78 Yellow Monza - High School Car FOUND!!

[murphidaho]

It has been far too long since I have updated this thread. I am going to post a few separate reply's split up by body and engine and interior.

Lets start with more engine work. We preceded to do a lot of machining to dial the engine in. align honing, port matching, re-machined valve seats, etc.



Intake Manifold










New Pistons machined to lower compression


T&D Rocker Arms


New Paint, Valve Covers, Holly Carb, MSD Distributor..


Looking Good


Paired up with a rebuilt Borg Warner T-50 tranny

[murphidaho]

The body was a lot of work. So much damage and bondo to remove. With limited access to replacement parts for Monza's, a lot of time was spent pulling out dings and dents. In the end, all of the bondo was removed and all the dents were pulled out as much as possible so that a thin skim coat could be applied.

The results can be seen below.

The car was then repainted with the factory paint code. Because I had added a black rocker panel stripe to the car when I had owned it in high school, I wanted to add this same thing back on the car. I was also able to find the same side molding that was on my Monza, which was not the factory GM option.





After first layer of primer and a bit of sanding



And the paint begins...




Clean enough to eat off...


Fenders and rear hatch


Interior with POR 15 applied to the entire floor


Underside of the car was sprayed with undercoating


Another Undercoating shot


Bringing the newly painted body home

[murphidaho]

Time to talk interior.

I wanted to go completely stock on the interior. When I re-purchased the car, It had a lot of mismatched interior options, some things were familiar and other things were not. I spend a lot of time on eBay searching for parts.

In the end I found all the parts I needed and was also able to locate the orignal Monza fabrics that I used. I took the interior to a local upholstery shop with a roll of original fabric I had purchased. Below are the results.

Orignal seat pattern


Finished product


All new seat foam helped to firm everything up and make it feel like new


Respraying all the interior plastics and a lot of detail work in the dash


Applying Dynamat to keep everything quiet




New Door Panels:


Dash installed with the same Pioneer deck I had in college.


Headliner and visors installed

[murphidaho]

Final assembly proceded with a complete suspension overhaul.

All of the bushings were pushed out and replaced with urethane bushings. The rear end was rebuilt with a eaton locking 3.73 limited slip. Everything was painted with POR 15. New springs were paired with new KYB gas shocks.

Up on blocks




Too clean to be driven


Rear end coming out








Rebuilt


New bushings, shocks, coils, and bigger sway bars


Front suspension with new bushings


Custom built fuel tank


Painted and installed


Good looking rear end


Engine going in


Custom Bell Housing Cover


MSD under the dashboard

[murphidaho]

Finished Assembly Photos

Well here she is. Looks a lot better than when we started. Damn good to have my old car back.

[Wizeguyrc]

Good clean work.

[v8astregt]

Awesome! So cool to see the progress. Not many people get a second chance with their first car again, very cool.

[72 SS PNL]

WOW !!!! looks amazing !!!

love them buick 6 valve covers too

[sportriderok]

What a beautiful result! Congratulations on reclaiming your car.

[BadBowtie]

Really nice job! I bet it runs better than it ever did in highschool!

[jon72vega]

Excellent work!

[VegaGT]

Awesome, got yourself a NEW car there!

[cjbiagi]

It is really nice to see someone do a full restoration like this and not cut any corners. The fact that it is your old car certainly adds to the story. Very nice looking job. May I ask what you did with your door panels and what brand carpet did you use? How did the carpet fit up on the firewall area? Some seem to be too short in that area.

[stage169]

What they said!

Really like what you have done! New to me is your intake manifold with the dividers. I've seen pictures of the intake but didn't realize the intake ports where "dual". Brian

[79 spyder]

WOW!! Look amazing! That's one of the best looking monza interiors I've ever seen where did you get those door panels?