Any have the PERFECTLY CORRECT dimensions of where the door decal belongs on 89 TTAs?

In other words, EXACTLY 6" from the rear edged of the door, and 2" above the molding strip" I just used those numbers at random, so I'm not implying they are near close.

I need to put some on a 89 TTA, but I want to be precise, not just go by pics of them.

 

I can't find it now that I want to ... Argghhh! But I once found and downloaded the original emblem placement instructions that dealers used to put them in the correct spot. I'll keep looking ... The source of the info is on the tip of my tongue, but I'm drawing blanks.

Mike M

 

Those would be cool to use. I was hoping for, at best, at least 2 diffeent TTA owners to respond with their cars dimensions. That way I could be more sure that I wasn't using the one as a reference, that turned out to be wrong. That would be my luck! LOL

OEM install instructions to use as a reference would be cool. I can follow directions.

 

I know the guy that decal'd all the cars in Indy for the race. I can give him a call and see what info he has stashed. I'm sure he has this info on file as he has kept so much stuff over the years.

 

Stephen,
I will measure the location of the original ones on my 5K mile festival car and get back to you. Of what I have herd is the decal locations were "eyeballed" on the festival cars.

- Dave

 

I'll take any and all measurements and records you guy can reference, then I'll average them together, if there isn't anything in print, saing they were supposed to be something certain.

I've never eyeballed any vinyl applications in all my years. I always went with something specific. If the customer just wanted it centered, it got measured, and double checked, before it was applied.

 

Maybe try turbotransam.com or turbobuick.com . Sorry I cant help ya,mine dosent have decals

 

I've looked at TTA specific sites, but I'm not going to register, just for one post.

 

Stephen,
On my Festival car my decals are 1 1/2 inch above the top of the door molding. The center of the decal (between the top and bottom row of letters) is 10 ¾ inch from the back door edge. These measurements are consistent on both doors.

- Dave

 

I don't quite understand your measurements...You say 10 3/4" from the center of the decal, top to bottom, yet go on to say to the back edge, left to right.

Here's a scanned pic from the dealership brochure of the TTA cars. If you could edit it, like in MS Paint or something, showing your measurement points and numbers, that would be great. And the first one I made with your measureents, but wasn't sure. Please clarify. Thanks!

 

Another thing you need to keep in mind ... There is no "exact" when it comes to these decals. They were dealer installed, owner installed, and oftentimes not installed at all, or much later. I'd wager if you had five TTA cars, you wouldn't find two that had the exact same measurements.

Mike M

 

True. But, that doesn't mean GM didn't have dimensions, not just "Stick it on the door." instructions for dealerships.

 

Stephen,
I am sorry I am not very clear. The second picture you show with the measurements is correct. The reason I use the center of the decal from top to bottom is measurement for the placement off the rear door edge is due to the curvature of the door. I would set the height of the decal first off the door edge and then move it right to left off the rear door edge.

- Dave

 

Thanks. I think we're going with a screen printed magnetic version, instead of simply vinyl lettering. That way, the magnetic material "background" itself will match the off-white body color, and the letering color itself will match better to OEM.

 

About 5 years ago, could even be more, somebody made a nice magnetic version. It was painted white and then the decal was put on it. It matched up quite well if you got the right color white since they used different whites during the production run. Buddy of mine had them on his car but they were too white but matched my car perfectly to where you couldn't even tell the magnet was there.

 

I guess we are going to try to match the white of the 2 89 GTAs (1 being a TTA), and 1 87 GTA, to get closest to the off-white, for the best match.

But we're going screen print instead of the OE decal, for 2 reasons. To preserve the OE sticker, and to make the magnetic less subject to the lettering being damaged by simple rubbing.

 

Apparently, the dealers were just slapping them on, wherever they felt like it. This page shows some cars with the decals startin at the leading edge of the door handle, others offset an inch from the handle. I can understand being an inch off, but 6 inches??? They didn't care! Although, I do notice that several of the cars parked at Indy, have them starting at the leading edge, not after. I wonder if that was how they were supposed to be? Although the one with the ?winner?, I guess, and others riding in a convertible version, has the decal offset from the handle.

89tta.com pics

 

The "Exact" location for decals even from the factory is NOT consistant.

If you look at the 1991 Pontiac dealer brochures you wil find the following:
In the "Pontiac Firebird 1991" booket on the front page there is a Red GTA, the nose Emblem appears to be about 3 inches from the hood line, and the sail panel bird appears to be about 4 inches from the fender line. In the 1991 Full delaer brochure on page 54 there appears to be the same REd GTA used on the Firebird booklet, however you will notice that the emblem is only 1" from the hood line and the sail panel bird is about 6 inches from the fender line.

Clearly even in their literature they were not consistent. THere is probably an intended location however it was not exactly adhered to and if it was a little off they probably did not tear it off and start over, thats the way it was. As for the Location of the INDY decal, its was probably very similar. If you consider that all of the decals for the festival cars were installed by the same person or team of people they probably had a standard to go by.

look at both of the pix

JOhn

 

Maybe it was a rush to get all the festival cars together at Indy? Maybe those were the first to be applied and were stopped because it was wrong? Don't know.

But the attached picture of the TTA also has the prototype exhaust tips that they didn't use. It was a polished single tip on each side instead of the dual tips all got. It also appears to have the decals in the correct position.

 

By your user name, I'm assuming your TTA is # 1387? How did you determine which # car yours was? We'd like to find the # this TTA is as well.

IIRC, this was 1 of the 187 T-Top & Cloth Interior combination cars. I believe it was cloth interior, IIRC. I know it had t-tops.

 

Mine was 1387 but I sold it

You can get with PHS and they'll send you a packet of info and the car number. Also, John Pearcy has all the info also. He's on turbobuick.com. He runs the Turbo TA registry.

I've been sort of keeping a list of VIN's and trying to get the numbers also. But I haven't really been keeping up with them.

 

You can also visit www.turbotransam.com , there's a registry over there as well.

 

Talk about a bit of an old thread...

Found these, already made, and cheaper than even I could make them...

Johns Performance

 

Are you talking about the door decal set? (or the template?)

 

Originally, I was just looking for a template, when I was going to make them myself, but that place has a killer price on them. I've emailed them to see if they have a template with them, or can provide one.

Funny thing is though, I've found official GM pics of TTA cars, from Indy, and they were put on in 2 different locations. I haven't been able if there wasn't an official location, it was changed mid-run, or just employees just slapped them on, without paying attention.