'61 Bonneville progress update

[64 kiwi boni]

Paul , I replaced my carter with the edelbrock 1906 … best move ever !!! Car drives and gets up wayyyy better ! I can even do one wheel skids now !!! 
watch out !!! Your stock air cleaner won’t fit !!! Check my 64 rebuild thread for what I did to it 

[Wrongway]

I've got the Edelbrock 1913 currently with no plans on changing but I have run a number of the 1406's before the AVS2's came out. Justa great all around carb's for the street.

[64 kiwi boni]

3 hours ago, Wrongway said:

I've got the Edelbrock 1913 currently with no plans on changing but I have run a number of the 1406's before the AVS2's came out. Justa great all around carb's for the street.

yeah mine ones a avs2.. i do like it, never had a edelbrock before and they are soooo hard to get down under locally, i had to go with e bay and that one came from speedway motors !

[Wrongway]

I've actually dealt with Speedway motors in the past a couple of times. On their website mostly, they seemed like an aright company. Personally, I've always liked an Edelbrock carb, I've owned a few Hollys and a couple others over the years but Edelbrock justa seemed to hold a "tune" better on the street. At least for me, again that's justa my opinion.

[Fitzy]

As we all know I elected to rebuild my Carter. It runs fine. At about 60mph I give her a little gas and the car just surges forward. Since the rebuild, I can adjust the idle with the large single idle air screw and it now responds - it never used to. The fact that Edelbrock actually based their carb on the Carter was good enough for me to persevere with it.

[64 kiwi boni]

2 hours ago, Wrongway said:

I've actually dealt with Speedway motors in the past a couple of times. On their website mostly, they seemed like an aright company. Personally, I've always liked an Edelbrock carb, I've owned a few Hollys and a couple others over the years but Edelbrock justa seemed to hold a "tune" better on the street. At least for me, again that's justa my opinion.

I am with you on this one wrongway … I have had more than enough holleys .. they. Are a pita when you want to change jets , power valves that blow … needle valves that stick .. 

every time you want to work on them you have to dump fuel everywhere ! 
kinda like how you don’t with the edelbrock 

2 hours ago, Fitzy said:

As we all know I elected to rebuild my Carter. It runs fine. At about 60mph I give her a little gas and the car just surges forward. Since the rebuild, I can adjust the idle with the large single idle air screw and it now responds - it never used to. The fact that Edelbrock actually based their carb on the Carter was good enough for me to persevere with it.

I think you need to visit me again and take my 89,000 mile 389 for a drive with the edelbrock avs2 on it … you may want to go home and hit buy now on one ! . I was certainly impressed with the night and day. Difference  

[Bonne61]

It's an Edelbrock 1406 I believe, & from what you have all said that seems to be a great choice. Happy to hear that😀

Filled up again this morning, & here are the consumption figures since rebuild....
25/5 - 265 k's for 42l, which is either 6.3 kpl or 15.8 l/100km, whichever you prefer.
30/5 - 433k's for 50l, which is 8.6 kpl or 11.5 l/100km.

I couldn't be happier - amazing really, given the motor is not yet run in, the carby isn't fuelling 100%, & most of that is local driving (not highway). And, it pulls like a train.

[Wrongway]

I've had a number of the 1406's. A couple of them that I rebuilt and at least 4 that I bought new. That was always my go to carb. Can't say enough good things about it.

[Bonne61]

Here is a video of the wife's first drive in the Big Gun. And yes, Ponti has been named - Miss Pontiac 1961 - My wife likes the name as a nod to the 60's pageant models of the time.

 Also, some pics of a logo a mate made up for the car, to help us promote it on social media during Cooly Rocks On. I think he's done an amazing job, not only matching the font of the original badging but also the colours. Close up, the centre of the gold is the same metallic grey as the roof.

 

[Bonne61]

Some rare photos of the car without the wheels skirts. It's a different look - I think I prefer it, but the wife loves her skirts😂

I guess choice is a nice thing to have?

Also, I've "blinged" the Bonneville badge - Stages 1-3 from original, through to it's completed gold dipped state.

This, I love😀 Now to figure out how to weld it on so it doesn't become a souvenir 😬

[JUSTA6]

Nice work on the Badge.  With your wife on the skirts..... a must have!  Simply makes the side profile.

[64 kiwi boni]

Yeah I agree . Kinda like the skirts 

[Wrongway]

Skirts for sure bro. Did you do the gold yourself or send it out? Looks great, very professional.

[Fitzy]

I also experimented with skirts off...ah, the memories. No, wait a minute - we're talking Pontiac skirts? Oh, well I tried on & off and I like 'em on.

Whew. I messed up there but I think I got away with it and nobody noticed.

[64 kiwi boni]

37 minutes ago, Fitzy said:

I also experimented with skirts off...ah, the memories. No, wait a minute - we're talking Pontiac skirts? Oh, well I tried on & off and I like 'em on.

Whew. I messed up there but I think I got away with it and nobody noticed.

🤮🤮🤢🤢
I did !!! 😂😂😂

Edited June 7, 2023 by 64 kiwi boni

[Frosty]

5 hours ago, Fitzy said:

I also experimented with skirts off...ah, the memories. No, wait a minute - we're talking Pontiac skirts? Oh, well I tried on & off and I like 'em on.

Whew. I messed up there but I think I got away with it and nobody noticed.

[JUSTA6]

5 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

🤮🤮🤢🤢
I did !!! 😂😂😂

Me too.....

[Fitzy]

Not me you fools - girls in skirts. You remember girls - those nice soft things we used to play with before the Pontiac entered the garage.

The rumour about me in a skirt is a viscious lie...besides, I haven't got the legs for one.

[Bonne61]

On 6/7/2023 at 1:34 AM, Wrongway said:

Skirts for sure bro. Did you do the gold yourself or send it out? Looks great, very professional.

One mate of mine arranged the gold coating, & another hand-retouched the black.

Legends, both 🙌🏼

9 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Not me you fools - girls in skirts. You remember girls - those nice soft things we used to play with before the Pontiac entered the garage.

The rumour about me in a skirt is a viscious lie...besides, I haven't got the legs for one.

Maybe you just need to try different lengths, until you find what’s right for you 😂

[Wrongway]

Well it looks great bro.

[Bonne61]

We're back safe and sound from Cooly's (see separate Cooly Rocks On post for some pics), and barely a hiccup.

The car ran pretty well, all things considered...

The distributor bush evaporated a coupe of days before we were due to leave, but after having it looked at we decided to take the car anyway - seems it was going to be somewhat noisy but otherwise ok. New distributor ordered, & has arrived before the bloody Edelbrock (still waiting for that to get here😡).

The Saturday Night Car Cruise (which I was really looking forward to) went on without us in the end. After crawling into position & sitting in the lineup for over an hour, Miss Pontiac had a hot flush😆 It seems idling for that long is not her favourite pastime...

Lesson learnt - next time I'll leave it later before joining the line (apparently I was a little bit too eager), & hopefully avoid the issue. To be fair, it has done over 2500 miles since rebuild & that is the only time temperature has been a problem - it's only used about 1l of water otherwise.

I've had the fuse block replaced (pics of new and old attached), so now all of the lights work as they should (in the case of the headlights, still not great🤷‍♂️). Once the carby and distributor are in, the next spend is going to be on some new headlights. I've found some Australian made LED units that (by all reports) look very similar to OEM lights (ie: a more warm light, rather than the typical LED cool blue), but provide excellent lighting (at a price though - about $450/pair).

Until then😁

[64 kiwi boni]

10 hours ago, Bonne61 said:

I've found some Australian made LED units that (by all reports) look very similar to OEM lights (ie: a more warm light, rather than the typical LED cool blue), but provide excellent lighting (at a price though - about $450/pair).

JustA watch out that they are legal where you are Paul, i put leds in my 59 and next wof i got told to take them out, the car did not come factory with them, they are illegal !! crazy aye... you would think a upgrade like that is a saftey issue !!... but thats  nzta for you 

i found myself a set of cibie seamy sealed beams and they are way better than the old ones but no where near as good as led !!!

Edited June 17, 2023 by 64 kiwi boni

[Bonne61]

5 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

JustA watch out that they are legal where you are Paul, i put leds in my 59 and next wof i got told to take them out, the car did not come factory with them, they are illegal !! crazy aye... you would think a upgrade like that is a saftey issue !!... but thats  nzta for you 

i found myself a set of cibie seamy sealed beams and they are way better than the old ones but no where near as good as led !!!

Thanks for that - I've done a bit of digging on that, & these ones are ADR Compliant.

Also, here in Paradise (Queensland, Australia), we don't do yearly Safety Inspections like any other places. They are only required if you either significantly modify or sell a vehicle.

Ergo, until I sell it, I'm safe 😆

[64 kiwi boni]

5 minutes ago, Bonne61 said:

Thanks for that - I've done a bit of digging on that, & these ones are ADR Compliant.

Also, here in Paradise (Queensland, Australia), we don't do yearly Safety Inspections like any other places. They are only required if you either significantly modify or sell a vehicle.

Ergo, until I sell it, I'm safe 😆

Lucky bugger !!!

[Fitzy]

Hi Paul, I also replaced my ancient crumbling rusty fuse box with an aftermarket blade type - checking fuses is nice & easy with those little red lights.