Tonka Man

Nice color combo with the blue. Cool!

So just after I put up the last post, I downloaded pictures of a 1967 Olds Toronado that I just purchased. It has been sitting outside in our dry Wyoming weather for who knows how long. Although there is certainly surface rust, I don't expect to find rotten trunk floors, floor boards or rust in the fenders and rear quarters. Thank goodness for desert air! I'll put it in a storage building in the next few weeks and then work on getting a title. Not sure if this will be a parts car or a restore. I saved it from a fate worse than death - demolition derby fodder!

Wow, this is quite the story! Since I'm relatively new to the club, I had not read all the posts. I went back from the first one and read through the last! Dennis you are amazing and committed! Out in Wyoming, we don't see cars with this much rust unless they are transplants. I can't imagine even looking at something like this and thinking I could restore it. Wow, wow and wow! BTW, my wife and I are almost empty nesters (4 months, 20 days, 1 hour, 20 minutes and 3 seconds until freedom but who is counting). We are selling our house and taking our RV to tour the Eastern US for a year. When we have a chance to look at different areas, we are going to buy a piece of property and put a shop on it while we live in our RV. Then I can move my project cars and really concentrate on restoring them. One of the places we are interested in is Bellefontaine, OH. We have good friends that live there. Sounds like you are in the vicinity.

I'm going to put HEI on this build. Anyone have a good recommendation for brand and type?

I ordered a new Holley set of valve covers and air cleaner. I have a new radiator to put in as well. I have a Rochester Quadrajet I'm putting on this one. I'm going to keep the original exhaust manifolds but replace the single exhaust with dual exhaust. That will probably happen here in the next couple of months.

I know I'm going to catch grief for my choice in engine color but I have decided that on these cars, I'm going to build them for myself. None of my Monte's are matching numbers and none are SS cars. All are rescue cars with rust, grime, dirt and possibly a sordid past. They all are high mileage cars. I have two 350/350 drive trains that are out of heaven knows what so I'm going to do things my way. I am big into colors and I decided that I'm going to paint the blocks the body color so when I open the hood at car shows, it matches. Again, my way is the way we are going! This block is a 350 probably from the mid to late '70's; the heads are camel hump heads from the '60's and I have no idea what the 350 turbo is out of. However, the engine and transmission have a fresh rebuild and they should run really good. The old engine and transmission I will tear down and send out for rebuild and put it in Blueberry, the 1970 I bought earlier this summer.

Of course the going in process is longer than coming out. I'm taking time to clean up as much of the old grease and grime as I can; giving the engine bay a quick rattle can upgrade in satin black; painting bolt heads and other brackets as needed etc... It feels really good. I have not done this type of work on my cars since the mid 1990's so it is great to see that my mechanical skills are still there. I'm slower at age 55 than I used to be and I think a little more patient.

I haven't done any updates on the Pickle recently. I have been driving it and it leaks like a sieve even after installing a new transmission filter and tightening the bolts on the oil pan. I have a fresh engine/transmission that I was going to put in the blue one but I decided, what the heck. Let's put it in the Pickle and rebuild the old engine in Pickle for the blue one. I pulled it in the shop last week and I've been working every spare minute on it. Here are some shots of the project.

Thanks for all the help everyone. You are a wealth of knowledge and skill. I can't believe I have owned one of these cars for 37 years and I never knew about that black beltline. Of course, I repainted mine in high school and I did a custom job without the trim installed or the side marker lights. I'm glad I have more of these cars now to tinker on and restore. I will treat each one differently and I will make sure they get the right treatment!

Sounds good. That is what I'll do when I repaint!

Is it typical of all First Gen Monte's to have the rocker and the rear part of the front fender painted black under the trip pieces? See below from my 71. It looks like maybe a matt black or something. Is this true on every Monte no matter the color (with the exception of black)?

Still reasonably warm this year. I brought the green car home for some tinkering. I did a Red Neck paint job with some Shine Juice from Vice Grip Garage. This is the first time I've used it. I thought if nothing else, it would help protect the paint until I can strip it down and repaint it. See before and after shots from each corner of the car. Shiny!

Nice bunch of Detroit Iron. It looks like you have the shop full. I like your comment "smoothing out the tires"! Can't have rough tires! 😀

Glenn, That is one sweet ride. That is the color/vinyl top combo I'm taking my '71 to. It is not an SS car. It was originally Cottonwood Green with a dark green vinyl roof and green interior. I'm keeping the green interior but going with the lime green color and black vinyl. I can't wait until I get it to that stage. My wife, Lois, and I are almost to the empty nest phase of our lives after raising kids for 33 years. We are going to travel the country for a year and check out different options but we also want to build a Barndominium. We used to live in one and it was great. I said it was a 40x40 shop with attached house! We should not have sold it but that is a different story. In any case, when that day comes, I will be able to finish the restoration on my Montes and on my other project cars. Can't way for that either!

If you want to do a convertible conversion on a Monte, I have a standard 1970 copy that I've owned since 1988. It needs rear quarters which would work into the convertible conversion anyway. I have it stripped to the body on frame with the front clip off. There is no drive train. PM me. I'll make you a heck of a deal. I'm in Powell, WY. Then you can drive your SS while you work on the convertible conversion! Oh, BTW, mine is originally Astro Blue as well. It looks like your SS is Astro Blue. You could have a matching set.

I was talking to my mechanic the other day and he opined that in his 60+ years of experience wrenching on cars, dual exhaust is a better horse power gainer with or without headers. He suggested that even having stock Chevy exhaust manifolds would be fine if a car is converted from single exhaust to dual and that the horse power gain from headers is actually minimal. He also said that many times headers have a way of cooking the starter and burning holes in the spark plug wires. This has me thinking. I have several options for stock manifolds and I'm not going to be doing burnouts, drag racing or NASCAR with my Montes. I'm going to drive them mostly sedately through the country side, politely waving at other motorists and pedestrians with only the occasion burst of power to get around a blue-hair driver! I'm thinking that the dual exhaust with stock headers will be more than enough go power for those activities and will play a melodious sonnet rumbling through some turbo mufflers. Thoughts? Am I on to something?

Wow! You all are the bomb! When it comes to electrical issues, I'm purposefully ignorant. If I can't change a fuse or bulb, I'm in over my head. Guess I'm going to have to learn. I'll work through all of these suggestions. Fortunately, even though this is a rescue car (I call it a tree find instead of a barn find), it is fairly unmolested. One or more of these suggestions should get me on the right track.

My dimmer switch on the floor is difficult to change between bright and dim. I sticks and then eventually clicks over. If I replace that, could it help the dash lights? Where are there other grounds I can look? I looked at your pictures Bruce but I wasn't tracking for where the dash ground might be. What did I miss?

I have a digital multimeter. What do I set the dial to so that I can check either side of the fuse?

One of my rescue cars has an issue with the dash lights. I checked the little 4A fuse and it is good. Even checked the continuity of the fuse because it is so tiny. Any ideas of why my dash lights do not work? Something else I can check?

That is a stunningly beautiful car! Wow! I can't wait until I get mine finished. My wife started naming the family cars in recent years. Now with multiple project cars to work on, I thought it would be a good idea to follow that trend so we knew which car I was talking about. One word names are easy.

Found it at SMS. Thanks Alain.

Besides checking on the dark blue vinyl top, I will need a right front fender. Does any company make a good reproduction one?

BTW, that isn't the car I bought. That is just one I found on the web for reference. See below for my car. It goes under the wrench here in a month or so. I'm picking up a rebuilt transmission on Monday and I have a fresh 350 I can mate to it. I'll do all the brakes and undercarriage work to get it driving and stopping. I'll have to find another right front fender for it. I've decided to call this one Blueberry! It is an AC car also just like my green car - aka Pickle. When I get the mechanics dialed in great, I'll do the interior and then the exterior. They should be restored to their former glory in a couple of years! Then I'm going to work 'Ol Blue - my original 1970 from High School. I'm thinking that one may go into a real custom style!

One of the other cars I bought this spring is a 1970 Astro Blue with a dark blue vinyl top. It looks like maybe one of the club members at the Eastern Meet had one. How hard is it to get the dark blue vinyl top material for these cars?