The Monza get's the evening blues.

Wheel's wheel's wheel's.

Over the the years of owning my little red Monza Spyder,  I've run an assortment of the 13" wheel's available from the factory.  

If your familiar with these cars, you may know of the unique bolt 4" bolt circle this car uses, which limit's this cars wheel choices to basically what came from the factory.  There have been some bolt on aftermarket rim's, in "14. But I've only run these 4 different set's of stock wheel's below.

This was the first set:  These are the Factory 

"round hole" Aluminum rim's, AKA the "mirage" rim. 

These rims are made of aluminum. They are lighter than the any other factory rim and they mount the are offset about a 1/4 outboard on each side from the factory steel rim's..

Adding to the appearance in this picture, the car is equipped with 1 inch lowering spring's. 

Here' one of the few other pictures I have of these wheels on the car.  I did like them a lot, but for some reason they didn't complete the look of the car to me.  I think it's the spyder package there's just to many unusual thing's to look at.  These rim's do better to dazzle up a more plain jane model.

 In this picture I made a visit to see another

Spyder. An orange '77.  

Here in the picture I ran the factory original "Rally II" Rim's.  These rims are a 4 spoked stamped steel rim  with a Chrome Trim ring.  a little bit Porsche like, and quite a common look in the 70's.

I liked the look of these rim's. The large chrome trim ring ties in with the car's other chrome trim, but they have a little to much visual pull... the black center's match the trim, and stay subdued in the over all look of the car which is nice but this also leaves the contrasting tan interior as the odd-man-out.

During the 5 or so years (on and off) that I ran these rim's, (and still have them),  I liked that the car was in 100% factory appearance ( also back to original height springs again).  But on the down side, these rims are a bit heavier that the aluminum rim's. And being original, they've seen a lot of miles and potholes, these did't balance out as smoothly as I would like.  My final take is that these rim's are what you want to give a run of the mill Vega that sportier GT look.  They work well for that. But this car isn't the 'GT' it's the fancy-pant's 'spyder' model and the rim's could do more to cater to that theme...so on to some other rim's..  

Next: Chrome Rally II's

After wearing the last set of tires down, I had these rare Chrome Rally II's from an Oldsmobile Starfire GT.  (Chrome version not offered on monza).  So they weren't stock appearing, but they looked really good and the car got a lot of new compliment's.  On quick glance they looked like mini 5 spoke Craggar's.   I liked them, but the tires wore down and they also didn't balance that well...

The chrome look was back. And of course chrome does look good against red.

And Finally we get to what the car currently run's.  My favorite wheel of all time. What's most commonly known as a Cosworth Vega wheel.  And while these wheels were specific to the Cosworth, they were also offered as a special option in 1978 as the "styled gold" wheel.   So while not factory to my car, they at least could have been.

These wheels "Complete' the look of this car to me. They add that peculiar 70's touch I couldn't get with the other wheel's. 

I believe they compliment the car in 2 important way's...   1st. Is the spokes. They fan out like 'spider' leg's and there's 8. Perfect.  2nd. The gold color, contrasts the red in that 70's kind of way yet, ties in visually with the gold Spyder script on the door and of course the unusual-against-red tan interior.

Those effects get the rim to tie in with the rest of the vehicle.

To make the deal even sweeter, there from a low milage car, and came with an excellent like new set of expensive and impossible to find Dunlop 205 /60 13's.   I'll be sad when these are worn away!

These rim's taught me how crude my steel rims were, these ride as smooth as glass!!

I've never been happier with a set of rim's.  I can't see the car running anything else for the time being.  When the time eventually comes to replace the 13's I might then upgrade to a similar looking rim only in 14 or 15.

78 monza bails out 06 Aveo

Just had to share. Not my junk or mess on the side of the pic.  I brought my Aveo Wheels over to a shop to get new tires. I always bring my wheels in off the car for faster service and since last time I ended up with cross threaded lug nuts. Monza handled the errand fine and was treated to an oil change.

Monza returns to Lordstown for 50th anniversary bash!!

 It's here! tomorrow morning I head out into the Sunrise, to get to Lordstown Ohio bright and early for a Friday Plant tour, and Saturday Car show!  

This is the mecca event for the spyder....a chance to be seen and appreciated by people who know and remember the car, but also people who actually assembled the things way back when.

It's going to be a potential feast of information. a 4 hr drive will get me there.

Sunday AM includes a sight seeing trip to Mt Jewett, PA to see the remains of the Kinzua railroad bridge.  It collapsed in a Tornado, and is now a senic overlook.

Help my Monza gift items store grow...

 See it for yourself here.     T shirt's, ect....and more products to come...

http://www.cafepress.com/HBODYGIFTS

My Monza's first winter was a doozie...

Yep..

  Here's one with what I believe to be a monza right there in front...








As you may have read in other blog posts, I don't know the original owner of my car, so it's a mystery as to what my Spyder had to endure through this week, and the rest of that winter.  Could it have been garaged?  Perhaps.  As it was a customer ordered car, with some pretty specific options, it seems as if the purchaser knew what they had, (they paid a small fortune for the car and resisted getting a Camaro for less)...  and it was only 6 and a half months old. So maybe, MAYBE it was in a Garage all week.   One can only hope. If it was outside, or worse yet stuck in traffic as many cars were... it might have suffered it's first cosmetic mishaps.  

 The big heavy V8 up front in a light body,  The small first generation Radial tires that had a big recall...  a recipe for disaster in this kind of weather.

At least the Posi traction would have helped,   but by the same token, that option and the rare delay wipers suggest that this car was destined to be an all weather driver.   And possibly this could have been the cause of the mysterious detectable, rear quarter panel repair?  Major damage would most definitely have been repaired on a car that young, with so many top dollar option's. vs. being declared totalled.

In any event, it made here to the present day, so it couldn't have been all that bad.  

Monza Navigates Lake Ontario..

Well....

Here we are back home after a successful and quite enjoyable drive,

Completely circling Lake Ontario.

Half of the drive in Canada, and the other half in NY state. The monza handled high rpm cruising for hours on end... and a hour+ long border wait heading back into the US, with stride. Ran excellent, never got too hot, and seems to be running even better than when I left. 

Video:

About 40 GB of Video was taken during the trip. 

As you may know from the other blogs, I have a GoPro Hero 3 action camera that I can mount on/in the 

car. 

As usual.... 'Hindsight is 20/20'.  Now that I know where the picturesque parts of the journey are I could have had the camera set-up and aimed properly. 

This would have created a concise and entertaining video.. + one that didn't need so much editing, with software and PC power I don't currently have. 

The video I have consists mostly of following slow moving large vehicles that I would eventually catch up with...  and all of them are tainted by a pointless and rambling commentary and my moments of  "saltyness" towards another vehicle or driver. 

I could add music but thats mostly copyrighted material.

So thats where the video content stands to date.

I might get around to editing it someday!

So until then, here's this somewhat less entertaining blog entry about the trip.

The Trip: 

Here's is the Starting Point.  A Sunoco Station in Hamlin NY.

 After a morning fill-up of 93 ultra, and some iced tea and snacks for the ride... We set off.

1st. Destination: 

A cozy diner for brunch, and a stop for gas, in Oswego, NY. About a 2+ hour drive.

For the last year or two, the Monza hasn't driven over 20 to 30 miles on any trip.

I tried find a diner on Google the night before the trip, but I couldn't..

There were some potential candidates so I left it up to chance.

The first leg went without a hitch.  I recorded it from inside. The same angle as the picture above.

But without the ability to edit it, it's really pretty boring.

Aside from one quick bathroom break / snack stop.. It was non-stop thru Oswego.

Just before Oswego, off to the side of the road was a tiny little diner, right in the middle of nowhere.. 

I jumped on the brakes and pulled on in.  I walked inside and was looking forward to ordering, but I knew to ask first..."do you take credit?"   

Should have known...nope. 

Kicked myself for not getting cash before I left town!

An ATM was back toward town a mile or 2. 

I said the heck with it and drove on. 

Once the highway turned into city limit's of Oswego... I tried to look for a convenient atm and  late breakfast stop, but it was no use..

Then I remembered..   Oswego has a Walmart..! 

Parking the Monza in a walmart parking lot !?!?!? 

The saving grace here is that Oswego is a smaller city, and the walmart would have plenty of 'safe' parking away from the store. And it wasn't a busy time either.

Another blessing was there was an Autozone nearby.  Good for a needed quart of oil, with a helpful plastic funnel loaned out.

The stop at the 'mart.. worked well on quite a few levels.   No it wasn't the delicious diner breakfast I had been dreaming about.  But I did manage to find some healthy light snacks in the grocery dept.

I also scored the chips and dip I wanted to bring to the party.

Then at check-out I realized I could even get some cash back , eliminating the need for a pricey ATM fee and another stop.

So I was surprisingly happy for a change with one of these big box places.

I left there, and set the GoPro up to grab vid for the next leg of the journey, Oswego to Watertown, NY.

For a last fuel stop in the US. 

Luckily, nothing eventful happened, since I didn't realize I'd left the lens cap on!!!!

So no vid was captured through my Crossing into Canada.

And that's a shame because there's this Huge bridge to cross at Alexandria Bay.

And it's very senic at the thousand islands.

More to come!!!!!...