[1BLACKHARLEY]

that sir, is a bitchin car, love the cowl hood....

 

[1BLACKHARLEY]

it definitely is.

although I am worried about vinyl and excessive rain... does anyone have experience with that?

I am still in the market for chevelles, but the cheapness of the Montes make them so much more appealing...

vinyl tops can be a can of worms. i just bought a car with vinyl, it's from oregon, and has no bumps, and i've seen some socal tops that definately have cancer under them. i don't know what the trick is. if you can treat the roof with silica or just make sure they are sealed properly.

i have to tell you, most of the monte's i've seen didn't have vinyl, but it could have been a regional thing. i think you looking for a fringe car, makes good sense. monte carlo's ( i love the look of a good first gen. car. skylarks, cutlass, lemans, tempest, some grand prix's. there are some great cars for great prices. i went to a local thing saturday night, my little lemans drew the biggest crowd. i still want a chevelle, but i couldn't have bought near as much chevelle as i did lemans. so for now, i have a cool ride, and hopefully down the road, i'll have a neat chevelle...

 

[1BLACKHARLEY]

andrew, i've been making $ on fringe cars for years, what some of us consider fringe cars, are the lower version of the holy grail cars instead of a gto, i have a lemans, instead of a 442, i had a cutlass. you can find very clean fringe cars, and some of them have similiar equiptment as the grail cars. you get the flavor of the monsters without the stress of someone nicking it.

now if you shop really hard, you can get a fringe car, for a decent price. drive it for a while and maybe make a few $. the last several cars i bought, i made a couple grand on them each. not getting rich, but i get to drive cool cars, and then move on. the car i have now, is a big block, big trans, a/c, p/s, p/b, bucket seat floor shift car, and i got it for a third of what the grail model would have run me.

look we all want an ss. or a yenko car, a 442, etc. but some of us don't have the $ or talent to own these types of cars. and one thing you'll learn on this site, these are car guys, they've helped me with everything from my el camino, to my fairlane. they are car guys, and damn smart ones at that...even with the purcahse of my lemans, these guys gave good advice, and didn't discourage me, just because it didn't say chevelle on it.

if you hunt really hard, you'll find a monte carlo, malibu, cutlass, skylark, etc, that will fit your bill, till you can get the car of your dreams. i think you'd be surprised how many of us own these types of cars. there are plenty of cutlass, skylark, malibu owners on this site, and many have cars that are just incredible, also, many have mopars. you see this isn't an elitist site. these guys know a cool car when they see it, and it doesn't always have an ss on the side...

http://detroit.craigslist.org/cto/1075704285.html
http://buffalo.craigslist.org/cto/1084201353.html http://s163.photobucket.com/albums/t304/gto65mike/?action=view&current=buickclip.flv

http://lansing.craigslist.org/cto/1067596078.html
http://lansing.craigslist.org/cto/1062687527.html