Yes, I haven't written in a while. The thing is though, I
wanted to show progress and that orange motor certainly shows that. The motor
was bored and honed. The crank was machined. It has a new oil pan, pistons, oil
pump, heads, lifters, cam, pushrods, rockers, manifold, carb, valve covers, and
air filter. With Gerry Reese's help I got the valve lash adjusted. John at Land
Air did a great job on the motor and it looks great. I took out the fuel tank
and got it coated and the condenser cleaned at Lake Zurich Radiator by Jim. He
also sold me a brass three row radiator which is quite the upgrade from the
original. As good as the motor looks I have found new problems with the body. A
friend of mine named James and I are going to try and do the welding and we
watched a video put out by Hot Rod magazine. We realized that we don't have the
right tools to do the floor boards but we can probably weld the trunk. There is
a brace in the trunk that could be rusted but we won't know until we cut into
it. I have been getting pretty down about the rust. Yes, I knew that it was
there but it equates to me spending a hell of a lot of money now. I thought
about buying other shells and just dumping the Monte. I could put the motor
into a 1970 Malibu and give it a four speed and Chevelle livery. I could also
put it into a 1969 Camaro body. However, my friend brought up a pretty good
point. I have put way too much time into that car to give up now. It seems like
everybody has Chevelle's and Camaro's but the Monte Carlo is different. It is
something special. This project has turned into my life. I didn't have enough
money to buy a muscle car, so I built my own. I really think that is true and
kind of a pleasant thought. For the first time I can see the fruits of my labor
in that motor. As much as I want to give up on that car sometimes I always come
back and work on it the next day. I can definitely understand why people give
up on projects. However, giving up is the easy way out. If I can build a 350
horsepower machine working at a minimum wage job anybody can. The weird thing
is that I am getting a sort of fever now. I really want to get the car done.
However, I suppose that is typical. I was working on the car with my friend
Tony and I said, "You Know something, I am never going to buy something
this rusty again." He looked at me and said," Bullshit. Knowing you
you'll find some stupid deal on a rusty car and buy it." I just hope that
next time I can get a Mopar. As a Chrysler guy I have to stop buying
Chevy's.
