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So for years a friend of mine and I do junk yard runs for misc items. I am crazy with little side projects. A couple days after Thanksgiving, we made a junk yard run. I came across a find I have never seen! In ALL my years junk yarding with all the Pull-A-Part locations in Ohio, never found any special Montes (SS and once in a while one that had the High Sport package, never anything beyond that). Well, came across a 2002 Dale Sr car!!! Sadly, I was not the first to come across this car, much of the Dale goodies were gone. But I did score something I have wanted for YEARS! I got the two tone rear interior quarter trim panels! Back in 2013, I got extra interior trim panels that are in mint condition and got the gray pads from the gray interior Monte. My plan was to make the panels with actual Monte parts (so the colors matched). Never finished that project, now I don't need to, as I have the genuine panels!!! I would have grabbed the door panels too, but they were both damaged in a way I was not going to be OK with in my car.
Here is some info about my two-toning stuff: '04 Monte Carlo SS - Two Tone Interior
I still need to clean the pieces up and I plan to install them in the spring, when I get the blue Monte back out for the good weather.
Monte Of The Month -- May 2012 Monte Of The Year 2012 Monte Of The Month -- February 2017
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Mountains of Utah
Posts: 4,903
Excellent, that is a rare find, just your lucky day amigo. I would like to do that mod, were they a pain to get out? But then again, the scarcity justifies herculean efforts, woop woop, good job.
The body seems well taken care of. Tail lights look cherry, ground effects probably have some serviceable pieces. Were there door sill plates there? Kind of looks like it from the pic. I think the next nice Monte I find I will salvage the quarter windows and the rear window. They may never be needed but would be sweet to have if they were. Burglars / car thieves just smash glass ***** nilly and then you may have to pay top $$ for the glass then.
The blue Monte, nice, the man with 2 Montes. "Black and Blue", Rolling Stones album...
Someone already got the High Sport ground fx. For re-sale value, I would have loved to snag the head rests, instrument cluster and passenger dash piece (all gone already). Someone even peeled off the door sill pieces!!!
If the interior door panels were not damaged, I would have taken those for myself (the damage appears to be from before the car was in the junk yard). BUT, bringing home those rear quarter panels was a HUGE WIN in my book!! And they are SUPER easy to pull! The hardest part is removing the clothing hooks if that says anything lol. It pretty much snaps in and out (having a forked trim popping tool helps).
Below if a pic of some pieces I removed from a gray interior Monte back in 2013. I still have them. I was considering a plastic welder to fuse them back to some black interior trim. Never finished, but now I have the real deal!
Geez Maniac, you're as bad as me taking a camera to a yard!! Seems there's a lot left of the DE edition sitting there, what went wrong with it? Around here, that would have the doors open and full of water inside. <rolls eyes> I was going to buy some leather buckets out of a 6th gen Monte for my 66 Impala, but they were electric and the floor pans were under water. I ended going to another yard and saw one identical to mine - wheels and all - but got the seats out of a Grand Am instead. Unless I'm missing something, the seats in the one you harvested from look pretty good, less the headrests. The one I was looking at weren't the same, it was perforated (and torn), not the same pattern as yours. I went back later to inquire about the wheels, but they were already gone.
Geez Maniac, you're as bad as me taking a camera to a yard!! Seems there's a lot left of the DE edition sitting there, what went wrong with it? Around here, that would have the doors open and full of water inside. <rolls eyes> I was going to buy some leather buckets out of a 6th gen Monte for my 66 Impala, but they were electric and the floor pans were under water. I ended going to another yard and saw one identical to mine - wheels and all - but got the seats out of a Grand Am instead. Unless I'm missing something, the seats in the one you harvested from look pretty good, less the headrests. The one I was looking at weren't the same, it was perforated (and torn), not the same pattern as yours. I went back later to inquire about the wheels, but they were already gone.
Actually, I just used the camera on my phone lol.
This was a RARE find for me. And each seat has a problem. At least one rip in the leather somewhere, except the back rest of the back seat. My 2004 blue Monte has cloth interior and I actually plan to keep it that way. But I had been trying to two-tone the interior like a 2003 Pace Car, i had swapped a few pieces around and it ultimately worked well in my opinion, but these panels I brought home are an excellent addition!
There definitely is a bunch of re-usable pieces. But, not anything I was after.
Some small updates. A few nights ago, I finally spent some time cleaning these panels up. A little more work than I expected. I removed the seat belt holders and the guide trim. First, I wiped them down (front and back) with Lysol wipes. Who knows what these were previously subjected to. I later went over it with a scrub brush and soapy water (dish soap). And I am well aware, this treatment can dry the plastic and possibly cause issues.
After this, things were looking pretty good, except, the one gray pad had some marks that were not coming out well (possible scuffs/scratches, maybe just junk in the grain of the material). I tried an experiment. I grabbed a brand new horse hair brush/wheel for my Dremel. Using low speed and LIGHT contact (so not to burn the material) buzzed over the area. At this point, I could not see the marks. I wiped everything with a towel to dry anything that was still damp.
I grabbed some cleaning rags, the Megiuar's Superior Shine interior treatment. I also used a little Mother's Back to Black treatment in a couple areas. A couple good wipe downs and I feel these look as good as new.
I have the panels in the basement instead of the garage. They are less likely to have any issues from other things I am doing in the garage. I hope spring to put them in my blue Monte.
Below are some pics. You see my holding the one seat belt trim. Currently on my blue Monte, I have a gray piece in that spot (part of making use of gray pieces to two-tone the car). I am debating if I still want to use the gray or go with black. Part of me says use black with these panels (as the gray would now be a bit out of place).
12-15-2021, 08:15 PM
2002 Dale Sr Junk Yard Find
I ended going to another yard and saw one identical to mine - wheels and all - but got the seats out of a Grand Am instead. Unless I'm missing something, the seats in the one you harvested from look pretty good, less the headrests. The one I was looking at weren't the same, it was perforated (and torn), not the same pattern as yours. I went back later to inquire about the wheels, but they were already gone.
