mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Sun Jan 02, 2011 5:49 pm

I see a power steering pump hose slop up against the rear seats leaving a mark, and I started to say something. He played it off,like no biggie, and time was wasting.. so I did my best to gaurd and make any necessary adjustments as he hog tossed the interior full of stuff.

then, the final daggar, a saftey chain just thrown over the hood sitting on the flatbed. It left 2 nice 8 inch scratches which are still there to this day. Filled in but visible.

Otherwise I got the car home in one piece, well many pieces, but the ride was safe and quick.

I began reassembly work as soon as possible...got it back together in month or 2 , and then I've been tinkering with it ever since. There's more to the rest of the story but since I've been writing all afternoon, thats it for today.
1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby 80 MONZTA » Mon Jan 03, 2011 1:27 am

I can't wait for the rest of the story. :th: I cringed a little reading about the chain on the hood. :x
Thanks for the new background pic on my computer. :D
Funny thing, a local Credit Union has had a free Swap Sheet here for as long as I can remember. It used to be just a large printed single sheet of paper, but now has several pages, and has gone online as seen in the link.
LeRoy
1980 Monza, 305/Th350 removed for LS1/T-56 swap, can't wait to :burn: My Project
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:19 am

There,s not really a whole lot more to the story. I'll finish it up here, and then you could probably just start at the beginning of this Project journal and go from there...

Next up: Everything I know about how my monza was produced. From order, to assembly to dealership Pre Delivery Inspection.

First though, lets get through the last few details of my ownership history.

After getting the car home, it was time for re-assembly of the front of the car.

The bare frame rails were the first order of business. I got lucky and had a bunch of cans of industrial use only Zinc Rich Primer coating, used by the local Gas and Electric utility, for transformers. Tested on over 2,000 hours of continuous salt water spray, or so read the can.

So that became the base coat. After that I can't remember if I top coated that with a more factory looking reddish primer.

Then the black to get the wheel wells looking right.
The front suspesion bushings looked healthy still so all those parts were re-assembed to the car. Now the car was a roller. I got my first experience with front springs on this car, but they were a little easy, being that I put the shorter HP springs back in which dont need to be compressed as much.

I used the extra money from the loan to get the engine rebuilt. The builder get it together without a hitch. Now with flat top pistons. Rebalanced. Said it was a good high nickel block without alot of wear to begin with. (Seemed to be in the 55k mile range as indicated on the odo.). The original heads were totally bare and needed a good porting and valve job. I did some searching and found a set of fresh '83 305HO heads with bigger intake valves than stock. 1.84 vs. 1.71.. Those went on, and have been on ever since.

It wasn't to much longer intil I had everything together back on the car. The engine break in wasn't perfect for my first one.
1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Mon Jan 03, 2011 8:54 am

I didn't know to fill the Holley float bowls first, and it was alot of extra cranking before the initial fire up.

Which was getting me frustrated, especially since my dad came to the door and had a look like he was figuring I probably didn't know what I was doing and should be calling Sears automotive to come to the rescue,lol.

But at last, the electric fuel pump got some fuel to the carb and it's been running nice ever since. (well except for the latest tuning trial and error found a couple pages back)..But lately it is back to running super.

Then it was time to bring the red paint back to life. Lots of wax, miracle products, and a buffer, and the outside paint came back nicely. The front fenders were stored in a basement, so they were shiney and bright.. I got lucky that the rest of the car shined right up to match them.

The nose piece needed serious help, being that it was stored outside.. It's amazing that it came back, it was so chalky looking. I bought some special stuff from a body shop for red's and black's and it seemed to work nice along with a buffer too. A respray of the black in the headlight pockets really brought it back to life.

I got the car together and started driving it as a daily driver right away from 55,213 miles. I used the factory Rally II
wheels at first.

In short order I had 64k miles on the car. I was driving it to work for 2 or 3 summers. At some point I switched over to the facory aluminum rims with 205/60's on them. I took the car to a few SCCA, Solo II, autocrosses.
Very fun. And competitive in its class too.

Fortunantely the car stayed accident free, around the time I realized, The car was too nice and too rare to be driven into traffic on a regular basis. Too many close calls, and the car became reserved for Sunday drives only...

T
Last edited by marco_1978_spyder on Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Grammar
1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:49 am

The car has followed me through 2 moves. It's made some great long distance drives through Pennsylvania.
Knocking on wood here, it has yet to leave me stranded anywhere. Even during a recent catastrophic clutch disc failure, it waited 'till it was back near home, and was able to limp the rest of the way.

I've since retired the special suspension package in favor of enjoying a few miles with the OEM stuff.

The engine has enjoyed quite a few different states of tune. I started with the HP suspesion and engine was set up to match (the best I knew how at that age) 4bbl. no emissions, sport muffler.

Sometime in the early 2000's I brought the engine back to factory 2bbl. It even had a cat converter on it for a while.

It was lively yet tame. A spunky car, that ran and drove like it was fresh out of the factory wrapper.
Which is what I wanted for a while. I wanted to get a feel for the factory car, as if I'd bought it new, and then make upgrades from there.

Even going back to the factory black rally II wheels for a while, and now I've made a slight change to a chrome version of the same wheel. The engine has been warmed over once again. With an edelbrock 1406 tuned along with the distributor curve and MSD ign, it's running strong and smooth... And thats where it is today.

Future upgrades include, a return the the HP suspension, and hopefully some 14" minilite style wheels. Window tint.
and a mild stereo upgrade.
1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Tue May 22, 2012 8:45 am

34 years ago today.. It was a monday, and my car was rolling down the production line.

Happy Birthday Spyder.
1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:15 am

So this year brings my spyder to 35 years of existence. And this year has been the best year yet since I've owned it!
I would like to just lock the car in a time capsule. To me the appearance, and tuning are the best ever.

For its 35th year it's gotten some cosworth Vega rims with excellent tires, perfectly balanced.

The hei distributor was just topped with an accel super coil.

Feels like the 305 is a 350... but it runs totally cool! 35 is a real golden year for the car.

Happy as can be.
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1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
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marco_1978_spyder
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby SeniorSavage » Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:39 am

Congrats Marco !
The fleet;
1975 Buick Skyhawk 3.8 V6 turbo - total restore ongoing (soon!)
1996 Fleetwood Bounder 36' Ford 460 TBI motorhome
2004 Harley-Davidson Heritage Classic 88ci 1450cc. - custom original.
2005 Ford 500 Limited (wife's car) - working original.
2006 Chevy TrailBlazer EXT LS VorTec 4200
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby 80 MONZTA » Sun Jun 23, 2013 11:23 am

:burn: Awesome! Drive it and have as much fun as you can.
LeRoy
1980 Monza, 305/Th350 removed for LS1/T-56 swap, can't wait to :burn: My Project
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Wed Oct 16, 2013 10:04 pm

This Marcos monza world thread is retiring! (I'm not of course, I'm here same as usual)

Nothing against this place for posting.. but I've set up some personal blogging space just for my red car and thats where I'm going to do any and all future updates..

I have 2 (trying wordpress and blogger) the Blogger one is up and running now.. more updates daily. Please follow and comment if you like, thanks all!

http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/

Thanks!
1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
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marco_1978_spyder
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby zeke » Sat Oct 19, 2013 4:10 pm

RONS PROVEGA wrote:Hey Marcos....I'm getting really bored reading this so I decided to pop open a beer and spark up a doobie just to relieve the tension! :th: :mrgreen: :D


LOL :th:

Great story Mark, enjoyed reading it! mmm beer

Awesome lookin Monza btw. Did you do anything with the window trims to make them look so great?
Chris

zeke's 79 Monza Project

zeke's 78 Sport Coupe

Photographs posted by this user (zeke) are the sole property of this poster. Any use without express written permission is prohibited
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby res0o7eb » Sat Oct 19, 2013 4:23 pm

RIP mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd. Or is it?

You know, it's real easy to just copy what you put on your personal site over here on h-body.org.
Or just post here periodically with a link to your latest blog.
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Re: mArCoS MoNzA wOrLd

Postby marco_1978_spyder » Sun Oct 20, 2013 8:23 am

Thanks for the Kudo's...

Here is the latest posting...

A compilation of all 21 H bodies I've owned with pictures and some descriptions..

http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/
1978 Monza Spyder V8 4speed, posi
1978 Sunbird Formula V6, 5 Speed, Hatchback
1980 Sunbird Hatchback 4cyl, 4spd.
2006 Chevrolet Aveo 5 speed Hatchback
Yes, you can refer to me as Mark
Please visit my blog... http://chevymonza.blogspot.com/ Follow if you like!
Featuring special guests; Carl Beraytor and Ray D'atore

My Red spyder now has a youtube channel please Like and Subscribe!!!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOzzSR ... ISuing7KLA
User avatar
marco_1978_spyder
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Posts: 5283
Joined: Sun Jun 25, 2006 5:20 pm
Location: Western, New YorK / Rochester

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