I have an 81 Monte Carlo Turbo. Sometime in the past the interior had been redone. Seats, door and trim panels and head liner reupolstered. In the process the interior data sheets were torn out. The car had either collision or rust damage repaired. The left rear quarter has been replaced as well as the trunk lid. There are no data tags on the glove box or anywhere else on the car that I have seen. I wrote to GM and asked for any info they could provide to tell me how this car was built. They sent me a packet telling me what was available in the 81 Monte Carlo but not specific to my car. I expected more since they wanted the vin number. Because there were only 3027 total turbo Monte Carlos built in 81 my car is rare. Because it is a loaded T-Top it is rarer than that. I would like to document this car so that I can restore it back to what it was as it rolled off the assembly line. Does anyone know how I can do that. When I originally got the car I didn't know how rare it was and had ideas of making a SS clone out of it. If I can't document how it was built then I don't see any harm in taking some liberties with it's rebuild. I would like to add bucket seats, add a console and move the auto shifter to the floor, add the SS type steering wheel. On the exterior I like the 87 style tail lights and tail light extension, the SS trunk lid spoiler, and the SS nose. Everything I want to do is reversible but I would prefer not to ruin its originality and at some point buy a later RWD SS. Thanks for your help. Gregg

 

lol nice. as far as restore, you sound like you got your own plan for how you want the car to look and at the same time u want it to look original. id say pull out the crayons. and by that i mean go for the look that you really want. but if you plan on going for a different rwd ss later then id say do more homework to figure out more about 81 turbo montes and go ahead with your restoration

 

I guess I really didn't express myself well. Because of the rarity of this car I would prefer to return it to its as built state. I unfortunately have not been able to document how the as built state was. If I can't document how it was built then I will restore it to what it would look like if I ordered it new. All the changes that I make can be easily reversed if at some point in the future the documentation can be done. If I had ordered it new it would have had bucket seats, a console and the automatic on the floor. It also would have has the checker flag wheels. I know that the SS spoiler wasn't available in 81 but it looks cool as does the SS nose cone and the later SS tail lights. I would prefer originality but if I can't achieve that then why not as I like it? Gregg