New member from Phoenix, Az

[mtpwrench]

My name is Ray and I'm new to the forum...I've been sitting on a '78 Monte Carlo for several years trying to decide whitch direction I wnat to go with the build. It's a project my son and I are working on. we pulled it out of storage just before it got blistering hot here and were able to get the rear end built with a doner rear from a 2000 camaro. The camaro donated an auburn posi unit and 3:73 gears and rear disc brakes and a set of moser axles were purchased from Summit. We were going to do a drag car but decided on building it as an autocross/ road course/ street car instead. We are using parts that I have accumulated over the years to keep the initial cost down and can spend more as time goes on. So far I have a fresh 400 small block and a 700R4 but a 6 speed is going in as soon as we can afford it. The weather is starting to break so we have begun the build with some rust repairs in the floors. Here is a recent picture of the car we are calling, " The Monte Pit "...

 

[ssn696]

Nice effort! I'll take garage engineering and sweat equity over high-dollar turn-key any day. Was the Camaro axle truly an Auburn unit, or a Torsen with the helical gears? I have that axle and it appears I can put the diff and gears in my 7.5 housing if I use 28-spline GN axle shafts.

I had to suck it up and buy a new external-balance flywheel for my 400/Tremec. Ouch.

 

[mtpwrench]

I was told it was an aburn by my friend that was helping with the swap...He said I got lucky that the rear had been swapped out of the camaro and the gear set was also swapped from a 3:42 to the 3:73 set that I used...Here are a couple of pictures...

The disc brakes also went right together with very little modification. I still have to solve the E brake cable install but the brakes are operational

 

[Longroof79]

Welcome aboard Ray,
Looks like a nice solid Monte. It's great when you can score good usable parts from the junkyard.

 

[mtpwrench]

Thanks...The car is an Arizona car so there is no rust on the frame or body panels but it started life as a vinal top car so there are some issues around the top of the A pillars and around the back window. It looked like a previous owner had a heater core leaking and instead of replacing it they put some sort of absorbing pad below the carpet and left it so there was a rust hole on the pasengers side and a couple small ones on the drivers side. We cut out the cancer and put in some new material yesterday. I'm going to paint the inside and undercoat the bottom tonight then start assembling it. The motor and transmission are ready to go just need to modify the crossmember for the 700R4 and get the drive line shortened. We picked up a new ratchet shifter from B&M and some nice bucket seats from a ford probe( another junk yard find ) and a set of N90 wheels from craigs list here locally... should have a running and driving car soon...I'll update with pictures