1968 Pontiac Bonneville

[crazyjoe]

Nice find!! I'm loving it! With very little work you'll have the ultimate cruiser, congrats man.

[94SilverSSEi]

Nice find!! I'm loving it! With very little work you'll have the ultimate cruiser, congrats man.

yeah thanks

[Merrillspontiac]

Hope to see it at some car shows this summer!

[94SilverSSEi]

Going to get it out of storage in about an hour
I just hope everything is in working order still
well we'll be prepare with a gas can & jumper cables at least

[94SilverSSEi]

Got te carb ripped off an got it all pulled apart.
Will be cleaning and prolly have it back together by the end of tomorrow.

[94SilverSSEi]

Got the carb all rebuilt now were gonna pull the motor and clean it up replace some gaskets and paint it up nice.

Anything I should check or fix up while the motor is out?
I will also be adding headers when the motor goes back in.

[J Wikoff]

Pics?

[00Beast]

If you're going to pull the motor, replace all the belts and hoses, as well as adding new coolant, etc. Might wanna replace the waterpump while it's easy to get at, too.

As long as it has good compression, leave the heads on, unless you wanna replace the head gaskets. Never re-use old headgaskets. It would be wise to replace the intake and valvecover gaskets, as well as oil pan and rear main seal. Much easier to get at while on the stand, especially the rear two. Get Fel-Pro rubber gaskets for the valve covers, they seal much better than cork.

Check all the wiring for mouse damage, corrosion, chafed insulation, etc. If you see anything, replace the bad section and heat shrink or electrical tape the new so it doesn't happen again, and or figure out how it happened.

It would also be a good time to have a radiator shop hot tank, flush and check the rad for leaks, and repair it if needed. Much easier to do when the engine is disconnected from it.

I know this costs money, but if you're going to do it, do it once and do it right. Don't want a leak or problem down the road, if you can avoid it now.

[94SilverSSEi]

You beat me to it. The valve covers and intake manifold gaskets are leaking terribly and the oil pan gasket has a little leak so all of that will be replaced. Not sure about headgaskets will probably just leave them alone. And yes I was thinking of replacing the rear main seal also. Also is it that the cork gaskets where out faster or they;re just crappy to begin because I replaced the tranny pan gasket with a cork one last summer and it hasnt leaked a drip yet. Will probably leave the water pump alone as it only has 36k original on the car and it is easy enough to get at in the car(rememeber were talking about a 68 here these thing are boats I could get inside the engine bay with the engine lol)

Also there will be more pics to come........

[00Beast]

Corks are hard to get sealed, and do deteriorate over time. Rubber deteriorates at a lower rate, and is less succeptable to leaking due to over-tightening.

[jdean1955]

HI,

I'M LOOKING FOR A SET OF 1968 RALLY WHEELS EXACTLY LIKE THE ONES YOU HAVE ON YOUR 1968 PONTIAC. WOULD YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF ANOTHER SET AVAILABLE?

THANKS,

BERNIE
406-727-4466

[94SilverSSEi]

I don't have rally wheels on my car as that was a fake pic that was just used to advertise it.
Must I have seen a few sets on:
craigslist.com
ebay.com

Or you could try ames performance. They will ship you a free catalog and they have absolutely anything you could need for your older car.

[94SilverSSEi]

Update: We bought all new shocks for the car. Air shocks for the rear end but have not installed them yet.

Car died and ended up being ticketed and towed to an impound lot so we had to pay to get it back and then it was dead again. We had to take the suburban and tow it to my uncles house where it sat for a while and when we went to tow it home dad was looking at it and one of the wires had laid on the intake manifold and burned through causing it to die. Rewrapped the wire and it fired right up.

But we also found now the muffler is blow up like a balloon so I don't know what happened there.

Car also got a brand new set of tires as it was supposed to be dad's daily driver but then it ended up blowing up (which turned out to be the little wire problem)

Also I'm pretty sure that almost every gasket on the whole motor is shot as it leaks like a sieve from everywhere. And also there is no coolant reservoir tank so when it warms up the coolant just pours on the ground and then the radiator is always low so we are going to try to rig up a coolant tank from the leftovers we have from parts cars.

[myfirstbonnie]

A swollen muffler is usually a sign of a previous backfire. My old Chevy truck had a special way to make it backfire. After doing it a few times, i blew the whole seam out.

[94SilverSSEi]

So I'm assuming the muffler should be replaced then? Dad though the baffling might have blow apart and caused it to swell or something. As well as he heard a few loud booms! before the car killed.

[Sirius]

A swollen muffler is usually a sign of a previous backfire. My old Chevy truck had a special way to make it backfire. After doing it a few times, i blew the whole seam out.

We used to do that in my friend's dad's old Chrysler (or was it a Merc?)...turn off the ignition while going down the road (this fills the exhaust with raw gas), then turn the ignition back on after a few seconds and BOOM!. It was great fun until we blew the skin off the muffler! I never laughed so hard. Pretty sure my friend got his a$$ kicked for that, which just made it that much funnier.

I'm guessing your burned wire did something similar to that until it grounded out completely.

[94SilverSSEi]

Actually that is exactly what happened. Dad said he was driving like 55 and it it started to sputter and killed but fired back up itself (had a big boom!) and he drove a little further and then it killed completely.

[94SilverSSEi]

*Blows dust off*


So, we tried selling her but no one wanted to offer anything reasonable. (Best offer was $1500 from a guy that wanted to pull the motor and tranny for his GTO and junk the rest).

So, we're just going to keep it.


I could use some opinions though.

The car has brand new Michelin LTX tires (I think 70k mile tire) with probably 1500 miles on them. So tires are fine for a while.....(although 14's).

We have new shocks for all around. (Sensa-trac for the front, Max Air's for the back). Just not installed yet. So that's a no brainer.

Things it needs: (sort of in order of importance)
1.) Something needs to be done with the body before she rots apart. Not terrible yet. Decent amount of surface rust and a couple quarter sized holes.
I'm thinking some of the Eastwood products to just cover/convert the rust, so it won't rust anymore and then give it some kind of paint job. (Cheap as possible!!!) So I'm thinking either flat black home spray bomb job or Maaco.

Doesn't have to look pretty just want something to stop the rust mostly.

2.) EXHAUST!! Right now I've got, stock exhaust manifolds with half the bolts either busted off in the block or missing. Where the Y-pipe goes together, one side has a big hole and the other side is smashed almost closed. Muffler is SHOT. Overall, it's 44 years old and just junk.

I would really like to get headers and some kind of glass packs or something. But I may just have to use the stock manifolds and have the rest of the exhaust redone behind them.

Thoughts?

3.) The interior is kind of funky. (We have a friend that could probably just patch it up a little for now.

4.) The car has a stock radio in it BUT it has never worked. IDK why so either fix that or better yet put something aftermarket. I have some leftover stuff from parts cars laying around we might use for now.

5.) Anything else I'm not thinking of right now.

Detailed pictures will come later on.


Edit: After doing a little research. Why are some headers so cheap and some so expensive?
If I just put in "pontiac 400 engine" it comes up with lots of options from $100 up.
If I put in specifically Bonneville then it only gives like 2 options for like $600-$700.


Also, for the rust...I was searching on Eastwood. Do I need the rust converter, then rust encapsolator, then some type of top coat. They also have a "rust etch" that is supposed to remove the rust. So what's the best way to go?

[Merrillspontiac]

I would do all of the body work and prep at home, then take it to maaco when they have one of their specials

[94SilverSSEi]

*Blows dust off again*

We still have her. This poor old girl has pretty much been sitting and been shuffled all around the last year.

I have a list of problems and not a lot of money so wondering what would be the best use of the cash I have.
I'm looking to do these fixes sort of middle of the road (doesn't have to be the best but want a decent fix for reasonable money)

Pros: It runs and drives great. 40k original miles. Tires are like new. I bought new shocks for it. Rebuilt the carb. (Not sure that it is adjusted properly though.)

Problems: (in no particular order)
1.) Exhuast is junk. Its 45 years old. Thinking headers...then let the exhaust shop do the rest? Or get one of those kits online?

2.) Interior-A few rips and stains on the seats. Carpet is pretty nasty. Anyone know of a way to patch rips or....??

3.) Body was pretty solid but starting to get small holes in the bottom of the front fenders and rear wheel wells. Also have surface rust on rear quarters and rear doors and in trunk.

4.) I have yet to install the shocks. Also, thinking of pulling the motor when (before) new exhaust is put on.