2 year build......
Apr 24, 2014 10:34:23 GMT -5
Post by cbody on Apr 24, 2014 10:34:23 GMT -5
This won't be anywhere as interesting as the other threads I've read on here, as I'm terrible about stopping and taking photos while I'm working. With that disclaimer out of the way, I'll go ahead and wade in.
I have been searching for a Monaco for several years now, ever since I finally got my youngest son to sit though the whole movie and got him hooked too. After a couple failed attempts, including a trip to Chicago to drag home a (very) rusty '77, we finally found one solid enough to start on. On March 1st I found a '77 in Iowa listed on craigslist that looked solid so I decided to just bite the bullet and buy it even though it was WAY overpriced. These were the pictures from craigslist......
The car really is solid, of course the wrong year, wrong interior, wrong color, wrong engine, etc.etc.etc....but I had to start somewhere.
Thankfully, back when this whole debacle started a few years ago I managed to find a really rusty '74 hardtop, so I at least had a better start than most since I had a front clip. The '74 was another craiglist overpriced find from....of course....a demolition derby guy.
The '74 also has a closer interior color than the '77, but it's in much worse shape. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with the interior yet. I'm leaning towards just keeping it the stock burgandy since I have a sneaky suspicion that aside from all of you on this site there won't be one person in a thousand that will know the difference.
Let the teardown begin!
I managed to loose ALL my police speedometers about 20 years ago in a completely boneheaded move, so I was on the lookout for a 14o speedo. I have a 140, but really wanted the staggered number speedo. I know, "why worry about that If I keep the interior stock?", well, I never even hinted that I was rational so just bear with me. I make vinyl lettering for signs/trucks/t-shirts/etc. so I wanted to try my hand at recreating the 14o numbering. I took the stock 100 mph '77 speedo, masked off everything but the numerals and painted it with flat black, then cut out the 14o on white vinyl and applied it over the flat black.
It's certainly not perfect, but it wasn't a bad first attempt. Of course, the backlighting won't shine though it, but in actual use the numbers are still visible at night. I still need to play with the placement, as it's slightly too tall so I'll make another one and fiddle around with the sizing and placement.
More to come..........
I have been searching for a Monaco for several years now, ever since I finally got my youngest son to sit though the whole movie and got him hooked too. After a couple failed attempts, including a trip to Chicago to drag home a (very) rusty '77, we finally found one solid enough to start on. On March 1st I found a '77 in Iowa listed on craigslist that looked solid so I decided to just bite the bullet and buy it even though it was WAY overpriced. These were the pictures from craigslist......
The car really is solid, of course the wrong year, wrong interior, wrong color, wrong engine, etc.etc.etc....but I had to start somewhere.
Thankfully, back when this whole debacle started a few years ago I managed to find a really rusty '74 hardtop, so I at least had a better start than most since I had a front clip. The '74 was another craiglist overpriced find from....of course....a demolition derby guy.
The '74 also has a closer interior color than the '77, but it's in much worse shape. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with the interior yet. I'm leaning towards just keeping it the stock burgandy since I have a sneaky suspicion that aside from all of you on this site there won't be one person in a thousand that will know the difference.
Let the teardown begin!
I managed to loose ALL my police speedometers about 20 years ago in a completely boneheaded move, so I was on the lookout for a 14o speedo. I have a 140, but really wanted the staggered number speedo. I know, "why worry about that If I keep the interior stock?", well, I never even hinted that I was rational so just bear with me. I make vinyl lettering for signs/trucks/t-shirts/etc. so I wanted to try my hand at recreating the 14o numbering. I took the stock 100 mph '77 speedo, masked off everything but the numerals and painted it with flat black, then cut out the 14o on white vinyl and applied it over the flat black.
It's certainly not perfect, but it wasn't a bad first attempt. Of course, the backlighting won't shine though it, but in actual use the numbers are still visible at night. I still need to play with the placement, as it's slightly too tall so I'll make another one and fiddle around with the sizing and placement.
More to come..........