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How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
My tail light center piece is quite faded from its years of existence and I would like advice on how to clean it, it looks amazing when it's wet but when it dries it goes back to its kinda dull look. All help is appreciated
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Originally Posted by TTOP350
It's plastic, polish it like clearcoat paint.
Check my Avatar picture, polished and waxed is all I've ever done
Is there a video or something that you could link so I could get an idea on how to polish and wax it? I know damn near nothing when it comes to cleaning things other then a hose car soap and elbow grease
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
I'm sure there is but i've never searched for anything. I have a 3m foam waffle pad on a buffer and some very mild compound I use on mine once or twice a year. Just learned by trial and error.
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
3M makes a good plastic polish.. mine came out pretty nice with that. No need to sand etc...daba little and just rub it out till it's shiny then coat with a little polish to protect it.
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Agreed, no need for sanding. A lot of people do it that way, and the results are excellent, can't knock it, but similar results can be achieved with compounds and polishes.
These were not only faded and scuffed, but also cut, like someone took a knife blade and... slice, slice, slice, in all directions, from end to end. That's how they were when I rescued them from a junkyard car about 15 years ago, but they seemed salvageable, and, obviously, they were. So during the pandemic, with time on my hands, I decided to finally see what I could do with them. I decided to try a random orbital buffer, rather than kill myself physically, since I was going to use compounds, polishes and wax. They came out pretty nice, IMO.
I ran three separate cuts with a medium coarse cutting compound, until they were nice and smooth. Then I ran a couple of cuts with Ultimate Compound, until they were nice and glossy. Then I ran a couple of cuts again, but this time with the black polish from the Turtle Wax Black Box set. Then I waxed them with the black wax from the Turtle Wax Black Box. All steps, applied and removed, were with the buffer.
My car's original silver bird, I did many years ago with plastic polishes, by hand, and it came out just as nice, but it's already boxed up and put away, since I installed these on my Formula.
So yeah, pretty simple with just compounds/polishes, whether by hand or with a buffer.
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Originally Posted by LAFireboyd
Agreed, no need for sanding. A lot of people do it that way, and the results are excellent, can't knock it, but similar results can be achieved with compounds and polishes.
These were not only faded and scuffed, but also cut, like someone took a knife blade and... slice, slice, slice, in all directions, from end to end. That's how they were when I rescued them from a junkyard car about 15 years ago, but they seemed salvageable, and, obviously, they were. So during the pandemic, with time on my hands, I decided to finally see what I could do with them. I decided to try a random orbital buffer, rather than kill myself physically, since I was going to use compounds, polishes and wax. They came out pretty nice, IMO.
I ran three separate cuts with a medium coarse cutting compound, until they were nice and smooth. Then I ran a couple of cuts with Ultimate Compound, until they were nice and glossy. Then I ran a couple of cuts again, but this time with the black polish from the Turtle Wax Black Box set. Then I waxed them with the black wax from the Turtle Wax Black Box. All steps, applied and removed, were with the buffer.
My car's original silver bird, I did many years ago with plastic polishes, by hand, and it came out just as nice, but it's already boxed up and put away, since I installed these on my Formula.
So yeah, pretty simple with just compounds/polishes, whether by hand or with a buffer.
wow!!
So what did you do about the Trans am to Formula wiring??? Like the turn signal etc... since the formula uses a different turn bulb?
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Let there be lights! I modified a base Firebird harness, so functionality isn't exactly like factory-proper TA lights, but it's similar, and there's a flexibility with a base harness that you won't have with a proper TA harness. All three lights function as tails: the outermost is turn/tail, and the two inners are brake/tail. Red 1157 LEDs, white 1156 LEDs for reverse. Modification of the harness is described further down, because it was originally done for a different project, and then was further modified for this project.
Turn/tail, above(lights not on, hazards flashing).
Brake/tails, above(tails on, brakes not applied, but brakes are the two inner lights on each side). The incandescent 194 license plate bulb has since been replaced with a cool white 194 LED, so the plate glows more nicely now than in this pic.
My harness was originally modified for an amber-to-red project on a set of base Firebird lights(pictured below). That, in-and-of-itself, wouldn't have required modifying the harness, but I adjusted it to function differently, too. Then another modification had to be done for the swap to the TA lights. But because I made the initial modification, my further mods were different than simply going from base lights to TA lights.
So for people going directly from an unmodified base harness to TA lights, simply eliminate the four 194 tail sockets, then convert the turn signal socket to a 3-wire 1157 socket and tap into the brown wire to make it a turn/tail light(or don't tap the brown wire and leave it a turn-only light). Now just relocate the new turn socket up with the existing brake/tail sockets, and configure them to your liking: outer turn/tail with inner brake/tails; middle turn/tail with outer and inner brake/tails, etc. This is ideal for 91-92 TA lights, too, because they have amber turn signal lenses, so you won't tap the brown wire after converting the signal socket.
Below are the base lights after removing them and installing the TA lights, with my car's original silver bird center section, which I love, but felt it was too dominant to use with the dark TA lights, so I went with the salvaged red bird center section, which I think is a more appropriate fit with the TA lights. I wasn't going to replace these, but the TA lights turned out so nicely, that I couldn't resist. How could I now?
These were A LOT of work, all by hand, and they turned out beautifully, super smooth and glossy, so it was worth it. But once was enough, so I used a buffer on the TA lights. BTW, your eyes aren't deceiving you on the base taillights above. The amber lenses have been converted to red. Then the housings were polished out to look new and natural, very successfully, I might add, as they're really beautiful. But as I said, it was A LOT of work, all by hand! Never doing that again lol.
The silver bird has a better finish than the red, because as my own for its entire life, the silver bird has always been in beautiful condition, whereas the red bird was salvaged and had to be brought back to life.
As for not having the TA center section with its continuous reflector, I like how the red PONTIAC plays between the red reflectors on the TA lights. Besides, a TTA center section says TURBO, so why not PONTIAC? Below is a pic with the side door of the hangar open and daylight shining in. The red bird and script pops.
Now for the black wax gimmick, it really does add a (barely) noticeable touch of tint, which made the TA lights and red bird section look even nicer. I had no idea what might happen, but I went for it anyway, and I was pleasantly surprised. If you use a cleaning product on them, the result will be a black rag. So if people want to "tint" their lenses, but don't want to have them sprayed, or risk any legal issues, then get some black polish and black wax. It won't be much, barely noticeable, if at all, maybe, but it will add a "something" to the finish, leaving someone to wonder if they might be slightly tinted.
Last edited by LAFireboyd; Apr 9, 2022 at 10:12 PM.
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Ok Im looking into doing this now... i found me some nice lights tahti think wil lwork well.
So for people going directly from an unmodified base harness to TA lights, simply eliminate the four 194 tail sockets,
Can DO!!!
then convert the turn signal socket to a 3-wire 1157 socket and tap into the brown wire to make it a turn/tail light
Ok,,,,,,, i want to do this cause i want the third outer light to light up as well......but.......could you elaborate? I don't have a spare 1157 socket with me yet and trying to picture this........
I can see connecting two wires together to just make it a turn signal like the stock unit....
Which brown wire do we tap into? (s it a wire coming off from one of the two brake lights per side? ) and which wire does the tapped wire connect to on the 1157 socket?
Are there anymoe connections / ground wires that need to be made?
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Sorry for the late reply. I keep notifications disabled, except PM, I don't subscribe to threads, and I rarely follow any, so I don't know when a thread has been revived unless I happen to notice it, and I just noticed this one.
I'm guessing you've worked things out by now. It's pretty straight forward. But if you haven't, the wiring harness comes through the back of the car on the driver's side, and the wires run all the way across to the right side, making stops at each socket, for the most part.
Brown = parking/side marker/tail, Black = ground, Blue = brake, Yellow and Green = turns (colors are side-specific).
IIRC, the brown and black wires for the four 194 taillight sockets are Teed into the main brown and black wires, so those sockets can simply be cut off at the main brown and black wires, making sure to keep those main brown and black wires intact so they can continue across the back of the car.
The thing about making cuts is, whatever you cut, you have to make sure the wires can keep carrying current to their next stop, so-to-speak. So some splicing might be necessary to keep some wires moving on.
Here is a 3-wire pigtail. Use one for each turn signal. Cut-off the existing 2-wire turn signal sockets, keeping as much wire length as you can, then connect the white wire to the hot wire (yellow or green), the black wire to the black wire, and tap the brown wire into the harness' brown wire that runs across to the other sockets. You want to keep as much length of each color wire as you can, so the wires are long enough to locate the new 3-wire sockets into the positions of your choice in the new housings. Tapping into that brown wire is what converts your turn signals into turn/tail lights, and now they'll light-up with the brake/tail lights, and all six reds will be illuminated across the back when activated.
Your two existing 3-wire brake/tail sockets on each side can be moved into locations in the new housings that their existing wires will reach. And reverse is reverse, obviously.
Again, just remember that whatever cuts you make in the harness, you have to make sure that wire is still able to continue carrying current onward. So if you finish, and the tails on the right side aren't working, then you've cut the brown wire somewhere in such a way that's preventing it from carrying current to the right side.
From left end to right end, mine are turn/tail, brake/tail, brake/tail; brake/tail, brake/tail, turn/tail. But if wire lengths permit, you can arrange the six reds in any sequence you want, such as brake/tail, turn/tail, brake/tail on each side.
Not much else to it. In a nutshell, all you'll have done is cut-out the four 194 tail sockets, and converted your 2-wire turn sockets into 3-wire turn/tail sockets. While that's not exactly the way Trans Am's lights function, it works, looks good, and it's close enough, so most people aren't likely to notice a difference. No reason for anyone to try to make it more complicated.
Edit: One other thing, if the 2-wire turn signal sockets that you removed used 1156 bulbs (single terminal on the bottom of the bulb), then you'll need to change to their dual-filament counterparts, 1157/2057 bulbs, for the new 3-wire sockets.
Last edited by LAFireboyd; Apr 11, 2022 at 12:54 PM.
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Originally Posted by LAFireboyd
Sorry for the late reply. I keep notifications disabled, except PM, I don't subscribe to threads, and I rarely follow any, so I don't know when a thread has been revived unless I happen to notice it, and I just noticed this one.
I'm guessing you've worked things out by now. It's pretty straight forward. But if you haven't, the wiring harness comes through the back of the car on the driver's side, and the wires run all the way across to the right side, making stops at each socket, for the most part.
Brown = parking/side marker/tail, Black = ground, Blue = brake, Yellow and Green = turns (colors are side-specific).
IIRC, the brown and black wires for the four 194 taillight sockets are Teed into the main brown and black wires, so those sockets can simply be cut off at the main brown and black wires, making sure to keep those main brown and black wires intact so they can continue across the back of the car.
The thing about making cuts is, whatever you cut, you have to make sure the wires can keep carrying current to their next stop, so-to-speak. So some splicing might be necessary to keep some wires moving on.
Here is a 3-wire pigtail. Use one for each turn signal. Cut-off the existing 2-wire turn signal sockets, keeping as much wire length as you can, then connect the white wire to the hot wire (yellow or green), the black wire to the black wire, and tap the brown wire into the harness' brown wire that runs across to the other sockets. You want to keep as much length of each color wire as you can, so the wires are long enough to locate the new 3-wire sockets into the positions of your choice in the new housings. Tapping into that brown wire is what converts your turn signals into turn/tail lights, and now they'll light-up with the brake/tail lights, and all six reds will be illuminated across the back when activated.
Your two existing 3-wire brake/tail sockets on each side can be moved into locations in the new housings that their existing wires will reach. And reverse is reverse, obviously.
Again, just remember that whatever cuts you make in the harness, you have to make sure that wire is still able to continue carrying current onward. So if you finish, and the tails on the right side aren't working, then you've cut the brown wire somewhere in such a way that's preventing it from carrying current to the right side.
From left end to right end, mine are turn/tail, brake/tail, brake/tail; brake/tail, brake/tail, turn/tail. But if wire lengths permit, you can arrange the six reds in any sequence you want, such as brake/tail, turn/tail, brake/tail on each side.
Not much else to it. In a nutshell, all you'll have done is cut-out the four 194 tail sockets, and converted your 2-wire turn sockets into 3-wire turn/tail sockets. While that's not exactly the way Trans Am's lights function, it works, looks good, and it's close enough, so most people aren't likely to notice a difference. No reason for anyone to try to make it more complicated.
Edit: One other thing, if the 2-wire turn signal sockets that you removed used 1156 bulbs (single terminal on the bottom of the bulb), then you'll need to change to their dual-filament counterparts, 1157/2057 bulbs, for the new 3-wire sockets.
No prob! I qwas able to get it actually! i did it just as you described.. .what I did thogh was I took power from one of the 194 bulb sockets... In case I want to "go back" I used a tap that plugs directly where the 194 goes into and joined the connector there.
Its al lwired up and im about to polish the lights and make them shiny!
how did you get your lights to be so reflective? They are amazing!
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
It'll be a lot easier to do this if the lights aren't installed. So if they are, I'd suggest removing them again.
I used compounds and an electric buffer for each step of the process. I think most people use sandpaper. But put sandpaper in my hands, regardless of how fine it is, and total destruction is soon to follow, so I began with these products:
Buffer and wipe, twice, with each product. The faces of mine were pretty scarred, so I might've done three cuts with the first compound, don't remember. After doing that with all three products, they should be ready to wax. But you could keep compounding and polishing all day, until you're satisfied with their appearance, before final waxing.
But since my car is black, and I had these black products on hand, I decided to keep going, just to see what might happen.
The pre-wax cleaner is black polish, applied with the buffer, then wiped it off with the black detailer, per the kit's directions. Did that again, then waxed them with the black wax. I like how they turned out with the black products, but there are newer black products on the market today that are probably better. They left the appearance of a very light "tint," but not likely enough to justify anyone going out to buy such products, when continued polishing and wax will produce the excellent finish that they're trying to achieve.
Re: How do you clean a firebird tail light center bird decal?
Originally Posted by LAFireboyd
It'll be a lot easier to do this if the lights aren't installed. So if they are, I'd suggest removing them again.
I used compounds and an electric buffer for each step of the process. I think most people use sandpaper. But put sandpaper in my hands, regardless of how fine it is, and total destruction is soon to follow, so I began with these products:
Buffer and wipe, twice, with each product. The faces of mine were pretty scarred, so I might've done three cuts with the first compound, don't remember. After doing that with all three products, they should be ready to wax. But you could keep compounding and polishing all day, until you're satisfied with their appearance, before final waxing.
But since my car is black, and I had these black products on hand, I decided to keep going, just to see what might happen.
The pre-wax cleaner is black polish, applied with the buffer, then wiped it off with the black detailer, per the kit's directions. Did that again, then waxed them with the black wax. I like how they turned out with the black products, but there are newer black products on the market today that are probably better. They left the appearance of a very light "tint," but not likely enough to justify anyone going out to buy such products, when continued polishing and wax will produce the excellent finish that they're trying to achieve.
Ahhh excellent / good to know! thank you!
I got the Meguiars compound and polish... I think i also have a small applicator that came with a smaller kit I got that attaches to a buffer. I have a 3M [plastic cleaner too but Ive seen that Meguiar;s one around as well.
I'l ltry this! I got some extra lights i can try on. IO did them by hand and they look good, but i think they can be a little better... .I think this method you mentioned wil lbe perfect!
You should do a write up! those are REALLY amazing looking!
