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overdrive

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Posts posted by overdrive

  1. Welcome to the club website. I saw your car and spoke to you at the Street Machine Nationals in St. Paul, MN recently. It was on Friday. I'm the guy that told you I have a '71 402 4 speed, but I didn't have much time. A guy was waiting for me to return to my car. I was wanting to go back and talk with you more, but we had the storm with high winds go through. We had to lower and hold onto our pop up shelter. By the time I got back to your area, you had left. Good luck with your sale!

    Dan

  2. Hi Joe. Welcome to the first gen club. We've been hoping to find an original factory LS6 Monte, or a 4 speed for a long time. Each time a car has been inspected for the numbers and codes, it has come up short. The casting number of the block and the stamped suffix code will tell if the engine is the original to the car. The transmission will also have a partial VIN.  

    There were a number of guys that tried to order a Monte with an LS6, but they were denied. I have a '71, 402, 4 speed that was "settled for" after a GM employee tried to order an SS454 with a 4 speed. The guy tried to use his position to get a car that wasn't offered to the public, but his order was denied after being sent in.

    The LS6 Monte that was referred to earlier was modified right out of the factory not by a dealership, but by Dick Harrell Performance Centers of KC, MO. Here is some good information. 

     

     

    Dan

     

    • Like 6
  3. The factory used glass setting tape. It comes in different thicknesses for different vehicles and it doesn't have any adhesive on it. It's rubber and you can use liquid soap to lubricate the glass for installation. Some will tell you to use urethane or silicone. That's fine if you don't care if it lines up right or looks factory. The tape will automatically center the glass in the channel, but the others won't. 

    Dan

    https://www.google.com/search?q=glass+setting+tape&source=hp&ei=QiLOZPbwI--jptQP6reHyAQ&oq=glass+setting&gs_lp=EhFtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1ocCINZ2xhc3Mgc2V0dGluZyoCCAAyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyCBAAGIAEGMkDMgUQABiABEjnSFD4C1iQQXABeACQAQCYAWqgAe8IqgEEMTIuMbgBAcgBAPgBAagCD8ICChAAGAMYjwEY6gLCAgoQLhgDGI8BGOoCwgIREC4YgAQYsQMYgwEYxwEY0QPCAgsQABiABBixAxiDAcICCxAuGIAEGLEDGIMBwgILEC4YigUYsQMYgwHCAhEQLhiABBixAxiDARjHARivAcICCxAuGIAEGMcBGK8BwgIIEAAYgAQYsQPCAgsQLhivARjHARiABMICCBAuGIAEGLEDwgILEC4YgwEYsQMYgATCAggQLhiABBjUAg&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-hp#ip=1

    • Like 3
  4. Thanks for the information and the photos! That's helpful. I'm pretty confident that the chrome ball in a '70 console car is right. I've seen that in the past, but not in a '71. For '71, the black knob with the pattern for a non-console car is correct, I believe. The same knob with no pattern would be right for a '71 console car. 

    If anyone else has some good information to share, please do.

    Dan 

    • Like 1
  5. I'm starting a factory 4 speed registry for '70 and '71s. It's free and no VIN or personally identifiable information will be shared anywhere without permission. Only cars with proof of being factory equipped with a 4 speed will be included. If you have a factory 4 speed Monte, or had one, please post the information here, or please send it to me in a PM, by email, or by text message. 

    Thank you to the few that have already sent me their information.

    Dan

    573-248-1389

    dpjfabts3@gmail.com

    • Like 4
    • Thank You! 2
  6. The 4 speed Montes came with a Muncie shifter and I'm looking for anyone that can verify what the shifter knobs looked like for '70 and '71. The '71 I recently bought has the shifter shown below. The original owner replaced it with a Hurst in 1974, but he put everything he took off the car in the Hurst box, and I have it. I believe it has the original knob, but I'd like to have more to go on. I know the consoles had the shift pattern on them, so the knob didn't, unless the 4 speed was ordered without a console. 

    The last photos are of a '71, and as you can see, no console. A member here sent me those pics. He talked with a very knowledgeable member at the Western Meet and they also both believe the black knob is correct, at least for a '71. 

    I believe the '70 used a chrome ball, like the Chevelles, but I'm not positive. 

    If anyone has solid information, please reply here. It would be great to find a few pics from Chevrolet to verify. I know Camaros had a knob like these, but it was likey not a Camaro part only. 

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    • Like 1
  7. I bought my first Monte Carlo about 1988 and it was a '71 with a 402 and a 4 speed. I made some improvements and sold it after 4 or 5 years for a profit to use the money for home renovation, with plans to get another one someday, knowing how rare they are. 

    I bought a one owner '71 350 Monte from a neighbor about '94 and used it for a work car for 2 years. My son and I restored it for his high school car in '08, and he still has it. It was the first car I've done all of the body work and paint on. 

    I bought our '70 SS454 soon after finishing my son's '71 and did a body off resto-mod on it. The build thread is still here, in the SS454 forum. 

    I drove 13 hours to Denver, Colorado, 3 years ago to buy a very solid and driveable '71 402, 4 speed that came out of Tennessee. The short story is we agreed on a purchase price and the guy backed out on me. That was 26 hours wasted, not to mention the fuel. 

    Right after that, I had a guy in northern Alabama sending me photos of another one that he had for sale and it was another southern car and it was also very solid. It was an Oshawa built car and he sent photos of 2 line sheets he had found. He was going to do a rest-mod and had already had the transmission rebuilt. He had the engine rebuilt at a local machine shop. The short story is the block had been decked and the machinist restamped the block without him knowing of the deck work/restamp. I noticed a mistake in the partial VIN stamp in his photos. He quit answering my phone calls and messages, even though I told him I was still interested in the car. 

    That brings us to this car. I saw a reply a guy made to someone on a Facebook group post about 6 weeks ago. He said he had this car and would be selling it in a few weeks. I sent him a PM and asked him to let me know when he would be ready to sell. He replied with a lot of history of the car and some pics. 2 or 3 weeks later, I was 5 hours south of here, loading it up. 

    The man that ordered the car in '71 worked for GM at a proving ground. He ordered it for his brother, Gus, at their hometown Chevrolet dealership in Thayer, Missouri, which is barely north of the Arkansas border. He ordered a '71 SS454 with a 4 speed. I believe he thought maybe he could use his position with GM to push the order through successfully for his brother, but they were not able to get it done. Gus decided he wanted the 4 speed more than he wanted an SS454. 

    Gus was working as an engineer for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in a suburb of St. Louis. He was married with no children, like his brother, and they both were car guys with Corvettes. Gus had had a Corvette stolen while living in Florrisant, MO. After that happened, he started putting alarm systems on his cars, including this car. He drove the Monte a lot as a work car until the summer of '83. He kept it decent and driveable all through the years, but he put very few miles on it after '83. When Gus retired, he moved back to Thayer. He kept all receipts for any maintenance done on the car and he always kept detailed records, which I now have.

    The car came with some extra parts, including an excellent NOS grille, still in the box, that Gus bought many years ago, after damaging the front bumper and grille a little bit. He was planning to someday restore the car and he'd had a cheap repaint done in the '70s, along with a full rebuild on the numbers matching engine. 

    In 1974, Gus wanted a better shifter, so he installed a Hurst. He saved everything he removed with the Muncie shifter and put it in the Hurst box. 49 years later, it's all still in that same box, and now in my garage. The shifter still has the factory black shifter knob with no shift pattern on it. 

    Gus found the build sheet under the dash pad when he did some work on the car, and the protect-o-plate is also included with all of the documentation.

    I'm very glad to have gotten the opportunity to restore such an amazing Monte Carlo. It has more options than any of the 3 other 4 speed Montes that I mentioned above, and it'll make a very fun car. The original color is a little different than what it is now, but not a lot different. It's supposed to be Rosewood Metallic. 

    I've already removed the hideous fog lights, and I'm going to continue keeping detailed records so a future owner will have it all. The carb is a service replacement for a '71 that was assembled in '79 and installed in '81. 

    The car has AC, a working tach and gauge dash, a 3.31 posi rear, the optional NK4 Sports Steering wheel, the auxiliary lighting package, a non-working AM/FM 8 track with 4 speakers, rear window defogger, Rally wheels, and Gus had the F41 suspension that he purchased from Chevrolet added after he got the car. He also had Sears add cruise control and I found a vacuum hose for it off on the brake switch. I just reconnected the hose and it still works! He put a pair of chrome valve covers on from his brother's Corvette parts supply. 

    The car now has a freshly rebuilt carb, new battery and tray, and new Moog rear springs. The 42 year old tires don't leak and have very, very few cracks for their age, but they won't be on the car too much longer. 

    I've bought NOS quarters and some other sheetmetal already. I'm trying to locate a solid tailpanel and the last few inches of the trunk floor. The rest of the trunk floor and the floor pans are solid. 

    Dan 

     

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    • Like 11
  8. I have a small collection of build sheets. Some are printed, but most are just saved on my phone. I'll see what I can find for a power seat. 

    The reproduction blank sheets are easily identified by the 4 lines of wording at the bottom right. Chevrolet used 5 lines. 

    Dan

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