'79 Monte - The Search for Animal Chin

[Jims78elky]

Those gauges are nice Tony...you going to use the stock Monte dash to place them? I don't have any pictures as of yet..but the classic dash gauge panels look pretty good. I have one on my elky and have all auto meter carbon fiber gauges loaded up in it,the look is better to me than the old stock one, it does not provide the air conditioning duct for the drivers side,but I re-located mine.

[Tony_SS]

Those gauges are nice Tony...you going to use the stock Monte dash to place them? I don't have any pictures as of yet..but the classic dash gauge panels look pretty good. I have one on my elky and have all auto meter carbon fiber gauges loaded up in it,the look is better to me than the old stock one, it does not provide the air conditioning duct for the drivers side,but I re-located mine.

I have an 86-88 SS bezel that I use now and will be running the speedo, fuel and tach within that. The rest will be angle mounted on the dash bezel over the vents. (I have not a/c or heat in the car)

The body colored trim looks best, can you make a rendering with body color trim and charcoal rivets. just curious to how it would look.

Also, what about modifying the reverse light to another brake light...then adding a sequential turn signal/ brake kit.

Check out this thread For Reverse lights, a trunk width led strip like Neildid. Tony gave some insight too.

I think the all red/smoked lenses, coupled with the spoiler, shaved badges/lock, body color molding, and charcoal taillight bezel would look amazing.

Great idea - thank you. I think I'm going full LED with the rear tail lights. I might end up painting the rev lights the body color except for an led behind it, but do a sequential led's for the turn signals/brake lights of which there are 3.

[Tony_SS]

Last weekend with the help of a buddy (Thanks Jeremy) we got the gears swapped out from 4.10 to 3.73's and it's much nicer with my 200-4r and 26" tires... I'm at around 2500 at 70mph which is acceptable.

Also got the rear Summit (SSBC) brake kit installed. I'm pretty happy with this kit... nice bolt on deal. The only issue was that the lines and hoses were all about 1" short on each side, which wasn't too bad of an issue to get worked out. The parking brake hooked in nicely, we just had to do a custom adjustable connector where the 2 cables met in the center. It did push the wheels out about 3/8" so I'm going to have to mill down the 1" spacer to get the rears to tuck back under there again.

After this, I replaced my booster and master with a stock reman unit and had the whole system flushed. There was a ton of junk in the front calipers. I replaced the front hoses with factory replacements.

As for performance it is 100% better. It no longer pulls to one side when braking, the pedal is firm but not hard. Braking is much improved.. at some point I may need to get the correct prop valve, but I'm going to have to see if the rears are locking up first... which I think they would. But all in all.. good stuff for a street car.

[Tony_SS]

The other odd thing is that when I put my Hotchkis springs back in my rear sat a good 1" higher?! Maybe I don't have them clocked right... but that is annoying.. I don't quite understand how it could be such a difference.

[devwil68]

well done

[threbikecrash]

You didn't have any problems with the LS 1 brakes and spindles on the front end. Also, the suspension set up you have. Did it reduce most of the body rolling in corners.

[Tony_SS]

You didn't have any problems with the LS 1 brakes and spindles on the front end. Also, the suspension set up you have. Did it reduce most of the body rolling in corners.

gbody spindles - no problems, the LS1 stoppers are great.
no noticeable body roll at all. it does well.

[Tony_SS]

Yuck. I've ignored my floors long enough. The good thing is that they've been like this since I've owned the car. But it's time to basically patch things up, add some Dynamat, extra Jute and some other goods including 3 point rear seat belts for kiddos.

[Tony_SS]

In between POR-15 coats.

[Tony_SS]

First coat of POR15 silver (with metal)





Second coat of POR15 satin black





Used one box (9 sheets) of Dynamat and even covered the back of the firewall on the passenger side.





Bossman approves.

[craigs73]

looking good how much does a box of that dynamat run?

[Tony_SS]

I got it from Amazon for $125ish but it just went up to around $135.

[irregal83]

whered you get your POR15 at? i keep hearing about this stuff but ive never seen it

[Tony_SS]

Got it through Amazon too..lol.

Seems to be very nice stuff, it lays down well and isn't supposed to crack or chip ever.. but I'll never know, I'm not pulling up all that Dynamat ever. I plan to POR15 the underside of the floor pan too one day.

[NOT A TA]

Did you use panel adhesive to hold your floorpan patches?



Side note, I owned a BMX/skateboard store when Chin came out, we had several copies we rented out, think I still have it on VHS somewhere. ahaha

[irregal83]

oh right on thanks... like a step down from powdercoat.. cool.. probably a good idea for my resto-mod

[sixfivepost]

Cool car and nice re-do!

I've had really good luck with Eastwood's Chassis Black. I used the Ceramic Chassis Black on my frame. Stuff is hard as nails!

[Tony_SS]

Did you use panel adhesive to hold your floorpan patches?

Side note, I owned a BMX/skateboard store when Chin came out, we had several copies we rented out, think I still have it on VHS somewhere. ahaha

No adhesive because according to POR15, it acts as its own adhesive, so I laid down the first coat, put down the sheetmetal patches and seamed the edges, then laid the second coat over that.

The directions warn that if you get any paint between the can and the cap and seal the lid it will never come off.

After it dried that floorpan patches felt like they were welded on there...

That's cool you owned a skateshop... it was quite the big deal back in the day..

[Tony_SS]

Back seat was restuffed, upper and lower for extra support. 3 point rear seat belts were also added.



It's not pro-touring without cupholders.



The trunk needs a lot of help...

[Tony_SS]

Progress on the sound system / trunk... not complete though...















All those color wires have been heat shrink wrapped.. so its not a circus of color anymore.