I have a bizarre question for anyone out there that has painted a Trans Am, that actually disassembled their car to paint it.

1) A friend of mine is painting an 86 TA, On the nose of his hood, like all 85-92 Trans Ams there are two vents, and we cannot figure out how to get the nut off one of the bolts on each vent, the hole is too small to get a socket in, and I just do not have any tools to get in there... All I can think of is to take a 14mm Allen Wrench, drill a rather large hole in it and try to remove it that way.

2) The rear vents appear to be popped in with clips, any tricks on those too would be helpful without breaking them too.

Any ideas?


Thanks

 

I remove them by rotating them out.First I remove the one spin nut that is accessable,then I push up on the plastic shaft,lift that edge up and work my way on the same side towards the top edge with the clip while slightly pulling it off to the side.Once the one top clip is free I slide it to the side and rotate it out.It will come off with the other spin nut still attached.Sometimes the one upper clip might break as your trying to get it out of the hood cutout so be carefull

 

How do you get it back in then?

John

 

Have you tried a 1/4" 14mm socket? I swear i removed and installed both of them with the tools i have. I know i had to search for half an hour to find a socket that fit, but i swear i found one. Maybe i used a 14mm screwdriver. Can't remember, but i had to replace all four nuts when i was outta town, and didn't have many tools other than basics and got it done.


OOOOOh, i think i remember. I believe, if there is room...i inserted the socket into the bigger hole, and pushed it up to line up with the second speed nut with the smaller hole and inserted the extension there. Can't remember if it was something i tried and failed, or if that's what i ended up doing. It's been months since i've been under my hood.

 

I seem to remember using a needle nose plier to grab the edge of the nut and turn it.

 

The trick is you need to use thinwalled sockets. I just did it an used a snap-on socket.

 

Same here. Seems to work for me all the time like this

 

His appear to be 16mm or 5/16" nuts, and looking at the hole it looks as though the hole is about the same diameter as the nut from corner to corner. I will see if I have a 16mm 1/4 socket to try... I am pretty sure I have a 5/8" 1/4 drive... We tried the needle nose pliers and could not quite grab it... I have a smaller set of pliers I might try...

What about the rear hood vents, any tricks?

John

 

Say a prayer, sacrifice a live chicken and three virgins, cross your fingers, and hope that the plastic tabs don't break bad enough they won't stay in when you reinstall them.

I was pretty careful when I removed the vents from my beater 86 hood and I still managed to break a couple of the tabs. They sorta stayed in after that, but my real plan was to see if I could find more from the junkyard or buy new ones. The tabs are toward the center of the hood, with steel spring clips towards the outside... You might try sliding the vent towards the outside edge of the hood while lifting on the inside edge of the vent.

 

I used my Dremel tool to open up the underhood bracing, enough to fit my Craftsman socket up in there to reach the nut.

On the back 2, IIRC, I used a flat-blade screwdriver to reach the clips, to pop them loose.

 

I did notice that there was a metal clip that I could barely access on the rear vent. I could push on it and was able to almost pop up one side of it... I was just not sure if there was just two clips on the one side, and the other was tucked under the hood, or if there was 4 clips... Before going forward, I decided to ask...

Does anyone have pix of the pieces out of the car so I know what to look for?

Thanks...

BTW, I have already sacrificed 2 chickens, one pig, a small cow and 2 virgins... I guess one more virgin will have to do...

John

 

Don't have pics for you, but yes, just like the front vents, two clips facing the outsides of the hood (right vent has two clips towards the right side of the car, and left vent has two clips towards the left side of the car). Flat head screw driver and a prayer worked for me. Didn't have to sacrifice any virgins yet and i've had mine in and out 3 or so times. My hood had also been painted before, but it looks like they never removed the vents so i'm guessing they've never been out. Good luck with it, i need to repaint my hood again so i can install my hood bird correctly, hopefully it goes smoothly again.

 

Used a screwdriver from underneath, my fingers, and patience to get the small vents off. Still broke a clip.
The lower vents one of the nuts I had to use some needle nose pliers, the thinnest wall socket I had still did not fit.

 

thanks...

I would still like some pix of the pieces... Just so I know what I am looking at...

John

 

Parts, minus hardware

 

Do you have any of the back side of your parts??

 

I tired to give these parts away on craigs, I will dig them out and see if I can get more pics Tony

 

Hey guys. Don't mean to bump an old thread but I wanted to post a few pics to show the mounting details on the hood vents. Not sure if any pics have come up in different threads but this is the first one I saw when I was looking for removal info haha. Anyways, heres a few shots of mine from the back.

You can see on the larger two vents the nuts that hold them in place. As was said earlier, one is easy to get to, the other is not. I ended up removing the easy one on both vents and just carefully prying on it and twisting the whole vent so I could just slide the second one out of it's slot rather than removing it. I'll probably end up drilling the hole on the hood a bit larger for re-assembly. As far as the smaller side vents, they are just clipped in, so work them very carefully prying them a little at a time and you should be able to get them to pop free.


On these two shots, you can see the tabs that hold the vents in place on the lip of the hood. I got lucky and didn't break any of them but I can see how you might snap a few while trying to remove them. Just use a thin screwdriver and go very carefully!

 

I wish someone would start making new ones, these things are so old and brittle. My front ones ending up being glued in because of broken tabs, and now they're trying to come loose.

 

By the age of this thread, you have probably gotten them out by now but I thought I would reply anyway. I removed my front vents by using a socket for the nuts with the larger holes and needle nose pliers with good tips for the smaller holes. GENTLE PRESSURE was the key and they came right off. Putting them back on was also easy since the thread is pretty coarse with that type of nut and a half turn engages the plastic enough so they won't drop off while you reposition the pliers. They are only about 2-3 turns to full tightness. I also lubricated the plastic studs with a little grease before assembling.

The rear vents just popped off with a littlle pressure from a plastic pry stick. I put the pry stick into the gap between the hood and the vent at the outside corners (fender side) and worked it toward the approximate clip position before trying to pop the vent up. A thin cloth along the edge of the hood where the pressure is applied protected the paint and the vent popped right out without any breakage.