The wife and I literally ran into this 1967 Pontiac Bonneville last weekend at the entrance to the Pull-A-Part yard in Cleveland.
We come here quite often "pulling-parts" for our various aging sleds and I've never seen anything this old here before. Maybe that's why it's prominently on display like a museum piece.
Pontiac had two wheelbase lengths for their (unnecessarily complicated) full-size lineup for 1967. The Catalina, 2+2, Ventura and Grand Prix rode on a 121-inch long wheelbase while the Executive and our top-of-the-line here Bonneville was under pinned by a 124-inch long base.
Although, from the looks of it, from it's vinyl\rubber-ish seats, to crank windows to no air conditioning, I don't see why and how this would be a top-of-the-line anything. Oh, but it does have the optional and oh-so-rare interior mounted spare tire. Note no headrests and there are no seat belts in this car either; nothing to stop us kids from hanging from the back of the front seats on long drives. Are we there yet?
At almost 223-inches long, this car is seriously getting "up-there" in terms of overall length. Amazingly, cars got even longer in the mid-1970's, the longest Pontiac breaching 231-inches long before the Great Downsizing Epoch started in 1977.
Before the five-mile-per-hour, government mandated "safety-bumpers", it was common to see barges like this with bumpers mangled from repeated taps on trees, sign posts, cats, dogs, monkeys and other cars. Interestingly, the luscious chrome ribbons fore and aft are in great shape save for pitting and being filthy.
License plate frame in the trunk here tells us this was a Pennsylvania car; they don't use the salty brine down there they use up here to keep roads safe in winter. It's great stuff to keep roads free of ice but eats cars up.
Ghoulish photos of what appears to be an elderly, hospital bound woman surrounded by loved ones a stark reminder this car had a life at some point. And judging by the smiling faces I can make out in some of the photos not ruined by moisture and mildew, a fairly full and happy one.
Makes me wonder where this big old thing has been during its time as a useful appliance. Seeing the flat spots on the tires it appears it had been sitting a good long while. Despite that, it would appear it's re-storable; there's very little rust and the frame appears to be pin-straight. But four-door sedans like this are hardly ever brought back to life.
400 cubic-inch "Pontiac V-8" with no doubt a two-barrel carburetor. I bet with some fresh gas I can get it running.
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