The Official H-Body Internet Community

Brian, Thanks for all your help with this, it confirms my original belief that it was a factory Spyder. BTW the bottom part of the dash is Black. The car in question is the one pictured on the right of my posts, that was what it looked like back in 1984. Unfortunately time, mother nature and my son have not been so kind to her. But she will be coming back to life, I'm going to start a project thread here in the coming months and build a 79 V8 Spyder Clone out of the two Monza's I have. that's what I always wanted back in 1984 but just couldn't find a good one. Most were modified and trashed and the couple good ones I found the owners wanted unrealistic $$$ for them so I ended up settling to the 80 Spyder V6.

Do you know if there is any truth to the following;
I was also told by two different GM Parts guys back in the 80's that in 79 and 80 the dealerships could not get enough Spyder's and were pulling regular Monza's off the lot and upgrading them at the dealership to Spyder's. If that's true I would be choked if I bought one of those and later found out it wasn't a true factory Spyder. I know they aren't a hemi Cuda or anything but it's the fact that I would have been dupped into thinking I bought the real deal only to find out I actually got a fake Spyder.

No problem, glad I could help. Always loved that photo of your dark blue Spyder, hell, I'd highly recommend going back to that, now that 80 decals are available.

I have never heard of fake Spyders by dealerships, but I certainly wouldn't put it past a dealer to do it if they thought they could boos sales or get regular monzas off lots. I suppose if they did it right, and had all the equipment and appearance upgrades, then the only difference would be the trim tag, but I'll bet they might have just slapped some stickers on, gave them a front air dam and rear spoiler and called it a spyder, without the equipment for the package. The good thing is the trim tag for 78-80 monzas will verify a true Spyder.

Well that's the way I heard it is they were sticking front and rear spoilers on and the stripe kit and the front and rear spyder emblem and that's it. Not even doing the horn button emblem or any of the other Spyder equipment. Like I said I only heard it after I bought my car and don't know how much truth there was to it or how wide spread it was if it actually happened but it would make sense hearing it from the dealership parts counter since they would be the ones ordering all the parts to do such an upgrade.

As for the decals, I do like the 80 decals but I really like the feel of paint and the decals don't pop as nice as paint does. I work for a national company that sells the printers that make the decal kits, car wraps etc, so I could make my own (and plan to do just that) but I like the 79 style stripes because they are a less bold presence and still state its not a normal Monza and it covers less paint.

Hi Bryan,
How about this body/trim tag, it's off my other Monza. I believe it started life as a 1980 Yellow 2+2 with black interior and a V6 4 speed. By the time I acquired it it was just a roller with a 7.5" posi rear and it had just had a corvette 350 4 speed pulled from it. Tag info is,

A 10E 1HR07 7 295049
62V 50L 50U L
A51
91 6565