Parts differences just discovered

[KDirk]

In the course of some minor repairs this evening, I have found two surprising (to me anyway) parts differences on the 88 vs. 91 coupe.

1) Large style hood emblem (89-91) will not fit on the 88 hood as the alignment "teat" (not the center mounting post, the one offset to the side) will not line up to the factory punched hole in the hood. Rather than drill the hood, I ground off the alignment tab from the bottom of the emblem. Keeping it at the proper orientation while tightening up was not easy as a result.

I had thought the larger emblem was a direct replacement for the smaller 88 version (one superseded the other), so unless the one I have was mis-manufactured (rather unlikely for a cast brass part) then they apparently are not interchangeable without some minor modification. I do have a NOS 88 hood emblem, but will be saving that to put on in the event of having the car judged.

2) Drivers side mirror. The spare one I had repainted to put on the 88 came from a 91. It had a single 6 pin connector. The old one I took off the 88 had two connectors: a 4 pin for the mirror motor, and a two pin for the heat element. Wire colors were the same on both, so I re-pinned the harness on the spare mirror from the single 6 pin shell to the separate 4 and 2 pin shells. This one really surprised me, as I thought the mirrors were identical all 4 years. Yet another running change, but the question is why? For a part used only on a low volume car, I can't see why GM found it necessary to change it.

KDirk

[handmedownreatta]

reattas have heated mirrors?

[NCReatta]

Driver's mirror is heated.

Not a lot of people know there's a difference between the driver's mirrors. 88/89 have the two plugs, and 90/91 have the one. I've had several calls in the past few months for mirrors where somebody bought a mirror from a "reputable guy" or someone on eBay and got the wrong one.

I wasn't aware of the hood ornament. Good to know! May I ask why you wanted a 89-91 ornament on your '88? Just trying to get the '88 and '91 identical?

[KDirk]

Marck,

The mirror harness change really surprised me. While the 88 is worlds apart from the 91 in many ways, I never expected to find that particular running change. I suppose it could've just been a typical GM cost reduction measure, but is seems very strange that they would have done that for a mirror assemble that was only used on the Reatta, with it's low build numbers. Just the order to change the connecter at manufacturing level seems like more trouble than it would be worth.

On the emblem - as you know - the larger hood ornament is more readily available. The original small one on the car had two bad rock chips, so I decided to replace it. Since I had three NOS 89-91 large ones on hand, I opted to use one of those. I do have a NOS 88 (small) one on hand also, but want to keep it decent, so will not put it on the car all the time. I will probably only put it on if I am showing the car or having it judged.

In the latter case, it probably doesn't matter anyway since I have "incorrect" wheels and a few other minor mods that will keep it from being a true 400 point contender. Competing at that level has never been my aim as I own the car to use and enjoy it; not to fill a trophy shelf.

It is easy enough to swap, since I did not use the VHB adhesive on the new emblem - it is mounted with the nut only. Back off the 10 mm speed nut, change emblems, and voila, it has an 88 emblem again. And, if the large one gets chipped (almost inevitable at some point it seems) I have spares and know I can buy more if I need to.

If I find another NOS or nice undamaged 88 emblem I'd probably put it on but I want to keep my only good one safe for the moment. That probably sounds stupid, but I tend to get hung up on things like that.

KDirk

[SeanR]

Would you happen to have a pic of the 88 vs. all other emblems? I've yet to see what the difference is since I've not seen another Reatta in person before.

[Jim]

Kevin,

I am not sure why you had problems with your hood ornament.

I just went out and tried all three emblems on an '88 parts car I have here and all emblems fit with no problems.

The first picture shows the '88 hood with no emblem in place and you can see where the smaller emblem had been originally.

The other pictures show all three emblems in place on this hood.

My SS emblem came off a real '88 SS I owned for a year or so and then sold. The buyer of the car is aware I kept the emblem and has first dibs on it if I do decide to sell it.

The '88 emblem pictured is available for sale.

With reference to the mirror connectors, this had been discussed a couple of times over the last 10 years but not recently.

I believe it was actually late '89 when GM made the change to the drivers side mirror going from two separate connectors to one connector.

I am not sure who Marck is referring to as a "reputable guy " but whenever i have sold a drivers side mirror I always ask the buyer what year car he has so he can have the correct connector.

Edited June 12, 2012 by Jim (see edit history)

[KDirk]

Jim,

It is quite odd that the large hood emblem would not fit quite right. The alignment post was not offset far enough from the center post to fit correctly. I would have had to drill out the alignment post hole in the hood to about 1/4" diameter for it to go in easily and I had no intention of doing that.

Now that I think about it, the one I tried to put on may have been a reproduction part from Car Motorsports. I had bought two from them, one is on my 91 and fit with no problem. I had 3 NOS large emblems, 2 of which were original GM parts, and one was from Car Motorsports. So, maybe there is just enough production variance on the repro emblems to make a difference - even then it only amounts to about 1/16", just enough not to fit right. Still, if that were the case, I would think I'd have had issues with fitment on the 91 as well.

Not knowing how many individual molds are used when casting these repro emblems, maybe there is some slight variable in spacing tolerance. I will say that the quality and finish is excellent, this most recent incident notwithstanding.

KDirk

[Jim]

Kevin,

As Paul Harvey used to say "and now the rest of the story"

Actually I also had weird troubles at first putting the emblems on the '88 hood.

The '88 emblem went right on. The SS emblem went right on but when I tried to put an NOS GM large emblem on, it wouldn't go. I then took all three emblems over to a '90 hood and they all went on easily.

I then went back to the '88 hood and the large emblem would not go on so I looked and figured and looked and figured and it didn't make sense. I then took a tool and cleaned the paint out of the guide hole and it still didn't want to go on but then I pressed real hard and the large emblem then did go on finally.

The guide hole on the '88 hoods, like you said, must be slightly smaller.

Jim

[KDirk]

Jim,

[Paul Harvey pause in mid sentence for page change here]

Thanks for doing the "hands on" research. I didn't want to remove the hood emblem on my 91 to compare the factory stamped mounting and guide holes, now that you have done it it seems clear that the hole stampings were changed slightly for 89 onward. I suppose that in the event an 88 emblem had to be replaced due body damage [and a large emblem was used as the replacement] it would have been due to a frontal collision. Thus, the hood may well have been replaced with a new one and this effectively hid the fact that there was a difference.

In any case, I dislike the idea of drilling the hole in the hood larger, as even if finishing it with touch up paint, I worry about rust starting in there due to the water getting trapped under the emblem. So, my solution was to remove the alignment stud from the emblem. Clearly, the proper approach is to put the correct size emblem on if one is available.

KDirk