Update pics from my 85 SS Monte build

[CopperNick]

Yesterday the question of what the forum residents and denizens did in their shops/garages/sheds on Sundays came up for consideration. Did post at that time but thought a few new pics of the next pending stage of my project might be worth the time to take and upload them

So this is a shot of the completed floor pan work. Both pans have bee completely replaced from the toe boards to the kick up for the rear seat. All that remains to do here is apply some seam sealer where needed just as an additional precaution.

The passenger's side firewall just below and towards the tunnel came in for some attention as well.. Culprit appears to be a catastrophic failure in either the cooling or A/C that ruptured one of heat exchangers and remained unnoticed for a while due to the car being parked while owned by someone else. Right now the A/C is totally decommissioned. The outer casing is heavily damaged along one edge of its floor but might be repairable. Tracking a good used case down around here is a pain and a chore. May have one lined up but getting out to it and negotiating a price remain to be seen.

The about to be dropped onto its mounts engine for my project. Having the crane to do the heavy lifting has been a blessing. They can be scored for a decent price from places like Harbor Freight-(this is not a plug, just who I probably got this one from)-. I also have the angle adaptor which is basically a long screw with a hook on it to change the angle of the drop to make mating to the mounts a lot easier. For the keen eyed among you, no you are not seeing things. That is, in fact, a genuine Chevrolet OEM bellhousing bolted to the back of that mill. Behind it is a 153 tooth flywheel and a Hays clutch and pressure plate. It is all assembled using ARP fasteners. The transmission is a Muncie, 1" countershaft case, with a iron mid-plate that has been machined to both index the shaft and take a bolt that locks it into position; no more walking the shaft. The shifter is, of course, a Hurst Competition Plus that I rescued from a salvage yard and rebuilt using parts from the Hurst service catalogue. The clutch linkage is genuine GM, as are the pedals. The Saudi Chevvies were real, not an urban myth, and the proof of that is three bellhousings and four sets of double pedal assemblies that I managed to salvage from some of them that came from the yard I work with. The total count on them was 100+. They were originally ordered by the Saudi Arabians as four door Malibus w/manual V-6's but they became orphans when the deal fell through. Something about the method of payment that neither side would agree to. Remember, this was the 1980's; men drove and women didn't and the manual trannies were believed to be more resistant to sand and driver stupidity. Probably so but the trannies were Saginaws and not particularly all that strong or capable of withstanding abuse and neglect. Think it would have been the clutches that died first but over there, the attitude was drive it, break it, buy another.

Anyway, enjoy. Nick

 

[michmalibuman]

Good job Copper Nick, It looks like you have a good start.

 

[clean8485]

Actually, it was the government of Iraq that ordered the Malibus from GM of Canada in 1981. There was an order placed for 12,500 units, which were produced that year. They were plain Jane cars, with standard suspension, power steering and brakes, the 229 (3.8lt) Chevrolet V6, which was rated at 110HP, the 3 speed Saginaw transmission, and the biggest A/C system that GM could install on these cars. The A/C system ran the old long style Fridgidaire 6 cylinder A/C compressor, instead of the smaller round style compressor that was common on the A/G body cars. When the A/C was working properly on these cars, it would blow COLD air. They also had the long style speedometer that was graduated up to 200km/hr, with no MPH markings, and an AM/FM cassette deck. They had the plain dog dish style hubcaps, and no rear defroster (not required in a desert country) as well. Most people that I know call them Iraqi taxis.
Roughly half of the 12,500 cars were shipped to Iraq, but apparently there were some issues with driveabilty and reliability with the cars. Either for this reason, or for an issue with payment for the rest of the cars that were ordered (depending on your source of information), the rest of these cars were never delivered to Iraq. This left GM of Canada sitting on a bunch of cars that not many people wouldn't normally consider buying. These cars were retrofitted with Canadian emission control systems (which weren't required in Iraq), and sold off cheap by GM at tent sales. You could buy one of these cars brand new for either $6,000.00 or $6,500.00CDN. Most of them were driven hard, and after years of service were either scrapped or sold cheap, and many enthusiasts took advantage of these cars for the manual transmission conversion parts. Not very many have survived until now in good condition.
Over the years, I've owned 3 of these cars. one of them, I had as a daily driver for several years in the 1990s. It was a good car, although not very exciting. I had one as a parts car, and the third car I was going to hotrod, until I found my 1980 V8/4 speed Malibu, at which time I sold the last Iraqi car that I had.

 

[CopperNick]

Actually, it was the government of Iraq that ordered the Malibus from GM of Canada in 1981. There was an order placed for 12,500 units, which were produced that year. They were plain Jane cars, with standard suspension, power steering and brakes, the 229 (3.8lt) Chevrolet V6, which was rated at 110HP, the 3 speed Saginaw transmission, and the biggest A/C system that GM could install on these cars. The A/C system ran the old long style Fridgidaire 6 cylinder A/C compressor, instead of the smaller round style compressor that was common on the A/G body cars. When the A/C was working properly on these cars, it would blow COLD air. They also had the long style speedometer that was graduated up to 200km/hr, with no MPH markings, and an AM/FM cassette deck. They had the plain dog dish style hubcaps, and no rear defroster (not required in a desert country) as well. Most people that I know call them Iraqi taxis.
Roughly half of the 12,500 cars were shipped to Iraq, but apparently there were some issues with driveabilty and reliability with the cars. Either for this reason, or for an issue with payment for the rest of the cars that were ordered (depending on your source of information), the rest of these cars were never delivered to Iraq. This left GM of Canada sitting on a bunch of cars that not many people wouldn't normally consider buying. These cars were retrofitted with Canadian emission control systems (which weren't required in Iraq), and sold off cheap by GM at tent sales. You could buy one of these cars brand new for either $6,000.00 or $6,500.00CDN. Most of them were driven hard, and after years of service were either scrapped or sold cheap, and many enthusiasts took advantage of these cars for the manual transmission conversion parts. Not very many have survived until now in good condition.
Over the years, I've owned 3 of these cars. one of them, I had as a daily driver for several years in the 1990s. It was a good car, although not very exciting. I had one as a parts car, and the third car I was going to hotrod, until I found my 1980 V8/4 speed Malibu, at which time I sold the last Iraqi car that I had.

 

[CopperNick]

Okay, 12,500?? Seems to me to be an over size order unless whoever was making it worked for the government and they were for federal employees. The 100 number may have come from the quantity of those vehicles that were assigned to the local dealer or province for sale. Not really sure on that. The reason that the Saudis seemed more plausible as buyers is that both Iraq and Iran were not exactly friendly towards the US in those days Iraq more so but the whole region was not exactly enamored of the Great Satan as such. Also, the Saud family would have been a better customer because they had the walking around money that a deal like that would have entailed plus being generally friendlier towards the \west as a whole (Think oil here) Still, the whole business of the default sounds more like the Ira-s. Just thinking aloud here. Nick