Post by HardRocker on Jun 5, 2009 9:17:19 GMT -5
Well, seeing as how there is a "Dark Knight" post below.... I figured I should put up a "White Knight" post, LOL.
Naw, seriously though, I thought I share some of the work I had done on my first baby, my white 80 Monte Carlo.... the one that I have shown the pictures of recent rotting away.....
As a car enthusiast my firs thought with this Monte was to make it back and keep it "pure" almost 20 years ago. But, it was too expensive to try to get new lower chrome or get the dents out and polished on the old, and so many other original parts were expensive, obsolete or just dang hard to find. Plus there were features/options it didn't have that I wanted. I spent many a day at the junkyard, learning from other Montes/Gran Prixs/Cutlass/Regals/El Caminos. So, I then realized and decided it'd be cheaper to boost the fun factor while not spending a lot of money and buy tons of aftermarket stuff. I could do it but just customizing what I had and adding stuff from cousin cars.
Before...
Just on the inside, I ended swapping it's original vinyl bench for matching vinyl buckets, floor shifter and console from a Gran Prix. I used some linkage from a Camaro to get all the linkage and switches to work right. I then swapped the seats for ones of cloth from another 80 Monte Carlo. I then changed the instrument cluster and engine sensors with one from an El Camino so I'd have gauges instead of idiot lights. I put in power door locks and partial wiring harness from a Cadillac. And if you looked inside, you'd swear it was all original because I paid attention to the details and using cousin car parts.
The buckskin vinyl interior with the GP seats and console:
I then changed the interior over from buckskin tan to gray and used reclining buckets from a Cavalier, seat belts from a Regal and had my back seat reupholstered to match the fronts. I replaced my sagging headliner with one of gray and changed the carpet to match. And I added delay wiper switch from a 79 Monte and wiper motor from a Cutlass.
The gray cloth interior of GP console, El Camino gauges, Cadillac power locks, Cavalier reclining bucket seats, Grant GT dual plane wheel.....
On the outside, I took the chrome off to paint the whole car and kind of liked it without, so I chiseled the rivets off and smoothed it out. I then added a low cowl hood scoop, wind spoiler, rebuilt the whole front end with a kit from PST and dropped the front using HD springs that I cut a full coil and a quarter turn off from. I then monochrome painted the whole car white. What chrome I hadn't taken off, I had sanded and primered using an touch up gun and then shot it all white: wiper blades and arms, drip rail moldings, door handles and locks, grill, headlight and tail lamp bezels, bumper strips... all. And it made it look like a newer Monte because in the mid to late 80's there were dropping the chrome look from cars and either painting those areas flat black or body matching colors. I'd quite often get asked if it was an 86 or 88. I'd even painted the factory two-tone gray rally wheels white to match the rest of the car and then painted the highlights a bright blue, which I had used on the emblems and scripts.
Adding the cowl hood scoop:
In one of it's stages... after the cowl hood, short wing, and dropped front end:
After a lot of the work...
Under the hood, I had painted the engine block, heads, and intake white (like the car) and then used that same blue to paint the alternator, smog pump, power steering pump, etc, valve covers brake cylinder and booster, etc. Anything blue got white bolts or nuts and anything white got blue bolts or nuts.
The white and blue engine bay in progress:
I also had added a white glass sunroof to match and new digital tuning radio with autoreversring cassette deck, with 6-disc changer in the trunk (Toshiba units), an external 7-band passive equalizer feeder and 120W amp for front speakers I mounted under the dash, and 180W amp for new speakers in the back ledge. Then there was a CB I had hidden away under the seat with the antenna hidden inside the back bumper and connected to PA speakers behind the grill and behind the back bumper. I added remote for alarm and power door lock and trunk release, which was another door lock cylinder from the Cadillac. An underhood lamp I added near the front of the hood and was a 1-foot fluorescent shop light that I stripped down to basically a tube and painted white. I put a switch for it right in one of the holes on the underside of the hood. I also had put fog lamps and driving lamps on the front but hid them behind the front grill so they didn't look too gawdy hanging out below and I hid their switches along with the power trunk, oh and power hood release switches inside the ashtray of the console.
Needless to saw, I was young single and living at home then. Anymore I don't have the time or money to do all those fun things.
In the NMCOA, Class of Monte Carlo mag from years ago:
What I also didn't mention above is that along the way, I had gotten hit in the rear quarter by a Honda. This was just 3-days after I had started painting the bumper strips and tail lamp bezels to see if I liked them that way. I ended up spending the following weekend beating the quarter back out and reshaping it, got another bumper (from a 78 MC) and new taillamps (from a 79 MC).
About 3 years later, I hit a deer at 60+MPH and it took out much of the front end...
Then I picked up another 80 MC - body, no drive train and started rebuilding it...
Naw, seriously though, I thought I share some of the work I had done on my first baby, my white 80 Monte Carlo.... the one that I have shown the pictures of recent rotting away.....
As a car enthusiast my firs thought with this Monte was to make it back and keep it "pure" almost 20 years ago. But, it was too expensive to try to get new lower chrome or get the dents out and polished on the old, and so many other original parts were expensive, obsolete or just dang hard to find. Plus there were features/options it didn't have that I wanted. I spent many a day at the junkyard, learning from other Montes/Gran Prixs/Cutlass/Regals/El Caminos. So, I then realized and decided it'd be cheaper to boost the fun factor while not spending a lot of money and buy tons of aftermarket stuff. I could do it but just customizing what I had and adding stuff from cousin cars.
Before...
Just on the inside, I ended swapping it's original vinyl bench for matching vinyl buckets, floor shifter and console from a Gran Prix. I used some linkage from a Camaro to get all the linkage and switches to work right. I then swapped the seats for ones of cloth from another 80 Monte Carlo. I then changed the instrument cluster and engine sensors with one from an El Camino so I'd have gauges instead of idiot lights. I put in power door locks and partial wiring harness from a Cadillac. And if you looked inside, you'd swear it was all original because I paid attention to the details and using cousin car parts.
The buckskin vinyl interior with the GP seats and console:
I then changed the interior over from buckskin tan to gray and used reclining buckets from a Cavalier, seat belts from a Regal and had my back seat reupholstered to match the fronts. I replaced my sagging headliner with one of gray and changed the carpet to match. And I added delay wiper switch from a 79 Monte and wiper motor from a Cutlass.
The gray cloth interior of GP console, El Camino gauges, Cadillac power locks, Cavalier reclining bucket seats, Grant GT dual plane wheel.....
On the outside, I took the chrome off to paint the whole car and kind of liked it without, so I chiseled the rivets off and smoothed it out. I then added a low cowl hood scoop, wind spoiler, rebuilt the whole front end with a kit from PST and dropped the front using HD springs that I cut a full coil and a quarter turn off from. I then monochrome painted the whole car white. What chrome I hadn't taken off, I had sanded and primered using an touch up gun and then shot it all white: wiper blades and arms, drip rail moldings, door handles and locks, grill, headlight and tail lamp bezels, bumper strips... all. And it made it look like a newer Monte because in the mid to late 80's there were dropping the chrome look from cars and either painting those areas flat black or body matching colors. I'd quite often get asked if it was an 86 or 88. I'd even painted the factory two-tone gray rally wheels white to match the rest of the car and then painted the highlights a bright blue, which I had used on the emblems and scripts.
Adding the cowl hood scoop:
In one of it's stages... after the cowl hood, short wing, and dropped front end:
After a lot of the work...
Under the hood, I had painted the engine block, heads, and intake white (like the car) and then used that same blue to paint the alternator, smog pump, power steering pump, etc, valve covers brake cylinder and booster, etc. Anything blue got white bolts or nuts and anything white got blue bolts or nuts.
The white and blue engine bay in progress:
I also had added a white glass sunroof to match and new digital tuning radio with autoreversring cassette deck, with 6-disc changer in the trunk (Toshiba units), an external 7-band passive equalizer feeder and 120W amp for front speakers I mounted under the dash, and 180W amp for new speakers in the back ledge. Then there was a CB I had hidden away under the seat with the antenna hidden inside the back bumper and connected to PA speakers behind the grill and behind the back bumper. I added remote for alarm and power door lock and trunk release, which was another door lock cylinder from the Cadillac. An underhood lamp I added near the front of the hood and was a 1-foot fluorescent shop light that I stripped down to basically a tube and painted white. I put a switch for it right in one of the holes on the underside of the hood. I also had put fog lamps and driving lamps on the front but hid them behind the front grill so they didn't look too gawdy hanging out below and I hid their switches along with the power trunk, oh and power hood release switches inside the ashtray of the console.
Needless to saw, I was young single and living at home then. Anymore I don't have the time or money to do all those fun things.
In the NMCOA, Class of Monte Carlo mag from years ago:
What I also didn't mention above is that along the way, I had gotten hit in the rear quarter by a Honda. This was just 3-days after I had started painting the bumper strips and tail lamp bezels to see if I liked them that way. I ended up spending the following weekend beating the quarter back out and reshaping it, got another bumper (from a 78 MC) and new taillamps (from a 79 MC).
About 3 years later, I hit a deer at 60+MPH and it took out much of the front end...
Then I picked up another 80 MC - body, no drive train and started rebuilding it...
HardRocker 
. I knew some of that history, but not all of it. Very cool, Jaime! Glad you shared this.
