8 lug '64 Bonneville wheel swap

i bought this '64 bonne' as an impulse buy.[killer price]..here in Canada we didnt get Bonnevilles we got Parisienne on chevy X frames with all chevy running gear,,,i brought the car home real late last night and havent yet pulled a rim to see whats the deal BUT i have hear that the wheel is the brake drum and that i would have to do a brake swap to run regular style rims,,any truth ..any one here have any good links to pontiac forums or sites that walk you threw this swap!! would i us Catalina brake parts?? would i need to us new everything or just different drums?? any of you done this swap??...as much help i can get would RULE... thanks,,,,craig

 

8-lug rims are pretty obvious on the car, if you can't tell that you have them and how they fit, you probably do not have them.

8-lugs have about a 13" bolt circle, they use the same rim but instead of the 5-lug center they have 8 tabs for the lugs to go through around the edge. The drums are aluminum. Fronts attach to the spindle the same as conventional cars. Rears, I'm not as sure on but I'm thinking it's not a super easy swap since a junker I tried to get the fronts from someone had converted and it only had them on the front.

 

yes i do have the 8 lug rims...i dont want them, i want to swap to 5 on five or what ever a catalina is....

 

I'd like to have a set of 8 lugs if you get rid of them.

 

if you take the center caps off on the back you'll find 5 lug nuts that hold the drum on the axle,any 61-64 american pontiac rear drum will fit right in its place. on the front just remove the drum off the spindle and replace it with a 62-64 american pontiac front drum, on 62 or 63's get the lugnuts as they had left hand thread on the driverside. brakes are the same.hope this helps

 

It's easy, as stated, and i'd like to buy your 8-lugs if you're selling them. PM me if interested. OOPS, i see someone else is asking about them. Disregard

 

ya if i do the swap the stuff will be up for sale,,they are in wicked shape..beauty rings and caps too!!!!!....thanks guys,,so just so i know what model of pontiac drums do i use..and are they available new anywhere...i wanna roll cragars or supremes on this thing..

 

You will want to get 63-67 front drums, they have roller bearings, the earlier 59-62 had ball bearings. The back is any year 59-67, there are two styles. The standard drum has a raise welt at the lip and the high performance has the ribs. Ames Performance has replacement drums in their Full Size Catalog page 153 (http://www.amesperf.com/).
Good luck and ..........

Be careful out there!

 

right on man,,thanks for that...

 

I've *just* gone through this with my 64 catalina. I bought drums from NAPA off the shelf for the backs - justa straight swap. The fronts were a lot harder to find, and many places say they have the right one but they don't. The fronts you want have the hub built in - most you'll buy don't have a hub - and I couldnt find any way to buy a hub. Good luck!!

 

Pontiac offered these from late 1959 to 1970. The fins changed slightly over the years and the trim rings/ hubcaps were regularly updated. They increased the width of the front brake shoes in 1965 and the front drums were widened accordingly. I think I read they could be retrofitted to '58.
I never got into swapping them around from year to year, so I never bothered finding out if this required a spindle and/or backing plate change or just using the correct shoes for the wider drum.
After putting hub and drums on my 65 2+2 convertible in 1971, I later had the rims widened out to 8" and plated. Made for a handsome wheel (even if it did require having the rear wheelwells radiused), and not one you found on anyone else's car. Pretty primitive by today's standards perhaps, especially with the 14" rim diameter, but what I really can't believe in hindsight, is giving up my red stripes for raised letters (70 series to 60 series, a big deal back then).
I've seen a set on a car in a local show in the last year with 8" or 9" wide 17" diameter aluminum rims, stark staring gorgeous they were. Now I want to built something like a Pontiac engined 29 highboy with a set of them polished and mounting similar rims, not very Hamb like, maybe, but like the Rick Nelson song- you can't please everyone, you've got to please yourself.

 

If yours look like this, you have eight lug wheels. These are on my "63 GP

 

You can use65-68 drums but you need the backing plates and the shoes.

 

i got 8 lugs if interested

 

I need help on the swap, super confused, any experience would really help

 

I bet, you have two threads going on the same topic! That’s only going to make it worse. Maybe a mod will stop by and help combine them. Follow what they already told you, find a donar vehicle and swap the hubs and rest of the drum brake parts or go aftermarket w a disc brake setup. Randy


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