1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

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1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby 75Monz » Thu May 24, 2018 6:48 pm

A few weeks ago I came out of Monza regression and decided to pull my projects out of hibernation. I bought my first Monza 10 years ago, found it in a seizure tow yard in Ukiah, California. It's a 75 Monza Towne Coupe California edition with the factory 350. I think it was a factory auto even though it had manual pedals in it, was grey with white full top and white interior, only 72k original on it. Got towed on a drunk driver arrest and yard eventually took it and sold it, so came with a salvage title, although there was not a ding or rust anywhere on it. Interior had some sun damage from sitting in the yard for 2 years down there and needed guide seals since they had hardened and burned a little oil. I found another in the mean time and got it for $100 as a parts car, a 76 Monza Coupe with the factory 305 auto, red with no vinyl top, didn't run, but got a ton of parts from the guy...he was clearing out his collection. He even had a Mirage that he wanted $800 for, I just didn't have the money at the time or I would have that too, lol. Moved to Washington a year later and brought everything with me, drove the 75 and drove nice. They sat here for 2 years and I happened to find another 75 Towne Coupe California edition with the 350 auto sitting near an old school house in the weeds and bought that for $400, passenger fender knocked in and severe roof rot, but ran and nice interior, except dash pad.
So everything sat after I bought a house 5 years ago and did a major restoration on that...still in progress. Cleaned out one of my storage sheds last week and started finding all these parts I forgot about that were planned for both 75's and decided it was high time I quit being a slacker and get back to working on my treasures.
Plan is the first 75 will stay mostly stock looking, but have all the parts to change it to 5 lug and 7.5 housing for the rear with a truetrac. I have everything to make it a 4 speed again, just not sure if I should or put a TH350 in it...also have the torque arm housing for that too. Have a 509 casting 2 bolt 400 stock bore, a set of iron eagle 208's 230cc runner, and everything else to put down a solid mid 500hp at the tires, a set of weld on sub frame connectors and a set of bolt on that I got prints for, a set of 1 3/4" Don Hardy headers, new motor mounts from v8 H body, dual electric fans, a tilt column from a sunbird and a manual steer vega box I am going to adapt in.
Second 75 will stay bone stock except the motor internals and smog delete, plan on donating the roof structure from the 76 to repair the roof on it, project won't start until I finish the first one though so I don't loose focus again. Will try and post some pictures of starting point and as I go along with project for everyone to see (critique, lol).
Some people are like slinkies. They serve absolutely no useful purpose, but still put a smile on your face when pushed down a flight of stairs.
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby cjbiagi » Thu May 24, 2018 7:43 pm

Nice projects, you are correct about the original 350 California Monza probably being a automatic. That was all that was available on 350 monza’s
Clyde.........75 Monza 2+2
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1975 Chevrolet Monza

Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby 75Monz » Tue May 29, 2018 12:46 pm

As promised, here are pictures of my projects. It had been so long since I had done anything, completely forgot I had started sanding the body down to get ready to paint my main one, lol. The half primer red/grey one is my main TC, the next grey one is my second project and the red one is the roof donor for the second one.
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All the interior parts I've come up with over the years, including a pop up sunroof that was in my Sunbird, front seat recline assembly and a 120 MPH speedometer that I am going to have restored. Have two sets of manual pedals, 3 4 speed shifters, 3 dash pads, one I think may have come from my Sunbird that had A/C...just don't remember. I did figure out the mystery of what happened to my old Sunbird...I have all the interior and wiring harness and my red Monza has the trunk lid so I must have parted it out since seemed like it had rust issues from being a coasty. All I need to do now is recover the front seats and will be full restored interior. Having Just Dashes redo my dash pad next month...that wasn't exactly cheap, lol.
A side note, the replacement motor mounts I got from v-8 monza. com use 1965 chevy truck pads in the bracket they sell. My 76 was so bad, the steering was starting to wear on the oil pan.
Some people are like slinkies. They serve absolutely no useful purpose, but still put a smile on your face when pushed down a flight of stairs.
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby monzaaddict » Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:35 pm

are you selling any of these parts? Clyde Biagi is looking for the auto console trim on the black console. I am looking for the early style clutch pedal. Also that 120 speedo is from a 75 hatch which uses a different dash than coupe. I need it and matching tach for the needles. If you want to sell let me know.
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby 75Monz » Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:42 pm

I might sell some stuff in the future, don't have time to deal with it right now until winter time, working 6 days a week right now and my one day off is working on building my house. I just changed gears on my plans so once I get organized next year, my plan is finishing one of the 75 coupe's and sell everything else off from the other two and what I have left over (unless I end up getting my hands on a Mirage I've been keeping tabs on that is a total basket case build). Had to do that so I can keep my S10 blazer build (making my own version of a 91 Typhoon with a shortened frame and drivetrain from a 94 Bravada, and a 4L60e and worked over all aluminum 5.3l) and make room for a '65 Chevy II SS project I'm going to trade my backhoe for. So it will be next spring before I'm ready to get rid of parts, will make everything open for purchase here first before I start putting stuff up on ebay.
Some people are like slinkies. They serve absolutely no useful purpose, but still put a smile on your face when pushed down a flight of stairs.
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby 75Monz » Mon Sep 03, 2018 3:16 pm

Just gave up with the shop I was renting and moved everything back home for now. In the process, I found some gold I completely forgot about...the build sheet for my main TC.



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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby 75Monz » Thu Nov 01, 2018 10:25 am

Managed to score some NOS goodies on ebay in the last two months. Now have brand new front and rear marker lights, new left and right taillight assemblies, 4 new wheel well chrome trim pieces and both Monza fender emblems in NOS box. I found a place that makes replacement backpanels for the door panels, got two of those, now just need to figure out how to recover or transfer old outers to new backing. Also got two new camaro arm rests in black from Speedway since they were on sale. Still hunting for a Tach from a mirage or sunbird that will fit my dash cluster, I have the correct temp/battery gauge with cover, clock and fuel gauge, still trying to figure out how to modify the 120mph speedo to fit this cluster. Maybe get around to it next year, too busy with building a small shop next to my house, lol. Sort of sucks collecting all these goodies and just putting them in the Monza storage pile...sure miss actually driving it. :cry:
Some people are like slinkies. They serve absolutely no useful purpose, but still put a smile on your face when pushed down a flight of stairs.
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby monzaaddict » Thu Nov 01, 2018 5:14 pm

who makes the replacement cardboard back panels for door panels?
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby 75Monz » Thu Nov 01, 2018 6:08 pm

Here is the link to collectors auto supply inc. on ebay, https://www.ebay.com/itm/Interior-Side- ... 2f1d1455dd .
Some people are like slinkies. They serve absolutely no useful purpose, but still put a smile on your face when pushed down a flight of stairs.
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby classic_cruiser » Fri Mar 22, 2019 1:05 pm

75Monz wrote:...Having Just Dashes redo my dash pad next month...that wasn't exactly cheap, lol.


I'd be curious to see how this came out. Do you have any pictures of the redone dash pad? Does it still have the molded in-details around the ac outlets and such? And how "not cheap" was it, if you can share... I've heard JD charges close to $2K for some of these.
Reason I'm asking is I have a 63 caddy dash I need redone, but I'm hesitant to drop that amount of cash on something that would look noticeably different than the original.
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1979 Pontiac Sunbird with transplanted Monza 305, notchback coupe
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Re: 1975 Monza Towne Coupe California edition twins

Postby 75Monz » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:54 am

Found a rare trim piece last year that I had been watching, finally bit the bullet and bought it. My first '75TC had this in broken form when I first got it, swapped to the normal header panel with Chevrolet on the drivers side and no mounting holes since I could not find another one. Tried to do some research on it and looked like it came on some 76 coupes, never could verify. Not sure how it ended up on my car, didn't see anything on the build sheet, so was either a dealer add on or previous owner add on. Like the look, so putting old header panel back on. Piece mounts on front of header panel full length and overlaps onto headlight buckets, the full width of the grill.

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