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Dan Janes of Hannibal, Missouri, bought this 1970 Monte Carlo near Ottawa, Kansas, in April of 2008. “It had the original paint, interior, top, and transmission,” he told us, “but the original big-block had been replaced at some time with a ’71 block with ’69 heads.” It was a good start for a project, so he drug it home and let it incubate for a while before getting to work.
This is what the car looked like when he purchased it. Would you have bought this as a start to your project? We love the car, and think it was a great decision to buy.
He started digging into the project about a year after he acquired it. He made some repairs to the body, and then got it road worthy. At that point, it had been more than five years since it was last driven. Immediately, the transmission started slipping – badly. Dan bought a book about transmission rebuilding, and rebuilt the Turbo 400 so he could continue driving the car. The attitude of rebuilding and getting it done has carried him through this entire project.
The first step of the project was a little bodywork.
A well-optioned car, it originally included power windows and locks. Dan’s Monte Carlo was built in Van Nuys, California, and shipped to Pappas Chevrolet in Kansas City, Missouri, where it was sold in June of 1972 to the first owner who kept the car until 1995.
The original built sheet that was living under the back seat all those years.
Dan has already completed a lot of work on the car. He has already restored the interior, the frame, the suspension, and rebuilt both the engine and transmission. The 454 cubic-inch big-block and transmission are ready to go.
Dan doesn’t mess around when it comes to the work on his car. By profession, he is a construction electrician, machinery mechanic, certified welder, and an experienced fabricator. You can imagine, when it comes to general experience in working on mechanical equipment, Dan has it covered.
Dan has also stripped, cleaned, and painted the floor, and had the frame powdercoated. A problem arose when he went to put the body back on the frame. When he put the doors and fenders back on, he found that there was a ¾-inch gap where the core support and the fenders needed to bolt together. “I bought this frame several years ago from a guy in Iowa that had taken it from a parts car he had bought,” Dan explained. “I’m guessing the car had been off roading at some time.”
The motor looks even better in the car, than it did outside of the car. Also, take a look at how nice the floor turned out.
Realizing you have a bent frame after having it prepped and powdercoated, is no fun. Dan went pulled the fenders back off, and got to work straightening the car’s foundation. “I took the fenders off and set four concrete anchors in the garage floor. After protecting the powdercoat finish, I chained the frame down at the firewall on both sides.” Dan detailed. “I took measurements, and used the chassis service manual frame specs and a 12-ton bottle jack to correct the problem.”
Before and after of the frame. This was still before being straitened, but it still looks great!
Although he has gotten a lot done on this car, there is still a lot to do. The next step is to finish the final bodywork and paint. “I hope to complete it in the next 10 months,” Dan told us. When you consider Dan’s track record with the rest of the project, we think he is going to do just fine.
What do you think of Dan’s Monte Carlo? Does it inspire you to work on your own project car? Let us know in the comments below, and if you have a project of your own that you’ve been slaving away at, share it with us! Send us an email, and yours could be the next Chevy project featured in our Reader’s Hardcore Projects.
