Junkyard Find: 1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Autoform Convertible 2-Seater
For the 1987 through 1992 model years, car shoppers could order an ASC-modified Firebird with a convertible top through Pontiac dealerships. Prior to that, a bunch of entrepreneurial outfits with varying degrees of sketchiness had convertible-ized the third-generation F-Body. Here's one of those cars, found in a car graveyard in Aurora, Colorado.
If it's 2038 and your Meta Helper/ParoleBot just excitedly sent this post to your neural implant, and you're all worked up that finally you can find some junkyard Autoform F-Body parts for your project, I have bad news: this car got crushed in February of 2026.
I get pleading messages all the time from people who just found a post I wrote about a junkyard car in, say, 2008, and it bums me out to have to tell them the car was shredded while George W. Bush was still in the White House. Sometimes they appreciate my response, sometimes they are enraged with me.
Anyway, I can't always get to a post about every one of these cars while it's still available for your parts-pulling pleasure, though I try with the rarer ones. Lately, I've been posting them ( including this one) right away on my Junkyard Heads-Up series, so that their parts may be harvested by my loyal readers.
This car is interesting for reasons beyond being a genuine Autoform convertible. It's a first-year third-generation Firebird, for one thing.
The second-gen F-Body had bloated significantly by the end, with the lightest possible 1981 Camaro scaling in at 3,222 pounds. For 1982, the new third-gen Camaro weighed as little as 2,846 pounds.
The base engine in the 1982 Firebird was the Iron Duke four-cylinder, but the VIN says this car was built with the four-barrel-topped Chevrolet 305-cubic-inch small-block V8 rated at 145 horsepower and 240 pound-feet. That may even be the engine that was still in it at the end.
The hairiest factory engine available in the 1982 Firebird was the Cross-Fire Injection-equipped 305 with 165 horses, available only as a Trans Am option that year.
American drivers had fallen deeply out of love with manual transmissions by the early 1980s, but this car has not only three pedals but the optional five-speed instead of the S/E's base four-on-the-floor. By Late Malaise Era standards, this was a pretty quick car.
Just to confuse the techs at emissions-testing facilities, the underhood smog sticker is from a 1988 Firebird. Presumably there was a hood swap at some point during this car's career.
The VIN and radiator-support engine sticker say it's a real '82.
The early-to-middle 1980s was a special time for Pontiac. Willow Run Transmission lineworker Natalie Carroll posed with the new 'birds for the 1983 Pontiac Excitement calendar, for example.
Now let's get to the Autoform stuff. Autoform (sometimes spelled Auto Form) was based in Elkhart, Indiana and made 1982-1987 Camaro and Firebird two-seat roadsters. These cars featured a hinged panel that replaced the rear liftback hatch and covered the opened convertible top. They got this fiberglass panel with faux "rear seat" upholstery where the back seats once lived.
This car's convertible top is in rough shape but still present.
I'm not sure what that translucent plastic sunroof-ish panel is on the interior side.
The Autoform trunk hinges have been replaced with Home Depot units.
It sure was!
Here's an Autoform Trans Am owner's walkaround video.
This Firebird commercial is not as science-fictiony as Mitsubishi's JDM ads of the same era, but it'll do.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
1982 Pontiac Firebird S/E Auto Form convertible in Colorado wrecking yard.
[Images: Author]
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Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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Call me crazy but I’m more impressed with the Toyota Echo behind it. lol
I am just now catching up after a busy summer so this is a way late response. That Firebird is not a 1982-1984 on the inside. It's a 1985 based on the interior. I can tell because the dash panel was all black and chunky in the gauge package layout. In 1985 the dashboard was smoothed out to a grey plastic with new gauge design. Also, the 1985 had wider lower aero skirts and the front in the Trans Am had fog lights.
This is also a Trans Am based on the front side lower fender scoop on each side. However, the rear tail light assembly is from a 1982-1984. The 1985 base Firebird had multi-colored smooth tail lights, and the Trans Am a grid pattern smooth tail lights. Those horizontal lines on the tail lights were only on 1982-1984 Firebirds as this one has. Yet the hood has the 1982-1984 Trans Am scoop hood (which was later also used on the 1987-1990 Formula). So of that hood had a 1988 emissions sticker on it, then it came off a 1988 Formula. In 1985 and up the Trans Ams just had two louvers at the front of the hood and one long skinny one on each side up by the windshield.
This is one weird mutt mix. I assume it wasn't a 1986 model because I do not see a 3rd tail light somewhere that would have been required by law with that convertible mod (in 1986 the third tail light was at the top of the rear glass hatch, in 1987 and up in the spoiler). It is possible someone took the newer interior of a junked 1985 from the entire dash and center console and steering wheel and seats, and added the new 1985+ Trans Am nose and lower rocker panel skirts. All for a 1982 model. Who knows - that interior could have come from that 1988 Formula the hood came from as well!