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My 1978 Dodge Monaco 4 door sedan.

Today, my "speedo-cable-to-trans-leak-stop-kit arrived at the same time as my shop manual. Looking forward to getting under the car and stopping that trans fluid landing on my driveway.


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I've been sick this week, so I've not felt good enough to be out under the car. I did, however, buy some new tires for it, and I must admit I love the way it looks now, and also how much better it drives!

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Keep an eye out for dog dish caps if you don't already have them.
I like the plain ones because that was what mine had (without the holes like the police caps).
I had a set of 15" x 7" steel rims at one point that came off a diplomat I had.
Should have kept those...
 
The steel wheels with the dog dish hubcaps were the simplest, but the coolest look ever.
 
The slow and arduous process of removing the Lean Burn system on my '78 Monaco has begun. Luckily for me I know some fabulous people, one of them shipped me a non-Lean Burn carb for rebuild. Yesterday saw me start to pull the carb apart, but I had my sensibility kick-in almost immediately, and I STOPPED. I cannot rebuild a carburetor, it is not a strength I possess, and I do not want to be one of those guys, swinging his manhood around pretending I know what I'm doing, so I looked for help, and another fabulous friend stepped up and is rebuilding it for me. I like to work to my strengths, and understanding the complexities of a carburetor is not one of them. Eric, on the other hand LOVES rebuilding old carbs, so I figure it was the right move. Once he's happy with the carb, I'll buy the kit from Mancini and I can get stuck in doing the switch. Progress is slow, but it's moving.
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I'm sure I'll be emasculated for deciding to have someone rebuild my carburetor for me, but I do stand firm in my thinking - I bought a $40 rebuild kit, and I Paypal'd my buddy $50 for the carb (even though he insisted I just cover shipping), and I had absolutely no idea where to start, so getting deeper into a rebuild would surely create more havoc, and eventually a situation where I forget what bit goes where....yeah that's me. Sorry to the people who slam me for this.

Other situations have arisen recently. The girlfriend moved house (basically the last few weeks have been so busy I've had no time for little projects on the car) and also, here in Utah, winter has been sticking it's cold hands on the back of my neck. This weekend saw the first major snowfall, and as my Monaco isn't cosied-up inside a shop or garage, that brings progress down to a slow crawl also. I'm not making excuses, life is happening.

During all this, I've had a few chances to drive the car, and to me that's the most important thing. What use is a car that just sits. It has to be said, once she's warmed up, she drives fantastic. Straight and true, everything except the horn works perfectly, and she really is a joy to cruise around in. Here are some random pics from those little cruises, for your perusal...

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As you can see, my police hubcaps are on and looking good. (Don't look at the rust!! I'm very excited to get on with cutting that out and welding in fresh steel)

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Not sure what happened to the picture here, maybe I selected a filter on my iphone by mistake ^^^

During these little drives, the car runs fantastic, but coming down to idle, it's a little rough. She also doesn't like cold starting but what old car does?

I changed out the valve cover gaskets finally
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and did a cap/rotor arm/plug wires, and plus change. The plugs needed to be replaced
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Once I had done the basic maintenance, the car was a different beast. No longer did it hesitate on pull-away, it seemed to have more spring in its step, and it sounded and felt smoother....for about 5 miles, and then it went back to exactly how it was before. Stumbling, and rough idle, but smooth as silk up over 10mph.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this sounds like the Lean Burn computer playing silly-buggers, and is exactly why I'm removing it from the mix. Once the carb comes back rebuilt, and the Mancini Electronic Ignition Kit arrives, I hope the conversion makes the car drive like that first 5 miles all the time.

Cheers for now.
 
It is cool that you drive that car as intended! Getting these old cars to run as good as new is a marathon not a sprint!! A good dist. set correctly, a good carb, and good gas will fix 95% of trouble!
I hate cold an snow, but you live in a beautiful part of our country!
 
Those cop hub caps nailed the look, nobody will question your manhood when you are rocking a car like that butch piece of iron.
 
Hello guys - it's been a while since my last update. Lots has happened, and we all know the dreaded Covid-19 scenario....it's just that I started a business about 3 weeks before that all became a real thing...so grey hair is appearing on me faster than that bit at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where that guy ages rapidly..... anyways..


I have a shop, and it should be busy making graphics and installing wraps and pretty pictures on things, but instead I'm using it to work on the Monaco. Staying busy and away from everyone.
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Now that I have the space, I thought it best to use this lock-down for a purpose other than sitting around talking the talk. So I got busy on removing the vinyl top and the glue that was left...

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Goof Off is available at Home Depot and it's ok. It's not the best thing I've used for glue removal though but it was all I could find given the weird circumstances we all find ourselves in these days. It worked well by saturating the glue and scraping it with an ice-scraper for a windshield. It took a while.

Me and the wifey took it for a trip up the canyon on an unusually warm evening, before I started getting right into pulling the car apart...
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Gratuitous front end shot...
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The next morning my buddy Tyler came by the shop, to check our facility, see our capabilities, but mostly to show me his '72 Coronet and talk cars for three hours! It was just what I needed actually!
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The next morning I pulled the car in and set to work. Immediately, I saw the car sat crooked and upon inspection the leaf springs are in bad shape, so I'll have to have an extra leaf added and have them re-arched...
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I also noticed a while back that my rear bumper is crooked...
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Turns out, the big shock behind the bumper didn't push out again after an impact. I hit it with a large hammer and it came right back out.

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As you can see, I began grinding the trim pins (if that's the right terminology) down and/or welding the holes up. I bought a couple of sheets of 16 gauge steel and set to work rebuilding the rusted out wheel wells.
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Remember guys, I'm still learning so please don't crucify me.

I bought some of my favorite POR15 for rust prevention. I'm very happy this pint is now $33 and not $50 like it was three years ago.

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I cut that nasty-*** lower quarter out and made the new piece from cardboard first. Once I had the new bit ready to weld in, it suddenly dawned on me...weld-thru primer!! The new bit needed to be painted in weld-thru primer because these quarters are double skinned and I can't get to the back of it once it's installed! Doh!!! So this quarter panel progress came to a stop while I ordered said primer.

So I pulled off the rear bumper, which wasn't actually too bad a job...

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Needs a little love but none of this was rotten through, it's just surface rust.

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This shock absorber nearest the camera was the one that had not returned to it's original position making the bumper crooked. A hammer sorted that out!


I put some etching primer on the bare metal while I'm waiting for products to be delivered.
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I'm happy with the wheel well rebuild. There's a little hammer and dolly work left to do still.


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Here's the car, on a little slope outside the shop, with a dead battery. There was nobody around to help me push the car back inside (up the slope) so I had to do a little bit and chock the wheels...then a little bit more and chock the wheels....4000lb sedan + out of shape 43 year old = hernia.
 
While the bumper was off and the trunk was empty and rust proofed, I unplugged the loom for the rear lights and inspected it for shittiness.

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There was quite a lot of shittiness in the form of some nicely spliced-in trailer wiring, and most of the bulb holders' bayonet style mounts were either rusted, gone, or broken...
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I'll have to buy new bayonet mounts. And luckily they are available! Which is rare.

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I did a little more bodywork and spread some filler. I don't want to sand the filler inside the shop as it's supposed to be a graphics and wrap shop - filler dust would ruin everything - so I'll wait for a nice day outside and sand the filler out there.
 
Today, I found this Inspection Sheet under the insulation in the front foot well. Super cool to find anything of historical significance in old cars. It doesn't say much but it did have my VIN and a date stamp of Fed 13th 1978.
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All the excitement of the Inspection Sheet sent me into a frenzy so I pulled the front bench seat out and pulled the carpet up to look for the Build Sheet...
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It wasn't there. I looked in the headliner, the seat springs, the glove box insert, and under all the carpet. It's not there, which is a shame because I wanted to see that. Oh well. There was a nice rust hole in the floor though. So yeah, that.

The bench seat, once the terrible seat covers were removed, was in poor shape. Thin fabric had torn a lot. So I'll have to find someone to replace the covers...
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I took the kick panels off to see if the build sheet was in there (obsessed much?) it wasn't but this weird plug was. I couldn't find anything that it goes to...any ideas?
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Later that evening I renovated the rear bumper. The chrome was in pretty good shape but the back side of it was orange.
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Lots of surface rust but luckily no rot. I used my trusty POR15 and painted the back side, taking out the lenses carefully and cleaning those up good too.
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Then on the chrome, I used Nevr Dull Wadding Polish and 1500 grit sandpaper, which removed all the orangey pitted bits and all of the ground in dirt really well!!
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That's it for 14th April, tomorrow I have some actual work to do which is great, then I'l be back on the car so watch this space and thank you for reading this far!!
 
While you have the rear bumper off, see if those bumperettes will come off.
The bumper will look better with them gone.
 
While you have the rear bumper off, see if those bumperettes will come off.
The bumper will look better with them gone.

That's a very good point. Thanks Beeper, I'll see what lurks beneath...could be more shittiness hahaha
 
You are really making good progress on getting this car looking great again! It's unfortunate that your business has been dealt such a blow from the start but at least you are making the best of a bad situation, kudos to you sir.
 
Weird plug. Passenger side of car ? Possible power antenna ?
 
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