EVC

Beale AFB has had the pleasure of a Green Monte Carlo on her roads since 1977…. She never misses a praise from the young guards as she enters the security gates.

Went to Beale AFB for breakfast with my son (Lt Col Ed Chesser) … He drove his 1985 Bronco 2. He purchased it in 1987 and has driven it over well over 350,000 thousand miles.. In this family,,, we drive them, fix them and drive them more….. My son ,Ed, and I, typically meet at Beale AFB, Contrails Inn Mess Hall, at least once a month.. It's also wonderful place to go for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. It pleases my heart to have dinner with our troops and their Commanders on these important days. Missing wheel covers on my Monte is an ongoing project.

. MONTE ARRIVING .mp4

Went to the Hobby shop and changed the oil. Lucas hot rod oil, 10w40 with zinc.

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Sams Club and Walmart have the Tiger Paws. I think they are available on Amazon also. I like the white walls better. Matter of opinion, but the 215/70/ 15s look great ... The tiger paws are wearing very well and seemed to be easy to balance without a ton of weights. I use them on all of my cars. I think you can get them in black walls too. Ed C.

I get the Lucas or Valvoline VR1 from Amazon. I try to keep enough in my garage for two oil changes... The Zinc additive doesn't work as well ,so I always get the oil with Zinc…. I'm sure others will disagree, but that's my opinion. Oils with high detergent defeat the purpose of the additive. Ed C.

After a long engineering study and some serious thought I came up with another route …. 😇 I cut the bottom out of an old beer can wrap and it seems to work.

looks great… Nice work.

350/700r4… Gearing 273. original engine, 20 over, 12000 miles on engine. AC car, 215/70r15 tires. Edlebrock intake and carb, HEI ignition …. 89 octane fuel. Speedometer is accurate.

For these road trips I've been thinking about making some modifications to the Monte. This guy did a crappy job. Hank likes the rear widow design. Works better for me too. I can leave the AC on and the wife won't complain. I'll be using small fender washers and self tappers for the Monte. Ideas would be appreciated. Ed.

Bryan, Yesterday, I installed the new center link and the passenger side upper arm bushings… I reused the original shims as they were and didn't mess with bushings or shims on the drivers side. My time on the alignment rack was limited, so I made some quick adjustments to the toe and called it a day. I didn't have time to play with the caster and camber, but will return next week to experiment with the shims. I was impressed with the out of the box numbers... It now appears to be an easy reach to the positive caster range. Thank you for the help… Your thoughts on these numbers will be appreciated. Ed.

I feel lucky having this hobby shop 17 miles from my home… It's over 10,000 sf, with modern equipment, and about 12 racks / with tools to do anything needed on my car. The place is fully staffed with mechanics who will do the work for an additional fee or give free guidance and information. It's like having my own personal shop with 6 mechanics without the overhead. Pizza place is next door… Great place to hang out with some really great people who are willing to share information… 100 miles to Summit Racing ,,,, What could possibly be wrong with that ? 😀

Yesterday, I replaced the passenger side upper control arm bushings and the center link. All other parts are tight and in great shape. I didn't have time to play with the castor and camber shims, so I did a quick toe adjustment and called it a day. She drives much better and no longer favors the right side of the road. I have the alignment machine available next week and will go after that positive castor of 2 to 3 degrees..

Conventional … Lucas hot rod oil, 10w30 winter, Lucas10w40 summer…. High zinc.

Hank is the fish bait. LOL

Drove to Reno yesterday. 242 miles round trip. We took the I- 80 thru Donner pass ... From our home to the summit was about 70 miles of hard uphill driving with an elevation change of about 7000'. Then it's 38 miles down hill, to Reno with about 4500' of elevation. The Monte did perfectly and gave us 18.5 Mpg with the AC on during the uphill trip to Reno … After a few miles of city driving , she gave us 20.7 Mpg on the return trip home. Over fuel economy was about 19.5 mpg.. It was a warm day and the engine temps stayed at about 190 degrees on the open road and in the hills, but reached the 210 levels in traffic. My Monte was tuned to our home elevation of about 1000' …… When we reached the higher altitudes, I noticed minor changes in performance and saw the overall loss of about 2 to 3"s of vacuum. When we got closer to home, she returned to normal vacuum readings… 17" at idle and 15" at light cruising. She seemed to stay in the 190 degree range longer at the higher elevations, but tended to liked the 180 range below 3000 ft… In Reno, 4500ft elevation, she liked the 190 to 210 degree temps... Driving with the vacuum gage makes it easier to see these changes… Most of these minor changes would have gone unnoticed without the vacuum gage and I probably would have driven faster and experienced less fuel economy.. Around home she stays in the range of 15 to 17 MPG ,,, but I'm now certain she'll do 20 + on the open road…. Most of the Reno trip was in over drive (700r4), and cruising comfortably at 65 mph with the AC on. It was a fun trip and we plan to make another one soon so Hank can go fishing on Diamond Lake Oregon… Overall trip will be about 800 miles. Ed C.. Ed C.

Today I drove the Monte and my wife to Reno and we visited Summit Racing.. Been there before,,, but today was a really great visit… I took the wife to Popeye's Chicken for lunch. I can get away with that after being married to her for 63 Years ….. $20 bucks and off we went to Summit to spend millions… I found a pair of Pontiac Bonneville rims that matched my Pontiac rims perfectly and almost bought them… I really like those wheels,,, but was concerned they may overwhelm the Monte…. Then I looked at the Z28 rims and wanted them too. I was Indecisive and decided to hold off… I'll post some pics of the two wheels soon… They had millions of wheels to choose from and they took all the time needed to go thru my options. I have this nagging idea of figuring a way to use stock Rally's with some subtle changes and yet remain stock in appearance only better. So I ordered some chrome lug nuts , thinner beauty rings, chrome valve stems ,different wheel caps, a few cans of paint… I'm going to first try this and if it doesn't work I'll get the some new wheels. I'll go back to Summit and toss a coin between the Pontiac version or the Z28 wheels… Ed C

Going wheel shopping today.. Not in a rush.. Wife gave me semi nod of approval.. Her iBuick computer on wheels went to the Geek yesterday and the bill was less than $200 so she saved a lot of money in her mind. LOL Ed C ..

The odd thing was me (the dummy) using alignment adapters on the wheels to slide over the Rally caps.. Today I removed the Rally caps and didn't use the plastic alignment adapters… Now I have sane numbers and will be able to shim into the positive 3degree side using the stock arms and shafts… All steering parts, bushings etc are in great shape except for the passenger uppers and some wear on the drag arm. The steering box, ball joints, tie rod ends etc, and all other bushings front and rear are in excellent shape. Apparently those two upper bushings took a beating or were improperly installed and the arm slide back just enough to cause the car to slightly favor the right side of the road and create a slightly negative castor reading…. It was almost impossible to see because they appear perfectly centered. I'll replace these parts and see if I can improve the castor and camber with the stock arms and shaft. No offset needed now.. I'd like to see how she drives with a positive 3degree castor and then perhaps go to the offset shaft…. She currently drives great at the near zero castor numbers, so another 3 degrees will be fantastic for me. Thanks for the help .. Ed C.

I agree, I'm tired of the bone stock look. I'm also bored with the base coat / clear coat look being passed off as original in looks … IMHO,,, those who want the original look a good single stage paint would actually look more natural. And a hell of a lot cheaper. It's my car and she's a work of art in style. With all this discussion about wheels,, I'm thinking about changing mine. I like the wheels Aaron is considering and may go that route also. First I need to get my wife (the CFO) in the mood. LOL I know for a fact she would approve a set of 69 Olds Cutlass Wheels if I find a good set. Ed C.

The Wheel thingy : This is where it began … Growing up in the 50's, I recall that the most sought after hubcaps were the Oldsmobile Fiesta's. They started showing up on the Oldsmobile in 1953 … My Dad had a 1951 98 Olds with standard wheel covers. I was 11 at the time and was anxious to get my first car so I could put the fiesta's on. The most popular way at the time to get a pair was to buy them from questionable sources or go to jail for stealing them. As time went on my Dad bought a 1954 Olds 98 in 1955. I was mortified that it didn't have the fiesta's, so a friend of my friend sold me a pair for a few bucks and my dad let me install them on our family car. No questions asked …. They lasted about three weeks on the car and were stolen at Jacksonville beach. Needless to say,, my Dad wasn't impressed and put the stock covers back on his two tone 98. The following year about 55 or 56, I bought my 51 Ford flathead and put them on.. They looked like crap on the old Ford so I went to baby moons with a chrome circle rim … Realistically , the life expectancy of a pair of flippers on your car was about two months before they went to a new owner. Just wanted to share my memories of the wheel thingy as I see where it all began.. Thank you Aaron for allowing me to hijack your thread. It's all about making her your own ….. Ed C.