I was pretty much responsible for my friend ending up with the Monza. Another friend of mine who ran a wrecking yard had it and was debating whether to crush it or not. Although I'm not a big fan of them it was too neat to see it squished so I told him to hold on to it for a while and I see if I could find a buyer. I ended up taking my friend out to see it.....he remembered the car (and previous owner) from its street racing days and didn't take long to for a deal to be struck.

Like I said, personally I'm not a big fan of the Monzas. I had a customer years ago with a factory V8 4 speed one. The car came out of California so it had all the additional smog crap and factory AC.....talk about 20 pounds of crap in a 5 pound bag. You always seem to remember the jobs/cars that fought you every step of the way so I remember a lot about that little Monza I think my "favorites" were the heater core and the clutch. The smogged up 267 with a cast iron Saginaw and 2.something gears was not really the hot set up either.

That being said at least working on that particular car exposed me to the (as far as I know) only SB 4 speed bellhousing with a cable clutch that Chevrolet produced......something I remembered and came in really handy when it came time to stuff the 283 and T5 in my Ram 50.

The biggest issue I have with any of the hatch back cars (Monza, Mustang II and Vega fast backs, and hatch back Pintos) was the body twist when you stuffed a good V8 and sticky tires on them. Sub frame connectors and engine compartment bracing are almost mandatory at a minimum and a cage is better. As the cars are unibody any rust in the floor/structural areas would be a show stopper for me.

Besides rust if I was looking at a factory V8 car I would defiantly also check to door and hatch fitment to try to get an idea on how bad the body has been abused........and yes the Monza that's sitting out in the yard has a fair amount in spite of the sub frame connectors and ladder bars.




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