hello all! New guy here joining the fourm from kansas. Hoping to buy a 88 t top monte carlo ss from a buddy of mine so wanted to join the fourms and start learning. No sure what route im wanting to go with it, but i do want to put it back as oringnal as possible with everything functional. Its a pretty good starting platform, no major rust stright body for the most part. Worst thing is deformed plastics and saggy doors and bad weather stripping. looking foward to meeting people and learning. This is my dream car platform and excited to have it. (Was really wanting a t top cutlass though. But a ss will be cool too!)
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- Thread starter Jiggie
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Thanks! Yea having a hard time finding oem parts like the center console, ac parts, and shifter. Previous owner put a hotrod shifter in it and a 350 but ripped out lots of stuff. Im also paying way to much for it but i guess to car guys is it ever really too much lol.
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Greetings from Topeka. Welcome to the forum. You'll find a lot of great info and cool builds on this forum.
Sweet another kansas member! Ive been on all day reading and looking at builds. I think this build is going to be harder than i thought lol.
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Just spend a couple hours a day on it and it'll come together quicker than you might think. Two hours each night was just enough time for me to make progress, yet not enough time to get frustrated. Good luck!! Look forward to seeing some pics.
Thanks for the advice! Thats abut the amount of time the wife will let me spend with out making her mad lol. Going to pull it out of the garage today and go over it one more time before i pay for it. The guy want 3k for it because thats what he has in it. My gut says its too much, but im not having much luck finding a rust free t top g body that runs and drives for less. Feel like if i dont buy this one i might not get one that isnt a big rust bucket or bigger project. I Spent about 4 hours last night trying to figure out whats missing, what needs replaced what needs fixed to make it functional the way i want it. Some parts i need to buy asap because they are getting hard to find but most everything else can be done over time. Is it a normal thing for people to put in 350s to replace the 305 in these cars?
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Finding a rust free car is tough and in my opinion they're worth more because they typically need less body work. Needless to say, rust is nasty and takes a lot of time and money to fix correctly.
My 88 Cutlass has 71k miles, I paid $3k + $600 shipping as it sits in the first pic. It came out of South Carolina. The car was in a very dry climate and had zero rust with the exception of a little surface rust on the frame. The body was very straight, body mounts, floor pans & trunk were in incredible shape too. I didn't have to replace a single piece of sheet metal when I did the body and paint. If you start with a car that needs less work, you'll wind up with a nicer finished product.
There are a lot of people who prefer the 350 over the 305 simply because it's easier to make more power. The 305's can be built to make power but the same work will net you more power with a 350. I would use whatever your budget allows.
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My 88 Cutlass has 71k miles, I paid $3k + $600 shipping as it sits in the first pic. It came out of South Carolina. The car was in a very dry climate and had zero rust with the exception of a little surface rust on the frame. The body was very straight, body mounts, floor pans & trunk were in incredible shape too. I didn't have to replace a single piece of sheet metal when I did the body and paint. If you start with a car that needs less work, you'll wind up with a nicer finished product.
There are a lot of people who prefer the 350 over the 305 simply because it's easier to make more power. The 305's can be built to make power but the same work will net you more power with a 350. I would use whatever your budget allows.
Before
After
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Wow!!! Thats a beautiful car! This monte is nowhere near that clean. In fact its pretty rough. Body wise there are only a few dings here and there nothing crazy or major. Here are a few pictures of it.
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