lurker turned newbie LOL

Hi!! My names Joe and I live in Putnam County NY. Been lurking for about 2 weeks now. Loads of awesome info here and hopefully I can share some of my experience with the board.

I purchased my '73 SS in 1982. It was my first car right out of high school and I still have it ! It sat in the the garage for over 6 months until I got my license. I bought it from the daughter of the original owner. When I bought it, it had been repainted and had a '74 grille on it and no SS badges on the fenders. It was a 350, 4bbl, 4 speed with dual exhaust (manifold), manual steering, no a/c and a 3.42 rear car. It spun 2200 rpms at about 60 mph. It was my daily driver until '85 when I purchased a '74 monte as my daily driver. In 86-87 I rebuilt the chevelle engine and trans and started to do some body work to the car. I had the usual bubbling around the rear wheel wells and tail lights but nothing bad. I decided to hang new quarters (which were REAL hard to find in '86) and I purchased a new tail panel from GM. If I remember correctly, I paid a whole $28 for the tail panel. I purchased an L88 cowl induction hood from usbody source or a company called Fibermotive, I forget which one. Got everything together and shot 10 coats of lacquer on her. '79 Z28 Bright Blue Metallic is the color with the factory satin black tail panel. Well I wasnt happy with the dirty frame, so I removed the frame, had it dipped in acid for 3 days and then dipped in galvanized steel. The upper and lower control arms received the same treatment. Front suspension and rear arms have polyurethane bushings installed. I believe there was an issue with 2 different size lower control arm bushings in the front. Front shocks are competition engineering 80/20 with 50/50 rears. I welded a sump to the gas tank with 2 blue fuel fittings contemplating putting in an electric fuel pump under the bumper. Factory 4 speed console was removed ( I still have it and will be keeping it. ). My dash had a decent amount of cracking when I bought it. Well 7 years later (1989) I lucked out and found a guy parting out a chevelle with the brown dash without the a/c vent. I have the off white interior with brown dash, rug and package tray. Since the rebuild I havent driven the car much at all. The drive line has less than 10k on it. I'm considering trying to locate another '73 frame and rebuilding it to stock and switching the car back. You can see the zinc on the chassis in the pic below.

Not including my '73, I've had another 5 of them. 4 were plain janes and one was an SS which I bought for $20. The other 4 all cost me less than $50 bucks each. Wish I had one of them now to get the frame out of.

I had a set of ladder bars in my chevelle for quite some time. Horrible how they bolt to the rear shock perch. It ends up ripping the perch apart. The 64-72 when to the control arm bolt which was much stronger.

Everything done to the car was done by me, in my yard. All the welding for the quarters and tail. And I laid all the paint. I have a decent amount of pics of the chassis swap, engine build and the spraying. On 2 separate occasions, I thought about selling the car. I have my wife to thank that it didnt happen. She's used to all my friends all talking about their first cars and how they wish they had them now.

Hello to all and thanks for making such a great site.

wow Love the Big Skinny look and the Color welcome aboard......... Joe, cool story and why do you want to change the frame out it looks real clean that way ?? and glad you didnt sell it either

welcome Joe. Very nice car. JB

Hey welcome ! What town are you in ? Im in Patterson.

I'm in Mahopac. Did I see that monte at the thursday car show at Chilis on Rt. 6??

No thats another one a guy on 118 owns . I go over to Shoprite on rt 52 on Fri nights once in a while, I used to be at Marcus Dairy every Sat but its gone now. We have a small cruise on RT 22 in Brewster on tues night diagonally across from the Red Rooster at Brewster beer and soda in the shopping plaza 6 to 9 . I have a black on black 73 Monte too so one or the other thats me. Im Anthony by the way if we run into each other .

Welcome Joe. Nice SS.

Thanks guys for the great comments.