BUILD THREAD '79 Monte Carlo body-off restoration NL

Turbo Zach said:

I had a 79 Monte Carlo once that the previous owner had the 305 rebuilt with flattop pistons and a little hotter cam. Would not be fast by today's standards, but 15 years ago it was pretty snappy. Here in the US I have several 350's laying around I would not spend my money on a 305. You can make a 305 run pretty good, just depends on what you want it to do.

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Thanks. I am still not sure what to do. It doesn't have to have musclecar performance, it's going to be a nice cruiser with enough power to get by in today's traffic.

CaliWagon83 said:

rednas, I don't know how pricey it is to import engines from the UK, but I found a few companies there that specialize in small-block Chevrolet V-8s:

https://www.partsworldperformance.com/
https://www.roadcraftuk.co.uk/

Here's a big directory of Europe-based performance companies:
http://www.eurodragster.com/links/techno.asp

Hope this helps.

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Sure does! The UK is around the corner and I can even drive there. Thanks!

Spent a little time on the Monte again. Nothing too special. Removed some trim, the doorseal and one of the windows.


Also found the first rust



Could be worse though

I'll continue tomorrow morning, hopefully getting the dash out and continuing on the outside of the car

ham1974 said:

As far as the 305 there are a number of options to hop it up a little bit. Headers and a cam swap is a start maybe some Aluminium heads if you have money for that. I am sure summit and jegs ship about anywhere.

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Thanks. I am leaning towards keeping the 305 more and more. I have an edelbrock intake and will rebuild the carbs. Bigger headers are on the list as well. Will dive into other heads and cams too. Thanks

Finally got the dash out today, was a bit of a struggle to do this carefully without further damaging the dash.



I am not sure what to do with the dashboard, it has some craps and tears which I can't fix. Maybe I will cut out the top of the dash and replace it with fiberglass. Only have to find a matching paint, I'd really like to keep the original blue interior.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks when it comes to these dashboards?

CaliWagon83 said:

Well, worst-case scenario, you could get one of these new replacement dash pads from OPGI:
https://www.opgi.com/monte-carlo/1979/interior-accessories/dash-accessories/L241196/
It's about $750 U.S. (About €611)
A lot of companies make the hard overlay pieces, but this is one of the only full replacement pieces that I'm aware of.

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Thanks! With my dash it is basically only the top part that is damaged, I found a topcover on Rockauto for something like €80,- (excl shipping). Think I will order one and check it out.
Thanks again.

Spent some time with the Monte again today Getting ahead of stuff a bit but ok

I want to repaint the car in the original color "Dark Blue Metallic", same as the car currently is. Luckily I have a paint mixing system at my store and the color is actually in the system. So I decided to fill an aerosol to test the color.

Mixing it up


I masked off and scuffed a part of the trunk lid




After 3 layers of color and 2 layers of clear this was the result


Clearly too light.. I will play around with the formula a bit to get it darker.
To be continued.