Project (Finally Updated!) 1987 Chevy Monte Carlo SS's Nearly Completed Recommissioning & Travels

[PhilA]

Looking better each time I see it. Surprising it ran on what was in the tank!

Next fuel-up in Delaware... 

 

Phil

[Outrun9430]

Looking better each time I see it. Surprising it ran on what was in the tank!
Next fuel-up in Delaware... 
 
Phil

I’ve gotta pass through Delaware to go back to Virginia to finally retrieve my stuff from my dorm room next week. I’ll bring my red gas container and stop there to fill it up just for you

I would love to bring the Monte to PA for RegularCarReviews/RCR to perhaps take a look at and make a video. He made one on the Grand National and briefly mentioned the Monte Carlo, but I definitely think he could get enough material out of the G-body Monte Carlo era to make a video about it.

[PhilA]

Your should bring it to Carlisle if the show is still on. Plenty people be happy to see an old SS still going.

[Outrun9430]

I’ll just leave this here :)

[danthecapriman]

Very cool!?

I love it when the fuel cap is concealed like that, looks like so much extra thought and effort went into the design.

[Outrun9430]

On 7/17/2020 at 1:30 PM, danthecapriman said:

Very cool!

I love it when the fuel cap is concealed like that, looks like so much extra thought and effort went into the design.

In my state it’s illegal to pump your own gas, so there’s gas station attendants. I pulled up and a young guy, probably my age, went to go fuel it up, and gave it a very confused and concerned look when he didn’t see where to stick the pump. An older attendant looked over, and said “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. Back in my day, we used to drive cars with the gas tank in the back, so I’m used to this”, and proceeds to fill the car. I was standing by just in case someone like him wasn’t there and to make sure nothing went wrong (ya know, like the gas tank falling out or something). He added “Wow, that’s a nice car you’ve got there. Looks like it’s in really good shape!”

 

But yeah, the design is really great and a lost art from automobiles of yesteryear. No need to pull up to a pump on the necessary side when it’s in the middle!

[danthecapriman]

2 hours ago, Gamer9430 said:

In NJ it’s illegal to pump your own gas, so there’s gas station attendants. I pulled up and a young guy, probably my age, went to go fuel it up, and gave it a very confused and concerned look when he didn’t see where to stick the pump. An older attendant looked over, and said “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. Back in my day, we used to drive cars with the gas tank in the back, so I’m used to this”, and proceeds to fill the car. I was standing by just in case someone like him wasn’t there and to make sure nothing went wrong (ya know, like the gas tank falling out or something). He added “Wow, that’s a nice car you’ve got there. Looks like it’s in really good shape!”

 

But yeah, the design is really great and a lost art from automobiles of yesteryear. No need to pull up to a pump on the necessary side when it’s in the middle!

Brilliant?!

It is a gorgeous car, you should be really proud to have it, and the work you’ve done. 
 

If I might be so bold...

...how old are you?

If you don’t want to say that’s fine!

 

I quite often get a funny look when I get out of my Mercury. People seem to expect an old(er) guy (or gal!) To own a car like that but seem surprised when I get out. I’m 35 so not young young but I’m not old either! Big american cars aren’t exactly the sort of car the younger generation go for I suppose. Only those of us with taste and style!

[PhilA]

Gas is still pretty cheap up there, 2.89 here.

The price went down, then it went back up again for no real reason.

 

Phil

[Outrun9430]

Brilliant!

It is a gorgeous car, you should be really proud to have it, and the work you’ve done. 

 

If I might be so bold...

...how old are you?

If you don’t want to say that’s fine!

 

I quite often get a funny look when I get out of my Mercury. People seem to expect an old(er) guy (or gal!) To own a car like that but seem surprised when I get out. I’m 35 so not young young but I’m not old either! Big american cars aren’t exactly the sort of car the younger generation go for I suppose. Only those of us with taste and style!

I am actually only 20 years old lol. It’s definitely not a common thing to see someone my age, or even someone your age, driving around these big classic American cars, and I’ve definitely gotten looks from other drivers and people on the street while driving it, whether it be because it’s on old car, a younger guy driving an old car, or a combination of both! I quite enjoy driving it, actually. It handles really well, and it feels quite powerful with its V8. I can’t wait until I can start taking it further and out more regularly hopefully very soon. Hoping to get the registration and insurance taken care of next week, and then all that’s really left to do is have the tire place reseal 2 of the new tires to the rims since there’s a bit of a slow leak to them, and it’ll be ready to rock!

[Outrun9430]

On 7/17/2020 at 4:11 PM, PhilA said:

Gas is still pretty cheap up there, 2.89 here.
The price went down, then it went back up again for no real reason.
 
Phil

Surprisingly for where I am in the US, gas has stayed relatively low. i do miss when gas was only $1.50ish though, that was fantastic haha. I also exclusively get gas from the Costco Wholesale Club across the street from my house, which always has the lowest prices by like 10~20cents compared to everybody else.

[eddyramrod]

Well I'm right behind you!  I love seeing the young guys preserving and appreciating the old cars, well done.  If ever I can get to NJ I hope we can meet, I'd love to see your car in the metal.

[danthecapriman]

What Eddy said!

Well done, and your doing it right!

[Outrun9430]

 

[Rocket88]

7 hours ago, Gamer9430 said:

 

I quite happily part with a kidney for a Buick Grand National…..

[Outrun9430]

Sorry to keep everyone hanging for a little over 2 weeks... or over 3 years depending on how long you've been following this... This is gonna be a long one 😁

 

After a 3 year delay from the last time this 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS had been worked on, I finally have a rather grand update for everyone. Back in 2020, I had been working on recommissioning this beautiful piece of 80s muscle that my father dallied for the better part of 20 years from buying it like new in 1989 with only 3k miles on it to driving it over 140k miles into the early 2000s. Around the mid 2000s, the car failed it's state inspection for emissions and needed new tires, both of which were not a priority for my father to take care of at the time and therefore the car sat dormant, and sat it did for just under another 20 years until I finally came of age to get my own license and begin to take an interest in the dilapidated beast in our garage. I had just turned 18 in 2018 and got my full license and wanted to look into getting my father's car running once again, clearing off the decade-plus worth of dust and cobwebs covering the once-glittering maroon paint underneath it. I didn't get very far since I didn't have much time or money to work on the car as a high school student, but the interest was there.

Fast forward a year to 2019 (where this thread begins), and I wanted to take another crack at it. I had done some small things like putting air in the tires, getting a battery, and working to clean out the interior and trunk leading up to attempting to get it started with my grandfather, a former mechanic who knows the car like the back of his hand. Upon coming home for spring break from university, my grandfather came over and we managed to get it started with relative ease on the nearly 20 year old fuel and other fluids. While the project then had to go on pause again until the summer given I was going back to university after the week was up, at least we knew the car started and ran. Upon coming back from university for the summer, I ran into the next problem of still not exactly having enough money where I could go out and buy new tires, where were the most immediate priority for the car in order to get it in any kind of drivable state. Unfortunately, that meant the project was going to sit again other than starting it every once and awhile to drive back and forth in my driveway or a simple up and down the street.

Fast forward again to 2020. where due to the unforeseen circumstances of an ongoing global pandemic, I found myself home from university, working a ton more hours than usual, and quite a bit more free time than before. So I set out to do some serious work on getting the car running and drivable once again, going out and buying jack stands and a hydraulic jack for the car, breaking free the 20 year old rust, and getting the rims off the car. I bought a new set of 4 tires for the car and got them fitted, and once again, got the car running with ease. I also finally washed off the decade old dust and grime and let the paint really shine for the first time since it was repainted to factory spec in the late 90s. I bought all new weatherstripping and door seals to fit around the doors and trunks to stop any leaks from the old, warn out and falling apart rubber. Finally it seemed like everything was on track for the car to be road worthy once more, until I hit the next major roadblock... Insurance and registration. The car couldn't be registered without insurance, and reinsuring the car was going to make our plan go through the roof, nor did I have the funding to pay for the insurance myself. Plus, at the same time, I bought myself a 30 years newer car, a 2017 Ford Escape Titanium (or to those across the pond, a Ford Kuga), so that took a pretty large chunk out of my wallet. I still continued to drive the car around on local streets until October of 2020, where I happened to cautiously drive further than I had previously gone and venture across from my neighborhood to the closest Costco gas station. As the temperatures began to turn and the likelihood of me being able to register and insure the car remained low, I threw the car on jack stands for the winter and let it sit once more.

As it turns out, winter became another 3 years as life resumed once more. I got in a relationship, university resumed, I graduated, and I then I had to of course worry about that pesky work thing... Now we're in April 2023, and we are switching our car insurance to a different provider, and they ask about good ol' Monte, and we explain that its been stored in the garage for several years and that its not registered. Our previous insurer had a tier for just storing the car, which was a sufficient enough choice for all that time since that's all it was doing, but our new insurance didn't allow for that, so they said we needed to have it actually insured and registered. They tried their best to express a *wink wink* over the phone as they could, saying if you promise to go get the car registered in the near future, we'll go ahead and insure it now, so we agreed and said we'd do so. So great, the car is finally insured! I go to try and get the car registered now as the next step, filling out all the paperwork until I realize... I need my father, the owner of the car, to go do it himself. My father is not exactly the fastest person in the world at doing anything (see, leaving the car sitting idle for 20 years), so this was not going to be a simple task to get him to go to the DMV.

Fast forward to October, my father's current license was expiring so that meant he had to go to the DMV. Unfortunately, my state is incredibly dumb and won't let you do everything you need at a DMV at every DMV in the state, so he'd have to go to two different DMVs to get his license renewed and register the car. While he got the license done, it took asking him every day during September and October to get him to go with me to the DMV to register the car. He finally said "let's go take care of it" one random Saturday after asking him, and so finally off we went. We go to the DMV, hand them the paperwork, and... they tell us we need to pay back at least 3 years worth of registrations of the 12 years it had not been registered for (we were still registering it up until they stopped letting us renew it by mail for some reason) because we never surrendered our license plates. We had no idea that was a law in my state as it wasn't posted anywhere, but we begrudgingly paid it. They also told us that any car older than 1996 no longer needed to be inspected, so therefore its prior failure for emissions no longer mattered. So... that finally meant IT WAS REGISTERED AND INSURED!! I honestly didn't think I'd get to that point any time in the near future, so it kinda felt pretty unbelievable. I celebrated the milestone by removing the no longer necessary failed inspection rejection sticker and taking a couple teaser photos (one of which I posted above hehe):

I wasted no time with getting everything I needed to start the car up once more. The next day I ran to Walmart and got a new battery, fuel stabilizer, brake fluid, silicon lubricant to treat all the door seals and weatherstripping, white lithium grease for all the moving parts on the doors and hoods, and transmission stop leak in case the transmission had developed any leaks, along with a new modern radio antenna.

I took care of everything I needed to, filled the tires, dropped it off the stands, and had my father help me get it started once more. Once again, the car started up with relative ease. Oil was still topped off from 2020 and looked relatively good despite almost all of it being 20 years old, transmission fluid was still nice and red, full, smelled clean, and no evidence of any leaking. Brake fluid was still full and looked clean. Coolant was topped off once again with a couple drops, but that's about it! My father and I went for a drive, where he was truly in his element and thrilled to be behind the drivers seat once more. His favorite song, Don't Stop Believing by Journey, was the first song to come on the radio after turning it on, as if it was destiny. We drove it out of the neighborhood for the first time in just under 20 years and went for a decent drive, blowing out the cob webs and making sure everything ran right. He pulled over and let me into the driver seat and I got to finally give it a proper drive after all that time and anticipation, and boy did it feel good. The car runs and drives perfectly, as if it had never gone into hibernation for almost 20 years. Brakes felt good, shifting felt smooth and fluid, drove in a completely straight line, and still had just as much torque as ever with its small block Chevy LB9 305 5.0L V8. 

 

Here it is in it's first parking lot in many many years:

Despite not evening being washed yet at that point, the glittery maroon paint still looked great in the sun!

The next day, I got it all washed up and cleaned once again to go pick up my girlfriend to show the car to her grandfather, who had requested to see it as soon as I got it running. Here are some before shots:

And here's after:

Here's the car hanging out at my girlfriend's grandfathers house and her house:

Today I needed to return some things to Home Depot, so I wanted to run the Monte this week, so I took it for a spin today as well and of course grabbed a picture too:

So, finally, the Monte is essentially road worthy and almost fully recommissioned! There are still several things that need to be taken care of next:

- Resealing the front and rear passenger side tires to the rims because they have a slow leak (they've had a slow leak since they were installed in 2020, did not get them fixed back then)

- Taking the car to my grandfather's partner's shop and getting it in the air to do an oil change along with swapping any other fluids/parts as needed and to give everything else a thorough once over that wouldn't be easily accessible from the ground

- Fixing the cloth ceiling upholstery that is currently being held up with thumbtacks

- Waxing the entire car, then look into fixing any additional paint chips and scratches from being dinged with bikes over the years in the garage

- Likely replacing the passenger side wiper blade arm because the new wiper blade doesn't make complete contact with the glass (the driver side wiper/blade works fine, and I swapped the blades to make sure it wasn't the blade itself, but it still worked fine on the drivers side but not the passenger side)

- Consider getting brighter, further down-road headlights

- check/repair air conditioning system and convert to R134a instead of R12 if feasible

In the immediate future, the above list is all I can think of that needs to be taken care of. For now, the car runs and runs great and I plan on driving it at least or as close to once a week as possible to keep everything charged, loose, and running smooth. So yes, FINALLY this recommissioning project not only has resumed once more, but is just about done at long last. I apologize for keeping everyone waiting for all this time and for the lack of updates over the years, but thanks for everyone who stuck with it and hope the end result was worth it 🙂

 

[LightBulbFun]

Awesome! I am really chuffed no end to see the magnificent brown beast on the queens um kings err President's highway at long last  

and well done as well! your doing much better at this recommissioning car last on the road 20 years ago malarkey better then I am currently managing LOL

im just pleased all my incessant badgering over instant messaging throughout the years about getting the monty sorted finally paid off in the end

[Outrun9430]

7 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

Awesome! I am really chuffed no end to see the magnificent brown beast on the queens um kings err President's highway at long last  

and well done as well! your doing much better at this recommissioning car last on the road 20 years ago malarkey better then I am currently managing LOL

im just pleased all my incessant badgering over instant messaging throughout the years about getting the monty sorted finally paid off in the end

I do owe it to you for continuing to keep on top of me to keep trying to get work done on the car (much like staying on top of my father to register the car after it got insured), and to not forget about updating everyone here about it as well! I figured this would end up being a race of whose car gets on the road first, Monte or REV! Maybe finally getting this 3 year old thread off the ground will rub off on getting your car off the ground too haha. Either way though, its gonna be all the more satisfying when you do get to finally drive it, because I can tell you now, its totally worth the wait

[danthecapriman]

Great to see updates on this beast! She’s looking absolutely fantastic.👍

[Outrun9430]

On 13/11/2023 at 06:21, danthecapriman said:

Great to see updates on this beast! She’s looking absolutely fantastic.👍

Thanks, Dan! Many many years in the making, but glad it’s finally made it to this point!

[eddyramrod]

Life in the old dog yet!  I'm so glad to see it out and about, well done young man!   I hope it lives up to your expectations; so far it seems to.  You do realise that, like adopting a dog, you and this car are now together for life?  Good.  

[beko1987]

That's fucking beautiful! 

[cort1977]

That's amazing, love it.

 

[Outrun9430]

     

"I had an 83, beautiful car" - The tech repairing the two passenger tires

 

Finally got a chance to run out and get the two passenger tires resealed to the rims. Called my usual tire place and they said they won't reseal the tires to the rims, tried to call where I had gotten the tires from originally back in 2020 but they had not opened for the day yet, finally called Costco and they said sure, we can get that done for you. So I ran on over on this brisk December day, waited in a massive line, and finally got to put the service order in after like 40 minutes. The guy ringing up the repairs asked if I got the tires done there originally because he said it would have been free if I had done so, so I figured this was gonna cost a fortune... Unfortunately I had to pay an eye-watering $23 to get the two tires resealed to the rims . I also made sure to tell the guy ringing me up that the square key stars the car and the round key unlocks the doors  .
 

Tech said it'll be done today but they've gotta let people with appointments go ahead of me. I go to put that cone on the roof and the tech is already walking over to grab the car. He's like "You've got a really nice car here. Had an 83 myself, beautiful car", so I was like "oh yeah, you definitely know what you're doing then", and he was like "Yup, don't worry, ive got this!" and pulled it into the bay. 

[Outrun9430]

On 17/11/2023 at 04:15, eddyramrod said:

Life in the old dog yet!  I'm so glad to see it out and about, well done young man!   I hope it lives up to your expectations; so far it seems to.  You do realise that, like adopting a dog, you and this car are now together for life?  Good.  

Plenty of life left ahead of it, don't you worry! It has absolutely lived up to my expectations and beyond. There was nothing like that feeling of satisfaction driving it outside of the neighborhood for the first time in 20 years and seeing how thrilled my father was to be the first one to drive his car again.

I'll happily keep this car by my side for life, but it'll take a bit of convincing for the future misses haha

[Outrun9430]

On 17/11/2023 at 05:06, beko1987 said:

That's fucking beautiful! 

 

On 17/11/2023 at 06:21, cort1977 said:

That's amazing, love it.

 

Thank you thank you!!

[Outrun9430]

"Bro, sick f'n ride man" "Absolutely beautiful color" "Heavy heavy corrosion on the rims, but we tried to get it cleaned up all nice, otherwise its in beautiful shape, tires are solid, but definitely get new lug nuts and whatever you do, don't repaint it!"

Just got back from picking it up, had a lovely time shooting the breeze with the tech who stopped mid helping someone else to talk to me about the car, saying how in awe him and the rest of the techs were and how excited they were to have gotten to work on the car. Told him a bit about it how my dad bought it in 89, dallied it until early 2000s, repainted it around 98/99, and then sat in the garage for the better part of the past 20 years.

On the phone when they told me the car was ready, the tech told me they stripped one of the lug nuts and couldn't reinstall it and recommended a new set altogether, which I was like "yeah im sure these are originals, that's no big deal". Of course, the guy gave me a heart attack in telling me because he said a bit of bad news and I was like oh god, but it was just the one lug nut being stripped and was like oh phew that’s nothing. Fortunately over the summer I had the pleasure* of having to break apart 17 out of 20 of the two piece lug nuts Ford uses on their vehicles on my Escape (Kuga) after they became too swollen and destroyed to be able to be removed with a bit, so I just recently had to do an entire new set of lug nuts on a car. Ironically enough, both cars use the exact same size and style lug nuts, so I know exactly what to look for when I go to Autozone at some point hopefully this week. Otherwise, the tech on the phone and the tech in person when I was picking it up said the car was in great shape otherwise. I still need find some time with my grandfather to get all the fluids swapped and get it in air to do a pretty thorough once over, but for now, that's hopefully another repair out of the way! Obviously gonna keep an eye on it over the next few days/weeks to make sure it absolutely is fixed, but hopefully we should be good now!

 

On an unrelated note, since I mentioned I'd share my travels:

 

      

 

Needed an excuse to take it out for the first time in a few weeks, ran a couple quick errands and did a Drive Up curbside order pickup at Target (for those across the pond, its basically Walmart but a bit more premium)