Hello folks,
I got a Bonnie story for ya'll. I will try not to make this too long but the story is worth telling. I live in St. Pete Florida and my finace' , up until 3 days ago lived in Memphis TN. We were working on relocating her here to Florida when she fell on some hard times, lost her 04' Impala and was in need of a car quickly and for cheap. Her friend said he had come across a 94 Bonneville and would bring it over in a couple of days. All of this was about a month ago just for reference. Well, we heard a horrendous scraping sound outside and looked out the window to see our new Bonnie pulling up in the apartment'* parking lot. Apparently, from what her friend said, the car'* title had been destroyed and the car was to be parted out but it still ran and figured it might be worth a shot for us to see if we could do anything with it. The scraping sound was the front rotors which were worn all the way down to the vanes that are in the middle of the braking surfaces....hahaha. I had never seen a rotor worn this bad and not completely fall apart. Unfortunately, we were in such a hurry to try and get the car road worthy that we didnt stop to take pics of when we first got it and its a shame because those pics would have been worth a million. The interior was full of old mcdonalds bags and other garbage. The maroon carpet was black mostly all over from spilt sodas. The drivers side rear door fixed window was punched out along with the lock on the trunk so we couldnt open it at all. We were able to peek into the trunk thru the armrest in the backseat and with a flashlight we could see about 15 photo albums, a hubcap, clothes, and a daisy lever action bb gun....hahahaha. I dont know if someone was using the car as an apartment, a storage unit or both but after getting most of the junk out of it and replacing the battery, we were able to drive it, be it very slowly on the jacked up front brakes, over to a friends workshop to try and work on the POS. We fixed the brakes, replaced the drivers side front one piece wheel bearing thingie, the punched out window and the lock on the trunk. Replaced the plugs which were the originals, air and fuel filters, changed the mud, I mean oil and ran a can of seafoam thru the fuel system. I then took it for a drive and believe it or not the thing ran pretty damn good. I changed the fuel filter again after a few days of driving and everything seemed fine.
After the car seemed ok for her to drive around at least just around town I returned to Florida to tie up some loose ends while we allowed the lease to run out on her apartment. As the time for her move approached, we realized if we wanted to keep the Bonnie, were gonna have to drive her down here to St. Pete which was about 850 miles. I arrived in town to help her pack up her stuff. I took the Bonnie to the local tire shop and put 300 bucks worth of new rubber on her and added some autozone hubcaps cuz she only had 2 of her original caps and one of those was ready to fall off. We then packed her up a full as she would go with stuff, loaded up the pet chinchilla and hit the road. We stopped to fill up before we hit the road and as I went to dump in a gallon of wiper fluid, as fast as I was pouring it in, it was pouring out underneath the car. I was like this is not a good omen. Turns out, the hose off the pump'* 90* elbow had came off. I worked it back on and it was good to go.
I am so sorry that this has been so long, but to wrap it up, the car ran flawless all the way to St. Pete. The a/c kicked so hard it froze us out all the way to boot. Our pet chinchilla was thankful for that as they dont like the heat.... For a free car, this Bonnie has been one helluva trooper and we intend to get her back into shipshape as soon as possible. She kept us safe and got us where we needed to be and didnt even give us one bit of grief. I cant beleive that someone was about to scrap this car for parts but she is safe with us now and wont suffer that fate.
Here are some pics after the clean up since we've been home in Florida. Sorry bout the hubcaps but hey, I wasnt about to let her roll up into Florida with nothing on at all....... She'* gonna be getting something more appropriate when funds permit. Also if anyone knows a link to somewhere we can start looking for restoration parts. The car needs a new valance in the front as its been racked around pretty good and is pretty banged up. Also, the dinger is staying on after the lights are off and the key is out of the ignition. I raided a junkyard and found a nice HL switch but noticed on the donor car the harness was melted a bit. Is this problem common and if so possibly the switch or the harness? One more thing. On the factory stereo with tape player, the rear speakers arent working. Checked basics like making sure they are plugged in and whatnot. Is it common for channels to burn out on those stereos? Lemme know what ya think. All in all, not bad for a free car, eh?...L8r

Edit....I did find 3 before pics of the Bonnie before her rehab. Granted they are at night and in the snow but it kinda gives an idea of how rough she was.....

Nice work!

Lookin Sharp !!!

Free?? Cant go wrong there! I have some wheels if and when you are interested. 9 spokes. Perfect shape

Hey there,
Thanks for the replies and the compliments! When I first saw it, I was like oh hell, wtf are we gonna do with this.....hahahaha. I gotta tell ya tho. She has impressed me beyond any expectations. I have never rode in or knew of anyone that had a Bonnie so I was totally unfamiliar with them. My fiance tho had a black 94 Bonnie a long time ago and she absolutely loved it and was quite excited when we saw this one. I am used to my Mustang GT'* 5 speed and fairly harsh ride but this Bonnie is a welcome change...... She rides absolutely wonderful and is pretty darn fast for a base trim model. The odometer only read 91K and I wasnt sure if it was accurate or not but since all the pwr windows work and the a/c blows nice and cold, I think the miles are right on the money.
Ya'll folks have a reason to be jazzed about Bonnies. Since I have gotten to know this one, I think they are great cars and am glad I have had a chance to experience one first hand.

Ohenry, the 9 spokes you mentioned, are they stock wheels? If so, then I can prolly find a pic of a car with them online. If they arent, I would like to see a pic or two if possible. What size are they also? I am interested in sprucing her up a bit so rims are definately on the list. What I am really looking for is a bumper cover. As you can see from the front-on pic its pretty mangled down by the fog lights. Any help would be greatly appriciated. I looked on RockAuto and its about 280 clams so used would be a nicer option.. Thanks folks.....l8r

Wow. Nice job. But is it just me or does something look REALLY REALLY wrong with the way those tires look? Must be just me. Anyways, spectacular job.

Hey WJ,
I guess you are referring to way those tires look waayy too skinny and the hubcappies perhaps?....lol. Well, its like this. I didnt have time to go rimshoppin and we needed to have the car road trip worthy in like 2 days so I opted for a new set of whatever the car had on it which I think was 215/65/15'* or something. I didnt want to spend a fortune on 15" anything really because I plan on adding some bigger rims wiht some better tires for that size. I am not going to be keeping the 15'*. Desperate times call for desperate measures and either way, the car pulled off the trip without a hitch and that was all I was asking for at the time.......sorry if I dissapointed all the Bonnie fans with the skinny treads but it was it is for now.............l8r