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"IN STOCK"

Aside from the cowl hood , it's difficult to imagine any other exterior body modifications that I would find to be appealing. To me , it's in the same boat as the aftermarket sunroof or the Opera windows. That being said, it's just not my cup of tea. However, it's not my car and one should do exactly what they want with their car of choice.

1st, its your car do what you want. 2nd I'm not a big fan of wings .

She runs...video to follow

I have three of these first gen Monte's. A 1970 I bought in high school for $300 and two 1971's I bought this spring. All three are standard 350/350 bench seat cars. The 71's are stock AC cars but that is about the only luxury option on them. All three are in kinda rough to really rough shape with high to higher mileage on them. My point is, none of them are really worth a lot of money (like an SS or a low-mileage survivor). My 70 I wrecked a rear quarter in high school (back tire came off going down the high way) so when I had the car repainted I had them remove all the side chrome and side marker lights and filled in the holes (pictures below). I like that really clean look and I will probably continue that theme on it if I decide to finish the rebuild/repaint for the third time. This is the car I thought about adding the wing. If I do it again, I will probably shave the door handles also and just keep chrome on the front and rear. The 71's I'm going to keep stock, or at least stock colors. One of the '71's (Pickle) is stock Cottonwood Green with green vinyl. It was sitting under a tree since 1995 so the paint and top are shot. I never liked that '70's green so I'm going back with the stock Lime Green and a black top. Actually, I thought about a wing on that car as well - maybe gloss or flat black. I've grown to really appreciate cars that are stock in recent years. However, I have always viewed cars as automotive art. I visual body styles in different colors, with ground effects, rear window louvers, hood scopes etc... that may or may not have been offered stock or even as an aftermarket. I like flashy and I like unique. My daily is a 2013 Ford F-150 by Tuscany. If I was Chip Foose, I would sketch this out but alas, I don't have those talents. However, if someone can photoshop something and post it, that would be really cool.

It’s a slippery slope. It’s an addiction. Be careful. But it sure is fun. lol.

No.

1stStartLong.mp4

There is something wrong with it. lol.

I promised a build thread in my intro post, so here goes... I am new to the group but have had my 72 for about 2 years. She's been very reliable, but the stock 2 bolt 350 was already a slouch for power in this big ol gal, and mine has evidence of ring and valve problems. She smokes when cold, smokes when coming off the gas on the freeway, and power is way down. I'm not out drag racing, know she's a cruiser. But it would be nice to have enough power to not need to hammer the gas pedal on a medium grade. It's not fun being bullied by 19 year olds in turbo Hyundai's. And the last owner didn't help me much by adding a big honkin 4 barrel Holley 670 CRM carb that was waaaaay overkill. I had to play around with squirt nozzles and power valves just to get her to run without falling on her face every time I hit the gas. And even then she still had a propensity to backfire and stall at any given stop. So, I planned a swap. I have 2 buddies that have turned to Blueprint motors for a crate engine. After much googling and phone calls with Blueprint (Darian is a great guy, ask for him if you call with questions), I landed on a complete 383. It's based on a standard GM small block, but is a new Blueprint casting. It's a 4 bolt main with their proprietary aluminum heads and a mild cam. They Dyno each unit before it leaves their factory, and mine makes 436 hp and 466 ft/lbs torque. She landed on my doorstep about 3 weeks ago-ish To be continued...

Picked up a motherlode of 70-72 Parts from another First Gen owner, who has owned 7 of our cars over the years. This is about half of it. The rest is up in the attic of my garage. All of it took up the entire bed and cab of my pickup. I will be cataloguing all of it very soon along with the parts I have picked up over the years.

Yes, most of us are, or know where to get them from !!!

That's the plan, though exhaust may happen sooner rather than later. The couplers are already slipping, and I was essentially running open header on a shakedown run earlier today. Header bolts needed a retighten, as did the fuel pump bolts. Seemed like just about everything else was good and tight. Throttle screw was too far out, she doesn't want to stay running at stops or in reverse, but that's easily handled. First impression is she's definitely got the power I was looking for.

That’s funny. The only thing that applies to me is the messy hoarder. lol.

Update: The host hotel for the 2025 Eastern Meet has limited parking so they are requesting our club, and other somernites cruise attendants who stay at their hotel, to park transport vehicles and trailers in an adjacent lot. I have gained permission from the owner to do this for our club.. It is in close view of the host hotel.. this will make better room for our cordened area for our Monte Carlo’s.. A picture of the area is included below.⬇️ also , when registering with Jared or I to attend the Meet, you no longer need to tell us if you are staying in the same room as another member. Just advise the hotel.. Thanks, Ron…

Well, That sounds very healthy !! Here's my old 355cu.in.420hp MC Vid.mov

Yea it did on mine too, I just figured that's where the bikini model was and it was blocked 🤣

You'd think with all the other work done to it, they would have added power windows. Nice car though.

Sounds and looks great 🤘The middle of the video whited out for me 😲

Yeah...the rumble is very satisfying after several weeks of nonstop work! I need to get the hood insulation tucked up into the hood webbing, and then get it bolted on. Then a quick shine up and she's ready to show! New valve covers are sitting in a box waiting to go on, but they can wait. I need a break lol. Still unsure if her torque converter needs to have the stall speed raised, and she desperately needs new exhaust...what's there is a cobbled together mess made up of the existing exhaust from the firewall back, but with about a dozen couplers and prebends to tie it to the headers. The video doesn't show how leaky it sounds in reality. But all in all I'm pretty satisfied. A stroker motor swap was something that a few years ago seemed like a pipe dream. Now it's something I can check off the bucket list.

She sure sounds healthy.

A one time fee in Alberta for antique plate, I think its around $35.00 bucks, lasts forever and can be transferred to another qualified antique vehicle for $15.00

Too bad Kenwood, Alpine or Pioneer don't make old school decks.

You say that like there is something wrong with it!

So are all Monte owners on the Eastern Seaboard just natural hoarders ???

There was a Mohave Gold 72 for sale about a year ago with that type spoiler on it. Real nice car, I think it finally sold. I'll see if I can find pics.

Let me know if that’s what you want. I don’t mess with small blocks much. So I don’t know if that is tall or short. But you can see it still has the a/c bracket on it. (Feet shown for authenticity).

In my experience, even after the dyno you still run break in oil. I'm usually around race cars so don't know the recommendation on street cars. My crate came with a dyno sheet and still had the break in requirements

Yes, Andrea' s Monte is one cool looking First Gen Monte Carlo. I think he was ahead of his time with the mods he did to his car. I wonder if his son has the keys to it now. Would be great to see it again.😊

I think it is two tone...... Kind of reminds me of my '80 Cabalero's (GMC El Camino) factory paint scheme....

Well, I've got the G.N. equivalent 200R4, gear ratio that's close to the same, and running around 325-350 hp....... Just don't have the "whir" or snap of a turbo.

There is a thread here that addresses that, along with the use of distilled water. I believe that it was Joe that posted a real good technical bulletin on the subject. I’m sure someone here can post a link to it. But basically we should be staying with the green and distilled water. I just use a major brand such as Zerex, Peak or Prestone.

Would like to see a photo depiction of it at least…

Sounds great. Car looks really nice too. Drive it for a bit then make changes in the winter.

I'm diggin' the shifter/console. That looks nice!!

"Sold". -Bill

Figured , remember NO stupid questions here 🤣

I have a Sony with a single CD player in the Cougar 🤣

No, not just there. lol.

I’ve got a Retro Sound and the quality isn’t the best but have not looked to hard for replacement but I should so I have something to do this winter

Depending on the coolant one uses, it can also gum up the thermostat to.

Evening, Just put one on my '72. Have the original fenders and the passenger side didn't align with the body. Tried and tried to get it to sit level but it wasn't until we put the original hood on and saw the issue with the 2" cowl hood. The inner support structure was welded to the top skin incorrectly. Had to drill out the spot welds then align the hood and clip it in place to weld it. Luckily had some good help but it was a good amount of work I was not expecting. Pics below you can see where the inner frame and top skin of the hood used to meet. You can also see where the dip is vs the original fender. The cowl does look awesome I just don't have a spot to put the "pissers" since they mounted in the original hoods vents. Beauty over functionality I guess...

They also use different OHMs for the speakers

Mixing factory and aftermarket speakers never works out for the good.... The technology and quality 50 years ago doesn't handle the new stuff. Plus the materials used have seen 50 years of wear and tear as well.

having had and hated the custom auto sound system, the 630 if memory serves, I would venture to guess the sound quality lands squarely on that unit. I had a Sony xplod amp in mine so i was able to make it sound somewhat better, but it never was a quality stereo in my opinion. It may be fairly simple to remove that CA 630 because it is significantly smaller than the factory unit and at least check it out using other speakers, or plug something else in, if you have something lying around, and compare the sound quality. The dash is very easy to remove. A few Phillips screws around the instruments and two inside the glove box and it pops right off. Also, do you have sound from both the in dash speakers and the kick panel speakers?

I began the swap by pulling everything off the front of the motor and disconnecting everything I could find. Lots of tagging wires and bagging bolts. Also snapped pictures of what was connected where. Eventually, the time came to pull the motor. But oh no! The boom on the engine hoist was too short...so I fabbed up an extension and prayed to the metallurgy gods that I wasn't cheating physics too badly. The extension gave me about 2" before the jack would hit the bumper, and put the hook juuuust past the end of the legs. You can see about 8" of lighter color steel at the very end of the boom. It was actually about 36" long and fit snuggly inside the original boom. Machining the slot in the end for the chain was an adventure... Haha success! The hoist made some unusual noises in protest, and my wife had to stand on the end to counterbalance all that cast iron, but an idea is only crazy if it doesn't work. Now I had (as my nephew put it) ripped her heart out

Now, my 72 was well cared for as far as family cars go. I can tell you it was still getting tagged and driven into the late 90s, as I have some of the inspection paperwork. Not sure how long she sat, but she didn't rust wherever she was. I think a combination of no salt and a layer of oily dirt covering everything from the firewall back protected the car from mother nature's ravages. The winter after I got her spent some time cleaning the engine bay and frame, and I got a good 10lbs of mucky Carolina clay out from under that car. The transmission leaked from just about every orifice, so when I tell you it was a gross mud muck, I mean it. So, I spent a weekend scraping and degreasing and wire wheeling and prepping and finally painting POR-15 onto the frame between the bumper and the firewall. I also did as much of the suspension as I could get a brush to. Eventually, I ended up with a pretty decent engine bay The transmission was also rebuilt, so no more Exon-Valdez on my garage floor. Now she shifts like a jackhammer! A big heavy Chevy needs to stop, so I swapped in some slotted rotors and cermic brake pads. New bearings were also added since I had the rotor off already The last major mechanical upgrade I did was swap out the leaking stock style radiator for a beefier aluminum unit. I guess I never took pics, but it's in there, under a new rad top cover in satin black. The only external update I made was filling the badge holes for the trunk lid keyhole cover. The car had been debadged before they painted it, so that keyhole badge was the only shield still on her. Looked out of place, so it had to go. With that backstory out of the way, we can get to the swap...

I don't have an opinion on the scoop/bulge yet but the hood itself, lines, bends and shape look really good. Did they mention how the quality is?

I saw someone post these photos on Facebook. He ordered it from The Parts Place.