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After dad and I removed the old cracked windshield with some welding wire, I stripped, sanded, and cleaned the perimeter where the windshield sits, and the cowl. All the old glass urethane had to be cleaned out. I laid the new windshield in myself, which was a bad idea, with butyl tape and sealed it with urethane afterwards. The next day it was cracked because I didn't have it sitting in perfectly. Months later, it cracked in another spot and Mom and Dad bought me a new windshield when I came home from school one semester in 2007.
Love the color in the sunlight.
January 2003, after I wrecked the S-10, I needed a vehicle so I had to put her together FAST:
All my parts are laid out ready to be cut-in so I can bolt them on the car.
Fenders and hood, cut-ins complete. You paint the insides and sides of these body parts before you put them on the car so when they're on the car you can paint it all together instead of piece by piece and have the risk of parts not matching 100%.
Now its coming together. This only took a few hours to bolt on the fenders, grill, headlights and hood. It felt so good to see Monte together again. The hardest part is lining everything up, and it still isn't matched up. I'm going to have to get a new drivers side fender because when the patch panel was welded in, it just screwed up everything. Oh well, the bodywork was good practice!
The car is together and the roof was being prepared to prime and seal.
The 383 Build--March/April 2005
This was the Monte during the summer of 2005. The prior night I raced at 75-80 drag strip.
And that was one of the nights I took it to the track. I ran up against my friend Dan in his Malibu. I ran Monte 9 times over a few Friday nights during that summer.
Not pretty from the rear, needs a new rear bumper and I haven't put in the backup lights here yet.
Monte at work! Advance Auto one bright and early morning. I put in the tri-bar headlights from Zoops with blue bulbs from Pep Boys.
When I came back from school during Spring break, I decided to fix the sagging in the rear and install some new springs and shocks because I figured the 37 year old ones just about had it. This is my method to get just that extra inch of the spring to collapse so I could remove them, even pulling the axle as far down as I could with the shocks disconnected and the control arms connected still. It worked!
I discovered that there was shock mount issue once before and to fix it someone welded this piece of plate in place of the area on the rear housing that the lower shock bolt mounts to. Dad didn't know anything about it so it was before his ownership. Not pretty, but it works for now. Something to think about fixing later though.
The backside. Looks like someone had a torch to it.
The passenger side--the way the lower shock mount is suppose to look.
The new variable rate $50 springs versus the originals. Both shocks wouldn't push back out when I compressed them, and I pulled the one on the right all the way out to show the extended travel! I had to cut a few things like the eyelet to get them off. Installed two new insulators and Monroe Sensa Trac shocks.
I decided to finally see what my car would be like in paint so my dad and I began the process. Dad found a great temporary way to patch the rust until I can get my new quarter skin put on.
I got tired of the old chrome-washed rear bumper so I decided to spray it silver. Scuffed it up and primed it with etching primer first.
Masked off, still prepping.
Same. Re-did some filler work.
Preparing for the blue. Brought the tape down about 3/4'' down below where the planned two-tone split was to be. Then lightly sanded the tape line in between colors and masked off the blue to spray the silver.
Doesn't look too bad here for a first time.
You can see the freshly painted bumper painted with the same mix of silver of the sides of the car. I was pretty excited about the new look after several years of primer!
This was the same day I left for Ocean City and I was still hanging the bumper and putting some tailpipes on. POR-15'd the trunk too a day earlier or so. Joel, Dad, and Willie pitched in to clean up some stainless and chrome pieces and helped put them back on. Was rotating the tires here.
The latest pictures of the Monte. These were taken in Gettysburg, PA. I "painted" it when I came home from school in May 2007.
Parked at the Holiday Inn Express next to Jimmy's '69 Elky.
The rear shot. That's all primer from the strip on the roof back down the trunk.
The gang at the fairgrounds. Jimmy, Dad, and myself.
