RichG

Your car should have a 12 bolt and the stock gear set would have been 3.31:1. It could have been ordered with 2.56:1 gears as well. The only monte's with a 10 bolt were factory 350 2 barrel carb cars. All 350 4 barrel and up motors got a 12 bolt. It should also have a turbo 400 transmission. Th400's came with the big blocks and th350's came with small blocks. The quickest way to tell is look at the top of the accelerator pedal inside the car. If there is an electrical switch attached to it, you have a th400. Except for the horizontal rubber bumper pad missing from the rear bumper your car has all the signs of a real SS car. For me the most overlooked or neglected item when faking them is the international symbols on the dash knobs. 1971 SS is my favorite. I owned a rosewood metallic with black vinyl top and black cloth bench ss454 car back in the late 1970's. Still have the build sheet and paperwork for the car. You have a beautiful car, congratulations.

The factory didn't use the pedal trim on our cars but I agree that it looks nice and wouldn't hesitate to use it. It certainly is a reversable modification.

The fader was not a seperate option, it was just part of the included hardware when you ordered a rear speaker, (which has it's own option code). That way Chevrolet didn't have to produce 2 different versions of the AM, AM/FM non stereo or AM/8-Track radios. One for the rear speaker and one without.

They must have changed a little over the years because I had no clearance problems with anything. Just had to make a litte bracket for the clutch fork return spring. I bought mine in 1984.

Yup, was a factory mono system. If the car has factory a/c it would get 2 speakers up front and one in the right rear. If no A/C it got one center speaker up front and one in right rear.

They are made by dynamax now. They have replaced the aluminum coating with ceramic coating. Summit sells them in painted or ceramic. $145.95 painted ( part number WLK-85110 ) or $329,95 for ceramic coated (part number WLK-86110 ).

I have BlackJack AK5000's (Aluminum Coated headers) on my 70 402 4 speed. Only issue was that I had to fab a bracket for the return spring but it was very simple. No other clearance issues with anything.

Stainless can be worked with. Small anvil, lead shot bag & light hammers with lots of care. Stainlees can also be buffed & polished.

The assembly manual and 1972 version parts books are very handy for solving the technical questions!

According to the assembly manual, it is mounted on the right hand side of the glove box. The hole is 9/16" diameter. The center of the hole is 6 21/32" from the back of the glove box and 2 9/32" up from the bottom of the box.

Rob is pretty close, there is a "back drive rod" that hooks to the gear selector shaft on the transmission, goes to a swivel bracket on the frame just below the e-brake, then up to the steering column. If you watch the column (where a column mount shifter would be) as you shift, you should see it move. It is what makes the steering wheel/ shifter lock system work. Could have trouble there. When you turn the key to start position, is the steering wheel free to turn?

The lower chrome attaches from underneath with screws and the upper trim has studs cast into it and uses barrel nuts through the extension housing.

From the factory it was an argent / silver color.

If you want, I can type up a "how to" on a headliner. Again it's patience, keep the wrinkles moving diagonally and proper application of heat and glue. Let me know! Rich

If you have any questions, just e-mail me and I'll try to help out. It's nice having really good instructors!

The school is Clover Park Technical College, ( www.cptc.ctc.edu )and it is in Tacoma, Wa. I'm currently enrolled in the Auto Restoration and Customization program and my Step-Daughter is enrolled in the Auto Upholstery Program. The programs are listed under the Automotive Technician heading. I get a couple of quarters of upholstery as part of my program. After we finish the class we will be moving to upstate New York and will open a small shop. It is a great school!

Sorry about the long post to follow but it is a detailed "how to upholster your seats at home". I'm not sure who recommended soapy water for installing the covers, and it may have worked but it's not really a good way to do it. I'm in the middle of a 15 month auto upholstery class as we speak. So far I've done several out of the box cover sets and have sewn up 2 interiors from scratch. The way we were taught is to carefully dis-assemble the seats paying close attention to where all of the lister wires are and where everything is hog ringed. Assess the foam. If you can re-use the original and add some to it you are usually better of than using aftermarket foam. Carefully check all of the springs. New side bolster springs and complete assemblies are available if needed. Once you have cleaned and painted the springs, tightly hog ring a heavy fabric over the seat springs, it keeps the foam from getting chewed up by the springs. If the foam needs to be built up, use a couple of thin layers of foam glued into place. At school we use an upholstery glue from a 2 gallon paint pot but 3M makes a high strength spray glue that will work fine. Rough cut the foam and test fit it. When you are happy with how it fits, spray one side of each piece of foam, let it dry completely then spray a light coat on ONE of the pieces and position it in place. If it is lumpy etc, take a 120 grit sanding disk on a D/A and GENTLY smooth and sculpt the foam. Resist the temptation to stick lots of foam on the seats for a more cushy feel..won't work out. It's easy over stuff the seat and you wind up sitting to high. Ask me how I know!!! When you are happy with the foam, get a couple of plastic bags that the dry cleaners put over clothes, the ones that are extremely thin and wrap the seat foam in them. This will allow the seat cover to slide over the foam easily but won't bunch up or show through the cover as a lump. Set the covers in the sun to warm them, if this is not an option, put them in a clothes drier on a MEDIUM setting, not hot. Get a hair dryer to help keep the covers warm as you install them but be careful! Put your left hand on the cover in the area that you are heating with the hair dryer..if it's too hot for your hand it's too hot for the cover. Pull the cover into place, making sure that it is centered. If you are doing the bottom, start with the lister wire in the center of the back of the seat and hog ring it in place. Next pull the front of the cover into place, align the welt with the edge of the front seat and with the cover warm,and stretched, hog ring it in place. Now go to the back again and start working your way to the outside edge. You want to keep any wrinkles moving in a diagonal direction. If the wrinkles are perpendicular or horizontal they are difficult to work out. Keep going front to back and side to side and you should be able to get a good tight installation. If you have low spots at corners and radius' work a small amount of dacron (1/2" thick usually works well and it can be bought in a small sheet at a fabric store)into the cover where you are having trouble, it will fill the voids. Don't use too much or it will show. Doing the seat back is about the same and if you made it this far you'll be ok. One good trick for getting the foam into a seat back cover is to wrap the foam with a dry cleaner plastic bag, about like a christmas present..but don't use tape, just use 2 layers of plastic all over. At the edge that will be exposed when the foam is in place, make a small hole in the plastic bag. Take your vacuum cleaner and use just the hose without any attachments. Put the hose over the hole in the plastic and turn on the vacuum. It will shrink the foam way down and you can easily slip the foam into the cover. When it is properly positioned inside, turn off the vacuum. The foam will expand back to it's original size and you can then adjust the cover as required. Again, sorry to be so long but it could save someone a bunch of money if they are patient. There really is a reason it cost's what it does for upholstery work. Our instructors have years of experience and that's how they help us fix what we screw up as we learn !!!

It's off the original topic but in the realm of the DuraCool discussion, has anyone looked into R414B? Here's a link: http://www.alltemp.ca/r406a_fr.htm

The general agreement seems to be that all SS cars got a black column and wheel. The console would have matched the interior color.

Actually it's just the opposite. The car was a factory console car. That's the reason that they needed to "backdrive" the steering column, because there was no shifter on it to control the locking mechanism for the steering wheel. If the shifter is on the floor you are supposed to have the rods in place to lock the steering wheel when it is in park. On a factory console car, if you watch the column where the shifter would be, it rotates as the shifter is moved from park to reverse etc. On a floor mount stick shift, it only rotates going into and out of reverse.

That's exactly what it is. It is the backdrive assembly that locks the steering column when you put it in park. There should be one rod from the base of the steering column to the swivel bracket and a second rod from the swivel bracket to the shifter bracket on the trans.

Is the bracket mounted on the top of the frame or on the side of the frame?

Because of the 10 bolt rear in the car, it was probably a 350 2-bbl car to start with. In the pictures it has no A/C so it would have had the smallest radiator available from the factory and would have probably had the 3 bolt radiator cover from the factory. HD cooling etc would get bigger radiator and radiator cover. Just a thought.

There is an excellent article on how to ID your differential in the Technical Info link, under the Monte Carlo Archives heading.

Leo, you are correct that many cars had the 2.56 because it was one of the 3 available ratios. What would be unusual would be to find a build sheet showing a 3.55, 3.73 or 4.10 gear sets. All were available over the counter, because my 402 has 3.55's in it with a factory gm part number on the ring and pinion. However my build sheet and the code stamped on the housing confirm a factory delivery of 3.31's. I purchased the gear set because it was NOS and I wanted a bit more oomph off the line.