interior details of Kris Trexler's
1958 Pontiac Bonneville Sport Coupe


instrument panel
My favorite part of the '58 Bonneville is the flashy interior - there's chrome and sparkle everywhere! Even the carpet has silver "lurex" threads to add glitter.
This fully loaded Bonneville has the extremely rare "inside sliding sunvisor" which slides down on a track from the headliner. Also visible is the compass (top center of the dashpad), and the Autronic Eye automatic high-beam headlight dimmer. The passenger "grab bar" became a staple of high-end Pontiacs for years. The air conditioning ducts are on the ends of the dashboard, with a center duct at the bottom of the dash. Reproduction floormats have been produced in a few colors for the '58 Pontiac, but not in green. This car is equipped with a complete set of four N.O.S. (new old stock) floormats that were found one at a time of a period of several years.

click here to see an animated day/night time-lapse view of the dazzling instrument panel

Panavisor
Some Pontiac experts have claimed that the rarely seen inside sliding sun visor on this Bonneville is not an authorized Pontiac option - not true. This image was scanned from the 1958 Pontiac Deluxe dealer catalog. Actually, it works quite well with one minor problem: when the visor is in the "down" position on a sunny day, sunglasses aren't practical to wear - the driver's front view would be too dark. But without sunglasses it's hard to look out the rear and side windows - there's too much glare. Apparently Pontiac realized the shortcomings of their "Panavisor," because it was only available on the 1958 cars. By the way, a warning is printed on the bottom of the visor:

"DO NOT USE WHEN DARK"
No kidding!

fabric selector
Clockwise from upper left: Persian Black/Starmist Silver, Calypso Green/Burma Green, Redwood Copper/Patina Ivory, Mallard Turquoise/Marlin Turquoise.
(scanned from 1958 Pontiac Deluxe dealer catalog)
Only four interior choices were offered on the 1958 Pontiac Bonneville Sport Coupe with standard bench seats (in cloth "Patrician pattern nylon-faced tapestry Lurex and jewel-tone Morrokide" vinyl). Leather trim in the Sport Coupe model was available only with the optional front bucket seat interior. (All 1958 Bonneville convertibles were trimmed with leather seats).

door panel
The door panels were just as glitzy as the rest of the interior. Note the crank vent windows - although power windows were offered in '58, power vents weren't yet available.


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exterior details
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