Riley’s 78 Monte Carlo — "Rolling the Dice"

[Sodee]

Got some very discouraging news today... went to get estimates on how much it’ll cost to fix the rust from the Landau top being there and got some pretty high numbers.

High enough that if I don’t find an alternative, this car might get sold, or parted out. We will see


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[Sodee]

Now the fun begins.....

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[Sodee]

It’s been really rainy here but today has held off just long enough for me to get some work done. After assessing the situation, despite everyone saying I should keep the 79, I’m going t cut the top off the 79 and keep the 78.

Reason being, the 79 body isn’t in the great shape that I thought it would be in and the title situation wasn’t as I hope so I just don’t see me swapping everything over being worth it. So I’ll grab what I want off it, and part it out.

But first, I decided to drop the radiator from the 79 in the 78. Made the radiator brackets from the brackets off the trans cooler that also got mounted today.

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[Sodee]

Then, comes the dilemma... I wanted the 79 tails but now I have to figure out how to make that happen on the 78. Should be a direct swap right? Well, not exactly. For some reason, GM made small changes that are going to make this not such a direct swap and will require a few modifications. But thats what power tools are for.

The side corner plastic pieces fit perfectly more or less. One small hole missing but not a big deal. I’ll drill it later.

Holes are missing for the outside of the tail lights but I’ll do some measurements, mark and drill it out to make it fit in. Yes, I’m on the lookout for new tails too lol these have seen better days.

Not sure why this was even done.. they could have literally kept this part the same and simplified the manufacturing process a little bit, but I wasn’t alive to know what was going on in 78-79.

Will update more when I take the sawzall to the roof of the 79 [emoji16]


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