I have an 87 firebird and was thinking of removing those black bumper things on the front and replacing them with screens so that I can get some air to my engine. Has anyone done this or know why it would be a bad idea?

 

if I recall correctly, behind those black pieces in the nose, there is a honeycomb impact absorber, which is TECHNICALLY ILLEGAL to modify (even though KITT-builders do it all the time...)

So, if you remove those two black pieces, either the impact-absorber interferes with your airflow or you cut it down in that area, which is a VISIBLE illegal mod, unless you put a grill or foglights in there, which will make the hole less apparent... (TANGENT: Grills as camo's nothing new, some KITT-builders use 'em to hide their lack of added foglights, which were very prominent on that particular T/A mod...)

Of course, there's always what I call Rule Number Two: "Don't get caught...", right behind Rule Number One: "Never assume anything, or if you must assume, only assume the worst..."

Hope this helps. Later.

nedry OUT

(EDIT: I'm not saying this is a good idea. I'm simply pointing out one of the pitfalls in your theoretically-technically-sound-but-not-street-legal idea.)

 

Well i tore it up and fabbed a little system that i hope will work. What i did was cut a 25" long strip of that metal bumper out and put in an airbox that connected into the plate in front of the radiator. It'll get air from the black pieces that I removed and direct it into the radiator without too much interference from anything else. I left the honeycomb thing there because the air can pass through without any problems.