Racing J's 79 Monza project
Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2009 12:49 pm
Well i've finally decided to get off my butt and do something. Now let me explain to you my situation first. I've been laid off for about 4 months now. I still do some autocad submittal drawings from home for work but even that has slowed way down lately. Hopefully after the new year that will pick back up though. So i dont really have the funds right now but i got lots of time. I'm still in the middle of switching my house over to 200 amp service, adding some outlets and updating garage power to run my new welder. I also did vinyl siding on the garage when we had that nice weather at the end of november, added some new shelves ect. I also want to build a 12' x 20' addition to the garage in the spring if all goes well. I got some car dollies under the monza so i can move it all over the garage now. With no other projects in the garage right now that puts the monza center stage at least for the winter. So i was thinking what can i do with limited funds right now. Well i really want to sandblast everything rusty so im stripping the car down to prepare for that. I will probably leave the windshield and rear quarter windows in the body but everything else will be removed. I only plan to blast the rusty spots not the entire car. I also have a bunch of rust repairs to address and some fiberglass repairs to remove that i did back in 94. I also may try to repair my rear taillight panel. My 79 monza has 75 nose and rear fascia. As some of you know the front is not that bad, but the rear requires the metal panel behind the taillights in order for them to seal up against the body. I tried to remove the 75 rear panel but it must have been training day at the factory and the spot welds were about half an inch apart. Probably a 150 spot welds on just that panel. Needless to say my 1994 mentality said f**k it, i'll make the other one work. Well that looks like a hack job and i want to fix it. Other plans for the car include finding a good looking set of flush mount door handles w/ key lock intergrated into the assy. I want to update the mirrors with newer ones and possibily move them a lil further foward. I dont even want outside mirrors, but the rules for the hot rod power tour or drag week stated the car must have outside mirrors. I love those photos of the clay model mock-up prototypes, they look so sleek with no mirrors gas cap door handles ect. Thats the look i want to achieve. I dont really trust those electric solienoid door release kits so i figure i will compromise with a nice set of flush mount door handles. I like the way they did the door handles on the prototype, sorta like a lumina or beretta, but i dont want to hack up my side louvers to make it work. Maybe if i had everything sitting in front of me i could figure it out, but thats a ways out right now. I also want to remove the rear hatch lock and replace with a camaro hatch release button. Somebody broke the lock cover of of mine. I also want to move the gas tank filler under the rear license plate. The only mods to the interior would be a cage, new guages, and a new steering wheel. Stock steering wheel is sticky again. I dont think the back seat is going back in, and i want to modify the front seat brackets so the seats move back about 2 more inches. The cage would be a 6 or 8 point. I dont want a halo bar or windshield down bars. (dont want to cut dash or have down bars in front of dash) Im still a lil undecided on cage design. Subframe connectors are a must as well. As far as the powertrain is concerned it will be a gen. 1 smallblock 350 with saginaw 4 spd. I really wish the prices on gen. 1 aluminium blocks would go down but they are really pricey. Anybody know of any deals on those, cheapest i found was like $3700. You can get a whole crate motor for that. That may be the only thing i wont be able to do, and no i dont want to get started with ls motors. Everything i have is for gen.1. Regardless of that i want to use as many aluminium parts that i can, heads, water pump, intake, flywheel, driveshaft, wheels, calipers, radiator, ect. I also plan on using sanderson headers and i want to run sidepipes. The pics below show me removing the carpet and padding for the first time. Found some goodies under the padding on the drivers side back seat area. That white window trim clip was nice, wish there was about 20 more though. Well thats about the best i can describe what i want to do so on to the picture show. Comments, sugestions, ect, are welcome.
Jason
Jason