Georgia 1959 Bonneville

"My Ride": In the last half of my senior year in college I had a job all lined up and committed so I decided to reward myself with a new car to replace my old second hand '56 Pontiac. Naturally I was partial to Pontiacs and ordered a new 1959 Bonneville 2dht from my home town dealer. It had PS, PB, Hydramatic, Positraction, and tri power. My future wife & I dated in that car. WCKY in Cincinnati, Ohio was one of our favorite stations. I kept that car until 1961 when I traded it in on a new 1961 Corvette. As great and enjoyable as the Corvette was, I never lost my fondness for the Bonneville. In 1976, I purchased a practically identical '59 (it was white and had a 4bl, all else was the same) with only 44,000 miles. I drove it home intending it repaint it black like the original car. Well the money for that paint job always seemed to be either not available or was diverted for other matters. Four years ago I finally commenced the project. I did most of the teardown, trim polishing, parts acquisition, and sending components out for O/H or replating. The really big tasks (frame off, media blasting, body work, priming, painting and reassembly I left to a professional in my area. The car has only 52,000 miles now and I had hoped to keep the engine and transmission original but wound up having the trans. overhauled because of sludge and worn clutches. So far, the engine is fine. The interior is all new and ready to be installed but I am delaying that until all water leaks are addressed. The photo below is how she looks today.

Great story! Good luck on your leak issue. I wish I could see it in person to try to help solve the problem.

Nice story. Nice Bonny.

Believe it or not, I'll be turning over 52,000 original miles on mine this weekend.

More pictures would be great too.

That's a wonderful story and a beautiful '59 Pontiac, 4896!

Thanks for sharing the photo with us.

Does the car have the Sunset Glow interior, or is it red?

Centurion:
It's Sunset Glow, the same as my original car.

Photo submitted with Jun. 18, 2008 post was before the interior was completed. Only the front seat was installed for the car to be drivable. The interior is now installed and the car is finished. Current photo enclosed.

There ya go! That is a great looking car! The only thing I would change are the hubcaps. I think the tri bar spinners would look sweet against that black paint.

starchief_59........perhaps....but, since my purpose in restoring this car was to replicate the car I
had in 1959-1961 I optioned not to use the hubcaps you propose. Thanks anyway for your suggestion.

That's cool, it was just my personal opinion.

So, is this a replica of your car? Is there anything different?

starchief_59:
The original car had factory Tri-power, this one has the Carter AFB 4bl. This car has 52,000 original
miles and I didn't want to push the poor engine with a Tri-power. Besides, those darn three carb.
air cleaners cost a fortune!

Those air cleaners do cost a fortune. The first one I saw went for over $750. The small, chrome, single air cleaners look very cool also.

Keep us updated!