EmbarkChief

HAHA, all the hate for the side moldings I will say that there isn't a door ding one on there so......

I was just out of the service and drove up the Missouri to see my future wife. She took the pic in a parking lot after our first date in over a year. I do recall that the firewall had/has so many leaks that enough hot air blew in that I could be in a T shirt without the heat one and still be comfortable... LOL. Back in the 80's if we had a hailstorm the Monte sat outside and the other cars got to chill in the garage. Now its the other way around, the other cars are all gone now. The Monte is the OG in the family.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I found this forum because I'm trying to source a new gauge cluster and get rid of the idiot lights once and for all. There is a fella on ebay that was recommended here on some older posts. I'm getting in contact with him. Good to see all these Monte's, I'm sure your experience is just like mine. Chevelle's, Camero's, Vett's, Impala's, galore, but no Monte's. I cant' remember the last time I saw someone in one from the 1st Gen.

There are many 1972 Monte's like it but this one is mine. I've never written a synopsis on a car before but I feel like this car deserves one so bear with me.... My father bought our '72 Monte new while he was overseas working as a commercial diver in the North Sea. As such he only had some advertisements to go by and he spec'd out a 1972 blue with white vinyl top, 350 4 brl, bench seats (so the honey's were close), 3 speed auto. It was his first car with A/C and being from Texas that means something. At the time he was living in Louisiana, most of his time was spent offshore so his diving buddy's wife put some miles on the car (it had AC!) while he was gone. When he was in town he used the car to tow a small trailer with his diving compressor on it to go from job to job all over the gulf coast. He and my mother would go on their first dates in this car in 1973 , and when I was born in 1976 I was driven home from the hospital in it. As time went on my dad left the offshore diving scene to work for his father in laws business in Houston. The Monte now referred to as "Old Blue" was relegated to carpool duty as my father had a company car (an Olds Delta 88 Diesel!!). My mother drove it as her daily as a stay at home mom until my dad bought her a suburban in '87 when my little sister was born. From then on it was again my fathers daily until 1996 when dad bought an Impala SS. When I got my drivers license in 1992 my first "official" drive on paved roads was in the Monte pulling a 16' tandem axle trailer with a Ford 8n tractor and shredder on it to the farm in Bastrop from Houston. We had air shocks on her to help level the loads back then. During my high school years I always took "Old Blue" to every prom, homecoming, first date, Ect.. Back then it was cool because it was fast, you have to remember that back in 1994 a Corvette only had 280hp. At that time the Monte was on its 3rd rebuild (original motor, now a 383) and was pushing over 375hp easy. Driving it was like being a God among men. It would do 0-60 in 1st gear and lay a scratch when it hit 2nd gear. It's a miracle that I didn't total it back then, skinny tires, bad breaks, worn out suspension, tons of power.... My mother would always tell my dad that he shouldn't let me take it out because "he knew what I was racing it".. God bless the old man, he would just say "just don't bend it son". At the time one of my best high school buddies had (still has) a '71 Grand Prix in the family. I could bore all of you with the stories born from those years. I can assure you, they were epic and the subject to countless retelling to this day. When I joined the Marines in 1998 I took the Monte with me to California when I was stationed at Camp Pendleton. At this time we were on our 2nd tranny rebuild, 2nd rear end (now a 3.42), and 3rd rebuild of the original 350. I darn near ran out of money before I made it to the base from Houston due to the fuel expense! The Monte did duty for 3 years in So Cal, it was legendary at the time and the only one on base. Many late nights with a couple of boys from Texas and Oklahoma tearing it up in CA. without a care in the world. We would booze it up go cruising, get lost, somehow make it back to base and do it all over again the next weekend. Women galore, turns out chicks dig classic rides . I've been flashed by a carload of co-eds, laid in the backseat on a 50 yard line in this car. We would run up to LA, party our [censored] off and head back south only to stop at some random bar get lit and spend the night in the car before driving home the next day. We only had one working seatbelt, LOL, I can recall packing the Monte full of chicks and cruising around. Bench seats for the win, the old man was right. Right around 2000 I spun a main bearing running down the I-5 haulin' [censored] as I tended to do. I towed the Monte to El Paso with a U-Haul and my dad met me there with my '83 280XZX. We swapped out and he took the Monte home, I drove the 280 until I was stationed in Okinawa, Japan for my last year. When I came home the Monte was finally getting some respect, she was now garaged, covered, and pampered. She lives a pretty chill life now all things considered. As of this post she has 450,000 miles on the ODO. Original Motor and Trans. 2 rear ends, 4 vinyl tops, 3 paint jobs. She has been on fire, wrecked 3 times (one of them was me at 10 years old, that's another story). I've driven this car to New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri, and all over Teas. Pulled more damn trailers than most trucks will see in their lifetime. Now she is cool because she is a classic, she doesn't have to be fast anymore (thankfully) to be cool. We can just cruise down the road with the windows down and remember the old times, one arm on the wheel, the other on the rearview. Sometimes I swear I can see the past in the rearview, old friends, times gone by, family members passed on. But that long old hood keeps showing me the way, it's like a time machine. The car stays the same, I'm just getting older. When my dad bought her he was younger than I am now by 20 years. I remember thinking in High School, "this car is cool now, what will it be like when its 50 years old", I'm glad I've lived to see it and my Dad too. Last year my best friend from my Corps days came to visit me after 19 years. He's retired now, and you better believe the first thing we did after a big hug and a toast was take "old blue" out for a spin, just like old times. Both of us had a grin from ear to ear.