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The third brake light in these pictures is merely sitting on the hatch glass. This is a mock-up to get an idea of how this would look on my car if I were to decide to have this as an added touch when I get the car resto-modded in the future. Notice I whited out the spoiler brake light to give a better idea of how this looks.
It does take some getting used to, but I think it adds something to the rear of the car, and from a safety standpoint I personally feel that the higher mounted hatchback third brake light is more noticeable to other drivers compared to the lower mounted spoiler third brake light, as is on my 1997 Trans Am. Sure, it doesn't improve aerodynamics but style-wise, it is a nice touch, and it will give me that nostalgic look while trying to do something different with the car.
I am willing to bet that it would look much better if the car were black in color or some other darker color. Anyways, this is what the car looks like in it's mocked up condition. I have mixed feelings but a part of me wants to do it. Again, it takes some getting used to.
I'm more interested in the story behind the biobutanol sticker though. Are you really running it in there? Where do you get it?
I am waiting for the comments to roll in about this idea making my car look like , as well as other lovely comments about the imposter hood I have received. Thank you for your kind comment. I wish I could have been able to get the brake light to sit flush on the glass but it needs two drilled holes to sink into which is where it both mounts to the hatch glass and where the third brake light wires are supposed to connect to get this thing to work. I just learned this a few days ago when I found a picture of the inside of a 1986 third gen Camaro and how this thing is wired up. It can be done on my car using my existing third brake light wires but I will have to leave it up to the custom shop on how to go about this, they may decide to fabricate a new LED housing and hook up my wiring to that instead of the method devised in 1985 for this 1986 system.
Off topic, that bumper sticker is meant to bring awareness to Bio-Butanol although for my V8, the higher octane Iso-Butanol is the fuel I have to use since normal N-Butanol has the octane rating of regular gasoline and Iso-Butanol really has a better chemistry to behave like gasoline whereas N-Butanol is better for diesel engines in fuel blends of up to 20% N-Butanol.
No, I am not using this fuel, yet, in my car. I can't afford it while going to college and working lower wage temp jobs. I am merely letting the public, who take the time to read my bumper sticker at every stop light, know that there is another and superior alcohol fuel that exists out there and it is called Butanol, totally different in chemistry and properties from Ethanol that everyone knows about. You don't even need to use corn to make Butanol either, any plant matter can be fermented into Butanol so whether it being grass clippings, fallen leaves, or waste crop materials from the farm, Butanol is truly a renewable fuel and one that will conceivably become cheap with time and mass demand for it.
You don't have to be a fan, I am expecting many others to scoff at this notion and I am sure the third-gen guys won't like it either. However, it is fitting in a way since our fourth-gen LT1 cars were designed during the mid to late 1980s. My "vision" is inspired by the eighties f-bodies and even the L98 and LT1 Corvettes. After all is said and done, with a new paint job in a darker color, my 1997 Trans Am will have a new spin on it's look. I like it right now and I kind of don't like it, but the aging white paint job on my car doesn't help the look either. Black Trans Ams with the US Exotics hood look incredible yet when I compare those with my car, my car comes off looking like the goofy one, it's the paint job.
By the way, what advice could you give me on my other thread regarding camshaft research. I would appreciate it.
I think the lines are cleaner without the light. As far as cams go, I wouldn't have any input. I've never really researched them, changed them etc. If I were to ever do anything like that to my car, I always thought I would send my heads to Advanced Induction and go with a custom grind, but I'm not sure whether they're even doing any LT1 work anymore. I'm honestly pretty happy with my car's performance with just cai, headers, exhaust, lowering springs & shocks. I haven't driven it much since I did all of that stuff, but it seems pretty fun to drive. It might have something to do with how little I've driven the car over the last 18 or so years.
I like high mount lights on low cars. That said, I'd prefer to mount it on the inside if it were my car. It keeps the body lines smoother and there's less issues with water. Remember that you're going to have to drill a couple holes through the sail panel area or a very precise hole in the glass to run the wiring.
I think the lines are cleaner without the light. As far as cams go, I wouldn't have any input. I've never really researched them, changed them etc. If I were to ever do anything like that to my car, I always thought I would send my heads to Advanced Induction and go with a custom grind, but I'm not sure whether they're even doing any LT1 work anymore. I'm honestly pretty happy with my car's performance with just cai, headers, exhaust, lowering springs & shocks. I haven't driven it much since I did all of that stuff, but it seems pretty fun to drive. It might have something to do with how little I've driven the car over the last 18 or so years.
Yeah, you are right about that. The brake light will also hurt the aerodynamics of the car a tad but the car is already aerodynamically dirty, especially underneath and when the headlights are up. It was designed in the 1980s and from what I read, their understanding of aerodynamics was no where near where it is now but on that note look at the cars driving around today, many of them lack styling to favor streamlining. This is where I stick with a more aerodynamically dirty car that looks pleasing to my eyes.
It's okay if you can't comment about the camshaft. I am researching and trying to come to terms with what is most important to me because once this car goes to a custom shop and I take out the loan for all the changes, the car is going to stay that way for another thirty so years! The car is not meant to be a spring/summer only toy or weekend driver but my daily winter driven car, so I can't go crazy on performance and fuel economy has to be seriously considered! I plan to keep my current heads but they do need to be repaired since I have a stripped header bolt hole and am using a larger bolt to help lock down my shorty header.
Originally Posted by bammax
I like high mount lights on low cars. That said, I'd prefer to mount it on the inside if it were my car. It keeps the body lines smoother and there's less issues with water. Remember that you're going to have to drill a couple holes through the sail panel area or a very precise hole in the glass to run the wiring.
The custom shop will be doing the glass drilling and I may have to go outside of New York state to find one I can trust for this kind of work but it will be worth it. I am not worried about water leaks as I have both original rubber seals for this brake light, thanks to the original owner, and we can always fabricate new seals or use water sealers on the brake light where needed, so I am not too worried about it.
I have thought very hard about the high mount brake light and tried to picture how it would look on my car with either a black paint job or Asiatic Blue paint job, with the LT1 Corvette Sawblade wheels, and honestly, I FALL IN LOVE! I do want LED bulbs in my tail lights and I really want something fabricated to give me a newer, brighter, and cleaner looking taillight housing like the newer cars have. I have thought about having this high mount brake light installed inverted on the inside of the hatch glass but I run into the problem of it hitting my interior dome light which sits just under the glass, and furthermore, I want to see that light at night time which an interior third brake light will end up blocking it. So, it looks like I am still going with this exterior brake light. I think it will turn out awesome! It will look like a C4 Corvette with a little bit of a 1986 third-gen yet still have that sexy curvy styling of a fourth gen LT1.
What about using a 91-92 CHMSL that was mounted on the inside of the hatch glass?
You could, BUT it is going to sit right in front of your rear back-seat overhead dome light. I am not sure how much clearance you will have and you will likely have to shift it down the glass to clear the dome light if it is too close to shut the hatch depending upon how the wiring will be set-up. Honestly, I think the 1986 set-up will be easier to work with despite having to drill the glass for the fasteners, ALTHOUGH, 3M double sided heavy duty mounting tape is pretty strong stuff when you buy it for 30 lbs of holding power. The wiring can be routed behind the brake light housing from the inner side of the hatch using the existing third brake light wiring. I have thought about various subtle ways we can go about this.
YES, a brake light on the inside of the glass would preserve the lines of the car and maintain the little aerodynamic efficiency that the car has. However, this is where I choose style over streamline efficiency. The exterior brake light will be at the highest point on the car compared to it being installed on the inside of the glass. Furthermore, I am trying to go for a certain look, inspired mostly by the 80's L98 C4 although it's brake light is mounted on the actual pillar which would look too weird on a fourth-gen and even a third-gen. So, the hatch mount brake light is the better place to put it. Also, I always felt like the rear of the car was missing something.
With my first car, a 1997 6-cylinder automatic Firebird, I actually bought a GTS solarwing for the rear hatch and it did add something to the car, it filled a void. This third brake light will fill a void, a style touch, that this car is lacking. Besides, I am doing something different with my car and I want to pay homage to the third-gens and C4 corvettes whose styling and engines also helped to inspire this project I am researching. Once the car gets a darker paint color and I have the right contrasting accent colors to make the car more attractive to look at, the 1986 high mount brake light will look as though it was intentionally designed into the style of my 1997 Trans Am WS6. These cars were designed during the mid-to-late 1980s so basically my vision is a hypothetical of what could have been a factory LT1 Trans Am with the intake manifold and high mount brake light off of a third-gen f-body!
Last edited by Phoenix'97; 10-26-2018 at 04:18 AM.
10-19-2018, 07:59 PM
1986 Hatch Mount Brake Light On A 1997 Trans AM. 
, as well as other lovely comments about the imposter hood I have received. Thank you for your kind comment. I wish I could have been able to get the brake light to sit flush on the glass but it needs two drilled holes to sink into which is where it both mounts to the hatch glass and where the third brake light wires are supposed to connect to get this thing to work. I just learned this a few days ago when I found a picture of the inside of a 1986 third gen Camaro and how this thing is wired up. It can be done on my car using my existing third brake light wires but I will have to leave it up to the custom shop on how to go about this, they may decide to fabricate a new LED housing and hook up my wiring to that instead of the method devised in 1985 for this 1986 system.
