Has anyone seen a 1978 Monza wagon U/S(or u/say)

[BG56]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1978-Chevro...MAAOSwjFpekg0t Searched just for the hell of it, mainly just to see one. This one on eBay now!

[The Hawk]

Originally Posted by Lyn Smith

How tough is it to get a 9" radial under the back of one of these H bodies?

You`d need to cut the fender wells a lot. A 26" slick is pushing the boundaries.

[Billy Nees]

Ya know, I've never looked closely at Philbrick's car but he has a 9" radial under it.

[Chip THELEGEND Johnson]

I had a 75 Monza with the 262 v8. I ran IHRA pure stock back in the mid 80's. Everytime I got it to run the index they would drop it again. I had no money and went bracket racing. I won 2 track Championships with it. I do know 75 only you could do a 350. Not sure but I think a couple of later years had 305. I also had an 80 model with 231 I drove to work. I raced it a few times it wasn't fast but was consistent.
Hey Joe whatever happened to yours?
And yes they were a pain to change plugs mine was an AC car

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Joe, I was talking about a stock as produced body shell. Yours as described was tied together and stiffened pretty well. More of those should have been done that way. The once common V8 conversion Vegas and all, most were street driven and weren't done to that extent. About 15 years ago, my neighbor across the street got a wild hair to build a Vega with a 350. He found a couple Vega wagons and he went to town on it. He even found new left and right panels to convert the wagon into a panel express. The end result was a very insanely fast car for the street. He got some crate 350 with some aftermarket heads and intake and with whatever cam he selected, a built 350 trans and a somewhat loose converter, and he ran around like this until he lit 'em up and absolutely demolished the rear end. He then found an 8 1/2" 10 bolt that had been in somebody elses'Vega, so he bolted it in and was done with it at that point, but he still had the stock front brakes on this thing. I know from a few road tests he took me on that it seemed like all that power was trying to twist the car in half.He got tired of it and sold the car to somebody from Phoenix, they ran around in it, and ran it one night at Firebird and it went low 11's. That's definitely fast enough to need some chassis engineering.

[FED 387]

ANY Monza/Astre Wagon is a rebadged VEGA body---GM never made a stand alone body for the wagons---the Monza notchback and hatchback are not the same body as a Vega--- they use/shared many of the same components and had many similarities but they are not the same cars---Also the Vega 4 cylinder engines were horrible to try to start in extremely cold weather. Because of the iron head alum block set up the spark plugs would actually cool down at a different rate and you would get ice particles on the spark plug electrodes thus preventing the engine from firing on that cylinder... The number 5/7 plugs on V8 Monza's were not that difficult to change even tho the steering shaft/ power brake booster was in the way--- you just needed to cut a plug socket down to about 1/3-1/2 the normal length and then use a box end wrench on the socket and it came right out--worked part time at the local Chevy dlr and zone rep lost a big bet with me that I couldn't replace R&R a set of plugs in under 7 minutes--- You are right they were flexi flyers I had a Vega hatch put in a a used 406 CI sprint car engine mated to a Turbo 350 and had a Mopar 8 1/4 rear with 4:10 gears 1-2 shift it would pop the hatch loose--- drive it normal and no problems get on it and it would pop every time--that Vega even had Factory AC which we hooked up after we got the correct engine compressor brackets from the Monza--FED 387

[Tom P]

I don't think a 231 in U would be much fun... try petitioning NHRA to accept the Motion 454 Vega for Stock. It might fit AA/S with some ballast.

[joe huestis]

Hey Joe whatever happened to yours/QUOTE]
Chip, last place I knew of my Monza is sitting in a corner of Danny Lattimore’s shop in Va. An acquaintance of Danny bought it from me as a roller back in the Fall of 2014. The new owner may have abandoned his intended project with the car. Danny may interject
here ?
Lyn, I ran a 28.5 M/T bias ply tire on mine. Did the usual 2” trim on the wheel wells and rolled the upper lip some. Never had any issues. And yes, Billy is correct Philbrick runs a 30” radial on his car.

[Dwight Southerland]

'77 and later Monzas and other H-bodies have more in common with 3rd gen F-bodies than with the Vega platform. The unfortunate thing is they are not that light. Shipping weights with a V8 were all mid 2900 lbs. Several 3rd gen F bodies are that light and much easier to work on. Unfortunately, the 305 2bbl was never offered in a 3rd gen F-body.