Steve Magnante has been bombarding us with cool information on some of the oldest American icons of the automotive world. The interesting part is that he uses rusty old barn finds to keep us hooked. He has even shown us that rusty old vans which on one bat an eye at, can be a treasure haven for cool car parts. In his latest video, he doesn't things differently. He makes two videos to show us one car.

That's because the 1963 Pontiac Bonneville that he stumbled upon was literally in two pieces, thanks to years of neglect and rust eating into it. Steve shows us some cool features of this supposedly loaded Bonneville that still has its original owner's guide.

Despite being eaten away by rust, many elements on this Pontiac were well-preserved including its cool T3 headlamps (all four of them) and its uniquely designed wheel covers. Steve's interesting rundown of this 1963 Bonneville that has split into two shows us that this man's videos can make you intrigued with literally anything!

Nature decided to split a 123-inch wheelbase 1963 Pontiac Bonneville into two. And Steve gives us an interesting two-part rundown on this classic car.

The Bonneville's First Half Was Where The "Muscle" Was

The Pontiac Bonneville, though inclined towards luxury, also packed more muscle that its stable mates. The 1963 Model came with a slew of V8 engine options ranging from 389 cu-in (6.4-Liter) to 400 cu-in (6.6-Liter).

The '63 Bonneville was more special as it also came with a unique 421 cu-in Super Duty that packed two four-barrel carburetors. This was the most powerful engine found in the luxury Pontiac car and churned out 425 hp. It was a $2,250 option back in the day which was insane because the base Bonneville only cost $3,349 in 1963!

The rusty old barn find that Steve Magnante stumbles upon happens to be a base Bonneville model packing the 389 cu-in (6.4-Liter) V8 engine. It was rated at 303 hp back in the day and came with a standard four-barrel carburetor. It was interesting to see the engine and parts of the carburetor in pretty good shape despite being there in the open without a hood for quite some time.

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The Second Half Gives Us An Idea Of Its Road Presence

The Pontiac Bonneville was a long car with a wheelbase of 123 inches. And it remained unchanged for both the two-door and four-door models. The barn find that Steve shows us here is a two-door hard-top sedan which was one of 30,995 units produced in 1963.

Despite rust cutting this cool muscle coupe into two, the second and longer part was in decent shape. The windshields and windows were in good shape with no cracks whatsoever. There was rust in the most obvious places and more in the bottom half.

So the moisture was the reason for all the rust on this 60s icon. This particular find was a loaded car as it came with various optional features like tinted windows and those cool steel wheel covers that were designed to look like that of its eight-lug integral aluminum drum wheel.

Steve Points Out Some Interesting Features Of The Bonneville

1963 Pontiac Bonneville trunk view
Steve Magnante Via YouTube

Leave it to Steve Magnante to intrigue us with a rusty old Pontiac Bonneville which has been split into two by rust! He points out and enlightens us with some cool facts and features of this Bonne. On the mechanical front, he enlightens us with the Roto Hydramatic transmission that this dilapidated Bonneville packed. It was an evolved version of the world's first-ever mass-produced fully-automatic transmission for passenger car use that found its way into Cadillacs and Oldsmobile offerings in 1940.

1963 Pontiac Bonneville dashboard view
Steve Magnante Via YouTube

But even in the '63 Bonneville, this transmission was quite tricky to use. The cockpit had an analog dial for the transmission which read (P N 'D' L R). People often used to forget that D had two slots and would often leave it in the second D slot which would keep the engine capped at the second gear and revving high.

Steve checkin out a cool feature in the 1963 Pontiac Bonneville
Steve Magnante Via YouTube

The other cool part of this Bonneville was its huge cargo space that also houses some cool optional and luxurious features by 1960s standards. It packed a power antenna module which was a $29.75 option back in the day. It came with a motor to propel and retract the antenna in style. Also cool was a vacuum deck lid release which could unlock the trunk using a vacuum mechanism. It was a $7.10 option. It also came with a cool-looking factory emergency light for the truck.

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The Rusty '63 Bonneville's Loaded Interior Was In Decent Shape

1963 Pontiac Bonneville interior view
Steve Magnante Via YouTube

The interior shows us that this Bonneville, indeed, left no stones unturned when it came to optional extra features. It came with air-conditioning as well as power windows which were exotic features at the time. The condition of the interior was pretty good as compared to the exterior.

It even had the original owner's guide and a protection plan supplement that still has the original warranty plate glued onto it. The luxury appeal of the cabin with its cozy seats and well-upholstered dash and door panels are still evident in its dilapidated state today.

It Is Steve Who Can Make Rusted Pontiac "Pieces" Look Interesting

1963 Pontiac Bonneville barn find first half
Steve Magnante Via YouTube

We at Hotcars have been die-hard fans of what Steve does. Mr. Magnante goes to great lengths to show trivia and features in these junkyards. He has time and again shown that there are unassuming gems hidden away in junkyards.

In this Bonnevile's case, he even goes under to show us the huge rear axle that houses a 9.3-inch gear that was even cut out to be used on drag builds without any modifications. Kudos to Steve and the sea of knowledge he puts out using rusty old, and sometimes two pieces of cars!

Source: Steve Magnante Via YouTube