[goatless]

Anyone else here have one? I know Ben M. and Greg Reid have had one...
There's not much turning up in a search of the archives. There's got to be more of these floating around out there.

We just picked up a low milage '77 Bonneville Brougham for my teenage son. A real cream puff, one family car with a genuine Pontiac 350 under the hood. The idea is to put it into limited service for the next year and a half, until he gets his license, in order to find all of those little problems that are likely to creep up on a car that has only racked up 800 or so miles per year over the last 35 years.



Already noticed that the fuel return line is leaking at the pump. All of the belts and hoses still look like originals!

The tires are another issue. The previous owner had a tire blow out while the car was parked. Luckily it waited until after he had taken a longer trip- He said he got home and parked it, the next morning the tire was ripped wide open!
I had read here that some of these later big cars had the smaller bolt pattern. I was kind of hoping this was the case as I have many sets of mounted tires to choose from for the 4 3/4 bolt pattern. Well, that wasn't the case for this one. I did throw on one of the spares from my '69 Bonneville in place of the match to the exploded tire since it showed cracks around the edge of the tread. The fronts look to be newer but they'll be replaced as well.

She still has the original exhaust system, but the resonator is showing rust on the bottom. I'm hoping one of the take-off dual exhaust systems sitting on the shelf can be adapted to this car. I know the single hump cross member might be a problem. Any double hump cross members swap in?

The car has a power antenna that has issues. I can hear the motor run when I push the switch but it doesn't move. I know the antenna is in there as I can see the top of it. I'd like to get this fixed so we can listen to the radio.

The idea is to make this a good reliable car for my son. I want to keep it low buck
since really it's supposed to be his car/his money (but I know I'll be kicking in when needed ), but I'd like to make it a bit cooler. Well, as cool as you can make a 1977 Bonneville 4 door on a limited budget. Right now white letter tires and a dual exhaust will have to do.

BTW, here's a shot of my 14 year old son doing his first Pontiac powered burnout! The car seems surprising powerful for a 7.6:1 350 in a big car.

[1967Tempest]

Man! Sweet ride! I would have killed for that to be my first car! Mine was a 72 Nova with MANY, MANY issues! Still had fun with it though!

A true P350 will be fun and get reasonable MPG. Great color too!

On the 4 door thing. I am starting to LOVE 4 doors. I really love Hardtops. Not sure if they have one that into the 70's though. I would get a set of RARE headers and a true dual exhaust. Remove the white walls, add a real stereo and drive the heck out of it.



P.S. That car is cool as it is!

[Ben M.]

Heh, your car blew out its tire too? When I bought mine it had a blown out tire in the trunk too. The guy said it blew out on the freeway - fortunately no damage to the car, just ruined the rim. 5 on 4.75 bolt pattern I believe was a later B-body thing or a 6 cylinder thing. The literature and info I could find said in 1978 and later only towing packages or heavy duty suspension cars got the big wheels. Factory info on these cars is difficult to come by, so expect a long hard battle on some things or fights over other supposed "experts" who haven't ever owned one.

Power antenna sounds but no movement? Yeah, typical GM power antenna motor from the era. My car had one, but amusingly also had the window antenna too. I pulled the connection from the front fender power antenna and just used the window one. Finding a working one is rare and restorations of the one you have will not be cheap. Fortunately they are almost the same as the Trans Am of this era, so there are people out there rebuilding them if you choose to go that route.

No double hump crossmembers off the shelf that I know of. I don't think the G-body ones would have fit properly.

Originally Posted by 1967Tempest

On the 4 door thing. I am starting to LOVE 4 doors. I really love Hardtops. Not sure if they have one that into the 70's though. I would get a set of RARE headers and a true dual exhaust.

Yeah, after having a kid and seeing the utility, I just love 4 doors and wagons over the "been there, done that" 2 door cars. Hard tops were done after 1976, posts only after that as it was part of that "rollovers are dangerous and cars are unsafe!" line of thinking that ended convertibles.

[goatless]

Got plates for it today and put some miles on it. Man, this thing drives nice!
Somehow the hood on this one seems longer than my '69 Bonnie. Might just be the shape of it... or maybe that gun sight hood ornament out front.

Replaced the cracked fuel line and replaced the original belts before hitting the road.

Exhaust will need work soon, the original tail pipe and resonator are a little rough.

Not going to put a lot of effort into repairing the power antenna. If I can't get it working I'll just manually extend it and leave it up or put on a universal fixed antenna.

[goatless]

I have to add- this car actually gets a lot more attention than I would have thought!

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by goatless

Somehow the hood on this one seems longer than my '69 Bonnie. Might just be the shape of it... or maybe that gun sight hood ornament out front.

It's just the shape. These cars were almost 16" shorter than the previous generation of car and the hoods are much smaller and lighter than they were in the 60's.

Glad you're getting attention, people used to tell me to move my piece of junk when I was driving it around ;-)

[carguy66cars]

Looks good, are you sure you wern't the one in there doing the burnout? Heres mine and this one justs floats down the road, I love it and it gets alot of looks! Hope he has a good time with it.

Lyn.

[455Grandville]

Looks like it's missing its fender skirts -

I had a '78 for years ; I yanked the 301 out for a '73 400 4 bbl out of a 73 Grand Am that I overhauled which changed the personality of the car.

It was reliable, and it was my wifes driver and she even liked it much more than her unreliable POS Cavalier.

Wish I had kept it -

[455Grandville]

Originally Posted by 1967Tempest

On the 4 door thing. I am starting to LOVE 4 doors. I really love Hardtops. !

They are awesome when you put all 4 windows down -

[goatless]

It came with one skirt. Not sure that I like the look of the 4 door with the skirts anyhow- it looks sedate enough as it is!

[goatless]

Erik tackled his first project on the car today. Coolant was coming out of the seep hole on the water pump so he replaced it... with only minimal assistance from me.

[Ben M.]

Originally Posted by goatless

Erik tackled his first project on the car today. Coolant was coming out of the seep hole on the water pump so he replaced it... with only minimal assistance from me.

A good first project to learn how to maintain a car and put parts back together correctly while learning that basic repairs and investigations aren't something to be afraid of!

[goatless]

Racking up the miles on this thing! Turned 30,000 today. My son wanted to be behind the wheel when it turned over, so we pulled onto a quiet dead end street and he put the last mile on it- had to drive up and down the street a couple of times.



Erik had a big grin as all of the numbers rolled over!

[Bull]

That's really a great looking car, Jeremy.

[Old Blue 66]

Somehow I missed this thread. Great car. Put duel exhaust and some white letter tires on it an call it a hot rod. Congrats on the find.

[goatless]

Finally got around to getting the white letter tires mounted up. Gives it a bit different look than the old whitewalls.
225/70/15 General Altimax- look just about right on there.

[jmt455]

Great looking Bonneville!

the antennas usually just need a replacement drive cable.
I've bought from these guys before with great results: http://www.antennamastsrus.com/index.htm

They don't show a current listing for your Bonneville, but it's probably worth a phone call...

[David Holmberg]

Great first car Jeremy. I had a 78 Bonneville that was maroon inside and out. I bought it in 86 for the then wife to drive before the birth of my first son. (he came home in that Pontiac) It drove and rode very well, mine had the 301 though, the 350 would have been nice.

I sold it right after the divorce, should have kept it.

[camerjeff]

Great Looking Bonneville! I have a 78 Impala Wagon and we like it a lot, gets a lot of attention also. A Safari would have been better, but the Chevy was the right time right price. Good to see someone enjoying the Lost generation B-Bodies!

[north]

My first "regular" car (read: non S***box) was a one year old 79 Impala sedan with a 305 2bbl (it was fully equipped with both an AM radio and a rear defroster!!) but my buddy had a 77-78 Bonneville sedan and I was sick with envy because his had a Pontiac 400 4bbl.

Those 77-79 full size GM's were fantastic cars. For their day they handled great (way better than the 71-76 cars) especially if they had the F41-Y96 type package. Performance was (again relative to the day) strong thanks to much lower weight and still relatively large engines (Poncho 400 and chevy 350 4bbl's were stout engines in an era of 90 horse V6's).

Most of all (but lost today to collectors) was how crisp, slim and functional these cars looked in the day especially compared to the then obese previous generation full size and the awkward styled A bodies of 73-77. Bill Mitchell called it the "sheer look" where the body was the minimum necessary to smooth out the functional components underneath.

A 77-79 Impala (or equivalent Catalina) police car with a 350 4bbl and cop suspension was as good as it got in the dark ages. I'd love to see more nice copies of those era fullsize GM's at the shows.


GM hit the mark with these cars.