In 1970 Roger saw a new 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo model.
When the 1971 Monte Carlo was released, he knew that he had to purchase it from Pelini Chevrolet in Sebastopol, CA, located in a beautiful Wine Country, 7 miles west of Santa Rosa.
Roger’s 1971 Monet Carlo configuration has the following:
● 350 / 350 2bbl combo
● Power Disk Brakes
● A/C
● AM / FM Radio with 8-track cassette player
● Ralley wheels with derby caps
● Bench seat in cloth with black interior
● Body color was “Classic Copper”
Roger Drove his 1971 Monte Carlo until 1990. Then, he put it into storage, with 123,000 miles on the odometer. In 2000 the 1971 Monte Carlo came out of storage for a restoration, but as time went by, with technological advancements, the restoration turned into a restomod.
Initially, he pulled the engine and the transmission, then took the body off the frame to clean all those years off of it. Roger installed the new body mounts, flat black on the underside, and put the body back on. Then he took his 1971 Monte Carlo to Blake’s Auto Body Repair in Santa Rosa, California, and had the paint stripped off, and all the imperfections smoothed out. Only rust was found at the bottom of the rear window, where the channel was replaced. The repaint was done at Blake’s. Roger looked at many sample panels of variations of the original color to change it a bit. He took the brown out and added more flakes, and he renamed the new color “Root Beer” as the factory color was “Classic Copper”.
All trim is New Old Stock (NOS), except for the hood ornament, left original, and new bumpers were installed. The exterior lighting is all light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and the headlights are tri-bar blue dots with High-intensity discharge lamps (HIDs). The taillights are made by Flaming River of Berea, OH with blue dots set into the lenses. The parking light lenses also have blue dots in place of the chrome buttons. The vanity license plates set his Chevrolet 1971 Monte Carlo apart. All the window glass was replaced with the smoked gray automotive euro glass. Roger replaced the wheels and tires, with a complete set of American Racing Torq Thrust II, fully polished aluminum, size 6 x 15 – 8 x 15 with billet aluminum knockoffs, which he has personally owned since 1966. For the new tires, he installed Cobra Radial G/T: Classic Muscle Car Tires.
Chevrolet 1971 Monte Carlo Engine Compartment:
Roger gave the original engine to a friend. Then he sourced a 1994 Chevy 350 Small Block from a truck (5.7 liters) with a 4-bolt main.
Note: If you’re new to the engine design the mains are what hold your crankshaft in place on the bottom of the engine.
The rebuild started with an idea that Roger wanted his 1971 Monte Carlo for comfortable cruising.
The block was boiled out and the bore was moved to 355 cubic inches (5.82 liters). He magnafluxed and torque-plated the engine. The crank, rods, and pistons were balanced. Powdered metal connecting rods from KB Performance were used.
Other engine parts for the 1971 Monte Carlo are: Flat Top pistons, Grant Piston Rings, Federal-Mogul bearings, Comp Cams’ hydraulic roller lifters, 1.7 aluminum roller rockers, Edelbrock Aluminum High-Performance Water Pump, “Pro Timing” with double chain and aluminum cover with an adjustable pointer, high volume oil pump – ribbed aluminum oil pan, Vortec heads with 3-way valve cut in heads larger Manley stainless valves. This was all topped with the Performer RPM Small Block Chevy Intake Manifold and Holley 650 fuel pump. ARP Bolts pulled all this together. Hitachi parts were used for the auxiliary gear.
Roger’s 1971 Monte Carlo’s muscular beauty has AMS-Oiler Pre Charger installed, MSD Chevy V8 Pro-Billet Distributor was used in the new build with MSD 34033 Black 8.5mm 6′ Roll Spark Plug Wires, E3 Diamond Point spark plugs and PurePower! billet aluminum oil filter.
The 1971 Monte Carlo – Entering the Bright Future of Fuel Injection: After working with Holley MSD, a decision was made to change to the EZ-EFI fuel injection. The Holley MSD setup was giving us 12 MPG (miles per gallon)., and the EZ-EFI fuel injection brought that rating up to 17.5 MPG, i.e. modern 2020 mid-size SUV (sport utility vehicle) territory. With an Edelbrock dual plane air gap intake manifold in Endura Shine – with an Aeromotive’s inline electric Aero fuel pump. Next was an amazing 4-row aluminum radiator, engineered with dual fans from Spal for cooling. Stainless steel puke can, Cool Flex copper radiator and heater hoses, Hooker shorty coated headers, Marche polished aluminum serpentine system, Billet Specialties’ ribbed air cleaner cover with K&N filter, ribbed valve covers, ribbed breather caps, ribbed wire looms.
The factory A/C was rebuilt with a state-of-the-art refrigerant: Refrigerant R134A. All the Plumbing to the engine was replaced with stainless steel braided lines, new fender wells were added, stainless steel cowl covers – ARP stainless steel bolts were used on front fenders, and crumple zone bolts Fesler billet hood hinges, billet hood latch, Undercover Innovations’ cover engraved with FGMCC, the hood insulation was pulled and sprayed flat black to match fender wells and a firewall. The new Optima Red Top AGM battery was moved to the trunk. All wiring was routed through the fender wells to maintain a clean overall presentation.
Chevrolet 1971 Monte Carlo Front Suspension:
Roger’s friend Gary at Rincon Alignment & Brakes installed power rack-pinion steering, CPP 1 ½” front sway bar, tubular top bottom a-arms, QA1 Coil-Overs with single dial shocks, Wildwood 11 slotted rotors, Chrome GM brake booster, SSBC billet master cylinder, all stainless steel lines for brakes, braided steel lines to front calipers, Cadillac rear 10” disk brakes with drilled and slotted rotors, and braided steel lines.
Chevrolet 1971 Monte Carlo Transmission:
Roger started the transmission project by removing the GMC TH 350, as he desperately needed a fourth gear. A General Motors Corporation 4L60-EA transmission was his transmission of choice with a B&M Shift Improver Kit, and a 2500 RPM (revolutions per minute) stall converter. He used an aluminum pan and ribbed aluminum flywheel dust cover and Lokar dipstick. A variant of this transmission is used in the Fifth generation (C5; 1997–2004) of General Motors Corporation’s legendary Corvette! The C5 was the most completely redesigned Corvette since the Corvette’s inception in 1953. In the Corvette, this transmission was tested up to 176 mph (283 km/h). The “electronic box” gears in the glove box for the trans, and this unit tells you everything you need to know about the transmission. A new drive shaft was built with a larger yoke and joints from Moser and a driveshaft loop. Roger kept the 10-bolt rear-end, but installed an Eaton Posi limited-slip differential unit with i3.73 gears ratio and Moser 31 spline axles, with a Summit aluminum girdle on the rear end. A CPP 1” rear sway bar – CPP 4 bar links, and QA1 coil overs, with single dial shocks. Also, put in a stock SS fuel tank with SS lines to the EZ fuel injection unit with a return line. The exhaust system back of the headers is a Flowmaster rolling thunder kit at 2 ½” diameter. With an H-pipe and Flowmaster super 40 mufflers, and at the tailpipe ends are N.O.S. oval chrome tips. One of a kind: in the middle, he installed QTP electric cutouts with the control box by the front seat. They always light up the party no matter where he goes! The wiring was an “American Autowire Highway 22 kit “ which has an option for a GMC LS engine series. He started at the front and went to the back, replacing all the old wires, which had a lot of nips and tucks, and this project took him at least three days. The result was a system that worked extremely well!
Now, to the interior:
Roger’s friend Randy of Randy’s Recovery Shop, now out of business, did 80% of the work on his 1971 Monte Carlo. He started with the interior. He got a complete interior kit, with a new padded dash cover, headliner, door panels, and package tray from OPG. It was there originally in black cloth. He covered floor doors, and roof panels with Dynamat. He replaced the seat belts with custom buckles. He only installed four, sets instead of six, and eliminated the shoulder belts. Roger installed a brand new dash with Dakota Digital’s gauges to his iconic 1971 Monte Carlo. He used Essex’s carpet, great material, and no snags.
Next was Specialty Power Windows, for the easy way. Flaming river tilt steering column, in black, with a Billet Specialties steering wheel, with a burl inlay to almost match the burl dash face. In the door area he used “Eddy Motorsports “ brushed aluminum plates and Fesler polished aluminum vent covers, with S/S striker bolts. Roger then replaced the headlight pull button with Fesler polished billet knob, and at the same for the cigar lighter, which was changed over to a 12V DC power outlet, which came in handy during the devastating California Fires. Roger used a Cayton Machine’s brake and gas pedals and below the steering column is the bezel for the AC outlet, to make it match the one on the passenger side. He sent it to “The Finishing Touch” and had it chromed, now a heavy piece, but balances out the AC outlets, and to finish out the interior, Roger had special floor mats put in with 1971 Monte Carlo’s logo embroidered on.
Digital Entertainment System of the 21st Century:
Roger added a digital entertainment system of the 21st Century. He installed the world’s best Alpine head unit with support for MP3, Apple iPod, and Compact Disk (CD), with Sirius-capability. For the sound he went with another best-in-class Boston 40-watt speakers in the dash top, a pair of Boston 180-watt speakers in the kick panel, a pair of Boston 180-watt speakers in the rear package tray, and an 8-inch Boston subwoofer in the trunk. All this digital entertainment experience is powered by a Boston 500-watt amplifier in the trunk. The 1971 Monte Carlo has an Alpine 6 disk, compact disk player located on the passenger side of the front seat. Under the driver’s side of the seat is a fire extinguisher, a must-have safety tool. He installed the Optima red top battery in Billet specialties polished base and top and has a lead for a C-Tec battery tender. Special panels were built to cover the floor, sides, as well as front and back of the trunk, with Madrid grain vinyl covering the sides and back and with Essex carpet, all in black, and under it all he put Dynamat. The trunk hinges were replaced with Fesler polished units. Now since the battery was hidden in the trunk, for a no-hassle jump start, if he ever has a battery problem, he installed the positive and negative post units up inside the passenger front fender.
After 16 years of restoration, Roger 1971 Monte Carlo has come this far!
The future for his 1971 Monte Carlo is endless…..
Roger says “Every time you open a car magazine there is always something new, but for now, I will be just driving and enjoying my 1971 Monte Carlo for the rest of my life!”
