montefrazer

28-32 degrees. Set mine by ear through the window in the cap. ------------------ Steve

That's right. Recently tested a set of 71 up switches in my 70 to see if they worked. Plugged in and worked fine. ------------------ Steve

Power lock switches also match the power window switches for 70 and 71-72. As usual, 70 is the odd one. The two styles are interchangeable and will work fine. Just look different. ------------------ Steve

With the 70 bumper and grill, most people will never know it's not a 70. ------------------ Steve

What year head light rings? 70 is different. ------------------ Steve

Your email address doesn't work. If you email me with a good address, I will try again. ------------------ Steve

If everything went right, you have mail. ------------------ Steve

I just bought a Craftsman stripped screw remover kit from Sears. New toys! I haven't tried it yet, but you may want to look into it if you strip the screw heads. ------------------ Steve

Also, cars can share the same basic architecture/frame and still have different widths & wheelbases. Look at all the cars Ford based on the Fox platform in the 80's as an example. Now we get into frame, subframe, and unibody differences. Fox platforms were unibody not frames. All you do is weld your suspension points and braces to different floor pans and you have a different Fox platform. This system is used today to make most cars. Subframes were the Camaro/Nova system. One partial front frame bolted to various rear platforms. Our Montes with full frames don't easily change wheel base or width. A different frame is required for this. Yes, some parts are the same from one wheel base to another. We just use a longer rail between the front and rear sections. But, as the frame gets longer or wider, you need to go to heavier steel or more cross bracing. A full frame is more heavy duty than the other systems. This is why most trucks use full frames. If a Fox body Mustang is severely rusted, you need a lot of specialized equipment and skill to rebuild it. If a Monte is severely rusted you can unbolt the body and replace it. ------------------ Steve

Frame size matched body size. B body cars used B frames, A body cars used A frames, etc. Putting a 70 Monte body on a 70 Impala frame would look a bit.... um... odd. I dug out my Hollander and the rear glass from a 69-70 Grand Prix interchanges with 70-72 Monte, but the roof doesn't. Something is different. Maybe longer due to the wheel base difference? 71-72 Grand Prix rear glass in different. Grand Prix listed a rear defogger in the glass. An up grade over the Monte blower. Something to keep in mind for a modification. I will go through the Hollander interchanges between GP and Monte to see if anything else fits. Will post results soon. ------------------ Steve

I know that when I was making frames for 73-77 Montes and other GM intermediates, they were called A frames. The new down sized 78-88 Monte, Chevelle, Lemans, etc. frame was called a G frame. Full sized were always called B frames. ------------------ Steve

It means welding metal to the parts of the frame that are three sided to make them fully boxed, four sided. This makes the frame strong enough to not flex going over bumps and through pot holes, "torsional rigidity". The roof of the car is an important part of the body strength and you need to make up for this loss when you remove the top. All convertibles have stronger frames or unibodys from the factory. Most also have extra body bracing. ------------------ Steve

Your 71 will have more lines than a 70 if it still has the emissions system. There will be lines from the canister on the frame to the engine. Don't have the routing myself, but finding a 71 SS to look at or buying a factory 71 manual would be best. ------------------ Steve

Also check the connections for corrosion. At the switch and at the motor. It doesn't take much corrosion to kill the connection. ------------------ Steve

You really got to be a part of the birth of our FGMC (maybe even the exact car one of us runs today). It must feel great to see people so passionate about something you had a hand in building over 30 years ago. Again, this site and you people rock! Close but no cigar . I started in August and 73 frames were going down the line. I made the beginning of the second generation. We used the same basic production methods through the end of the G cars in 88. ------------------ Steve

Just a short history on frame production of the time. All of our frames were welded by hand on a production line. Not all the frames were done by GM. I work at Tower Automotive. They bought us from A O Smith in 97. Smith made millions of frames for all the major car manufactures from 1903 to 1997. I started there in 72 on the Monte Carlo frame line. At the time our cars were made, we had a piece work rate of 745 frames in 8 hours. By 75 it was upped to 760. Not much time to spend on each one. Some frames were done better than others. It is more of a luck of the draw than an inherent design problem. I have seen bad frames on many cars over the years, but it's more of a bad weld and missed repair than a design problem. 14 people were used to put the front part of our frames together. Lots of chances to make bad welds. This part of the frame ends at the welds by the fire wall. The rear was made on another production line and the parts were joined on a seperate line later in the build process. ------------------ Steve

(were do I find the aluminum ones?), and a bolted onto the orginal battery tray- new battery mounting brackets so the battery would fit back to the orginal. Note here the orginal rusted away and most of it tore off. Never heard of anyone selling aluminum replacement inner fenders. Most of the venders listed elsewhere on this site sell plastic or sheet metal replacement ones. They will also carry repro battery trays and hardware. Always check the work before you leave the shop. ------------------ Steve

The sending unit goes in the top of the tank. You need to remove the tank to take it out. Empty the tank as much as you can before taking it off. Less weight to fight with. There are two straps to unbolt and two electrical connections to take off. The power lead just plugs onto the sending unit. The ground screws to the body. Since you have a 72, there will be four hoses to disconnect at the front of the tank. You will need to have the car on a hoist, ramps, or jack stands to do this. When everything is free, move the tank toward the front of the car until the filler neck clears the frame. Then just take it out the back. A large metal ring holds the unit in. It needs to be turned counter clockwise (left) to come loose. There will be gas in the tank, so be very careful. ------------------ Steve

Yes, all those parts and more will fit. Radio, carpet, rear defog, power options, etc. Chevelle's make great donor cars for Montes. ------------------ Steve

I was told it would be a big job to add cruise to the car so I wonder could it have been factory installed and not documented by mistake.[/b] It's not that big of a job to add cruise if you have all the parts. You have to make a few new holes and run a wire inside the steering column from your new blinker lever. Plumb some vacuum line and change speedo cables. Change brake light switch and add a vacuum switch by the brake light switch. Hook up the linkage and electrical and go for a test drive. A saturday afternoon if you have done it before, a weekend if you haven't. ------------------ Steve

On a lighter note. I e-mailed them directly for a price for a system. They requested my make and model. Also they told me that theres a self install kit and a kit they install. The self install kit has no warrenty, and the kit they install has a 10 year warrenty. Kind of throws up red flags.....all over. I sent them my make and model just to see what they are charging for this system just for giggles. This reminds me of the life time rust proofing claims of the 70's and early 80's. Ziebart, Duracoat, The Shield, etc. They had to install it and you had to bring it in for a yearly check up. If you didn't, you voided the warrenty. When it rusted out in 3-4 years up here in the rust belt, all they did was give you your money back. Lots of upset people. I have had many winter beaters that were rusted out right up to the plastic plugs used to fill the holes made to "rust proof" the car. If this system is that simple and effective, one of the auto makers would buy them out and use the system. It would be cheaper and easier than the chemical dips and coatings they're using now. ------------------ Steve

Welcome to the SS board. It sounds like a nice car. Rob is right about the system. It uses air shocks to keep the car at a steady ride hight even when loaded down. It uses engine vacuum so the engine must be running for it to work. His suggestion on testing it should work fine. Don't expect the system to bring it back up in one or two seconds. It needs a minute or two to pump the air shocks up. The heavier the load, the longer it will take to come back to level. If you don't notice the rear end at least trying to come back up after two minutes or so, check to see if the pump is working. You should be able to hear or feel if it is doing anything. First make sure your car has air shocks with the air lines hooked up to them. ------------------ Steve