Third-Gen Troubles: Repairing Our Visuals in a ’92 Trans Am Convertible

photos by: the author and Hawks Motorsports

A Sidebar Project Car Makes a Formal Introduction, With an Immediate Repair

For our long-time readers, you know that this isn’t the first third-gen project we’ve ever had. We’ve performed a one-shot LS swap deal in a Camaro sometime back. But we also ran a series several years ago on an ’84 Trans Am eBay purchase that morphed into a 660rwhp monster that was destined for track work. Project Redrum, as it was known, left its mark on our publication, and in our hearts.

Now here we are in 2024, and this ’92 Trans Am convertible fell into our lap. Well, that’s not entirely true. It’s in fact a Facebook Marketplace find from last summer that we’ve been toying with for the last few months, on and off. One of the biggest peeves of the car, apart from the cheap aftermarket wheels, were the broken front lighting fixtures.

The Car

Upon purchase, two of the side markers were out, four out of the five CHSML brake bulbs were burned out, the pop-up headlight motors worked, only intermittently, and neither one of the foglights illuminated. It doesn’t seem like a good start, and some may have assumed there were some electrical issues within the car. But it was all there, and it was as clean as you could possibly ask for, structurally, for a 31-year old car from Michigan with 118,000 miles on it.

Mechanically, it ran like a top but there are some cosmetic issues; a new top that isn’t installed correctly, the seats are well-worn, and there’s some serious clear coat peeling and paint fade. It reminds us of Redrum, actually. However, this isn’t going to be a full-on project like Redrum was, but we do want to focus on fixing the obvious issues; cleaning it up, make it ride, run, handle, and stop a little bit better.

You can say that’s pretty much the norm, but there’s some context in what and why we want to keep it humble with this project. First, it’s a numbers-matching car. Yeah, we get it, “it’s a just 305 TPI, bro,” but once we dug below the skin, this car becomes far more interesting than even what we thought when we first acquired it. Now, we knew that 1992 was an abbreviated production run, with the production moving from Van Nuys, California to Ste. Therese, Quebec for the 1993 car.

But when we ran the production numbers, without breaking down color combination, transmission, and all of that, it turns out that only 1,643 Trans Ams were built for 1992, with 663 of them being convertibles. In major manufacturer production terms, that’s practically nothing, especially for the standard of the time. Then you have to factor in how many are left.

Unlike Redrum it’s also an automatic, and with the drop top, to us, it makes for a great cruiser. Besides, we currently have much faster cars in our stable, and some up-and-comers that will blow this car into the weeds if it had a mild LS under the hood, anyway. In this particular case, we prefer the “if it ain’t broke” mantra.

Mechanically, it’s practically stone stock — with the exception of an off-brand aftermarket muffler and a K&N drop-in air filter. Oh, and an aftermarket head unit and speakers in the cockpit. Those wheels? No clue what they are, really. A 17-inch copycat of something the Foose brand offers. They don’t look terrible on their own, but they just don’t fit the car. We inquired with the seller if he still had the OEM wheels, even if they were rough, and he said that he bought the car with the 17s already in place six years earlier. We will address them at some point, but he was kind enough to throw in a spare, brand new reproduction coolant reservoir from OER.

We promptly swapped it in when we got back to the shop, and we pulled off the cheesy, crooked, and aftermarket gold “PONTIAC” decals off of the taillight center section. After we had gone through all of the fluids and filters, we started to address the lighting issues. The CHMSL and two smoked side markers were simple enough; a quick trip to the parts store solved those issues. The rear side marker bulb on the drover’s side was completely missing; as if it burned out, someone pulled it to replace it, and then never finished the job — just left the wire connector hanging there.

But when we got back to the front of the car, that’s when we knew we’d have to break out the tools and roll up the sleeves. Taking a closer look at the flights, the driver’s side was completely busted out. The lens was long one, and all that remained was the housing. The passenger side, as well as the parking lamps, seemed to be all there but the fog light still wasn’t working.

Being new to the later third-gens, we learned the foglights were replaceable wear items; there isn’t a removable bulb as such. If they burn out, the whole unit needs to be replaced. Having long been out of production, with only a handful of NOS (new old stock) pieces out in the wild, at a premium price, we started browsing eBay, Marketplace, etc., only to turn up empty. Or, found used sets that weren’t that much better and of questionable life expectancy.

Hawks Motorsports Steps In

Having a close relationship with Hawks Motorsports, we knew that we were covered. They have offered the replacement fog lights for some time, but when we took a closer look at our turn signals, we realized that the parking lenses had hairline cracks in them, and they were stone chipped and well-faded. So, we figured if we’re spending the time and attention on swapping out the foglights, we should grab some parking lamps as well. Apparently, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as Hawks had JUST announced their brand new parking lamps for the ’91-92 Pontiac Firebird. We announced them on our site just the other day, in fact.

So we placed an early order for the parking lamps, ordered up a set of replacement ’91-92 Trans Am/GTA foglights, a headlight repair kit, and a pair of headlight motor gears to repair the occasional “droopy eye” and irritating motor noise that emits when you open or close the headlight doors. Also, it should be said that if you plan on causing around in your Trans Am with just the parking lamps and fog lights on, the electrical system typically won’t let you do so, if there’s any issues with the headlight motors — seriously.

That won’t work for us, being the old school ’80s-type show-offs that we are. So the order went in, and a few days later, a box arrived with all of our goodies, and we immediately got to work.

Eager to scope out the new fog lights and parking lamps, as well as to ensure that the bulb itself was the culprit as to why the passenger side wouldn’t work, we started there, swapped out the old and installed the new. There’s two ways you can do this; easier access but longer install time, or difficult access and shorter install time.

Looking for an interesting new challenge, and since we’re gluttons for pain, we elected to remove the original lighting fixtures (see above), and install the new ones, with the bumper cover on. If you remove the bumper cover, you have the task of taking out all of the hardware and pushpins of the front nose, but the lighting fixtures are much more easily accessible, making removal and reinstallation a breeze.

If you decide to leave the bumper cover on, it’s a game of crawling under, reaching through, finagle, wiggle, and angling them in. Then you also have to be extra careful of not scratching the paint on the openings of the bumper cover.

But we made it happen, got them in, plugged in the fog lights into the factory connectors, inserted the turn signal bulbs, and with the simple push of the light switches, all of the lights illuminated as they should. We should mention, that both fixtures include the two mounting screws for each assembly, and the foglights have the correct metal If you need the foglights, you can order directly from Hawks HERE, and likewise, if you need the parking lamps, order HERE.

Now, about the headlight motors…

If you’ve never torn one of these down, or for those of you out there who are brand new to working on a car, they could be seen as overwhelming or confusing. But it’s actually pretty straightforward; manually open the headlight doors, remove the headlight bezel, remove the top two bolts on the radiator support, the third bolt located next to the headlight on the radiator support, disconnect the headlight bulb connector, and the high-beam connector. Pull the headlight/motor out as one unit, and set it on a work bench.

Typically, if the motor still operates, but the headlights struggles to open or close, it’s the plastic gear inside of the headlight motor that’s disintegrated from use over time — very common, especially as these cars continue to age. A lot of these cars have already been repaired once or twice before. It’s an easy fix, and all it takes is the removal of the headlight motor of the headlight assembly, removing the three bolts from the motor, and removing the gear. As you can see in the pics below, our gears were trashed. They were so bad, we had to clean the housing out with some Driven brake cleaner, and blow out the rest of the debris with the air hose. You want to take sure that it’s all worked out of the system, too, as there will probably be quite a bit of it packed into the hole of the motor shaft.

Be careful with the motor bolts, though, as age and heat will have typically taken their toll on both, and we recommend using the new hardware, gaskets, and grease that Hawks Motorsports supplies in the kit. The grease is intended as a lubricant between the plastic gear, and the metal motor shaft. You don’t want to reinstall the gear without the grease, because after a few days worth of use, you’ll probably have to tear it all apart and do it again, correctly. Also, don’t neglect the three solid gel inserts that mount into the gear, and help actuate the headlights.

Interestingly, this kit will work in all ’87-92 Firebird, ’88-96 Corvette, ’87-88 Fiero, and ’88-02 Louts Elan and Espirit. Apparently, GM sourced the same motor for all of those cars, and during their brief partnership with Lotus. If you need this kit for your car(s), you can order it directly, HERE.

Looking Ahead

What’s next for this car? We’re looking at a set of new wheels; something that looks right on the car, a somewhat factory look, but maintaining a more modern size. We like the idea of 17s, but not these current 17s. We think the Hawks 17-inch GTA wheels would be a match made in Heaven for this car. Or, if we’re feeling a little bit extra, we might scoop those 18-inch Firehawk Ronal R15 reproductions that they also offer.

Will this be a long-term project? Considering we’re maintaining the stock driveline, probably not. However, we do want to kick off a small build series with this Trans Am, and for the first time in this publication, do some TPI things. What do you guys think?

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