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Oct 29, 2014 15:59:09 GMT
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Oct 29, 2014 17:06:54 GMT
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Lovely, wafty old barges with a reasonable performance kick too.... I'm sure the resident Monza expert, MonzaPhil, will be along shortly with his exceptionally broad knowledge of all things Monza/Senator shaped.....
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'96 Volvo 850T5 x2, '97 Alfa 145 Cloverleaf '96 Alfa 155, '91 XR2i 2.0 Zetec (sold), '88 BMW 520i slug (sold), '81 Escort Mk3 Project, '68 Mk1 Escort Estate, Berlingo Parts Chaser.
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EmDee
Club Retro Rides Member
Committer of Autrocities.
Posts: 5,922
Club RR Member Number: 108
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Senator/Monza... Talk to me!EmDee
@emdee
Club Retro Rides Member 108
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Oct 29, 2014 17:29:10 GMT
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Can any of you people tell me what I should do to mine (he says pre-emptively) when I finally nab it...?! Welding.
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Oct 29, 2014 17:31:06 GMT
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^^^ I thought that'd come into the equation at some point...!
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Oct 29, 2014 17:46:21 GMT
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MonzaPhil is the man on this, but seeing as he is a mate of mine ( not to mention i bought a Carlton GSi off of him) he can run through the worst bits. Sure, it will more than likely need welding, the engines are robust and they also come with all sorts of lovely luxuries. I will let him know that his expertise is required here
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'88 Cadillac Brougham hearse (white) '91 Carlton GSi 24v '72 Dodge dual cab pick up '99 Mercedes S55 AMG
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 18:00:43 GMT
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I'm here, what did I miss?.....
I'm sure you know the rot spots, front turrets, tail end of sills and rear valance. Buy it.
Mechanically bulletproof, CD should have LSD and digi dash, A/C and ABS are nice but rare. Buy it.
I'd go for uprated suspension (PMC or similar) and probably wheels. Buy it.
4 speed auto is very nice and not bad on fuel really, somewhere between 8 and 28 mpg realistically. The Senator handles and goes sufficiently well to make an excellent policecops motorway car. Buy it.
If you don't buy it, I will when it gets cheap enough to be in my get a cheap car budget although I want a white one.
Sent from my stores of GM tat using proboards
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Oct 29, 2014 18:02:36 GMT
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Welding. As far as welding is concerned they are no worse than any other car of that era! but do check around the front suspension turrets and rear trailing arms where the spring seats as these are 2 areas that do rot, engines and gear boxes are pretty bomb proof! Engines are well known for reaching galactic miles with no problems! other than that they are great cars that have good performance but not blistering and sensible running costs.
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Last Edit: Oct 29, 2014 18:09:46 GMT by Vintage75
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 18:02:39 GMT
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Oh, it's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
Hope this helps.
Sent from I'm not in trouble using proboards
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Oct 29, 2014 18:07:25 GMT
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I'm here, what did I miss?..... I'm sure you know the rot spots, front turrets, tail end of sills and rear valance. Buy it. Mechanically bulletproof, CD should have LSD and digi dash, A/C and ABS are nice but rare. Buy it. I'd go for uprated suspension (PMC or similar) and probably wheels. Buy it. 4 speed auto is very nice and not bad on fuel really, somewhere between 8 and 28 mpg realistically. The Senator handles and goes sufficiently well to make an excellent policecops motorway car. Buy it. If you don't buy it, I will when it gets cheap enough to be in my get a cheap car budget although I want a white one. Sent from my stores of GM tat using proboards you cant drive them all at the same time!
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'88 Cadillac Brougham hearse (white) '91 Carlton GSi 24v '72 Dodge dual cab pick up '99 Mercedes S55 AMG
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 18:09:17 GMT
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Can too
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Oct 29, 2014 18:37:20 GMT
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Oh, it's easier to get forgiveness than permission... Pure and utter genius...!!! Sent with my fingers crossed from my wishful thinking computeration device
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 20:17:50 GMT
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This is my old one, Monza 2. Sent from I'm not influencing your decision using proboards
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EmDee
Club Retro Rides Member
Committer of Autrocities.
Posts: 5,922
Club RR Member Number: 108
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Senator/Monza... Talk to me!EmDee
@emdee
Club Retro Rides Member 108
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Oct 29, 2014 20:35:45 GMT
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Oct 29, 2014 21:12:32 GMT
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As Opelnut has said, the Senator/Monza doesn't rust anymore than other cars of the 80's however the inner wings/turrets are the most important part to check.
My first Monza was 6 years old that had serious rot in this area. I can't imagine buying the equivalent Monaro now with rust let alone rot!
The engines are good but check fuel injector pipes, then check again. They weep like a fat woman sat down on a full bus.
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 21:27:43 GMT
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Yup, rear suspension arms and their spring mounts need a look at, rear wheel bearings need a 20 gigaton press iirc.
They are good, solid (hopefully) reliable machines. Really well put together, utterly overlooked. I wouldn't be scared of any mileage unless it's making upset noises.
Trim, inside and out, needs to be tip top but I'd expect a knackered dash top, apparently there's a good repair shop in California...
Electrically, the fuse box is rubbish but responds to hitting, the efi is basic and effectively a stand alone system, the digi dash might need bulbs but is pretty good and easy to strip and inspect or repair, bad earths in tail lights are normally down to cruddy bulb holder to printed circuit interface situations, all front end lamps are dismantleableableable, heater fan can give trouble, resistor pack or switch (rotary on normal cars, sliding control on A/C cars) and the heater controls are vacuum controlled on A/C cars.
It's fairly common to have water ingress from under the windscreen into the footwells, right hand side houses engine ecu but easy to strip out and fix, idle ecu above is less accessible but more waterproof.
Electric windows are generally slow, central locking doesn't like to sit around but is really basic. Door handles can stick from lack of use. Senator and Monza could be bought with rear air shocks and either a valve or an electric pump. Senator has electric boot release and this can be retrofitted to Monza.
Ummm.
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 21:37:11 GMT
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You can never have too much GM tat. Sent from my GM tat emporium using proboards
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Oct 29, 2014 22:04:49 GMT
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and thats not all of them is it sir !!
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'88 Cadillac Brougham hearse (white) '91 Carlton GSi 24v '72 Dodge dual cab pick up '99 Mercedes S55 AMG
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 22:42:51 GMT
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About half sir.
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Oct 29, 2014 23:02:00 GMT
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Speaking as a man with four Senators on my drive (it was five, but one went to a new home last weekend) I say buy it. I may be biased as my dad owned literally dozens of Senators, Monzas and Royales when I was a kid but they're great cars. Mechanically bombproof, no worse for rust than anything else of the same era, insanely comfortable and superb cruisers.
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'77 Vauxhall Cavalier coupe 1.9 GLS - the long term project '81 Opel Senator 3.0S '81 Opel Senator 3.0CD '82 Opel Manta SRB coupe '90 Vauxhall Cavalier SRi '93 Vauxhall Senator 24V '93 Lancia Thema 16V Turbo '94 Vauxhall Carlton Diamond
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MonzaPhil
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Oct 29, 2014 23:09:56 GMT
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And you can get the speedo to 150 apparently (with a long run up and where permitted, obviously) . Be interesting to GPS it.... allegedly.
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