First car, First love

Thanks to an article by @moparpep a while back, I was finally able to find a model kit of my first car, a 1969 Pontiac Bonneville, purchased from the MCW Finishes website, where he found a kit for his first car. I bought the real one way back in 1981, when I was just 17 years old, from a used car lot off the side of Highway 20 near Sioux City, Iowa. It was a bit rusty and forlorn-looking just sitting there, but with a charged up battery, it started right up - and ran well for the next 12 years!

The MCW resin kit was just the body and clear plastic for the windows. I had to buy an MPC 1970 Bonneville kit elsewhere to provide the interior, chassis and drivetrain, but that kit was relatively easy to come by, and not very pricey. To the boxed kit I added extra seat belts, rear and side mirrors, radio antenna, and rear deck audio speakers (Craig's, of course!). The resin body took a lot of work to make the front and rear bumper parts fit well. The chrome slots were from the spares box and happened to be a good match. The finish paint was Val Spar Burgundy in a rattle can, which also appears to be a good match to the original. The vinyl roof was painted with vallejo flat black primer.

Lots of good memories of that car, and never had an issue with it, other than a rear axle bearing and U-joints wearing out once - nothing unusual for those old cars. It drove real nice at 90 mph, but with a 2 barrel carb on top of the 400 C.I.D motor (the smallest one available in that model!), it would only top out at 115 - not that I ever drove it that fast ;). I know those pointy nosed Pontiacs weren't everyones' cup of tea, but I think they're beautiful even to this day.

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