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i think its beer o clock!! my boss is currently stuck in Auckland after going up,to help with the new grand baby but now cant get home thanks to there being a border between Auckland and the rest of nz.. she is whats called level 4 up there and tomorrow it drops to level 3 but shes still not allowed to come home !! guess i will be cooking for myself for a while yet!!! hmmmm tomorrow night will be pork chop night,,, followed by steak eggs and chips night followed by crumbed fish night. followed by lamb roast night... ...... who was i talkiing about ?????? i forget ?

So, I called the machinist today and apparently the block needs to be bored, but the crank and heads have been crack tested and crank only needs linishing. Unfortunately a 030 rebore means new pistons, so went all out and ordered a rebuild kit through Butler which is pistons, rings, bearings, gaskets & seals, plus I chucked in some cam bearings. What the hell - just money, right?

Yes Andy, despite the fact most of us will escape unscathed, this thing is real and just because it's invisible doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Nobody likes restrictions and we don't need internet jerks going nuts about the dangers of vaccinations, but if the choice is permanent damage, death or a side effect from a shot, I'll take the latter. Good advice for everyone is to be sensible and do the right thing - a lot harder for a surprising number of people to do apparently.

Wow, what a day in Nj & Pa.! Rolled the Firebird T/A convert out to stretch her legs. no disappointment on this spectacular early Fall day. Took a drive from the Jersey shore to the Poconos with top down. Perfect 70 degree temperature, plenty of sun, a bit of early color change! Drove thru the Deleware Water Gap, super views & River was Gorgeous! Definitely my favorite time of year, now till late Nov. Even if u need to put the heat on with the top down 👍😁!

Thx Fitzy!👍

A mechanic? On this forum? We don't need no smartarse mechanic telling us how to do things properly. We are more than capable of blundering through without any qualified tradesmen offering helpful advice & tips. Forgive my caustic humour, Russell. Welcome aboard.

I like that the block and cylinder head is still the original one. And the space below the hood looks pretty. Though: Things on my wishlist ... ... chassis and coil spring (especially front) have to be replaced ... exhaust and manifold Here we go. (Anyway my recommendation to all: As long as your classic car runs .... you should use it every sunny day! Life's to short to stay in a garage only)

Very exciting mate 👍👍 i would justA be little worried about those Florida afternoon yellow arrow looking lightening strikes!!!!! haahahaha

Another Kiwi with a great car? You guys earn too much over there!

Way to represent Pontiac....

hey everyone !!! i drive a 1957 pontiac...........hopefully i can have any of my Pontiac questions answered here !!!!..........why do all my pics show up here upsidedown??

fitzy, you may find this interesting

Welcome from a fellow '57 Poncho owner.

Yes Frosty. I'll be so broke at the end of my 'journey' that I might start a crowdfunding effort so's I can chuck some petrol in it to actually start it! I keep thinking of that mushroom cloud image that was sent to me - a fitting parody of when she initially fires up and my Butler pistons escape to the heavens as my garage burns to the ground. It's important to always look on the bright side.😊

I found a 1960 389 to build for my 57 pontiac....needed the 59-60 389 because i wanted to use the current 4 speed hydromatic in my car.........it was missing the heads and badly needing a rebuild I have never built a pontiac motor before,the 347 runs good....but honestly not good enough,and id like a bit more power +347`s are very expensive to rebuild I found a very nice set of #15 68 pontiac heads......they are at the machine shop being rebuilt an NOS edelbrock p4b intake (with 2inch riser) and new 650 edelbrock AVS2 carb a Nos 068 pontiac cam and lifters (a freind had this and gave it to me),and set of 1.5 roller rockers HEI distributer Stock bore 400 Badger pistons/rings (.060 basically for the 389) running a PCV system rather than the crappy road draft tube Im not looking for anything radical....just a good running strong motor hopefully making 300 hp? What ya all think? cant figure out how to flip my pic!!!!!

My hope is to be able to get Lucy back together to do some local road testing before heading to WV. I still have a lot of thrashing to do first.

Beautiful day, almost didn't go. Sprained my wrist. The Ol GTO with it's steamroller front tires, Smaller steering wheel and NO power steering proved to be be a HANDFUL. Made it there and even brought home some bling. Jim Larson was there, Frosty, IndymanJoe, Notallthere's, MikesRivy and even JustaG6 were no shows. Forget the missing man formation. Easier to spotlight the 2 that DID make it.

Alan - You have a good combination of parts. Make sure you get a radiator that works with your newer 389. The '57 347 Pontiac was a reverse flow design. So I would not recommend re-using the stock radiator with the newer 389.

Butler bottom end with an 068 cam spec cam....she's going to be runner for sure when you're done mate!!!

Great pics as always. We took a road trip around the thumb....her idea.

mate ! that's the last thing you say to a tradie these days!!! work is soooo full on you wont see your job done this side of xmas!!! hahaha dangle cash!!!! it works for me!!

Radiator update: after much research (I looked at Be Cool, US Radiator, etc) I ordered a Cold Case aluminium jobbie through Butler: total cost about AU$900 which I think compares favourably with what it would have cost to get my oldie cleaned out & repaired. Lots of goodies on the way, off to see the machinist tomorrow to see what fhe [email protected]#k is going on with my engine inspection. I said to take their time, but didn't mean it!

Left trunk floor panel done, took a long time to make it fit they way I wanted, on to the center panel. Used weld through primer and I think i put it on to thick did not want to weld real nice but turned out ok after some grinding.

Yup the SUVs go in the driveway. The twin Bonnies now go in the garage!

That would be good to have. If they aren't ridiculously prices, I might even buy one. I am sure Dmitri would be interested in having this information.

This is not someone i know, he shows up at the donut shop in Huntington Beach on Saturday mornings and i just had a short chat with him, in fact he was there this last Saturday also and another 62 GP also nice parked next to him, If you want i could try to get some more info if i see him next time I'm down there if he shows up? Would be interesting to know how much they are going to cost.

fluff ????? you mean the bosses junk !

thanks for the pictures JustA👍 certainly some cool cars... my favorite pic....

You wanna see pics of it? Sure thing! Id be happy to share! 😁 And a vid of how i cant keep up with it in my Base model! Hahaha~☆ Enjoy. Beware LOUD! 20210901_200734.mp4

Big news! We enjoy our Bonnie so much we picked up another! Always nice to have a duplicate car to copy from during problem solving.

Welcome ! Cool colour 👍

Gees fitzy I think Russel is a mechanic ! he knows what he is doing ! Unlike this plumber guy ! 😜 Yip certainly agree with you on the wheels 👍👍👍👍👍 rallye wheels win every time for classic look 👍👍👍👍

Welcome to the site, sweet GP.

Thanks mate, yes it's always good to watch someone who actually knows what they're doing. His bright shiny engine is being assembled in a clean, well lit, virtually sterile environment whilst mine will be suspended on my Supercheap stand with me dressed in shorts & singlet bumbling through the assembly, with dust, insects & leaves blowing through the carport, pistons going in backwards, valves upside down, but it will LOOK shit hot. I ordered 2 more cans of Pontiac Blue engine enamel yesterday and am currently cleaning up all ancillary components in preparation for painting. I also jumped into the engine bay and degreased it once more in readiness for some paint and a clean up of wires and stuff. I'll post pics when I have something worthy enough to display.

Nice GP! Looks great. Anything else done to it outside the intake? Any plans to do more?

You like a red rear end? I thought this was a family friendly forum. My bad.

i really enjoy sheet metal work... if something doesn't fit you get to bash it into want you want it to be !!! and if that doesn't work! you start again ! that might sound kind of metaphorical

looks good mate Welding new to old is always going to be fun, at the end of the day you know its good.👍 and thats all that matters. because your driving her down the road and know its right.

Ok Justa few more.

The Pontiac show continues.... To be fair there was some other nice Cars N trucks here too. This guy is the 4 wheel smokin superstar of the Dream Cruise. Once smokin he can go a 1/8 mi in the Jeep without lettin up. FREAKIN AMAZING!!!

Sure thing Frosty! On Sept 7th I just found a RARE 2007 Pontiac G5 GT, color BLACK, Sun & Sound Package with 44K miles! I just bought it and paid it off~ Gonna be posting pics of it ❤️

It is only like that on this one. It has more upgrades like power windows, ac, duel exhaust. I’m having it shipped so not sure of everything yet.

Thanks two lane !!!! I will do exactly that ! I have never played with a auto trans before ! I usually just sent them away and have them rebuilt ! But I think your right it’s only a seal or a o ring gasket fingers crossed it’s not a crack nothing else on the engine was damaged in the smash the whole engine did jump forward and the sump had a dent from where the cross member held it back from jumping clean out of the car !!! I will stick it on the hoist with the boss in it and do the load test you suggest and inspect it from that tin plate 👍👍👍👍 Thanks for the lead Del 👍👍👍 I will call them once I know what’s leaking and see if they can supply me the parts I need ,,, now what’s with buying another rag top !!!! That’s soooo cool mate 👍👍👍👍 It looks to be super clean !!! Even that steering wheel looks to be mint as !

If it helps, Transmission removale is pretty simple. Franks transmission just did my original trans rebuild. Their number is 517 278-7882. His name is john. The rebuild was 2,300 .00. My first one was 4K. If you recall, I bought a 2nd one from a salvage yard and had it rebuilt. Maybe you could do the same. Once I Received it I sent the original out which just came back yesterday. My first one works good but make some funny sounds which may be a bad sign. I bought the shop manual to try and see If I need to send it back. It seems experts say the trans is pretty good but hard to get parts and to rebuild. I plan on driving this for a while but if it has any nagging dependability issues I will consider a newer high performance motor trans combo. This may sound crazy but My son and I drive the car all the time and want to keep doing it. We hate to go without it which is why I bought a second trans and motor. In fact…….. wait for it…. I just picked up another 64 Bonneville convertable! It will take a week to get here from the cross country trek. See pics of the newest Bonnie!

Just left a car show and decided to stop and take a photo and take opportunity of an over cast day. No shadows. Enjoy.

Thank you sir.

ah your welcome Del. i was going to justA stick it in a courier bag and post it to ya, its off the spare parts car out under the trees