[johnta1]

I also own a 1965 Bonneville 4DRHT which is a PHS documented 421 HO Tri-power car. (How many 4 door hardtop cars had a 421HO tri-power from new??).

Automatic or manual?

[Heybuck]

It’s an Automatic. Bonneville Brougham.
It came to Australia brand new and was converted to RHD before it could be sold new.
I think it has every factory option except A/C. I can understand why as the steering column goes right through where the A/C unit would normally be fitted. Oh, it didn’t have 8 lug wheels either.
Sadly it’s in very poor condition, a lot of surface rust although very little structural rust. It was pulled apart maybe 30 years ago, the paint was stripped off and then left in an open ended shed where it had dogs living in it.
I bought it about 25 years ago, put it in a dry and secure garage and it hasn’t had anything done since. I guess I’ll have to sell it as-is one day but it will make a great project for someone

[johnta1]

Here's a snip of the engine production totals for 65:




Not sure what your engine ID is, but I think it would be relatively rare?
I didn't look up how many Bonneville Brougham's were made, but also pretty rare in itself?

My Dad had a 65 Bonneville when I was younger.
(don't think it was a Brougham though or 421)

[Heybuck]

Originally Posted by johnta1

Here's a snip of the engine production totals for 65:




Not sure what your engine ID is, but I think it would be relatively rare?
I didn't look up how many Bonneville Brougham's were made, but also pretty rare in itself?

My engine code is YK..

So to tell the complete story, I bought this car simply because it was a RHD conversion. I only wanted the dash out of it and my original intent was to pull the dash, use the dash in my 1965 Parisienne Convertible and scrap the rest of the Bonneville.

Since starting this topic, I have thought back and realise I bought the Bonneville back in 1997, so 28 years ago. (How time flies!!!!). So back then, it was a 32 year old car, it was stinking dirty (dogs living in it), it was unassembled, it had NO ENGINE and it had no paint and lots of surface rust.

I had the car brought to my house and I pulled the seats out which despite dogs living in the car, the seats were in surprisingly good condition. But FILTHY dirty. And the front bench seat was 6 way electric so I thought I'd easily sell the interior once I'd scrubbed it all clean. The weather was hot hot hot at the time so I started the scrub down on the back lawn with a garden hose to rinse it all off.

That's when I found the build sheet tucked up under the lip of the rear seat. I saw "YK" as the engine code and I could hardly believe my eyes. I approached the seller and asked about the engine. He knew what he had and wanted a fair load of cash for it. I agreed but when I saw the engine, pulled apart, some parts missing, no long branch manifolds, wrong heads, etc, I said no.

Fast forward a few months and a mate told me he had seen the engine listed for sale but in a totally different location to where the seller of my car was. And a totally different phone number. So I called the new phone number and it turned out this new seller was selling an engine out of a 1965 Bonneville Convertible. All he had listed was "421 Big Block" and his phone number. I went to see him and the engine was still in the Convertible and was so covered in oil and dirt you couldn't see the engine code. So agreed to buy everything he was selling. I bought the engine, transmission, rear end, 8 lug wheels, wood rim steering wheel and a few front end parts. When I went back to collect all my stuff, I took a brush to the engine code and again, could not believe my eyes, it said YK!!!

This seller was chopping up the nicest convertible you can imagine. He was fitting a 454 Supercharged Chev engine, 9" Ford rear, he had the car tubbed to fit huge wheels. Well good luck to him, bad luck for the convertible but I think I was the winner. The engine in the convertible had an Edelbrock manifold and I think an 850cfm Holley carb - so no tri-power included.

In the interim, I had applied for the PHS on my Bonneville and they verified it was an original 421 HO Tri-power car and even said the car was marked as Export.

Fast forward a bit more and I had a tree cutter come to lop some trees at my house. Nice guy, I've used him for over 40 years. He had a look at my Bonneville and I was staggered when he told me his old boss (Frank)used to have a big blue Pontiac years earlier. One thing led to another and I rang his old boss who remembered the car, it was only a few years old when he bought it. About 3 or 4y/o and he sold it a few years later. So he only owned it for 3 or 4 years himself.

Now the best bit.......... Frank told me he had no end of trouble with the car, they had constant trouble getting it to run right so they took the intake off and put a regular Pontiac manifold and carburettor on the car and from then on it was OK to drive. He told me "I've still got all those old parts we took off it out in the shed, you can have them if you want them". I went over, amazingly he lived only a few streets from where my parents had moved to, and he gave me the original tri-power manifold and a box of carburettors..

So to end all this, by then I'd bought my 1966 Grand Prix, the Bonneville was in the way at home so I transported it down to a mates farm 70 miles away, put it in a dry steel garage, covered it up and there it lies to this day. Always wanted to restore it but my business was taking up huge amounts of time, money was always tight (still is...), family, paying off a house etc etc etc.

FINALLY now got started on my Parisienne, I'm not using the Bonneville dash and once the Parisienne is done and I'm properly retired, maybe I can live the Bonneville Dream. But I'm 75, still working but I'm tired so who knows what might happen to the Bonneville in the long term,

Cheers all

Ian