My 1992 Trans Am GTA has gold anodized grille inserts. Other members and Frankie pointed out that they have never seen this before but I KNOW it is factory because I have ALL paperwork for everything that has been done to my car PLUS I can almost swear that I've seen it before on other GTA's.

Here is a picture of my hood:




Now, I want ALL GTA owners to post what year their GTA is, if it is US, Canadian, or Euro, and tell me whether your GTA has this like mine does? I'd like to find out the story behind this....

Thanks!

Alex

 

I have never seen anything other than black from factory. Many cars I see now have the grille the same color as the rest of the car but this tends to be sloppy painting practices. ....edit....my 89 Gunmetal GTA has the gold grilles. My white one ofcouse has been painted and they are now white. I have no idea what color they used to be tho.

 

Yes, they are metal which I also know for a fact 1991 GTA's too had metal because a 1991 GTA I owned had metal but the grill had been painted sloppy so they matched the rest for car at that point so I can't tell if they has been gold.....

 

Would GM have a specific part number for these grilles that would give an option for different color grilles? It would be really neat to see they were a factory option. I know some of the early 85 and 86 T/A's had the grille color to match the dominant color of the car.(red plastic grille to match red paint color)

 

I'd assume that they would have to, I'll ask my local dealership tomorrow. That would be kind of cool. What I'm trying to figure out though is what year it started because if must have been standard once they started it because there is no option so to speak for it....

 

I don't have a GTA, but my '92 Vert, bone stock, has gold inserts as well.

 

Yes I guess it would since you have the gold GTA wheels, cool! Now it gets interesting.....

 

Mine are red anodized from the factory on my 91 T/A. I bet the mesh grills are anodized aluminum, cause my grills are NOT painted they look like they're anodized.....

 

Of course this is frustrating for me, because when I had my Black '87 T/A painted 6 years ago, I had those inserts painted the same color as my GFX to be "unique". Now I'm finding out that cars came from the factory like that...

 

My 89 Trans Ams are black because of a dealer repaint, but you can tell if you push the louver up they were silver metal origionally.

Jay

 

my 91 gta has the black plastic inserts...i have the gold lace wheels..thats weird alex this is gettin intresting

 

89GTA, white- Silver grille

86TA, black- Satin black grille
85TA, white- Satin black grille

This only applies to the 2 grilles up front. The 2 in the back are plastic on all the cars I've owned, and of course they are black.

 

They are gold on my red 90 Trans Am.

 

They are also gold on my '89 GTA.

I think the original GM (gold colored) anodized finish tends to oxidize over time revealing the silver color of the metal grill material underneath.

This might explain why some people have silver/gray ones while others have gold.

The anodized finish on mine is tarnished in some areas making it look dark gray/silver in some spots.

 

well the inserts on mine are non painted metal....and I have black crosslace wheels

 

Dont think mine are oxidized. Other side is the same color, and its all very even and pretty. Low mileage car.

 

On my 88 GTA, they were not gold.

 

My black '92 GTA with the gold wheels also has the gold inserts.

 

Well I started a post on GTAsourcePage.com about this too:

http://discussions.gmforums.com/show...threadid=28546

Here are the combined results so far:

ALL 92 GTA's so far have gold
ALL 87 GTA's black
88-91 GTA's and T/A's are apperantly random.

Looks like the gold first showed up in 1988 and by 1992 was standard. It's totally random all other years on both GTA's and T/A's. Even a couple owners have black wheels and still have gold sometimes. Wierd, interesting, but wierd...

 

All '87 GTA's had black?

I remember looking at a '87 GTA at the junkyard one time and it seemed to have the silver colored ones.

I also recall seeing another '87 GTA (with paddle mirrors) with silver colored vent inserts at a chevy dealer about ten years ago.

Does GM still still carry them any more?

 

Hi Alex!

My 92 GTA canadian export White car Gold vents Later sean....

 

Not ALL 87 GTA's had black grilles. Mine are silver, not painted, not oxidized. I had them out a month ago and they are the same color top & bottom. The screens in the upper vents were black plastic, but I took those out.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought GTA-SPD.

I think some people are confusing the rectangular shaped vents in the hood in back with the ones in front in Alex's photo.

The hood vents in back near the windshield/fender area always had black plastic grill inserts from '85 until '92.

However, I still wonder about the available colors on the front ones though.

The saga continues I guess. :lala:

 

Hmmm... my stock '92 T/A has gold inserts as well.....

 

Hey, I have a 91 GTA from US. It is a red car. The front grille inserts seem to be unpainted or painted a silverish color.

 

mine are silver

 

My 91 GTA has completely black inserts. It was a early 91 model built in September of 90.

 

Just thought I'd add to this
I have a 92 GTA with gold metal grills.
US

 

Add me to the gold grill inserts also.

 

Mine's a '92 and has gold inserts too.

They're tarnished so bad that I never noticed until about five minutes ago when I checked. Under the plastic there a specks of gold showing still.

Wow, another part to polish.