#opgicustomer Car Feature: Roger Acquistapace’s ’71 Monte Carlo

By jbennett April 17, 2022 0 comments

It was love at first sight for OPGI Customer Roger Acquistapace when he first laid eyes on his ’71 Monte Carlo. After seeing a 1970 model for the first time, Roger knew the Monte Carlo was the vehicle for him. When the 1971 model was released, Roger made his way over to Pellini Chevrolet located in beautiful wine country in Sebastopol California, and purchased one brand new. Like many of our Monte Carlo customers, Roger is a proud member of the First Generation Monte Carlo Club and has been for over 15 years. His Monte Carlo has won several well-deserved trophies.

The Project Begins

Roger drove his Monte Carlo until it was put into storage with 123,000 miles on the odometer in 1990. A decade later he brought it out and began on a complete restoration, that evolved into a resto-mod. Roger took his Monte to Blake’s Auto Body Repair Shop, where the paint was stripped off and all imperfections were smoothed out. After going through many sample variations of the original Classic Copper color, they landed on a custom color called Root Beer.

Exterior Changes

The trim on Roger’s Monte is all New old stock (NOS), except for the hood ornament, which he decided to leave original. Roger completed the trim with new front and rear bumpers from OPGI.

Roger chose LED options for all of the exterior lighting. He kept the stock tail light lenses and added brightness and reliability with LED tail light kits from OPGI. These assemblies include L.E.D. arrays, electrical harnesses, connectors, brackets, and all of the necessary hardware. Thes kits make for an easy installation with instructions included.

For the wheels, he went with a complete set from American Racing (15″x6″ and 15″x8″) and Cobra Radial G/T: Classic Muscle Car Tires.

Under the Hood

Roger ended up giving the original engine to a friend and sourced a 1994 Chevy 350 Small Block from a truck (5.7 liter) with a 4-bolt main. The goal of the rebuild was to have a comfortable ride for cruising that he could put his foot into at times! The block was boiled out and the bore was moved to 355 cubic inches (5.82 liters). Roger made sure to magnaflux the engine and have it torque-plated.

Other engine parts include flat top Pistons, Grant Piston Rings, Federal Mogul bearings, Comp Cams hydraulic roller lifters, 1.7 aluminum roller rockers, Edelbrock water pump and Vortec heads. This was all topped with the Performer RPM Small Block Chevy Intake Manifold and Holley 650 fuel pump pulled together with ARP Bolts.

For starting this muscular beauty an AMS-oiler pre-charger was installed along with a MSD Chevy V8 Pro-Billet Distributor, MSD 34033 Black 8.5mm 6′ roll spark plug wires and E3 Diamond Point spark plugs.

Suspension & Brakes

Roger’s friend Gary, at Rincon Alignment & Brakes, installed an Ididit power rack-pinion steering, CPP 1 ½” front and 1″ rear sway bar, tubular a-arms with QA1 coil-over shocks. For the braking system they went with Wilwood 11″ slotted rotors, chrome GM brake booster, SSBC billet master cylinder, all stainless steel brake lines, braided steel lines to front calipers, Cadillac rear 10” disk brakes with drilled and slotted rotors.

Transmission, Rear End & Exhaust

When it came to working on the transmission, Roger started the project by removing the TH350, as he desperately needed a fourth gear. A 4L60-EA was the transmission of choice with a B&M shift improver kit and a 2500 RPM converter. They used an aluminum pan and ribbed aluminum flywheel dust cover and Lokar dipstick.

A new driveshaft was built with a larger yoke and joints from Moser, and a driveshaft loop. Roger kept the 10-bolt rear end but installed an Eaton Posi limited-slip differential unit with 3.73 gears ratio and Moser 31 spline axles, with an aluminum girdle on the rear end.

The exhaust system is a Flowmaster 2 ½” diameter kit with an H-pipe and Super 40 mufflers. For the wiring Roger went with the American Autowire 22 Kit. He started at the front and worked his way to the back, replacing all the old wire.

Interior

For the interior, Roger worked with his friend Randy who at the time had a body shop called Randy’s Recovery Shop. To start they covered the floor, doors, and roof panels with Dynamat sound deadener to reduce unwanted noise and vibration. The ’71 is finished with an interior kit from OPGI. The kit included everything Roger needed; padded dash cover, headliner, door panels, and package tray, to name a few items. For the carpet, Roger went with Essex due to the fact that it’s a great material that doesn’t snag easily.

They installed a new dash with Dakota Digital Gauges. He chose new seat belts with custom buckles, he eliminated the shoulder belts and decided to only install 4 instead of 6. Roger decided to go with power windows for ease of use. For the steering column, he chose one made by Flaming River. He went with a Billet Specialties steering wheel with a burl inlay to match the burl dash face. He chose Eddie Motorsports billet aluminum door jamb louvers for the door.