Mike's 1972 Monte Carlo Restoration

As the title of the page states, I am back at it!

Since 2011, there has been a few challanges that had to be worked through. First the economy, working out of state and last but not least my inability to get the car painted to my satisfaction.

I think my last update as far as paint goes I was getting ready to paint it for the third time. Well the third time was done and I did not like it, the problem this time was fisheye, all over - not a body panel that didn't have fish eye, very frustrating.

Well back to sanding again. It took me the winter to sand out all of the fish eye and prepare for paint number 4.

This time I decided to go with the Polyurethane base coat and a compatible clear coat, good plan huh? The color coat came out pretty decent with a few minor problems, (dirt mostly), but the disaster came with the clear coat.

Doing this in my garage with little ventilation the fog gets quite thick at times. I have to take off my glasses or I will turn the lenses blue and ruin them. The mixing ratio for the clear and activator is 2:1 but with out glasses I ended up mixing 1:1 which resulted in appling nothing but dry spary, no flow. WELL CRAP!!

Another few months of sanding, (only being to work on the car weekends and not every weekend), I am finally ready to tackle paint number 5.

Back track to Thanksgiving, 2013. On my way home from Indiana I went hunting with my Jeep and got a deer. While at the Headley's body shop in Flora, Illinois getting an estimate to fix my car I asked Mark Shehorn how much it would cost me to use his paint booth over the Christmas holiday to finish the car. The price was right and the results are below.

Now that I am done with paint #5 it is time to color sand, buff and start putting the Monte Carlo back together again.

I hope life does not get in the way this time!

It is now December 31, 2013, just a few hours from 2014. After what seems to be forever I finally have the paint the way I want it. I still want to color sand and buff but that can wait until warmer weather, maybe sooner.

After 7 years and 5 days after getting my Monte Carlo back, (for those of you that have forgotten or lost interest, just start at the beginning of the web site.), it is time for re-assembly.

The other day I ordered new bumpers and bolts along with new door handles. It will be some time before they show up but now I can start putting some little things that I have been working on back on or into the car.

I want to get the back glass and windshield back in but first I need to get the dash back together and back into the car.

It is nice to be back at work on the Monte. Because of last weeks snow storm I headed by to Indiana to beat the weather. I did but it slowed work on the car.

I made it home this weekend and spent about 8 hours getting the front wheel wells in and my brand new front bumper.

It has been 34 years since the bumpers were put on the car and 41 years since the brackets were off the bumper. What a job that was!! I lost a little blood when the wrench slipped off a bolt but finally, with heat, cut-off wheel, recripcating saw and 3 foot cheater bar the brackets are off, cleaned painted and on the new bumpers.

I now have been able to fit the rear bumper this weekend, (Feb. 22-23), I was only able hang it this weekend since my daughter gave birth to my first Grandbaby last weekend and I wanted to spend most of the weekend trying to turn him into a car guy

A little more sanding, actually a lot of sanding and then it dawned on me that all I am doing is scuffing the shiny albeit oranged peel paint and really nothing to show for it.

I thought about it and realized that I do have some new pieces like the mirrors, door handles and hood ornament so why not buff the areas and apply the new shiny chrome pieces. So finally listening to myself here are the results

I liked being able to see some progress so I finished sanding and buffing the hood and added some original trim that I buffed and polished. Now that I am able to see a difference it makes me want to work a little harder.

You are probably getting tired of me talking about how much I like seeing progress, but deal with it. I bought new trim a few weeks ago and couldn't wait to try to fit some new pieces.

I got the new rocker and lower side body trim and it looks so good that I just had to show it off as in these pictures of the front right hand fender. I am a little worried about getting the rest of the trim because they attach with clips so I will have to take my time and be careful not to mess it up.

I've been making some progress on the Monte lately and it is starting to look like a car again. About 90% of the trim is back on the car with the exception of the grill and the MONTE CARLO script on the sail panels, (need to buy new ones of these).

The rear trim is on along with the taillamps, lenses and upper bezels. Not too bad but I need to start looking for some new chrome trim. These are the originals polished and buffed. (Still want new).