I think the only thing that saved it from becoming piles of tubes was the self tappers I ran into each joint- and even a couple of those came loose.
BUILD THREAD Janky- A Mexican Monte Clone
- Thread starter UC645
- Start date
Small update for the time being, the next month I’m putting the car on the back burner to get a new truck ready for the road.
I finished cutting out both close-out panels for the trunk, and finished the main panel on the passenger side.
Cutting both of these out with a jigsaw sucked.
I’ve since decided against the upper rear corner mounts. Using the quarter extension fasteners to hold a rather weighty aluminum panel wasn’t the best idea.
Went with a marine vinyl for a covering over paint, and it looks great for the execution of the panel. Still need to finish mounting tool holders on the driver’s side. Just need enough for a set of wrenches and spare fuses.
In the middle of this, I swapped the car to hydroboost.
Using an early diesel unit and hoses for a T-type, the swap was rather straightforward.
You’ll need the conversion pin from GbodyParts, and you’ll need to drill the brake pedal out for a new pin location. The newer pedals have a position for vacuum boosters and the Powermaster only. Maybe early cars have a pedal that’ll work, but I haven’t run across any in a couple of years to verify.
I welded the Powermaster pin hole shut, since I’ll never need it.
Here’s a shot of the pin location, with the pedal assembly bolted to the booster.
Note the angle of the pushrod to the rear of the booster, that needs to be straight for this to work properly. And yes, there’s probably some sort of bushing I’m missing for that pushrod, I haven’t been able to find anything on it though.
Then you’ll need to make a spacer plate for the unit to cover up the extended opening in the firewall (probably for the f****** Powermaster unit yet again)
Lastly, you’ll need a PS pump with a second return fitting, I used one from a GMT800, bolted right to a 4.3 V6 serpentine setup from a S10. And the pressure lines are for a 85 T-type.
I forget which was which, but those are the hoses I used.
I finished cutting out both close-out panels for the trunk, and finished the main panel on the passenger side.
Cutting both of these out with a jigsaw sucked.
I’ve since decided against the upper rear corner mounts. Using the quarter extension fasteners to hold a rather weighty aluminum panel wasn’t the best idea.
Went with a marine vinyl for a covering over paint, and it looks great for the execution of the panel. Still need to finish mounting tool holders on the driver’s side. Just need enough for a set of wrenches and spare fuses.
In the middle of this, I swapped the car to hydroboost.
Using an early diesel unit and hoses for a T-type, the swap was rather straightforward.
You’ll need the conversion pin from GbodyParts, and you’ll need to drill the brake pedal out for a new pin location. The newer pedals have a position for vacuum boosters and the Powermaster only. Maybe early cars have a pedal that’ll work, but I haven’t run across any in a couple of years to verify.
I welded the Powermaster pin hole shut, since I’ll never need it.
Here’s a shot of the pin location, with the pedal assembly bolted to the booster.
Note the angle of the pushrod to the rear of the booster, that needs to be straight for this to work properly. And yes, there’s probably some sort of bushing I’m missing for that pushrod, I haven’t been able to find anything on it though.
Then you’ll need to make a spacer plate for the unit to cover up the extended opening in the firewall (probably for the f****** Powermaster unit yet again)
Lastly, you’ll need a PS pump with a second return fitting, I used one from a GMT800, bolted right to a 4.3 V6 serpentine setup from a S10. And the pressure lines are for a 85 T-type.
I forget which was which, but those are the hoses I used.
Since I’m on vacation, figured it was time for an update:
As of this post I still haven’t gotten the car started again to check if the hydroboost leaks.
Put a Hayden cooler under the airbox but when I tightened the bolts up, one was being really difficult so I just assumed I had it cross threaded and sent it. It wasn’t really cross threaded….. I had the mount jammed, and it split the cooler in two.
Don’t have photos but I bought a 13 row Setrab cooler at the Spring Canfield meet, used some u bolt clamps and bits of rubber hose to hold it to the GP brace bar under the core support. Need to make a duct for it and figure out a cooling fan.
In the meantime, I stripped the trunk floor again due to finding rust poking it’s head out from under the good paint I laid down 2 years ago:
Masked off the whole car with plastic drop cloths, and attacked it with 4-1/2 inch stripper disks on an angle grinder
The left side of the trunk floor wasn’t great when I got the car, but nothing had rusted through, so I just hit it with Ospho after using flap disks and wire brushing it. Must not have gotten it perfectly clean or rust and/or Ospho, and that attacked the epoxy I laid down over time.
Shot in Nason epoxy, and top coated with black rustolem oil paint. At some point I’ll get trunk paint, but it’s not a high priority at the moment.
While at Canfield, I picked up a Regal console with a cut up skirt for appallingly cheap price.
Missing screws, just shot in random black paint, and already cut up, it seemed like a good idea.
A little trimming to clear the Quarter Stick:
Shifted it back about 2 inches over stock, needed to make an adapter bracket.
The previous owner made some trim plates for it out of 1/8 steel. Instead of making new ones, I just modified them to fit the Quarter Stick’s throw and Reverse Lockout.
Picked up a gauge pod from GlowShift and mounted a Trans Temp and Pressure in it. Made a bracket out of some scrap aluminum to hold my AFR gauge, it just sits in between two of the mounting screws for the stock ashtray.
Speaking of ash trays….
Ain’t nobody allowed to smoke in this car so I put my starter, ignition override, and fuel pump switches in here to keep them hidden.
Keeps the interior cleaner than I was going to have it with the monolith console.
After all of this, I turned my attention to rear shocks.
Long story short, if you want to run the Summit brand 3-way adjustable rear drag shocks (possibly the Competition Engineering ones too) keep your car stock ride height.
Mine is dropped about 2 inches, and they bottomed out at a 14-1/2 inch ride height, so when my father and I trailered the car home, those got destroyed.
Searched for about 2-3 months to find a set shocks that would work, and all I count turn up were sets of AFCOs or Pro Shocks that I couldn’t justify buying since I haven’t figured out what I want to do with this car yet.
I thought about drop brackets for coilovers for a Foxbody, but wasn’t interested in paying $120 for a pair at the time.
Then I found my stock of angle plate.
Some 2x2x1/8 angle iron and a pair of KYB Gas-a-just shocks later:
After a bit of trimming and paint:
Got a visit from my assistant in the middle of installing the driver’s side mount
And the driver’s side installed:
And Monday, I found this at the local yard:
Not an original GM one, but a correct replacement for a G-body.
And the best part:
Practically unused.
I don’t know why I’m excited over this, but at least once I get this plumbed, my car won’t smell like gas anymore.
As of this post I still haven’t gotten the car started again to check if the hydroboost leaks.
Put a Hayden cooler under the airbox but when I tightened the bolts up, one was being really difficult so I just assumed I had it cross threaded and sent it. It wasn’t really cross threaded….. I had the mount jammed, and it split the cooler in two.
Don’t have photos but I bought a 13 row Setrab cooler at the Spring Canfield meet, used some u bolt clamps and bits of rubber hose to hold it to the GP brace bar under the core support. Need to make a duct for it and figure out a cooling fan.
In the meantime, I stripped the trunk floor again due to finding rust poking it’s head out from under the good paint I laid down 2 years ago:
Masked off the whole car with plastic drop cloths, and attacked it with 4-1/2 inch stripper disks on an angle grinder
The left side of the trunk floor wasn’t great when I got the car, but nothing had rusted through, so I just hit it with Ospho after using flap disks and wire brushing it. Must not have gotten it perfectly clean or rust and/or Ospho, and that attacked the epoxy I laid down over time.
Shot in Nason epoxy, and top coated with black rustolem oil paint. At some point I’ll get trunk paint, but it’s not a high priority at the moment.
While at Canfield, I picked up a Regal console with a cut up skirt for appallingly cheap price.
Missing screws, just shot in random black paint, and already cut up, it seemed like a good idea.
A little trimming to clear the Quarter Stick:
Shifted it back about 2 inches over stock, needed to make an adapter bracket.
The previous owner made some trim plates for it out of 1/8 steel. Instead of making new ones, I just modified them to fit the Quarter Stick’s throw and Reverse Lockout.
Picked up a gauge pod from GlowShift and mounted a Trans Temp and Pressure in it. Made a bracket out of some scrap aluminum to hold my AFR gauge, it just sits in between two of the mounting screws for the stock ashtray.
Speaking of ash trays….
Ain’t nobody allowed to smoke in this car so I put my starter, ignition override, and fuel pump switches in here to keep them hidden.
Keeps the interior cleaner than I was going to have it with the monolith console.
After all of this, I turned my attention to rear shocks.
Long story short, if you want to run the Summit brand 3-way adjustable rear drag shocks (possibly the Competition Engineering ones too) keep your car stock ride height.
Mine is dropped about 2 inches, and they bottomed out at a 14-1/2 inch ride height, so when my father and I trailered the car home, those got destroyed.
Searched for about 2-3 months to find a set shocks that would work, and all I count turn up were sets of AFCOs or Pro Shocks that I couldn’t justify buying since I haven’t figured out what I want to do with this car yet.
I thought about drop brackets for coilovers for a Foxbody, but wasn’t interested in paying $120 for a pair at the time.
Then I found my stock of angle plate.
Some 2x2x1/8 angle iron and a pair of KYB Gas-a-just shocks later:
After a bit of trimming and paint:
Got a visit from my assistant in the middle of installing the driver’s side mount
And the driver’s side installed:
And Monday, I found this at the local yard:
Not an original GM one, but a correct replacement for a G-body.
And the best part:
Practically unused.
I don’t know why I’m excited over this, but at least once I get this plumbed, my car won’t smell like gas anymore.
I’ll be properly updating this thread in the future, but for now:
Rude and Rowdy, SWEET!! Love that rumpity-lumpity idle. Might have to watch the plugs for fouling due to load up while the mill does its thing.
Nick
Had one for a while before I bit the builder bullet and built my shop. Got it put up and then along came a thunder/windstorm. Found it two doors down the alley and wrapped around the power line pole. Drug the whole mess back, took the roof over to the local tarp and marine tonneau cover mfgr so the major tear along the peak seam could be stitched up and re-assembled it using stronger ground anchors; they bent too. The last time I put it up the ground anchors were the screw/auger type and I about buried them down to ground level. Come time to take the enclosure down and pull up the anchors and I found that almost all of them were bent!! Even buried as deep as they were, they still got deformed from having to deal with the wind. So I build a case for it with a good lid and it now resides on a shelf in my greenhouse.
Nick
Nick
You wanna ride down to Pittsburgh and strip the inside of the trunk on the Skylark as well as you did that Monte? 🤣
I just read this from start to finish- I love the paint color choice and the dedication to doing things thoroughly. I completely understand being a glutton for punishment and losing yourself in doing wiring work.
It’s gotten a tad quieter at idle thanks to a pair of Gibson MWA’s, but it still shrieks when I mash the pedal. Got the perfect tone to attract the police for miles.
Gimme a date and time and I can make something work 😉
What I’ve done already ain’t the half of it, I’ve got that spare dash I plucked from that LeMans, I’ll be prepping that to be dropped in over the winter for the LS/manual swap I’ve got planned for this thing.
No, you give me a date and time and I'll make it work!
