We’ve been extremely lucky weather wise here in Chicago. This past weekend was in the 60’s and I could not resist spending sometime out in the garage.
Like most people with families and other responsibilities, my hobby straddles a fine line between time and money. I tend to due without the best or most powerful tools in order to spend money on parts that are usually a combination of expensive and hard to come to by for the Monaco.
So I usually take longer doing things because I don’t have a huge compressor, or a 4 inch angle grinder with cutting wheels.
I found myself in that predicament this weekend after installing the lower grille lights. I found NOS lights last year after I first found the Monaco. Since the back pins matched up to the holes in my bumper, I thought it was 100% plug and play. WRONG!
The lights extended past the existing hole, allowing only half of the lights to show! Well that didn’t sit to well with me. So instead of doing better things I get busy trying to make this work.
Sure enough, a quick search of the internet showed that the hole ’74 & ’75 Non-Royal Monaco’s bumper was the same length as the upper grille. That would make sense as the ’76 Royal had a much narrower grille, therefore the the lower grille would be proportional to that.
Since it was a small area and not owning more powerful tools, I resorted to the Dremel. I know I know I know. Wrong tool for the job. That being said, it made me go slow and take my time and I think in the long run may have been the right choice for the job. I got a metal cutting disc that supposedly would last 20x longer than the normal discs.
It wasn’t rocket science. I masked the bumper in areas where I wanted to protect the finish, did a rough line with a Sharpie to mimic the factory lines and got busy.
Other than taking a long time and burning through the Dremel EZ Lock attachment in the last mile (making me resort to the old fashioned discs) it went really well.
I finished it off by grinding down any burrs and rough edges. Much better looking IMHO. I will finish the front bumper by moving the bumper guards inward to give the illusion of being a ’74 bumper.
Eventually I will have push-bars on her that will also help in disguising the bumper.
Last thing I did over the weekend was attache the fiberglass fender extensions to the fenders and header panels.
I removed the paint from all areas of contact on the metal side and wiped them down with a degreaser.
Inserted the two-part 3M expoxy into it’s special gun and said a little prayer…
Per the directions I applied the expoxy to all bare metal contact points and the fiberglass pieces and spread the epoxy evenly. I followed up with a bead of epoxy 1/4 inch away from the edges on both pieces and got my straps ready.
I was able to position the pieces and strap them securely with more than enough time. I don’t recall the exact working time, but it was long enough to get everything in place.
Once everything was secured I then trolled (pronounced like Troll-ey, not Troll) the seam area spreading out any epoxy that came out.
I closed the door and let them set up-over night.
The next afternoon I unstrapped them and just to see what would happen, I grabbed a corner and was forcibly moving the extension. The only movement was the car moving around!
These things feel solid! Zero movement or cracking sounds from the seam. I didn’t get crazy like standing on top of them, but I think I am very happy!
Till next time, cheers!
