1960 Pontiac Bonneville Custom Coupe

[Peter Lombardo]

1960 Pontiac Bonneville Coupe

This began life as a Trumpeter Bonneville Convertible. I grafted on a roof from an AMT 1967 Chevrolet to give it a more modern semi fastback look. All of the side moldings were removed and reshaped. The side rear quarter horizontal fins were extended a scale 3 inches.

The doors were extended a scale one foot, handles removed and opened and then hinged with homemade†Lambo Style†hinges. The tail light pods on the top of the rear quarter panels were removed and the backup lights were converted into tail lights.

The hood was smoothed with the center indentation filled in. Both front and rear chrome bumpers were installed, grinded down and filled with putty and shaped to blend into the overall style of the car. Both the engine and chassis were built close to original with detail painting and all of the usual wires and hoses.

The body once smooth was primed, sanded, topped with solid white, and sanded again. It was then painted Mopar pearl white. Once dry it had House of Kolor pearl orange faded onto the bottom of the body, this was then topped with and faded up into the pearl white with Tamiya clear orange. Once dry the entire car was covered with Clear Effex’s which is a clear lacquer with intense metal flake sparkle. Once dry, bare metal foil was applied and the entire body was covered with Future shot through my air brush.

Windows were fabricated with acetate sheet. The wheels, with HOK orange trim, came from a Testers quick build Chezoom kit with tires from the parts box. The car was lowered down as low as it could be to help give it a long…..wide…..and low look.

This was my first Trumpeter kit and I found it to be different from the usual AMT, Revell and Tamiya offerings. Most of the moldings were very thick…..so much so that the body doors were difficult to open.

The chrome plating was like steel it was so hard (grinding the bumpers almost produced sparks) and the overall fit was pretty good, especially the engine that went together very nicely, although it could have used some nice chrome valve covers and air cleaner ( paint them if you do not want chrome, but give us the option).

And it is so weird why they would chrome the exhaust system, but not the rearview mirrors, door handles, antennas and wipers…..very strange production planning to say the least.

One more thing was weird…..the hood hinges are housed on a beautiful photo etched brass plate. They make the hinge construction appear simple so I figured “why not?†But the wire used to hold the hinges together is too thin and no matter how I tried to crimp the ends it would not work. In the end, I settled for my usual bent brass wire hinge because I was on a deadline. I have not given up on the hinge, I just need to fine the proper diameter wire ( I am thinking a very fine solder wire may work best…we’ll see).

Anyway, I am pretty happy with the finished product. This is the final car for the NNL East show in 10 days. It was my goal to complete this one and the 1960 ford Fastback….I had hoped to complete my 1963 thunderbird custom coupe, but the fastback Ford bumped the T Bird back a bit. As always, comments, up or down, are always welcome….thanks for looking.

[Randy Kern]

I'm not a real fan of customs, because they can sometimes look cartoonish, but I really like the transformation you did to this body style! The '67 Chevy roof looks perfect on it, helping to shrink the huge trunk surface. I've got this kit also, wanting to graft a '60 Chevy roof on, but now I'm rethinking that. The only thing I would do different would be to try to trim down the big front bumper, otherwise it's beautiful! It looks like you just got it done, by the glue in the headlights . Very cool, and I'll be looking for it at NNL East!

[Foxer]

Interesting custom. I do like the roof. Will be looking for it at NNL.

[Jantrix]

Pete that looks great. I have the same kit, and was wondering what to do with that whole roof "issue". This is a great idea and I even have a spare 67 Chevelle body rolling around somewhere. Great work.

[cafeguy79]

That is a very nice build Pete.