Victor bought his 1978 Monte Carlo 2 years ago from a seller on e-Bay that lived in Missouri. He made a bid that he thought would be too low but ended up winning the car. So he had the car shipped and it had been beaten up pretty bad. The previous owner raced it illegally in his area and had it equipped with a Chevy 402 big block, hooker headers, a 350 turbo tranny and a 4:11 posi rear which were all pretty worn. The headers were rusted through. So Victor decided he would set out to make this a solid cruiser with a lot of power.
First, he replaced the headers with identical Hooker Headers but ceramic coated. Then he swapped out the tranny with a newly rebuilt TH400 with a shift kit and swapped out the 4:11 rear for a 1986 Grand National posi rear with 3:42 gears. He rebuilt the rear suspension with new springs, shocks and billet aluminum upper and lower control arms. Victor also bought a new Holley fuel pump, a radiator, battery an electric fan and then replaced all the exhaust pipes. Later, the crank shaft went and he had the engine rebuilt and dressed up. It was already bored out .30 over and had low miles so it had power. Then he refreshed everything in the upper engine, rebuilt the lower engine, added a new blue and silver chrome Holley 750 cfm double pumper carb and a blue chrome dress-up kit for the engine (e.g. valve covers, air cover, oil dip stick and breathers). While this was being done at the engine shop, Victor's mechanic cleaned out the engine compartment and rebuilt the entire front end with new OEM parts (e.g. shocks, springs, control arms, idle arm, bushings, tie rods) and also rebuilt the brakes adding vented rotors. Victor then focused on the interior. He replaced the old dash and gauges with a digital dash from Dakota Digital. All the gauges are on one cluster made specifically for this model car. As well as the car being handicapped equipped.
Mechanically, this car has less than 200 miles on it and Victor says it's fun to drive. Victor and his wife love to hear the loud roar of the engine and usually set off car alarms on there way through the neighborhood! The guys at his shop have named the car “The Black Pearl.” And Victor and his wife kinda like it. We at EMC just like the car period! Victor also owns a G-Body Buick but we couldn't get enough of his Monte Carlo. We so few of them around lately, who could blame us.
Victor's future plans with the car is to finish restoring the interior, put in new leather seats and a new audio system. We think it's perfect!
Victor is a super nice guy and ready to go all over with his Monte Carlo. So if you don't see him out and about, feel free to talk to him today. To speak to Victor, go to our Members Section - Multiple Muscle.
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