1969 Pontiac Bonneville Project

[99 galant]

So yesterday I bought my dad's 1969 Pontiac Bonneville. I know for a fact that it use to run and be in mint condition. We have had it since 1995 and it went to a Pontiac only mechanic who full rebuilt the 428 7L engine. It is pushing about 600 torque, which is very important on a car this big.
Well today I change my first spark plugs (NGK) and I have a huge list of whats needs to be fixed. Luckily, the body only has a few minor rust areas which I will eventually get a re-spray on, and the engine only has 25K on it, but the interior, top, and floor boards are the major areas of fixing right now. I have videos that I will eventually post of todays runs. The first run is horrible because I didn't change the plugs yet and the second one had a huge puff of black smoke come out of the tail pipes because it has been sitting so long that it needs a well needed oil change. I don't plan on finishing this next month. I want to keep my savings just incase something goes wrong with the Galant or another issue in my life happens, so I am trying to play it safe whiles I slowly get what I need for it.








More pictures and videos to come as we get more work going.

[keith6110]

looks clean. My dad had one of these as his first car. Kind of funny to look at this thing and think about it. Good luck with the rebuild. Looks like its in good shape.

[99 galant]

Good shape minus the no floor or interior lol, but yes, the major stuff is done for the most part.

[RAZ_76]

Nice project but it's going to cost at least 10K to restore that, you know that. That engine is trash, you need a nice crate engine from a 442 or something. That looks liek a stock V6 engine in there that it came with originally so you see, there's no way that engine made 600 foot-lbf of torque with a 3.8L V6 engine. That engine made 240hp and 280 ft-lb of torque. Oh and the rust cant be removed and sprayed on, whatever that means. You have to replace the rusty areas with new sheet metal. Anyway, good luck with it.

[Joshua42007]

Throw sum D`s on it.

[99 galant]

Nice project but it's going to cost at least 10K to restore that, you know that. That engine is trash, you need a nice crate engine from a 442 or something. That looks liek a stock V6 engine in there that it came with originally so you see, there's no way that engine made 600 foot-lbf of torque with a 3.8L V6 engine. That engine made 240hp and 280 ft-lb of torque. Oh and the rust cant be removed and sprayed on, whatever that means. You have to replace the rusty areas with new sheet metal. Anyway, good luck with it.

We had a guy completely re-do it and it does have the 428 in it. For this pontiac, there was only 2 engines, the 6.8 and the 7. This car has been in my family for 15 years and I know what it has and what it was. I know its going to cost a lot, but I don't plan on finishing it tomorrow. The engine is not going to need to be replaced. Also, when I buy any parts from Napa for it, their system only has the 2 engines that I mentioned.

[99 galant]

I would never do that picture to my car. That is just hideous.

[RAZ_76]

Even a 428 will not make 600Foot-lb of torque. There were 3 models with 428 and the torque was, 390hp-472tq, 360hp-465tq and 390hp-472tq again. I don't care what NAPA said.

[jimmy_o2]

hey ray it does have a v8 look at the pics and take a closer look at the wires u will see 4 on each side, but i will agree with ray not pushing 600 torque.

On a side note i big fan of classic car good luck on the project. I'm trying to get my dad's 66 mustang coupe with 289. My dad's the original owner got it when he was 18 with 0.3 miles on it

[jimmy_o2]

Throw sum D`s on it.

and that's just gay

[M-Rod]

Yeah Ray is correct with those numbers. Trust me, when I had my old pontiac, I researched the crap out of it when I built my 2nd engine for it.

[RAZ_76]

hey ray it does have a v8 look at the pics and take a closer look at the wires u will see 4 on each side,

Yeah, we've already established that. At first glance I thought it was the V6 but I was wrong.

[99 galant]

Okay well maybe my dad had the wrong numbers for torque but I know what engine it is. Anyways, once more work gets done ill post it. In the mean time, here is a video of how the car sounds. I was too close with the camera so it is really muffled BUT it is not actually that muffled.

[RAZ_76]

Sounds good, it won't idle by itself?

[99 galant]

Not yet, my dad thinks the timing is off. So a guy he works with is coming today to look at it. It also needs a much needed oil change but i dont think that will effect the idle.

[RAZ_76]

Pull the engine and rebuild it. Don't you want to pull it out anyway if you're going to rebuild the entire car?

Here is what I think you should throw on the car as far as wheels.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ponti...5fTrucks#v4-38

[99 galant]

I agree on the wheels. Those are a great choice. I have never actually seen anything normal on the car besides the back wheel in the picture from the other thread. I'm going to keep looking into wheels and hopefully find something that will flow well.

I wasn't planning on rebuilding the whole thing right away. I'm going have my friend's grandfather take a look at it who has rebuilt 4 camaros so far. I just have to wait til he available to check it out. I mean the engine was just rebuilt 8 years ago and only has 25K on it so it just really needs to be ran and cleaned up. This is all new to me, so instead of going in feet first and all giddy to get it done quick, I'm thinking straight and going slow on it. Right now the first worry is to redo the floor, clean up and get the engine running strong, and redo the interior and replace the top. I don't plan on finishing it tomorrow, but a year or two would be nice.

Basically, instead of just blowing money on anything and everything, I'm trying to get it done right the first time while learning and hopefully one day making it a hobby.

[M-Rod]

Too bad I just sold a full set of those Pontiac wheels last summer.

[99 galant]

How much did they go for? Just a rough idea

[RAZ_76]

Well if you want to do this right and since you have to replace teh floor board. I suggest removing everything, including engine and have entire car sand blasted.