The Count of Monte Carlo?
Part 2
With all the fun we've been enjoying keeping my son's "17-year old new Monte Carlo" running over the past year-and-a-half isn't it just perfectly reasonable that I would consider buying another '82 Monte when I needed another new-to-me car?
Why not? They have:
So when I decided I was in the market for something and noticed two of them along the road for sale within a couple miles of one another a week or so ago I had to stop and have a look!
One was an '84 that looks like it has had a lifetime of TLC - the original paint was perfect, the velour interior spotless, and even the vinyl top looked like new. Unfortunately, it had 127,000 miles on the odometer and I promised myself the last time I bought a car with that many miles on it and had to replace a rod bearing after the first day I drove it that I'd never buy another car with over 100k on it again!
Up the road just a piece, though, was an '82 with (reportedly) only 41,000 original miles! It is not as pretty as the '84 - the paint is bubbling and chipping in several spots where it has been "brush-touched" over the years and there are a few parking lot dings on it. But, aside from a crack in the middle of the vinyl dash cover and a small tear in the back of the drivers side front seat (mechanics should be shot for carrying screwdrivers in their back pockets!) the inside is perfect. (It doesn't have that ubiquitous vinyl top either - I HATE vinyl tops! And the color is one of my all-time favorites, Light Redwood Metallic.)
The little 267 V-8 and transmission seem to be working pretty well although in need of a tune-up (and it's probably never had the original tranny fluid changed). The engine still has the original water pump on it, which is probably a good hint that the milage showing on the odometer is somewhat close to correct. The pedal pads and carpet are in excellent shape also - both good indicators of low milage - I guess we'll see soon enough!
Here are some pictures "Jesus Pix" - oh yeah, the car came with a name! There is one of those Christian fish emblems on the back that says "Jesus" on it! My wife won't appreciate the humor, but I told my son I'm gonna call this car "Jesus" - the Spanish pronunciation, since I have seen so many awesome M-C low-riders!
After over 25-years of my wife complaining about all the time I spend tinkering with cars I'm going to try something different with this one. I intend to turn it over to the guys at the garage down the street who have handled all my heavy-duty "hoist-required" work for years and let them do ALL the work on it!
The problems I identified with the car immediately included:
All together the "clean hands" approach cost me, here's a link to a page with the details: $
My total investment in this vehicle is cheap compared to new car prices and the car is driving great!Initially I tried to run the M-C with wheels and tires I used the past 2 summers on Bluebelle (the '67 Nova) but, even with 3/8-inch spacers behind the front wheels (14-by-7 rally wheels from a '77 Camaro), I still got some contact between the rims and upper control arms on sharp turns. Consequently, I put 2 new 205-70R 14s on a couple of the original M-C rally wheels that came with the car on the front and swapped the 2 215-70R 14s on the other set of Camaro wheels onto the other pair of M-C rallies for the back.
Come back to the "Count of Monte Carlo Webpage" again to see what else I learn about the '82 vintage non-SS Montes - hey, I'm not quite qualified for the moniker yet, but I've got a feeling I will be in a few more months!
UPDATE: May 2003 54,500 miles on Jesus
Jesus has made it through the second winter - and it was a doozie! Lot's of snow and cold, and the one car not stuck in the driveway or ever refusing to start was this one! Only work done since last report was replacement of the howling heater fan that cost me all of $18, and I did do that myself. The Monte Carlo wheels and tires did duty on the '67 Nova last summer while Jesus was "resting" - a little random contact between pass. side tire and fender with a load in the car on tight turns but otherwise worked OK!
I DID have a lot of fun trying to fix carb and ignition problems with my sons' '82 Monte during mid-winter. He now has over 70k on the car we bought with only 2700 miles on it 3 years ago and the carb and emmissions controls on the v-6 were shot! I re-did the ignition and got it running but very badly, he had to pay for all the same emmissions system repairs I had done on Jesus but now it is running great.
Oh, I did spring for a pint of custom-mixed paint for Jesus! It looks a lot better than the spray-can stuff and is easier to work with - it cost all of $10... I've got to get busy with it again because winter has taken it's toll and there are more spots to be scrapped and touched-up. I also want to replace the speakers and maybe put in one of those RF CD changers so I can listen to music I want without replacing the Delco AM/FM Stereo - it still works good!
UPDATE: August 2004 60,500 miles on Jesus, 76,000 on the silver Monte, now known as "The Gray Pearl"
Jesus made it through another winter with little exposure to road salt since I was driving the '94 S-10 my daughter returned to us when she bought her 2000 VW Jetta last summer. I did have to replace the AIR tubes on the Passenger's side on Jesus during this past year and just completed cleaning of switch contacts and alignment of driver's side power window - you can tell this car has gone beyond the "clean hands" phase!
The S-10 was well over 100,000 miles and beginning to show its age so we sold it in June and bought "The Gray Pearl" from my son, who purchased a Ford Escort rental car.
The Pearl needed a lot of cosmetic maintenance - my son had never waxed it in the 4 years he had it and the interior, though near perfect, was very messy, but I have it squared-away pretty well now. I picked-up a set of 15X7 sport wheels from an '86 Camaro that fit it OK (with some spacers behind the front wheels to provide clearance for the upper A-arms) - right now it has 215-65 R15s on all four corners but the front tires need to be replaced, probably with slightly smaller diameter ones. It needed a new exhaust system and front-end alignment which set me back about $250 altogether and, although it still does not start as well as I would like and has a small problem with "dieseling", the V-6 is pulling-down about 22 mpg which is pretty respectable!
My son gave me a Advance Auto parts gift card and a tire guage with a skull on top for Father's Day! He is a big Pittsburgh Pirates fanand has always thought skulls were "cool" so I used the Gift Card to buy a set of skull door-lock knobs, an LED illuminated skull for the lighter socket, and a set of skull valve caps for it and decided to name it "The Gray Pearl" after Johnny Depp's ship "The Black Pearl" in "Pirates of the Caribbean"! I picked-up an awesome set of Skull floor mats for it and re-deployed the skull valve caps (which could not be oriented well on the tire valves) to use as license-plate bolts!
The plan is to get the major dings in drivers front fender and door and passengers rear quarter straightened-out and re-paintyed and then upgrade "The Pearl" with all the stuff you might want to put on a 4th Gen. Monte Street Machine except the engine: it will be all profile and no-go, but it will be ready for the next owner to drop-in a small-block if I can continue to use Jesus as my winter car and keep the largely rust-free "Pearl" out of the salt!
UPDATE: June 2005 64,800 miles on Jesus, 83,288 on "The Gray Pearl"
Putting both my Monte Carlos in storage for the remainder of the summer! I had a little problem with the local Town "junk vehicle" ordinance and decided the smartest thing I could do was put a couple cars in storage so I could transfer insurance and "activate" my '67 Nova and '69 Skylark... It is shame because the Montes are running really well right now and The Gray Pearl is pulling down 23 mpg which is a lot better than I can expect from the Nova! Latest other news is that I put new fabric on the headliner in The Pearl last month - it came out really nice, click on this link for a detailed description of the work involved monte headliner repair