Today while walking down to the Camaro I was pulling parts from, I happened to look up to notice a Trans Am in the line that hadn't been there before. It caught me off guard cause I was at the yard Thursday, and Saturday and the car hadnt been there. Being a new arrival I checked it over. In general it was pretty trashed, nothing worth saving except maybe the taillights and some interior pieces. Anyway back to my question, the car has the GTA style door panels with the armrests molded into the door. Since my interests have been 82-92 Camaro's, and 91 Firebirds this leaves me a little lost. I know the door panels came out in the Firebirds in 87 with the GTA, and that they could be ordered on the Trans Am in some years, and I'm gonna guess that they went out in 90 when the Firebirds got the cupholders.

Can anyone verify any of this or correct any misconceptions?
They really got me wondering because the cars basically a stripper, manual windows, manual mirrors, L03, etc etc etc. With no real options why did it have the upper end door panels?

 

Drew, those "GTA" door panels were used on just about all models of Firebirds during the 1987-1989 years. I've personally seen them on GTAs, Trans Ams, and Formula models.

But I do not know if they were a part of the deluxe interior option on other 'Birds, or whether or not the production line just used what was available at the moment as the cars came down the assembly line.

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Frankie Rider, 2
The GTA Source Page
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'88 GTA Red Hatchback - 5.7L/A4
'88 GTA Black Notchback - 5.7L/A4
'88 GTA Gunmetal Hatchback - 5.0L/A4

 

Its funny, of the 3 salvage yards I've been checking regularly over the past several years, this is the first time I've seen a set of these in the salvage yard. The only other place I've seen them have been in GTA's. Does anyone know if there's any reference to these pieces in the Dealership sales brochures for those years?

 

It's interresting that they were used on TAs and Formulas. They must have been part of an option package. I just recently pulled some parts of of an 89 Formula that had the normal style door panels. I can't recall ever having seen the GTA door panels in anything except a GTA or a 90+ firebird. I would guess that it's a fairly rare option.

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The IROC Homepage
<A HREF="http://www.rit.edu/~jli4307/camaro" TARGET=_blank>
View the restoration of an 85 IROC</A>
Custom Thirdgen Subwoofer Enclosures
"I didn't know a bored out Ford could go so slow" -Shenandoah

 

Can anyone confirm that they weren't available 90-92? I'm assuming there were two types of door panels on Firebirds from 90-92, the cloth variety and the leather variety, leather of course only on cars with leather seats. Is that correct?

 

The door panels your referring too were in these cars :

- all 87 GTA's . Trans Am's for this year had the same panels as the firebird .

- all 88-89 std. Trans Ams . 88-89 was the only years the std TA's had these panels . These are also the only years the TA's(only) had the 4th gen type cloth , by that I mean the cloth looks like courdory .

- all 88-89 GTA's

If these panels are in a formula or a firebird or 1990 or newer car they were put there by someone else and arent factory . The 90 cars had the same panels as the 91-92's did with the cup holders .

Hope this helps

Derek

 

The other fabric type would be Metrix, opposed to Pallex.

 

My 87 Trans Am has grey molded in arm rests on buldged door panels. They are original.

I have seen at least 3 other red and silver 87 T/A's just like mine....red with silver ground effects with a grey interior, aero wing and the style wheels commonly referred to as "GTA" wheels.
My car is NOT a GTA...thank *** .
I think the two tone T/A cars are SOOOO much prettier than the monochromatic GTA cars. And I like the fender scoops that the T/A's have that most of the GTA's do not.

The molded in door panels can be put on any thrid gen F body, but the silver arm rest attaching door mount is different from the flat door panel style. All you need to do is drill out the attaching rivets to remove the molded in arm rest mount on the steel inside door frame and then reattach it to your doors in the same position you removed it from on the donor car.
History on T/A door panels class....dimissed!
"TEACH"

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My friend just sold his 87 firebird and it had the deluxe interior with the molded arm rests.This was factory, he bought the car when it was 3 years old, odds are that they would not have been swapped out that early in the cars life.

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1990 Iroc convertible,305 tpi,Black with black leather interior,lowered,Taylor 8mm wires,K&N's,gutted airbox

 

Quick correction, GTA's never had the fender air extractors. Trans Am had the extractors from 82-90, although the design changed slightly somewhere in the middle. All Trans Ams had solid fenders in 91-92 same as all the other Firebirds in those years.

 

GTA's rule they are the cream of the 3rd gen
f bodys

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87 gta 5.7ltr
edelbrock headers
gutted cat
flowmaster 3in drivers exit
8.8mm wires/accel
accel 300+digital ignition system
msd pro billet distributer
hypertech stage 2 racing chip
slp cold air intake
maf has no screens
52mm bbk throttle body
extruded plenum, runners, intake all matched
high flow fuel pump
afpr @ 50 psi
ALL MODS DONE BY ME FOR ME
waiting on hotchkis rear susp package
and sfc before i run hard at track

 

My '90 GTA has the flat door panels with the cup holders... same as all the 90-92... Mine are leather because the car does.

I put in '88 GTA door panels into the '89 Formula earlier this year... I've never personally seen any Formula's, TA's or base 'birds with GTA panels unless somebody put them in (like me).

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'89 Formula - Thunderchicken - 355 Vette L98/T-56/3.70 9-bolt/black/t-tops - the fun car!
'90 GTA - The GTA - 5.0 LB9/TH700/3.27 9-bolt/black/t-tops/tan leather - the cruiser.

 

I didn't mention the deletion of the fender scoops on all GTA's, because an acquaintance told me that some of the early production 87 GTA's WERE BUILT WITH the fender scoops. This was based on his acquisition of an early production, red, 87 GTA that does have the fender scoops on both fenders. By the way the clear was peeling off the car, I concluded that the paint was probably original, hence the fenders were original too. Though with out tearing the car apart and looking for panel replacement identifiers, there is no positive way of knowing if the fenders were original or replaced.
Because their is seldom absolutes in the production of a particular make and model of a car, since the factory uses parts whereever and whenever they have a need to fill and because of Central Office Production Orders and special ordering methods anything is possible.
In reality my friend's car may not be original, but the early production theory works for me. It'easy to understand that the factory may have deleted the use of the fender scoops after the production run was started to better the distinguish the car from the richer looking T/A's. By doing this viewers wouldn't as easily confuse a monochromatic GTA as a cheap solid colored T/A, but correctly identify the car as a more expensive model.
Anyone know if they ever made two tone GTA's?
TEACH

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If the GTA had ever been released with fender vents, the topic would have been covered here or at the GTA source page. GM typically releases promotional pictures of new models before release, when something changed midyear or early year the promotional pictures will show the earlier style. I'd say its extremely unlikely that any GTA's had the vents from the factory. Cars that are damaged in shipping could have been repaired by a dealership with whatever parts were on hand, but I doubt any other manner in which a new GTA could be sold with vented fenders.