This summer i plan to do some custom apperance mods to my car when i do the paint and body work. I want to incorporate all 4 gens of birds into mine.
My first one is already done 4th gen WS6 style hood
Second is done 4th gen center console
Third one is this making a custom tailight panel heres what im thinking
69 firebird tail section




Next ideas are 2nd gen style bullet mirrors,fender vents, and rear lip spoiler. Heres a pic that shows all 3



All the body parts will be molded no seems. Im also going to change the side markers. Im going to take a piece of smoked plexi glass and mold it flush with the fender then buff it and polish it to look like paint then put led's behind it to light them up when i hit my turn signals. Im also going to shave the door handles. Im also getting rid of the side mouldings. What do you guys think?

 

I really like the idea of the side markers. I wouldnt do the 2nd gen mirrors, dont think it would flow with the 3rd gen fbird body lines. alson not sure about the second gen rear spoiler, i'd have to see a pshop of that to decide. The first gen tail lights would prolly be pretty cool though. and i'm a big fan of the 2nd gen fender vents on 3rd gens. i think Hawks might actually make a whole new front quarter pannel with them already molded in. not sure though.

-chillen

 

Well hopefully someone will come along and PS some of the stuff. Ive got a lot of pics on my cardomain site in my sig.

 

I always thought the second gen spoiler would look pretty cool.

 

good ideas but you forgot the best art of all. shaker hood. altho i like the RA2 hood i think a shaker would look killer on your car. shaker or RA2 both look sick. nice ride
matt

 

good ideas but you forgot the best art of all. shaker hood. altho i like the RA2 hood i think a shaker would look killer on your car. shaker or RA2 both look sick. nice ride
matt

 

Don't 3rd gen camaros have something extremely similar to that? 3rd gen T/As have vents very similar to those fender vents as well. Cool idea but I vote for something more 2nd-gen-obvious. Snowflake rims?

 

the shave with LED side markers is an excellent idea..i often see it alot on custom hot rods and stuff and it looks so good i think

the 2nd gen mirros and vender vents sound like a good idea id like to see it

im curious about the 1st gen 69 firebird tailights as id like to see a PS

shaving the door handles and removing side moldings sounds like a good idea also and possible shave the antenna while ur at it.


You have good future plans, ive always liked your car as it just gets better and better keep up the good work

 

That would be the shizzle if you pull that off F-355.
Ive always wanted to see a third gen bird w/ a 79-81 bird front nose bumper.

 

i need to see that!

 

Im also thinking about doing a set of wide racing stripes that go with the Ram Air II hood. The stripes will be silver here are the 3 designs im thinking about.
First one had the side stripe on one side only




Second ones changes into a checkered flag




Third one are the old school SS stripes

 

totally forgot about the shaker hood. Shaker owns, do that.

-chillen

 

Yes. but they arent as tall.

Snowflake rims....do you know how hard they are to clean

IMO, shaker hoods only look good on 2nd gens.

 

Which stripes do u guys like?

 

I like the Checkered Flag look, gives it more of an artistic look. Plus it's not as over used as the 3rd one is.

 

in 88 they had a rare special appearance package that came on some firebirds, it had front and rear molded mud flaps, and a 5 inch spoiler very much like the 2nd gen spoiler. you'd have a hell of a time finding it, but you can try.

 

heres your rear tailight scheme. While ps'ing it i realized you'd have to do the whole rear area like the 2nd gen, it wouldnt work to do just the lights, either way it'd take loads of custom work.

-chillen

 

Damn, that looks incredible.

 

I think it would look pretty slick when it was all said and done. I planed on doing the whole rear section.

 

that ps looks sweet...

 

Anyone wanna try and tackle the side scoops or the lip spoiler? Also shave the handles and the side molding.

 

That is SICK!(in a very good way)

 

2nd gen ducktails are pretty cool on thirdgens... I hear it is a direct bolt on




They are a little taller than the stock one:




I think that red thing is the center section of a stock camaro 3 piece spoiler.

 

what year camaro is that spoiler off. it looks so sweet i need one on my car.
matt

 

..81 Z28 fender louvers

planned on making them seamless....but that's not going to happen. The louvers are made for aluminum...so I couldn't weld them to the fenders without brazing them....and that would get way to hot. If they were made from sheet metal...I could have welded them in...did the body work..and made them seamless....but oh well...they came out nice

if you decide to use the 2gn gen fender louvers...and want them seamless...you might run into some problems because they are made from fiberglass....and seam would crack in no time if you just bondo'ed (?) them in.

 

Well even if they are not seemless they still look really good. I'll have to see what products they have out that will mate fiberglass to metal. Since these are on the sides it might not be too bad with cracking.

 

I liked the idea so much, I just did a really quick and sloppy photochop it to see how it looked on my Camaro... what do you think?

 

wonder what first gen camaro lights would look like on a 3rd gen camaro.

 

For sheezy,1st gen maros would look much better on 3rd gen maro.Or even early 2nd gen maros would look bad as* as well

 

I'm more of a fan of the Firebird taillights.. they look sportier.

 

Here is another idea that I came up with. I installed these in my old Z28. They came out of a 3rd gen TA....but I made them seamless. They eventually starting to get hairline cracks because I fiberglassed them in....

 

I don't know man... I measured up a 2nd gen spoiler once but from what I remember the centre section wasn't near long enough so I have no idea where they got it.

 

there is no way the 2nd gen spoiler is a direct bolt-on fit. not even close. That one pictured above must have been custom made. The center sections of 2nd gens are shorter in width, and the quarter panel sections are wider. even if they are cut/elongated, the mating surfaces would need to be modified to fit a 3rd gen. I do think it looks pretty cool though :-)

 

Isnt it the 3" Nascar spoiler Hawks offers?

 

It is appears to be similar to Hawks 5".... but this seems to be more rounded... more sexy like the 70's ducktail whereas the hawks spoiler is somewhat sharp and square.

 

jonnyIROC, dude where did u get those pics. i gotta have more info on it , a site, a name somethin. i wanna get one or make one for my car. could you tell me everything you know about it.
matt

 

Those tails look badass!

 

I have a confession to make... I was just messing with you guys. The spoiler was custom made by myself. I can do a tech article if you really want... but I will tell you now it is a huge amount of work to make it perfect. (I probably have 50 hours into it maybe more)

 

im so glad you said that.. i was so confused after reading your other post

 

I was wondering why the plate was blanked out, while the other cars plates were shown

 

Ahh, so I was right then! lol. Good work! It'd be great to see a tech article on how you made it

 

OMG THAT F*CKING RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you don't do it I just might have to!!!

My 87 TA is already getting sort of a retro/more distinctively Pontiac theme (RA2 hood, 455,2nd Gen look dash insert,4th gen mirrors, high rise wing (reminds me of the 69 TA, but fits the car better) and quite possibly 2nd gen side markers, but smoothed into the body), and that would be the perfect finishing touch. This is the first major taillight change I have ever seen for these cars that actually looks better than the stock lights!

 

Perfect timing for this topic....
The fenders are going on Redriaf's car...for more pics of them in progress, go here:
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/715283/22

We bonded them in with an SEM product, though Fusor and others have something that will work as well. My TA will be getting this mod also.

 

Woah, more info, please? Maybe something like this can be adapted for my current problem...

 

The whole thing was surprisingly easy. We started with TA repro fenders, so the ledge for the vents was already there. I ran a bead of the adhesive (it comes in a double tube, and is applied in a special gun with a mixing tip...the stuff looks and smells like JB weld, but it probably has different additives in it) and inserted the vents, locking them in place with the original tabs. I didn't have a cmalp to hold them in place, so I put some weights on top of the vent while it set up. After it cured, we spread excess adhesive around the backside, again let it cure, then began DA sanding with #80 grit paper on the seam, and sanded down the corners to blend them into the panel (they don't fit well stock). Once we got it as close as we could, I used lightweight filler to better blend it in. One thing most people don't notice is that stock TA fenders are low around the front and rear edges of the scoop, so I had to build this up a bit with the filler to level it out. I blocked it a few times, guidecoating it along the way to check the progress, and then took it to our painter. He sprayed the fenders with spray poly (a Spies-Hecker product, sort of a spray on bondo), blocked everything out, and painted them. If you did this with non-TA fenders youd still need to have a ledge of some sort, and preferably use the stock retaining clips to hold everything in place. The whole thing is very solid, and I doubt we'll have any cracking problems.

 

Huh. Ok. Very interesting. Looks real good so far. Redraif is largely what inspired me to get a thirdgen, so it's sort of cool to see it have TA parts on it like mine has.

Where did you get the fenders? I'd still like to just get a TA fender, but darned if any of the yards around here have one...

 

Looks great reminds me of a C4 fender for some reason... I just really hope that you don't have the cracking problems everyone else has encountered... if you are successful I may use this product when I attempt my flush headlight conversion.

 

We had the same problem...the ones we do find in salvage yards are usually damaged, esp at the bottom where they bolt up. These fenders are repros, which we got through a friend at a huge discount. Here's hoping they fit ok...

 

Cracking has always been my main concern about a project like this, but I'm pretty confident that this will work out. Its an area that doesn't get much flex (esp on a car with subframe connectors and a strut tower brace), and there is very little filler used. Strengthwise, it should be very good...it would be easier to break the plastic vent than to seperate it from the fender. I'm a little leary of using it in a higher flex area (say, bonding urethane ground effects, which are pretty flimsy, to the rockers). It should be ok for bonding ABS plastic or fiberglass to steel though.

 

About to add some more pics...try to organize it a bit! The 1st gen panel looks good btw! Would be interesting to see what is will really take to make it a reality! This is the closest I have seen to that mod so far...


Cadillac tailights!