I thought this might be a bit fun. As many know, I bought Mike's (aka @ChibiBlackSheep 's) 2000 Monte Carlo (aka "the Black Monte" to help keep things easy between the two Montes I currently own). One of the BIG projects is migrating the Novi Paxton from the black Monte to the Blue Monte. I have a thread outlining that here:
https://montecarloforum.com/forum/en...gration-62814/

I do have a soft spot for this Monte, as crazy as it may seem. Mike has taken great care of it. Plus, things Mike has done with it was an inspiration to things I did with my blue Monte. I have had numerous people in shock when they found out the car has over 200K miles (including the guy at the BMV who did the out-of-state VIN inspection/mileage check for me to transfer the title). I have had a couple people wonder what am I going to do with the black Monte when I am done with moving the Novi. Ultimately, I anticipate selling it (something Mike was well aware of when I bought it). I never planned for this to become a "parts car" and then junk. It is still a good car in my book (even without the Novi, Mike has some nice mods into this car that will stay in it). Ideally, I would love to see the car re-homed to someone who would love to use it as a summer car.

I thought it would be fun to create a thread of projects I am doing for the black Monte. I have a couple projects in progress right now and some I am planning on. I admit, there are two restoration level projects I am not not yet going to talk about until I decide I am ready to cross that bridge (a few people do know, including Mike).

That being said, let me start sharing some of these fun things for the black Monte!

 

OK, first up.... I don't have any pics of this, but I swapped the auto-dimming mirror (which had the common failure these mirrors have), for a standard mirror. I honestly don't care for the auto-dimming feature, so I am happy to say "bye bye" to this. I think Mike has had 2-3 different replacement mirrors (again, common failure).

So next item. LED lighting. Like many of us, Mike had done LED lighting in the black Monte. I believe at one point in time, Mike did all red interior lighting. At the time I got the black Monte, it was just the red in the foot well lights. What did I change? What Mike used was earlier generation LED replacement bulbs (I did the same years ago). There are a couple things I changed.

• First, the festoon bulb in the dome light. It was an older generation LED bulb. When the car is off, lights are off, it has a faith glow. Not sure why. I had an extra more modern Festoon bulb I used recently, popped this in to stop that issue.
• Next, the only interior red bulbs are on the floor lights. You have a nice red glow on the floor/foot space, but still standard lighting in the car. I love this look in general. I did this with the blue Monte. I felt the issue in the black Monte was the red bulbs shined more like a focused light. I wanted better broadcast. PLUS the current map lights from the rear view mirror swaps are incandescent. I learned with the blue Monte, it can be annoying to balance the LED bulbs in the map lights and the floor to not drown the red out. Sadly, the map lights I used in the blue Monte are no longer on the market, so I had to experiment.

The first pic below is the old red light. Very focused. The next pic, these are the old red bulbs on top and the bottom two bulbs are the ones I ultimately used to get the effect I wanted. A good red bulb to broadcast light really well, and then the smallest and focused white LED bulb for the map lights. An then the last two pics, these are the end result.

 

Next item.... Securing the radiator. Because of the Novi setup, Mike had a shop install some slim radiator fans. GM designed the radiator fans on these cars to also help hold the radiator in place (avoid rocking back and forth). Even though the car has been fine, enough things help keep the radiator fairly stationary, I wanted to improve this if I could. I have been researching factory fans to work with the Novi setup and found a plan (which I may not use, as I think the fans in my 2004 will be ok, I might have to hit them a little with a Dremel to allow the Novi setup to fit properly).
While at the junk yard, I looked at a 1997 Buick Century (first year for the Century to be a W-Body car). I found the braces in the pic below were used to hold the radiator in position. Bolted these into the black Monte and VICTORY! With these in place, the radiator is in a solid stationary position.

Currently, these brackets have been disassembled, sand blasted, the rubber pieces cleaned up and awaiting powder paint.

 

The Novi build Mike did required bigger injectors. Mike learned he needed an older L37 fuel rail to use any other injectors (or an aftermarket rail). Interesting enough, I junk yard picked the rail Mike used on the black Monte (I think I handed it off when my ex-wife and I were in Carlisle for a non-GM event, Mike and his wife met us for dinner since we were close by and I made the exchange).
For those wondering, the big and noticeable difference in the rails is what I call the "injector bell". The older rails have a taller bell. You can also tell by the retaining clips.
So, am prepping a fuel rail for black powder paint to move the injectors to the blue Monte. Mike left me the original fuel rail and stock injectors. Well, I am thinking a red powder coated fuel rail, black injector retaining clips would like nice on the black Monte. I had torn down the fuel rail (including removal of the schrader valve). Using a wire wheel, cleaned it up to prep for paint.
I will buy a new Fuel Pressure Regulator for both Montes when I re-assemble the rails. Also, I changed ALL the o-rings on the stock injectors. Sure, they may look OK, but why risk an issue for a simple O-Ring?

 

Mike had planned to have a set of brake calipers powder coated. As a result, he bought some spares to have that done.
Years ago, I had torn the ones down on the blue Monte. I decided since the calipers are there, why not! The backs are prepped, working on the fronts. I removed the bleed valves, put bolts into the threaded holes (just to avoid sand getting in), had a friend blast them. I then removed the pistons. One way is compressed air (which I did with my Blue Monte). This time around, I used a 1/4in socket extension though the location the brake hose connects to and couple hits with a hammer. Remove the piston, remove the dust boot. Cleaned up the inside, wiped down the cylinder. Once the fronts are done, I can then get them out for powder paint.

 

Love seeing all of the progress!!

 

This is a great post. Keep documenting the build.

 

Just a little bit at a time lol.

Thanks. The black Monte is going through some changes, but it should always be a running car while in my ownership. And all these little things are just that, little things. The car has been well cared for many years, and I plan to continue that. Hopefully others enjoy these little projects I'll post in this thread.

 

You know we do!

 

Not much to report. But hey, it's something.

I just got one of the front calipers back from my friend sand blasting it at his work. Once I get the the other one back, I will finish pulling them apart, hit with a wire wheel for any "touch ups" and hand off to my friend who can powder coat them at his work.
And the other.... I like stainless hardware. Doesn't even have to be polished, just stainless; looks clean and never rusts. Because of something with the Novi Paxton migration, I had to reach out to a company called AlloyBoltz. I decided to order some extras. Years ago, I sent them L36 hardware to match up and they now offer a L36/L26 LIM/UIM hardware kit. I ordered this kit for the black Monte (as I suspect some intake work may be in the future for the black Monte). This company now has an exhaust manifold bolt kit. So I ordered one for the black Monte and the Blue Monte. I'm curious on some of the fitment. The Three of the bolts are for a couple brackets GM piggy backed on the exhaust manifold (one is definitely an engine lift bracket and the other I believe doubles as a lift bracket but also holds things like the O2 sensor and a guide for the engine cover). Reason I am curious, I believe the original hardware are studs with a built in nut midway, that built in nut spaces out the placement of those lift brackets. On the blue Monte, I removed the back bracket all together. So I might check for stainless studs on those three spots. See how I feel when I mess with this stuff.