Post by hetman on Dec 24, 2008 7:41:07 GMT -5
Posted September 27, 2007:
The post below is from two different threads that I originally started on another forum. The first is when I introduce the car in February 2007, and the next is after I picked it up from the port in Gdynia, Poland, and drove it home to Warsaw, one month ago. Hope you like the stories!
Greetings! I've been a member nearly a year, and thanks to the nice people here and information and advice available here, I decided to buy a 4th generation Monte Carlo. This text below comes from my thread in the Lounge entitled "Honeymoon Roadtrip..." and is still visible. The road trip was planned around the Monte Carlo, so it is the hero of our honeymoon, and here's its story.
Greetings, folks! I'd like to introduce y'all to my wife, my 1984 Monte Carlo, and share some experiences of our honeymoon trip, where we made it through four states and over 1600 miles in about two weeks, despite almost overwhelming odds.
First let me back up a bit. I have been residing in Eastern Europe for a while, and about a year ago I got this wild idea to buy a 3rd or 4th generation Monte Carlo for a hot rod project, so I started looking on ebay, and I found my car in McComb, Mississippi from a seller by the name of Dave Ellis (blueellison on ebay). To make a long story short, he jacked me around and grossly misrepresented the car, and my friend in Natchez who agreed to make the arrangements for me was also remarkably unable to see the faults in the car, so trusting his advice, I bought the car, which I thought was a well-cared for daily driver with a new 350, and mechanically sound, etc. By the time I got it titled, it cost me around $1500. My goal has been to ship the car to Europe, but the car was sitting at my friend Rick's house outside Natchez since July.
Enter Ewa (pronounced Eh-vah), my lovely bride, from Poland. We've been trying to get married for over 6 months, but due to Poland's famous and inane bureaucracy, we haven't been able to get permission. So she finally acquiesced to come to the States to get hitched, and we made our plans around a whirlwind tour of the South, arranging to visit friends and family, sight-see, and tie the knot in Panama City. And the linchpin of the whole trip was a working car, and so I naturally built our plans around the faithful Monte I'd just bought.
Arriving January 28th in New Orleans, we stayed two nights at a friend's house and were picked up on the 30th by Rick, and delivered to his old home "Woodwinds" on the Natchez Trace, where I got to see my car for the first time. After a cursory look at the car, I noticed the left rear quarter window was broken plexiglass, so I duct-taped it up. I didn't notice at the time that it leaked from every window (the car had been sitting under a carport). We experienced no rain till almost the last days of our trip, so I didn't have to duct tape all the windows till then. I was beginning to feel like a real redneck, though I doubt real rednecks would be seen in such a car. Regardless, I was hoping it was mechanically sound. I took it for a small test drive and noticed the transmission was not only slipping really bad, but emitting smoke from the engine compartment after a short drive, and also the whole underside was coated with transmission fluid. Not a good sign, I thought, and the next day took it to a transmission shop in Natchez (sorry I don't know the name offhand), where a gentleman by the name of Lloyd told me he wouldn't even be able to look at it till the following week. Almost in desperation, I asked if he happened to have any other TH350s in stock, and he said he did have a rebuilt one waiting for a customer for 6 months, and since the customer had kept him waiting so long, he decided to let me have it, as a cash customer, and he'd be able to get me in that day, and he even gave me a break from the original $1000 to $800. I considered myself lucky, though this meant the allocation of a significant amount of my honeymoon money, and my fiancee also wasn't impressed with the car yet! Since the shop built racing transmissions and races a 9-second Mustang, I felt in good hands, and they did the work, having it ready the next day. The smoke had been a clogged dipstick tube or something like that, but that old TH350 was a goner. Now I had a good one, and the difference was remarkable.
Not over the hump yet. I noticed some other things with the car: the right door wouldn't lock from the outside. The entire interior was wasted, and the rear-view mirror was off. The hood wouldn't stay open, or even shut properly. No ventilation or AC at all. The gas gauge didn't work, nor did the ampmeter or engine oil pressure. The engine temp gauge did work sometimes, however. Also, the radiator leaked, but a can of stop-leak fixed it for a while. Also, all the lugnuts were locking nuts, and I didn't have the key!! I had to have that fixed, so the next day I went back into Natchez and had Auto Zone take all them off (not an easy task) and replace them. At this point, we found out that most of the rear studs needed replacing, which I had done. I also replaced one worn-out wheel and balanced them all. I bought a whole bunch of tools at Sears, then felt I was ready to hit the road, with a spare full gas can in the trunk.... After doing a tour of Natchez, we left on Saturday the 3rd, but not for Memphis, where we'd planned to go, but to Pensacola because we had a wedding date of February 8 in Panama City, and thought that if anything happened on the road, we might not have time to get the car fixed, so better skip some of the sight-seeing and head for the wedding chapel!!
We made it to my brother's place in Gulf Breeze without incident, well, except that the steering pump hardly worked by this time, so I simply tightened up the bolt (no AC compressor or place to tighten down the pump properly, so the 2 bolts had worked themselves loose). I also noticed a small oil drip from the fuel pump, but at least there was no gas leak....
. After a few days there, we moved on to my cousin's place in Lynn Haven, whereupon I noticed after sitting a day, the car had developed a pretty significant oil-down from the transmission. I tightened up all the pan bolts, and the tranny never leaked again. Whew, what a relief! However, upon starting the car, I noticed the radiator had sprung a leak again. Off to buy a new radiator! The install was simple and fixed the problem, and that's good because after that the temp gauge failed completely. Anyway, the day after I fixed the radiator, we had a beautiful wedding, and my parents and some other family members were able to make it. The weather also was picture-perfect, and Ewa enjoyed the whole ceremony. Next, we were off to Old Town, Florida, to visit my aunt (unfortunately, my uncle passed away a few weeks prior to this so I was unable to see him). We left the 9th, about 6pm, for the 200 mile trip through the Apalachicola National Forest on Highway 20 and 267. This is one very deserted path!! And guess what? The car started to vibrate worse and worse. I couldn't figure out what the problem might be, since I thought the tires were good. I thought it might even be the left front wheel bearing going bad (In Natchez they'd told me it was slightly worn, along with all the front steering components). I slowed it down from 60 to 45 and rode like that for an hour and a half, till it started vibrating worse, right before Perry. It being about 10pm by this time, I figured it best to stop for the night in a motel and see what I could do the next morning. So Saturday the 10th we woke up early, went to AutoZone and got a referral to a good tire shop, Armstrong Tires, where they set me up with 4 used but near-new tires. This, fortunately, fixed that problem, though the car still shook a bit between 50-65mph. We were almost "home"!! And in fact, we had no problems with the car thereafter, and made it back to New Orleans on the 13th without further ado.
Only at my aunt's place was Ewa able to finally relax for a bit. And I'm sure the stress of an unreliable car caused her (and me!) much more agony than she'd anticipated. However, overall she liked the trip, and now we're happily married!! See, the Monte Carlo wasn't such a bad decision after all!! And it still awaits transport to Europe, so please keep your fingers crossed for it and us.
Here are a few pictures for your entertainment:
The dogs got to the car before I could!
My Monte in front of Springfield Plantation, the first brick structure built west of the Appalachian Mountains, 1791, also site of marriage of President Jackson in 1791, just off the Natchez Trace.
The Monte proudly "representin' it"...LOL...in downtown Perry, Florida.
Some shots of my car at my aunt's place outside Old Town, Florida.
The post below is from two different threads that I originally started on another forum. The first is when I introduce the car in February 2007, and the next is after I picked it up from the port in Gdynia, Poland, and drove it home to Warsaw, one month ago. Hope you like the stories!
Greetings! I've been a member nearly a year, and thanks to the nice people here and information and advice available here, I decided to buy a 4th generation Monte Carlo. This text below comes from my thread in the Lounge entitled "Honeymoon Roadtrip..." and is still visible. The road trip was planned around the Monte Carlo, so it is the hero of our honeymoon, and here's its story.
Greetings, folks! I'd like to introduce y'all to my wife, my 1984 Monte Carlo, and share some experiences of our honeymoon trip, where we made it through four states and over 1600 miles in about two weeks, despite almost overwhelming odds.
First let me back up a bit. I have been residing in Eastern Europe for a while, and about a year ago I got this wild idea to buy a 3rd or 4th generation Monte Carlo for a hot rod project, so I started looking on ebay, and I found my car in McComb, Mississippi from a seller by the name of Dave Ellis (blueellison on ebay). To make a long story short, he jacked me around and grossly misrepresented the car, and my friend in Natchez who agreed to make the arrangements for me was also remarkably unable to see the faults in the car, so trusting his advice, I bought the car, which I thought was a well-cared for daily driver with a new 350, and mechanically sound, etc. By the time I got it titled, it cost me around $1500. My goal has been to ship the car to Europe, but the car was sitting at my friend Rick's house outside Natchez since July.
Enter Ewa (pronounced Eh-vah), my lovely bride, from Poland. We've been trying to get married for over 6 months, but due to Poland's famous and inane bureaucracy, we haven't been able to get permission. So she finally acquiesced to come to the States to get hitched, and we made our plans around a whirlwind tour of the South, arranging to visit friends and family, sight-see, and tie the knot in Panama City. And the linchpin of the whole trip was a working car, and so I naturally built our plans around the faithful Monte I'd just bought.
Arriving January 28th in New Orleans, we stayed two nights at a friend's house and were picked up on the 30th by Rick, and delivered to his old home "Woodwinds" on the Natchez Trace, where I got to see my car for the first time. After a cursory look at the car, I noticed the left rear quarter window was broken plexiglass, so I duct-taped it up. I didn't notice at the time that it leaked from every window (the car had been sitting under a carport). We experienced no rain till almost the last days of our trip, so I didn't have to duct tape all the windows till then. I was beginning to feel like a real redneck, though I doubt real rednecks would be seen in such a car. Regardless, I was hoping it was mechanically sound. I took it for a small test drive and noticed the transmission was not only slipping really bad, but emitting smoke from the engine compartment after a short drive, and also the whole underside was coated with transmission fluid. Not a good sign, I thought, and the next day took it to a transmission shop in Natchez (sorry I don't know the name offhand), where a gentleman by the name of Lloyd told me he wouldn't even be able to look at it till the following week. Almost in desperation, I asked if he happened to have any other TH350s in stock, and he said he did have a rebuilt one waiting for a customer for 6 months, and since the customer had kept him waiting so long, he decided to let me have it, as a cash customer, and he'd be able to get me in that day, and he even gave me a break from the original $1000 to $800. I considered myself lucky, though this meant the allocation of a significant amount of my honeymoon money, and my fiancee also wasn't impressed with the car yet! Since the shop built racing transmissions and races a 9-second Mustang, I felt in good hands, and they did the work, having it ready the next day. The smoke had been a clogged dipstick tube or something like that, but that old TH350 was a goner. Now I had a good one, and the difference was remarkable.
Not over the hump yet. I noticed some other things with the car: the right door wouldn't lock from the outside. The entire interior was wasted, and the rear-view mirror was off. The hood wouldn't stay open, or even shut properly. No ventilation or AC at all. The gas gauge didn't work, nor did the ampmeter or engine oil pressure. The engine temp gauge did work sometimes, however. Also, the radiator leaked, but a can of stop-leak fixed it for a while. Also, all the lugnuts were locking nuts, and I didn't have the key!! I had to have that fixed, so the next day I went back into Natchez and had Auto Zone take all them off (not an easy task) and replace them. At this point, we found out that most of the rear studs needed replacing, which I had done. I also replaced one worn-out wheel and balanced them all. I bought a whole bunch of tools at Sears, then felt I was ready to hit the road, with a spare full gas can in the trunk.... After doing a tour of Natchez, we left on Saturday the 3rd, but not for Memphis, where we'd planned to go, but to Pensacola because we had a wedding date of February 8 in Panama City, and thought that if anything happened on the road, we might not have time to get the car fixed, so better skip some of the sight-seeing and head for the wedding chapel!!
We made it to my brother's place in Gulf Breeze without incident, well, except that the steering pump hardly worked by this time, so I simply tightened up the bolt (no AC compressor or place to tighten down the pump properly, so the 2 bolts had worked themselves loose). I also noticed a small oil drip from the fuel pump, but at least there was no gas leak....
. After a few days there, we moved on to my cousin's place in Lynn Haven, whereupon I noticed after sitting a day, the car had developed a pretty significant oil-down from the transmission. I tightened up all the pan bolts, and the tranny never leaked again. Whew, what a relief! However, upon starting the car, I noticed the radiator had sprung a leak again. Off to buy a new radiator! The install was simple and fixed the problem, and that's good because after that the temp gauge failed completely. Anyway, the day after I fixed the radiator, we had a beautiful wedding, and my parents and some other family members were able to make it. The weather also was picture-perfect, and Ewa enjoyed the whole ceremony. Next, we were off to Old Town, Florida, to visit my aunt (unfortunately, my uncle passed away a few weeks prior to this so I was unable to see him). We left the 9th, about 6pm, for the 200 mile trip through the Apalachicola National Forest on Highway 20 and 267. This is one very deserted path!! And guess what? The car started to vibrate worse and worse. I couldn't figure out what the problem might be, since I thought the tires were good. I thought it might even be the left front wheel bearing going bad (In Natchez they'd told me it was slightly worn, along with all the front steering components). I slowed it down from 60 to 45 and rode like that for an hour and a half, till it started vibrating worse, right before Perry. It being about 10pm by this time, I figured it best to stop for the night in a motel and see what I could do the next morning. So Saturday the 10th we woke up early, went to AutoZone and got a referral to a good tire shop, Armstrong Tires, where they set me up with 4 used but near-new tires. This, fortunately, fixed that problem, though the car still shook a bit between 50-65mph. We were almost "home"!! And in fact, we had no problems with the car thereafter, and made it back to New Orleans on the 13th without further ado.Only at my aunt's place was Ewa able to finally relax for a bit. And I'm sure the stress of an unreliable car caused her (and me!) much more agony than she'd anticipated. However, overall she liked the trip, and now we're happily married!! See, the Monte Carlo wasn't such a bad decision after all!! And it still awaits transport to Europe, so please keep your fingers crossed for it and us.
Here are a few pictures for your entertainment:
The dogs got to the car before I could!
My Monte in front of Springfield Plantation, the first brick structure built west of the Appalachian Mountains, 1791, also site of marriage of President Jackson in 1791, just off the Natchez Trace.
The Monte proudly "representin' it"...LOL...in downtown Perry, Florida.
Some shots of my car at my aunt's place outside Old Town, Florida.
It runs great, sounds great. Then I proceeded to clean out and vacuum the interior and trunk. I realized that I'd never done this before! I simply never had the time to clean the interior. Not that I did a complete job this time, but I took some satisfaction in a cleaned up car. It's still ragged-out, stained, torn, ripped, molested, cracked to hell and dirty, but now it looks much better. I felt good about that! The first steps toward restoring the car down the line. Way down the line. But first I need to winterize it, so I moved it a couple feet to the left so I could access the right side and take off the wheels for the winter. This I did, and jacked up the car, took off all the wheels and cleaned them, and put some cement blocks under the frame in four places in order to put less stress on the suspension and tires. I know it's just the beginning of September, and still summer, but it could be snowing in 4 weeks. Here are some pics:
.
