Help me spend money

"RTeeJay" (ryanjohnston13) 03/13/2016 at 20:30 • Filed to: Chevy Monte Carlo, Muscle car, tax refund, mods, oppo

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Ladies and Gentlemen of Oppo, the time has come to set aside my tax refund and immediately dump it back into my 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo. If you forgot, I bought the Big Blue Beauty/Monica (interchangeable names I’ve give the Monte) at the end of last July. I enjoyed her until about mid September, after that point she has been parked under a car cover for the winter. Now that the New England warmth has returned, and cruise season is just around the corner, I need to address a couple things.

My budget is around $5-6k, and I’ve broken down my wants vs needs.

Needs:

Address a fuel leak near back end of car

New seats/seatbelts

Wheels/tires

New fluids

Wants:

Efi system

Electric cooling fan

Center consol with drink holder

Car care products

LED light/gauge upgrade

Trunk seperation panel/carpet

My question to you is, assuming I take care of all the needs, what item from my want category should I buy? The Monte has a SBC 350, with a three speed hydromatic transmission, with a small double barrel carburetor. My cooling comes from a crank mounted fan, but I’m missing a shroud.

Let me know how you would spend my money. Thanks

MM54 > RTeeJay 03/13/2016 at 20:33

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Intake and a 4bbl will be the best thing you could do for that engine.

5-6k will actually get you a lot in terms of projects for this car - I’d consider brake upgrades, wheels/tires (as you said), intake/carb, headers/exhaust, any sort of interior upgrades you’d want, then look into the rear end, move to a posi if it isn’t already.

But that’s the best part of it being your car - you can do whatever you want with it.

crowmolly > RTeeJay 03/13/2016 at 20:36

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Always my phase 1 with old stuff:

What can kill me?

And attack that first.

Fuel leaks, then brakes, then suspension.

Does it still have manual brakes? 4 wheel drums? An old master?

How about the suspension? Original springs? Original shocks? Bushings? Ball joints? Tie rods?

Get the chassis up to snuff first then go for engine and trans work. Interior should be towards the bottom.

If you decide to do light engine mods, an HEI swap with a dual plane intake/4 bbl carb will go a long way.

lone_liberal > RTeeJay 03/13/2016 at 20:56

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Personally, I might skip the EFI and go 4bbl and intake and use the savings in other areas such as heads and cam. EFI would certainly help drivablility but that’s a large chunk out of your budget. You could even get a crate engine for what some EFI set ups cost. As an owner of a ‘71 Chevy I’d agree with an electric cooling fan as well as seats and seatbelts. I don’t think I’d be tearing in to the IP to install a digital dash, but that’s just me. I might be burned out on such things due to replacing the entire wiring harness of my car.

RTeeJay > crowmolly 03/13/2016 at 21:35

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That makes sense, I have power disks up front, so the feel of the brakes doesn’t feel too soft/inefective. I'm sure springs/shocks/bushings would do wonders