1960 Bonneville Convertible

[Frosty]

I had breakfast this morning with a fellow Widetracker. I had contacted him about the rare "Widetrackin'" 45-rpm record I found by the Fabulous Pak (a group that had members that would later form Grand Funk Railroad). I had recently moved and I had gone through my records to find it. So I gave him that 45 plus a 45-rpm copy of Ronny and the Daytona's Little GTO, and the Beach Boys Little Deuce Coupe 33 1/3 long play (LP) record album. So we arranged to meet at his place and then go to a local restaurant to eat.

After we returned to his house, I got a chance to look at his stable of project cars and finished cars. He has:

'72 Chevy 3/4 ton pick up with a 402/396 Big Block - its for sale

'67 GTO 400 4-speed car

'64 Chevy 409 4-speed Impala SS convertible - its for sale

'62 Grand Prix with a 389 and 4-speed

'66 Catalina Station Wagon

At the center of our discussion was his '60 Bonneville convertible. Now off the cuff I'd say there is nothing particularly rare about a '60 Bonnie convertible. However, once you start to take a look at it closely, there is a lot to appreciate. To start with, my buddy is the second owner of the car. It has only 54K original miles on it. It is a 389 with an automatic. The car was purchased off the turn table in dealership's show room 3 weeks into the start of the 1960 model year. The car was driven by the original owner's wife and she was a secretary, so her high heels wore a small hole in the carpet in front of the accelerator, other than that, the interior is pristine. Today there is rust on the outside of the body, most of which was due to sanding that the original owner did back in the mid-to-late 60s and he never primed or painted it to protect it. However, much of the metal has not decayed very badly. However, the lower right front fender and hood will have to patched or replaced. Finally, in the five dago trunk is the full size spare tire. It is the original spare tire, and it is still filled with air from 1959 !

Now here is where this car gets interesting. The car is officially called Black Pearl. In the light, it looks like a combination charcoal gray with purple or amethyst. Only two Bonnevilles were known to have been painted with this color, at the very beginning of the '60 model year. This would appear to be a third one. The other two had black/charcoal/gray triple color interior, this one is a triple red color interior and none were known to exist with this color interior. This car has power windows front and rear, while most Bonnevilles only had front power windows. The chrome trim across the 8’ 6” rear quarter panels has three spears within it, while a standard Bonneville has four.

So this appears to be a very rare or unusual ’60 Bonneville. The car while be restored and re-painted on the outside, but the interior and trunk will remain untouched, preserving much of it’s patina. The engine compartment will be cleaned up and detailed.

Outside of the car

Here is the interior and trunk

Here is the engine bay

[Ringo64]

Very cool, nice to hear about these stories.

That's an intereseting Bonnie indeed! Nice color too. Needs some TLC but it's in great shape for being over 50 years old.

Any pics of the other cars that he had?

[Frosty]

Of course there is. Although the station wagon was under a car cover, which I didn't remove. The rest of the vehicles were uncovered already..

[Mariachi]

NOICE!

[Pontiac60]

I have the 1960 Bonneville you are talking about. I live in Sweden and restoring it to its former glory.

 

[Ringo64]

4 hours ago, Pontiac60 said:

I have the 1960 Bonneville you are talking about. I live in Sweden and restoring it to its former glory.

 

Excellent!  Love to see some pics and learn about you/it in our Introduce Yourself forum.

[Frosty]

I would love to see restoration progress pictures.