this beauty Bruce! ( Bruce negotiated a first right of refusal on the car if I ever decide to sell it... ). This car is one of only about 50 L98 GTA convertibles built in 1989. The 5.7 liter L98's were not put into the Camaro convertible, for reasons known only to Chevrolet. But Pontiac converted a small number of L98 GTAs in 1989, and I'm glad I found this one. The number of L98 convertible GTA's is sometimes thought to be 66, some documentation says 50, and there are a few people who say it could be as few as 33.
I'd like to thank Frankie over at the GTA SourcePage for doing so much hard work standing up and maintaining a great site where much of my technical and historical education has come from. I'd also like to acknowledge John over at 3rdGenForumla for all the info he has collected on convertibles at his site and shared.
Y84 -- GTA Option Package -- 8,470 - A number from Frankies's site. Of these 8,470 GTA's, 366 were 5.0's... the remaining 8,104 were all 5.7's..... of all 1989 Firebirds. A total of 396 Firebirds went to ASC to be converted to convertibles, and at least 66 were L98 GTAs.
This particular car was sold by Gay Hood Pontiac in Riverside CA in April of 1989. It was originally produced as an RPO CC1 T-top car, and then sent to American Specialty Company ( ASC ) to be converted to a convertible. Most all convertible f-bodies from GM were 'converted' by ASC, none were actually done at the Pontiac plant.
The car was delivered to ASC in early December of 1988, converted and shipped to Gay Hood in January of 1989. The sticker price was $21,797 when it left GM, but by the time it got to Gay Hood it was selling for $28,463. The original GMAC paperwork was all in the trunk when I purchased the car, along with all of the original sales information, warranty cards, convertible top information and more. I was able to get an accurate reproduction of the window sticker from the good folks at Pontiac Historic Services ( PHS. ) A fellow GTA 'Vert owner has a list of some 300 or so 1989 VIN sequence numbers given to him by ASC in 1992. Only the sequence numbers ( last 6 digits of the VIN ) were recorded by ASC. I have talked to him about approaching PHS to correlate these with the full VIN, to get a better count of how many 'Verts were L98's. But that task has been a long time in coming. I believe PHS can match up those numbers with full VINS for us, we'll just have to patiently figure out how to approach them about it.
Yes, that is my GTA. :-) That page has not been edited very much in a while. I need to update it with more recent production numbers that okfoz has taken a LOT of effort to put together. A sanity check of my statements on there about the IROC numbers would be MOST appreciated. I wrote the bulk of that in 2009... ugh.
Nice the site even existed back then, @gerrym Your site motivated me to look (and find) one of these elusive GTA Convertibles of my own. Thanks.
Thank you for letting me know that! It is very much appreciated. I got involved in F-bodies in 1998 or so, with a '92 RS Camaro. I was deep into modifying my '96 Impala at the time and sharing what I was doing with that. I was purchasing parts for the RS and Impala (LT1 / T56 items) from Hawks, and Bruce got me hooked on the GTA... When I purchased the GTA I decided to share info on what I was finding/modifying on it. There is a lot of info on my L98GTA site as well as my 13secss site for the Impala. Its been a heck of a ride.... I have made more friends because I purchased that Impala and the GTA than from any other part of my life. Its a great crowd! -Gerry
From: *member since 1999, I think - just can't remember my old name, and the big site crash...*
Car: 89 GTA ASC Conv., Prev: 89 GTA 6.3L
Engine: 5.7L L98 TPI
Transmission: 700r4 Automatic
Axle/Gears: 3.27:1 w/ JG1 Options:B2L, N10, U1A
Re: Wind Screen - Third Gen Convertible
Originally Posted by gerrym
Thank you for letting me know that! It is very much appreciated. I got involved in F-bodies in 1998 or so, with a RS Camaro. I was deep into modifying my '96 Impala at the time and sharing what I was doing with that. I was purchasing parts for the RS and Impala (LT1 / T56 items) from Hawks, and Bruce got me hooked on the GTA... When I purchased the GTA I decided to share info on what I was finding/modifying on it. There is a lot of info on my L98GTA site as well as my 13secss site for the Impala. Its been a heck of a ride.... I have made more friends because I purchased that Impala and the GTA than from any other part of my life. Its a great crowd! -Gerry
@gerrym Your site, plus the info from @okfoz was what pushed me over the edge when I decided to look hard for a convertible GTA. I had a 1989 5.7L T-Top GTA from 1991-2005 and loved it dearly. After a 12-year hiatus, I was back in the driver's seat. Here's my story, in case you are interested: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/conv...-asc-5-7l.html
Good luck with your quest on the air deflector. Cheers.
@gerrym Your site, plus the info from @okfoz was what pushed me over the edge when I decided to look hard for a convertible GTA. I had a 1989 5.7L T-Top GTA from 1991-2005 and loved it dearly. After a 12-year hiatus, I was back in the driver's seat. Here's my story, in case you are interested: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/conv...-asc-5-7l.html
Good luck with your quest on the air deflector. Cheers.
Thanks. I'm leaving the air deflector, wind screen.... installed on my GTA and bought a 2nd one for my '02 SS. The GTA pretty much never goes out anymore with the top up, and the SS mostly so. Weather is still warm here in Virginia and we are planning a 10 day trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway with the SS. This is top down time for sure.
Well I am bringing up this old thread as I just purchased one of these Love The Drive windscreens. The price tag is a little hard to swallow but after looking at the options out there which are slim to none for us third gen owners, I decided it was worth it. Thanks gerrym for this thread, it made me feel confident that this would fit and those brackets can be modified or redesigned even though it is for a 4th gen. I will be modifying those brackets so it will fit properly. I will take some good pics as I have a good idea what to do thanks to these pics. My wife loves the car but hates the wind blown hair she gets. Hopefully this will solve that issue so we can use the car more for longer drives.
Well I am bringing up this old thread as I just purchased one of these Love The Drive windscreens. The price tag is a little hard to swallow but after looking at the options out there which are slim to none for us third gen owners, I decided it was worth it. Thanks gerrym for this thread, it made me feel confident that this would fit and those brackets can be modified or redesigned even though it is for a 4th gen. I will be modifying those brackets so it will fit properly. I will take some good pics as I have a good idea what to do thanks to these pics. My wife loves the car but hates the wind blown hair she gets. Hopefully this will solve that issue so we can use the car more for longer drives.
The brackets that are supplied have some adjustment in them. My light bar was a unique impediment to the install but without one your setup will likely be a piece of cake.
THE outcome of installing this is that my wife and I can now easily hold a conversation because the swirling winds are mostly tamed by this screen. Another benefit is cruising with the top down in cooler weather feels a tad less cool in the cockpit. Hair ties and hats for my wife are not needed as much.
I have and I also have not installed it yet. I am modifying the brackets so that don't pull in on the side panels just as gerrym said they would. I like it, it is nicely finished and light weight.
I should be able to use the brackets that come with it. I want it to fit with the seat up so i adjusted the rear brackets all the way out but still had to vice bend them and change the angle to get a further reach as the side panels get further apart the closer you get to the front. I am working on the new hole layout for the front brackets as they look to be long enough as you need a good 3/4" or better extension. I will also move them closer to the front. You can see the different bracket mounting locations from the pick.
Hoping to finish it up tomorrow and I will post picks of the finished product.
I got the windscreen installed to my liking. It drops right on top of the side panels without pulling the side panels in. Slam the tanau cover and off you go! I was able to just redrill 2 new holes in the front brackets and that worked perfect. This thing does work as advertised. From 45 mph down it pretty much blocks 95%. I think my truck with the side windows down has more wind and is louder than the car now. Once you get above 45 mph you do start to get the wind but it is so much reduced from before. Even at 75mph cruising on the highway it is sooo much better. I rolled the windows up when doing this and wow, almost no wind at all, you can hear the wind whipping behind the screen but the cabin is quiet and only a small amount of wind gets blown in from the back. Money well spent! The wife was amazed on how well this worked and just as gerrym said she needed no hat or hair ties in town.
I am thinking of cutting the tie downs off, i don't like the way the look and are not needed on our 3rd gen as when the cover is down that thing is locked in.
Gerrym, did you cut yours off or just leave them, i think I read where you purchased one for your bird?
Love The Drive....Yeah I do even more now!!
It even looks really nice when in place, does not take away from the awesome look of our 3rd gen Camaro Vert!
Car is still at shop. Waiting on a part and decided while it's waiting I should get throw out bearing fixed.
It's too bad I haven't been able to drive it. We've had a week straight of great weather.
I finally picked the car up from the shop. And finally took the windscreen out of the package so now I see what Vinny did. I will see if I'm able to bend the brackets to make it fit. Garfield, what did you do here? Looks like you mounted to the tonneau. Can you provide any info?
Originally Posted by Garfilds
Hello everyone. I put a windshield from 4gen Z28 on my 3gen. Fits very well, it only took one hour to install. Works great and looks great.
. Problem solved. 
This car is one of only about 50 L98 GTA convertibles built in 1989. The 5.7 liter L98's were not put into the Camaro convertible, for reasons known only to Chevrolet. But Pontiac converted a small number of L98 GTAs in 1989, and I'm glad I found this one. The number of L98 convertible GTA's is sometimes thought to be 66, some documentation says 50, and there are a few people who say it could be as few as 33. 
