'66 Monza Coupe Project

[91blaze]

Gonna have to put the car down for the winter and do some work. Seems to be a bit of blow-by when revving up the engine, none when under constant throttle though. Still driving it for now but don't want to cause more damage so I will probable stop driving it by the end of the week. This will give me the chance to start taking stuff apart and doing some work though. Also managed to find a parts car with some good body parts, mainly the rear quarters and front fender. Had to scrap what was left of the '67 to make room, did manage to pull a lot of parts from it first though. Hopefully I will be able to do some work without spending money until spring. Probably won't be too many updates until then.

[91blaze]

Bleh, stupid speedo cable went out on me. It was bouncing at higher speeds the last few days then stopped working as I was leaving my house today. Don't feel like dealing with the cold right now but I will mess with it sometime soon.

[91blaze]

The new cable is in, the old one was stuck bad. Im still getting bouncing, but mostly at lower speeds despite lubing up the cable. I had to go back to the stock intake setup because the pcv setup wasnt working right. I've been driving it but its only a matter of time before the engine does something, as per my usual luck. Will update if anything happens.

[cad-kid]

The bushing in the speedo might be binding up.

[91blaze]

I decided to check the trans fluid level and found it to be quite low. Bought some Amsoil GL4 and am in the process of getting it in. Doing so has proven to be quite the task though with limited room. After that I will be patching up the heater duct underneath to keep air from escaping. There is a sizable hole where the long duct underneath attaches to the one going up into the car. If the weather cooperates i can get this done and drive it again. Havent been able to for a week or so.

[91blaze]

Not much to update on, will be getting money in January so I can start work on the suspension and rebuilding part of the engine. I've decided to just rebuild the current engine since the 140 has too many problems. I will be putting new pistons, rings, and cylinders bored 30 or 40 over. Also new fan bearing and connecting rods. In the fall I will do the rest, such as EFI, cam, heads, exhaust, bearings, and internals. Basically I don't want to crack open the block until fall.

Currently I am working on replacing the fuse block with ATC fuses, new blower motor, replacing the heater resistor with modern resistors, and whatever else I can get to. Still trying to get the upholstery worked on but have to wait until I can get the sewing machine working. Until then, I'm just occasionally driving the car since the heater needs work and it's quite cold out.

[cvair4life]

Blaze - not sure how I had missed this thread before but it's great! If you're in Indiana I can appreciate the comment about the cold... I used to live in northern Utah and have fond memories of replacing the lifters while under the car... in the snow... in January..

[91blaze]

I did manage to get some time testing my car in snow, but now these sub-zero temperatures are taking their toll. The speedometer finally failed on me, with the needle bouncing from zero to 120 and a nasty gear sound. I was hoping to put off getting new gauges, oh well might as well do it now and get it over with. Once it got below 10 degrees my battery connection started failing on me on startup after sitting. These are all new connectors and battery so I'm not sure what the deal with that is. The cold has also caused some new noises, which I expected with these temps. In the next week or so I should be able to start getting parts, though work will have to wait until temperatures come up. I will update then, for now I leave you all with a picture.

[91blaze]

Slowly gathering up some parts to get the electrical system started when it gets warmer. Here's a list of what will be done:

- ATO fuse panels
- Replace most connectors with Weatherpack connectors
- Intermittent wipers
- New gauges (GPS speedo, tach, oil pressure, oil temp, head temp, and fuel from VDO)
- Cruise control
- New heater blower and resistors
- Idea for taillights
- Separate back-up lights from Pontiac Grand-Am, will be done later on

I have a lot more plans to get completed before the CORSA convention in Knoxville in June.

[Corventure Dave]

Keep rockin and rollin. One thing I find for me at least. To keep up the enthusiasm and momentum, I usually all ways get the body and paint work done as soon as possible.
This way the car is beckoning me to finish it! Yours looks real good as is and from the photos not much rust issues. Good one indeed.
I used to live in the North East... I know how much more a challenge it is to work in winter weather up there. Kudo's to you.

Corventure Dave

[91blaze]

Thanks Dave, I seem to be the opposite of most people. I leave the paint and bodywork for last so the paint doesn't get damaged and I can drive it some before buttoning things up. Also it tends to be the most expensive part and I don't have my welder set up yet.

[SyntheticBlnkerFluid]

So I want to know more about the Halo Headlights. Are they any deeper than the Stock units? I know some guys have done the BMW conversion and have had to cut out the backs of the headlight buckets. I've seen pics of the units like you have and they don't look much deeper than the factory unit.

Also, I take it the black wire goes to ground and red goes to power. What are you attaching the red wire to? I would almost want to disconnect the parking light wire from the turn signals and power them up that way so that the Halos are now your parking lights. Plus when you turn the headlights on, the parking lights shut off, so that would be ideal for the Halos to shut off while on the road.

[thewolfe]

The halo lights are available on ebay. I was rather disappointed when I installed an older style that only had 4 leds to find out they were so dim you can't see the halos during the day or at night when the headlights are on. Waste of money to get that type. Not sure which ones 91blaze is running but looks like they might be the 48 LED ones available now. The best way to go for solid halo rings are cob LED rings. I have two different types in mine. One with 96 LEDs(not cob) and the other has 156 LEDs(cob). They are both extremely bright but the cob rings are better because they make a continuous glow in a ring as opposed to being able to see individual LEDs on. The halogen conversion lenses will fit in the stock buckets without modifying but you may have to grind a little off the back of the conversion housing itself to make it fit. Different manufacturers have slightly different moldings and lens sizes.

I have a complete writeup on installing modern bixenon projector lenses and halo rings into halogen conversion housings on the other forum if you want more details.

http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.ph ... 727,page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[SyntheticBlnkerFluid]

Thanks for replying Nate. Good write up. I probably won't go to the extent you did, mainly because I don't have a problem with the H4 set ups, they seem to push better light than sealed beams.

I'll take a look at the cob halos. How big were the ones you got? It looks like they're in millimeters and the ones I found only go up to 120mm. Oh, nevermind, I just looked back through your write up and I see you used 125 and 130 mm halos.

[thewolfe]

You will have to measure the inside diameter of whatever h4 conversion lenses you get to determine what size halo rings to buy. Not all 5 3/4" lights have the same lens which I found out. The larger of the two different sets I had took 130mm halos which I bought off eBay and they are still available. Only downside is they ship from China so takes a few weeks to get them. Those were the 156 LED cob halos which I wanted to use on all 4 but the other housings I had would only fit a 125mm halo which I also got on eBay buy they shipped from the US.

[SyntheticBlnkerFluid]

Ok cool thanks. I also saw on Ebay that a couple companies sell cob halo 5.75 headlights now, but they look rather expensive. about $90 each.

This project is a ways off, so I'm not too worried about getting it done immediately.