The year 2010 saw the untimely end of the Pontiac division of General Motors, a brand that had been around since 1926. 2010 was also the model year GM reintroduced the Chevrolet Camaro. The death of Pontiac also meant the demise of any chance GM would also reintroduce the Firebird. However this did not prevent Paul Censner from fulfilling his dream of having a 2010 Firebird. He took matters into his own hands and created this fantastic Firebird recreation. Paul tells us how this awesome 'Bird was created:

Ive always been a car enthusiast ever since I was a kid. I learned to drive by the time I was 12 years old. We lived in a farming community, so there was lots of ample opportunity for me to drive everything from tractors to pickup trucks thru the fields.

I bought my first car, a 1949 Pontiac at 13 or 14 years old. I picked it from an old fellow in town who was too old to drive anymore. He sold me the car for a whopping $10.00

When I turned 16 I left school and joined the work force. Within 3 months I had purchased my first new car, a 1974 Pontiac 350 -4 speed. I drove the hell out of that car for 10 years and now as it turns out I was now hooked on Pontiacs.

A few years later I got married to a wonderful woman and we had 2 beautiful girls. As a result of raising 2 young kids and having a family, Pontiacs went on the back burner for a long time. We ended up selling the 4 speed in order to get a family car and then eventually the mini van.

Fast forward to when the kids were older A friend of ours who owned a Pontiac Trans Am was at our house one day for a visit and mentioned she might be selling her Trans Am. Because I had always liked the Pontiacs and the Firebirds in particular, I told her I would be interested in buying it. She said I think I am going to sell it so I said how much? We agreed on the price and the next day I owned a 1980 Pontiac Trans Am. My wife thought the car was great, which it was, and she enjoyed driving the car as much as I did. 

The following year I decided we should get another Trans Am so we could have His and Hers Pontiac Trans Ams. I began a search and found a 1978 Trans Am, without an engine, that was priced right. I bought it and then the search was on for an engine which resulted in us buying another Trans Am as a parts car because it had a good engine in it.

Fast forward another 2 years I had the 1978 together and running well by this time and had taken up Street Class Drag racing at Grand Bend. Since my first trip to Grand Bend Dragway resulted in me bringing home a First Place Trophy I was hooked on Drag Racing for quite some time. After one successful night of racing I got home to find out that the rear frame on the car had crapped out partly due to Pontiac torque, but mainly due to rust. At this point a major full restoration began on the car that lasted for 3 years. Because of this more parts cars were bought to help with the restoration. It so turned out that some of these parts cars were just too good to tear apart and destroy, so I bought more parts cars and more parts cars and more parts cars.

At this point the Firebird addiction was well on its way. There were many more cars to follow over the years. Some I have kept and some were sold. At this time I own one Pontiac Firebird of each Generation.

The Pontiac Firebird was killed by GM in 2002, and in 2009 they killed the Pontiac name totally leaving me thinking that the Pontiac Firebird was gone forever.

GM reintroduced the Camaro for the 5^th Generation but the Pontiac Firebird however was not part of their plan. So it appeared that there would never be a 5^th Generation Firebird.

Since my passion is Pontiac Firebirds and GM wont make a 5^th generation Firebird, I came up with some ideas from scouring the web and from attending a SEMA show last year.

In 2010 I bought a Camaro with the intension of creating a 5^th Generation Firebird. I have spent the last year converting the Camaro into my version of a 5^th Generation Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 

The making of my 2010 Pontiac Firebird

After getting my ideas together and planning out what I wanted to do the search was on for a doner car to begin the project. I scoured ebay, local lots and Kijiji etc and finally came across the perfect doner car ..a 30,000 klm 2010 SS\RS loaded Camaro with a 2300 Magnusson Supercharger increasing the HP to 640. What a score ! This would be the perfect car for the project.

This is how she looked after bring her home in December of 2010.

I began the conversion process in the winter of 2010. That winter I tackled the interior by removing the complete stock interior and installing a new light blue interior mocking the 69 Firebird Blue interiors that were available in those years. I had the seat rests embroidered and the center console was color co-ordinated with the same materials. Other interior mods included adding covering the door panels and the horizontal dash trims with a Blue houndstooth design colored vinyl.

I removed the steering wheel air bag and ground off the Camaro letters with a die grinder.

I then customized an original 1978 Trans Am steering wheel center cap to fit onto the steering wheel air bag. Blue accents were added to the dash and console areas of the car interior to carry the blue theme throughout the car. Some other touches were adding lighted custom door sill plates, chrome accents to the radio knobs and climate controls etc. Interior floor lighting (which is non-existent in newer vehicles) was added and all interior bulbs were changed to blue. I added a Trans Am decal and a Bird emblem form a first generation Trans Am to the dash.

In the winter of 2010 I also added the Lambo doors as seen above and below. These doors work both ways. They open normally but also lift for the lambo effect. The fenders had to customized to make this kit work.

In the summer of 2011 I drove the car as a Camaro on the exterior and a Firebird on the interior.

In winter of 2012 I began the exterior conversion. The first step was to get everything I needed together for the conversion. I ordered a body kit from a company located in Michigan whom is the injection molding business. As an aside to their regular duties they came up with a body kit that is meant to resemble the 77 78 Firebird Trans Am. The kit is a bare bones kit that you add your own touches to in order to make the finished product what you want. The kit has all the basics neededto build your own Pontiac.

As you can see in some of the build pictures below the car was stripped down tobare bones which included removing the front nose totally, the rear fascia completely, the front fenders, the hood, and all the small miscellaneous things associated with these areas.

As you can see in some of the pictures the main body needed to be modifiedsomewhat for the new parts to fit properly.

The hood was a bit of a challenge because of the Supercharger. The Supercharger left little hood clearance and therefore no way of fastening the shaker to the motor. I took a 1978 Trans Am shaker and customized the shape of it a little and then mounted it to the underside of the hood instead of the motor which is where they are usually mounted.

After getting al the pieces together that were to form the front and rear fascias, the hood, and the fenders etc everything was trial fit.

At this point, for some reason, I quit taking pictures as we progressed.

Anyway once we had adjusted everything and had the trial fit we were happy with, we removed everything and sent it to the paint shop for painting. I kept the exterior the same color as the original car.

After getting all the arts back re-assembly was relatively easy as we now knew how everything was to go. At that point all the finishing touches were added.

I changed out the wheels and added some TSW Vancias because I believe they somewhat resemble what a modern Snowflake wheel should look like.

I made my own center caps by mating the old with the new. I removed the Camaro decals on the brake calipers and painted them blue. I then added Pontiac decals to the brake calipers. The nose of the vehicle needed some Pontiac ID so I made a 1978 Firebird nose emblem fit the new nose.

I had a set of decals made to add the TRANS AM name to the car. Decals were added to the rear, the fenders and the hood. The decals are dark blue fading to light blue on the rear and fenders and the hood bird caries both the light blue and the dark blue in its design. The hood bird which was designed to resemble the 1978 hood bird was reconfigured to fit the new different size hood.

The engine bay was cleaned and then detailed by painting all areas under the hood that were unpainted. Adding some chrome here and there brought the engine bay to life. Engine covers were put together and painted to cover each side of the engine at the Supercharger. Custom decals were applied to the cover.

A wiring harness was added so that the driving lights stay on even when the headlights are on. The blue tinted headlight halos are now on with the driving lights that had the bulbs changed to a bluish color bulb.

There are a lot of other little changes and subtleties that were added for person touch.

Here are a few pictures of the finished product. As far as I know, it is the only one in Canada. There are several versions of what I have done in the USA but all of them were built by large companies and corporations. I did this at home in my garage.

I may even start doing this as a sideline.

Anybody want one?

Many many years of Firebirds and still counting