1984 Monte SC - Bringing Bertha Back

[monteboy84]

Hi all, another young gun here, I live in Elk River, MN, and I'm 23 years old. I've been lurking, reading, posting a little bit here, but haven't had my project car out to work on in some time. This weekend began my journey, so here goes...

I finally pulled my 1984 Monte Carlo out of storage, where it had lived for 5 years while I went to college and started my adult life. I feel bad for neglecting it that long, but the reality is I couldn't afford to do anything with it, and it would have been worse off had I been driving it for that period of time. I bought this car at 15 years old and did what I could afford to do while in high school, then parked it when I moved away to college. But, I'm now a home-owner with my garage almost ready for the car, and can afford to do things right, so this winter begins the re-birth of Bertha. When I had it in high school, I couldn't afford to do it up PT style, so like a genius I just sky-jacked the back end with station wagon springs, and put some fat 15x10's out back with 15x7's in front. As you can imagine, it's a pretty scary ride, stupid kids.....

I don't remember why I named it Bertha, but it was chosen during a night out with friends over a few brews, so who knows how that came about....

I apologize for not posting pictures just yet, I will tonight. I have pictures, but they're on my camera and I can't upload them until I'm back to my house on my own computer. Until then, here are the current specs, and I'll lay out a bit of what my plans/goals are for the winter.

Current -
1984 Chevy Monte Carlo SC - Non-SS car, but came with a 5.0 V8 and a bucket/console interior, with a vinyl top. It's pretty unique, I love the combination but it was a horrid-driving car from the factory. Came from Missouri, so rust is pretty minimal, frame and doors are fantastic. I have absolutely no intentions on making an SS conversion, though I do plan to clean-up the non-SS nose a bit.
- 5.7L Vortec - Stock cam, stock heads, junkyard motor. Edelbrock RPM Air-Gap intake with Demon 650 carb, stock exhaust manifolds from the 1978 350 I previously had in it. Runs great and makes good power on the cheap with the original cam.
- Unlimited Products Fiberglass hood with 2-1/2" cowl - Fits like garbage but looks pretty good, was all I could afford when I repainted the car in high school.
- Vinyl top removed, trim studs smoothed
- Chrome rocker trim removed, trim studs smoothed
- Fender antenna removed - hole glassed and smoothed
- Front fender marker lights removed, holes glassed and smoothed
- Hood ornament (actually on header panel) removed and hole smoothed
- Dual exhaust - 2" by a local muffler shop with glasspacks, it's junk now, so it will be replaced
- New paint - I spent a lot of time on this a year after I got the car, it's Black with Hugger Orange rally stripes, done in Dupont Chromabase and Chromaclear, still holding up great, though it needs some attention in problem areas due to bodywork issues.

Plans -
- SC&C Stage II Plus kit for the front end
- Eibach Springs
- Bilstein shocks
- F-Body sway bar front, sway bar in rear if needed (have these)
- Moser 28-spline axles with a more current F-Body 7-5/8 Posi center
- S-10 Blazer spindles with unitized hub bearings (have all of this)
- C5 Corvette Brakes all around, fronts on Kore3 brackets (have all of this) Braided SS hoses as well
- BMW 540i Type 37 wheels (17x8, 5x120) on custom billet dual-hubcentric adapters from http://www.motorsport-tech.com/ (have all of this)
- New exhaust including headers and 3" exhaust with X-Pipe, Flowmaster mufflers most likely
- Electric Cooling fans on thermostat and toggle switch, as it has a clutch fan currently
- Spohn Del-Sphere Trailing Arms
- Spohn LCA's (possibly, depends on budget)
- New tie rods, drag link, etc, basically all new steering components to tighten up the front end
- New gauges - Not sure exactly what I'll do here but I'll probably end up with the Tach and Speedo in original locations with oil pressure, and the remaining gauges in a pillar pod.
- New hood (possibly) as part of touching up the bodywork where it's needed. It's not a show-car paintjob, but it looks pretty good, better than most people would know to critique.
- Spitzkraft Black HID conversion - Spendy, but huge for driveability, the stock headlights on these things are horrid.

That pretty much sums it up, I'll add the starting pictures to show it's current condition tonight, and cover anything I missed in this intro post once I've re-read it again and reviewed the pictures. I'm on a limited budget, but I'm having a good time with it, making the car into what I wanted when I bought it. To me, it's a lot of fun doing it on a tight budget, because I've spent so much time planning and sourcing every part of the build, that the end product can't help but to be a part of me. That being said, one of the reasons I want to go through this project now, is to prepare for a 1967-68 Camaro build on a more-longterm basis.

Thanks for reading, I hope you all enjoy my build,

Matt

Photochopped Stance, though it still has more rake in it than what I'm planning. Will have the front end a smidge higher than this.