60 Bonneville

[heyjohnxx]

Looking for suggestions on wheels for this, no donks please

[64Comet404]

A nice set of deep chrome reverse rims on whitewalls would look good on it.

[Rodent]

Da interwebs sez that 8-lugs came out part way through the 1960 model year, so that is an option if you want stock.

[TransAmMike]

Some suggestions

[StevenGuthmiller]

Of course I would go stock.

If you decide to go that way, the Trumpeter '60 Bonneville kit has both a set of 8 lug wheels, as well as a set of stock '60 hubcaps.

 

 

My personal opinion, but with an "old" car, I would always go with "old school" wheels if not stock.

Chrome reverse would be good.

Otherwise you can never go wrong with Cragars or Torque Thrusts.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Fat Brian]

Without knowing your plans for the build it's impossible to make a recommendation. Are going classic custom? Modern custom? Kind of a day two muscle vibe? 

[heyjohnxx]

I would like to leave it stock looking. I don't have the Trumpeter kit, but I have a couple that have the 8 lug wheels. Thanks for the suggestions.

[espo]

It's a Pontiac, go with the factory 8 lugs. If you want to do any mods on the rolling stock maybe widen the wheels on the outer edge is all. 

[ChrisBcritter]

Let's open a nice fresh can of worms...

Don't bother with Trumpeter for the 8-lugs; they're so flat they look like the ones used as custom parts in some old Jo-Han kits. The original AMT '62 Bonneville or the Moebius '61 Ventura are your best bets.

The wheelcovers in the original '60 AMT kit were the optional tri-bar spinner style as seen in the photo Steve posted; the standard covers you see in the factory brochure have never been kitted. The later Craftsman kits had the kit's open wheels modified to look sort of like the spinner ones, but are inaccurate and usually have sink marks to boot. The deluxe spinner covers in the Trumpeter '60 kit are not correct for '60 - they're actually optional ones for the '61 Bonneville, which gives you a choice if you have an original AMT '61, which had the standard wheelcovers (which could also be used on the Moebius '61 Catalina/Ventura).

There goes the bell - hope you were taking notes. Tomorrow we'll discuss my idea for creating standard wheelcovers for the '59 Bonneville!  

Edited December 11, 2020 by ChrisBcritter

[DonW]

Put some -spoke American Mags on it and paint it black or dark red. In my humble opinion.

[StevenGuthmiller]

On 12/11/2020 at 4:02 PM, ChrisBcritter said:

The wheelcovers in the original '60 AMT kit were the optional tri-bar spinner style as seen in the photo Steve posted; the standard covers you see in the factory brochure have never been kitted. The later Craftsman kits had the kit's open wheels modified to look sort of like the spinner ones, but are inaccurate and usually have sink marks to boot. The deluxe spinner covers in the Trumpeter '60 kit are not correct for '60 - they're actually optional ones for the '61 Bonneville, which gives you a choice if you have an original AMT '61, which had the standard wheelcovers (which could also be used on the Moebius '61 Catalina/Ventura).

I'm not sure that I agree.

I'm no expert on early '60s Bonnevilles, but a Google search shows an awful lot of '60 Bonnevilles with spinner caps.

If they were truly not available on the '60, an awful lot of guys are putting '61 caps on their '60s.

 

By the way, this is a pic of the Trumpeter '60 Bonneville 3 bar spinner caps.

 

 

And the AMT annual '61 Bonneville caps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

[espo]

The "Spinner" style Hub Caps were an optional step up from the standard full wheel cover on the Bonneville. The eight lug wheels on the optional aluminum brake drum setup could be had across all of the model lines, but were expensive at the time and there were those who didn't trust the then new brake design. Up until they started offering Disc Brakes on the '67 Model cars this was as good as it got for brakes. One draw back on the 1:1 Pontiacs was that this wheel design limited your option for upgrading your wheels to a larger diameter wheel.   

[ChrisBcritter]

Well, shoot. Looking at the photo (rather than relying on what passes for my memory), the Trumpeter covers look like an amalgam of '60 spinners and '61 standards. The '60 spinners didn't have those teeth around the center, at least.

[StevenGuthmiller]

6 minutes ago, ChrisBcritter said:

The '60 spinners didn't have those teeth around the center, at least.

Actually, they do.

The teeth are just too pronounced on the Trumpeter wheel covers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

[ChrisBcritter]

I, er - ugh.

Hey John, how about those nice wire wheels from the '65 Riviera kit for your Bonneville? 

[peteski]

Why worry about overdone "teeth" in a wheel cover?  It is only a model (toy) after all.  At least that's what many said about the recent Revell Jaguar with a windshield that is too short.   

At least wheel covers can be easily redone by the modeler (even using 3D printing) while reworking the body and windshield of that Jaguar would require major surgery.

I'm not pointing fingers at any specific people - just find it amusing that some major inaccuracies in a model are ignored by certain group of modelers, but is it ok to point out smaller flaws which are easier to fix without being told to get over it because it is just a hobby..

Edited December 13, 2020 by peteski

[StevenGuthmiller]

Regardless of accuracy, if it were mine, I would use a set of the 8 lugs, without a doubt.

All of the old AMT and MPC kits had pretty nice 8 lug wheels.

With a little paint detailing, they look pretty convincing, and there's no better look for a Pontiac from this era.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

[unclescott58]

For a '60? I'd go with the 8-lugs. The most beautiful wheels ever offered by Pontiac. There is some debate if they were ever truely offered on the 1960 Pontiacs by the factory or not. They were offered on the 61's. And they look great on the '60 I've seen with them. So that's route I'd go. 

[espo]

5 hours ago, unclescott58 said:

For a '60? I'd go with the 8-lugs. The most beautiful wheels ever offered by Pontiac. There is some debate if they were ever truely offered on the 1960 Pontiacs by the factory or not. They were offered on the 61's. And they look great on the '60 I've seen with them. So that's route I'd go. 

Pontiac actually started offering the 8 lug wheel and brake combination on the '59 year models. Not very common but again this was an expensive option. By the'60 model run they were becoming much more common and they increased in the following years thru the '66 year models.  

[unclescott58]

53 minutes ago, espo said:

Pontiac actually started offering the 8 lug wheel and brake combination on the '59 year models. Not very common but again this was an expensive option. By the'60 model run they were becoming much more common and they increased in the following years thru the '66 year models.  

Through '66? Why do my official Pontiac sales manuals still list them in '67 and '68 then? I don't have any "official" Pontiac materials, other than sales brochures for '59 and '60. And nothing is mentioned about them in either brochure. I had always heard late 1960 for there first appearance. Either way, any '59 or '60 would great with them. 

[espo]

When I was growing up we had at least two 1959 Pontiacs in town with the option and this is what I based my comment on. With the advent of the Disk Brake option starting with the '67's I don't recall ever seeing any with the 8 Lug Wheel and brake system.  

[unclescott58]

Doing a quick search online, it looks most parties agree that Pontiac 8 lug wheels came out mid-1960. And again were available through the 1968 model run on all full-size Pontiacs. In 1965 Pontiac did show off a set of 8 lugs for the '66 GTO. But with disc brakes coming soon, Pontiac decided not go through with them. This I had never heard of before. But, there are photos of them. 

Edited December 15, 2020 by unclescott58

[espo]

2 minutes ago, unclescott58 said:

Doing a quick search online, it looks most parties agree that Pontiac 8 lug wheels came out mid-1960. And again were available through the 1968 model run on all full-size Pontiacs. In 1965 Pontiac did show off a set of 8 lugs for the '66 GTO. But with disc brakes coming soon, Pontiac decided not go through with them. This I had never heard of before. But, there photos of them. 

I just went and did a Google search for images of full size Pontiacs. I guess I stand corrected on the '67 and '68 cars and the 8 Lug Wheels. The few that they had were of the 2 + 2 and Grand Prix equipped with that setup. These are the first ones I have ever seen equipped that way. The Pontiac Rally Wheel with a five spoke appearance were the most common and those had the Disk Brakes. 

[StevenGuthmiller]

Don't know how common they were on the '67-'68s but they were available, and as always, they look terrific!

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

[unclescott58]

1 minute ago, espo said:

I just went and did a Google search for images of full size Pontiacs. I guess I stand corrected on the '67 and '68 cars and the 8 Lug Wheels. The few that they had were of the 2 + 2 and Grand Prix equipped with that setup. These are the first ones I have ever seen equipped that way. The Pontiac Rally Wheel with a five spoke appearance were the most common and those had the Disk Brakes. 

The Pontiac 5-spoke Rally II Wheel application depends on the year. Before '69, on the full-size Pontiacs you could not get disc brakes with any other optional wheels. The disc brake setup for full-size '67 and '68 Pontiacs required and came with special wheels and wheel covers. Yet you could get Rally II Wheels with disc brakes on the '67 and '68 mid-size Pontiacs and Firebirds.