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| I have been meaning to write about these two. The one on the left in the red is Dan, that's his Vette. The one of the right is Tony. Tony is my best friend and he drives a 1979 Camaro. Both of them help me out all of the time and the car would not be nearly close to where it is today with out them. Thanks guys. |
So, once again a lot has changed since I last wrote in. I
have taken the motor completely apart. I took off the intake and the heads. The
pistons are out along with the crank, and cam. All of the bearings are out
along with the lifters. I also knocked out all of the freeze plugs which was
quite an ordeal. It is nice to see the whole thing apart but it is quite
daunting at the same time. I am now sending the block off to Land Air in
Arlington Heights. The owner is an ex airplane mechanic and he does amazing work.
He has engine blocks everywhere along with random mechanical parts. You always
get the sense that he knows where everything goes though which is nice. He is
going to hone and bore the block so it should be about a 355. He is also going
to clean and paint it along with a lot of other mechanical wizardry. Finally,
he is going to put the pistons and the crank back in. Now I know, a bit of a copout
thing to do. However, my reasoning is pretty sound. If I messed that up and
went to go start the car and it didn’t work than I would have to pull the
entire motor again. That is something that I don’t want to do again. Every day,
the project just gets more daunting. The truth is that even though the project
is fun it has lost all of its glitzy early charm. Now, all that I see is hours
upon hours of work. Is it still fun? Yes, of course. However, it is now
becoming very real. The main problem is that it is hard to view the project as
a car. In my mind it is a mass of random parts that somehow fit back together.
The nice thing is though, once the motor gets back into the car it should start
to take shape in my mind again. I can't wait to see it start up again and hear
how it sounds through nothing but headers. This is probably the most apart the
car will be, which is actually a nice thought. I went to a muscle car show
today at the Rosemont. It had close to three hundred cars of all brands and makes.
They were featuring NASCAR street cars so there was about 40 Superbirds in one
place. It was nice to see all of those winged birds sitting under the florescent
lights and know that they had made it. As I looked around I realized that all
of these cars had made it through the trials of time. If they made it so can
the Monte Carlo. Maybe the Monte Carlo isn't a true muscle car but it will
scream like one. It will shake the ground like one. It will challenge the
lights and burn up the asphalt like one. Are their dark months of bitter cold
ahead for it? Yes. However, when jack frost has been beaten to a pulp and the
days get longer I hope to have the Monte Carlo back in the sun. The Monte Carlo
was not a factory muscle car. However, my Monte Carlo will be an ode to what
could have been. A final swansong to an era gone by. It will be a shot of candy
red in a sea of gray pedestrian. A rebellion in a world of conformity. The car
may be a bastard, but it will rumble like a thoroughbred. I never really liked
winter. The thing is though, it just makes summer that much sweeter. Now all that
I have to do is click the socket wrench back to on and pray.
