Floyd De Bore 1958 Pontiac Bonneville

If you asked me what some of my favorite Pontiac model years are, 1958 wouldn't be at the very top of the heap. It was a bit of a transitional year for GM Styling overall, and some divisions pulled it off better (Chevrolet) than others (Buick & Olds)... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

 

Oh, hell yeah!

This one rules. Seriously, this car makes me want--in order from most want to least--a '58 Chevy; Pontiac; Olds; and Buick--and I'm a Ford guy.

And all--or mostly--because of a paint job. And a bunch of other stuff like painted spotlights, stance, wheelcovers and interior.

The thing that really blows your mind to think about, too, is that this was a new car when it was done. Imagine doing that today--you'd be customizing a Kia Soul, or some other lame ride.

But not in '58.

 

That's what Larry Watson called an "all-out" paint job. I've got the July '59 issue of Car Speed and Style magazine (thanks, straykatkustoms!), and this was on the cover of this "Special Issue: All You Need To Know About Painting."

Twenty-year-old Larry is quoted in the magazine: "First, after the car has been prepared for painting, a transparent base color is applied to the entire car. This base color can be gold, silver, copper, white, charcoal or pearlescent. The 'toner,' as it is called, consists of one pint of the color base to one gallon of clear.

The car is given two coats of white, four coats of pearl, then the paint is allowed to set up one day. The task of outlining all body lines and chrome trim of the car with one-inch masking tape is tackled. This is called panelling in.

Eight coats of color (one pint to the gallon) is then applied. After this dries, the tape is removed and the paint is allowed to set up for another couple of days. Color sanding follows to eliminate 'orange peel'; the area is hand-rubbed and finally a stripe between the pearl and the color is applied. Waxing to perfection completes the job."

 

I love the fact that from 58 into the early sixties you could lower a new car, change hubcaps, and paint it and have a custom that looked so radical.

On another ass kissing note, I really dig the artices jive-bomber writes for the journal. I feel like when you write about whatever topic it is, we are talking about last week, not 40+ years ago.

 

Bellflower is where I think I would have been in 1958.

I am trying to keep my Edsel in those years and that style of build. I would love to panel mine in that style..... maybe not as extreme.

As far as automotive design in 1958, I dont think it got much better. The cars of the late 50's to me define what the decade was about, or was striving to be about. They were a true status mark of one success. The glorious excess of chrome baubles and stainless trim, the fins, the elaborate hubcap designs, and features features features. Just look at any late 50's car advertisements.

My own car, the Edsel, was created just for "The Man on his Way Up". Designed to nestle and fill a gap between base Fords and higher Mercs..... it was a Detroit move to secure a spot in the game. And depending on the model it was buried in stainless and chrome.

Back to this Pontiac, the chrome stars and big heavy bumper all scream excess and affluence. Dressed to impress from the factory. Most cars of the Bellflower style didnt require radical body modifications to make a statement. Not much chopping or channelling. Shave some handles, french lights front and back, remove and fill and few trim holes.

The lines of the factory bodies were simply (or when multiple tape patterns applied, not so simply) slathered in candies and flakes. Remove a few small trim pieces to clean up the overall design, lower its belly to the asphalt, and apply some new hues and you had a cool cruiser.

The Potter book is a permanent fixture on my nightstand. I am wearing out the pages for sure.

I try to just let my eye soak in everything in the picture. The painted spot lights are awesome. The colors are amazing.... and I can only imagine what they would look like on modern film. The stance is perfect.....

Watson's House of Style would have to had gotten a restraining order to keep me away.

I dig 1958.

 

Gorgeous Pontiac .... I love that one. It's so wild, but perfectly executed.

 

The flames coming out of the rocket pod and worked around the stars is brilliant.
I can picture them deciding what few bits of trim to remove (nose & deck) and then looking at the stars and Larry maybe saying, 'no, those are cool, I can work with those.'

Edit: Now that I look at the photo of the back again, it looks like they even keep the P O N T I A C letter trim on the trunk lid and he worked that into the paint layout too.

 

super Cool Pontiac.
Everytime when i see gorgeus paintjobs like these, I feel I should paint my Elli Edsel too, like
Larry painted those in 50`- 60`s

 

Well I love the 58 Pontiacs!

 

Everything looks better when it's one inch off the ground.

While not my favorite car of that era, I do like what Watson did with it and (exactly as Jive-Bomber said), embraced the busy details of the '58 Pontiac to perfection.

Still... this one is my favorite '58 GM product ever, Jim Doss' Impala. It is so right...

 

That Impala kills it.

As much as I love my car,.....if an '58 Impala came along......

Definately a bucket list car.

 

I just super heart love 58 GM's, but that tin injun is just so wildly cool. One of these days I swear it!

If I can even find a 58 Poncho.

 

The Pontiac is over the top awesome..the Impala is clean and beautiful..all the 1958 cars were cool and chromey..my friends big brother came home with a new 58 Bonneville that was metallic root beer, we fought for rides in that car..even the Studebaker/Packard was so ugly it was beautiful..

 

Today I got KUSTOMS Illustrated nr 29, there is another version of Jim Doss`s 1958 Impala, looking even better.. sorry my scanner just died / I quess it`s illegal to scan pictures too..

 

These cars were hot right outta the box. The improvements in drivetrains, the styling advances, and the sense of pride in America and American Made Products. When a new Pontiac in the driveway was a sign of success and not bad credit.....

 

nice blog

very sharp car

 

The paintjob on that Poncho is /was unbelievable!!! I'm reminded of Mox Miller's '58 Chevy as well reading this thread.

 

If I remember correctly, Floyd was ONLY 15 YEARS OLD when Watson did the car. He was the son of a very sucessful farmer.

 

This is true. From what I recall, not only was he very young, eh was the son of a successful Dutch farmer (hence the last name)--one of many people of Dutch ancestry who settled in the Bellflower area.

In fact, there was a pretty hardcore car club in that area called the Dutchers in that period.

Last point about this Pontiac--something I just noticed: when he taped it off, Watson DID NOT go around the door handles with a panel outline--he ran the edge of one panel through the door handles.

This is a lot harder than just paneling around the entire handle (it even broke up the pinstripe) but it looks more exciting somehow.

 

I was about 12 yrs old standing on my front porch in Lakewood, when Floyd drove by with that paint job...I flipped, it was the coolest car I had ever seen up close.

 

Floyd's Bonneville has kinda grown on me even though I found it too over-the-top at first. Jim Doss's Impala as shown in Gotgas's post is a cleaner expression that does what a great custom should; improve on the original design.

I've often wondered if there was an earlier version of Floyd's Pontiac that was a simpler design, more in the vein of the first green/gold version of the Doss Impala. Much like Larry's own '58 T-bird, that Impala later had additional paneling and striping done that didn't work as well as its initial tretment.

 

One of my all time favorite mild Customs-just tits. Dude had some coin to go all out on a new car.

Watson's panel jobs ruled!

Jive Bomber's articles rule too.

What became of the car?

What would that paint job cost today!!!??? That would be some serious work to clone.

 

That car is probably my favorite 58 of all time. My old pink and white 58 chiefton had a padded carson like top, made it look like a convertible with the plastic rear window too. 3 deuce 370, 3 speed on the column, chrome reverse with spiders, I still kick myself for selling it, but I do still have a killer drawing of the car done by Steve Stanford. Any body seen it?

 

Those were great times at General Motors. In '58 they had totally new body styles in all divisions ,getting rid of the boxier '57 look. Then ,in 1959, they did a total styling change again. I loved that De Bore '58. I was 13 years old at the time and knee deep in the small 25 cent Car craft, Rod & Custom and Car Speed & Style magazines.

 

one of my all-time favorite paint jobs

 

id say just paintwork alone at least 5-7 grand

 

Very nice.... Exciting actually.

 

precursor of modern lowrider paint.
I wish we could see it in modern pictures.bad ass car.

 

Awesome car. I echo Hot Rod Ta He'll, what happened to it? Probably sadly doesn't look like that anymore.