[Mark42]

I had a 78 Chevy Monza coupe (not hatch back). It was cool because it had the spider nose and hood, but was a coupe. I replaced the iron duke 4 banger with a Buick 3.8 and 5 speed. Edelbrock high rise intake, Holly 4 bbl carb, heavy duty clutch, Monza long tube headers, no power steering, a/c etc. It was fast, handled really great, better than the Vegas it was based on. But it did have that crappy 7.5" rear. When I finally took the rear apart, it was a mess, everything was just worn to the point of breaking.

I ran 195 70 13 front and 235 60 14 in the back. Back then I was pretty poor, but it was one of my favorite hot rods. Other than the wheels and exhaust, it looked stock and ran like a scalded cat.

BTW, the price of fuel was on the rise back then, otherwise I would have put in a 305 or 327 and automatic.

Amazingly, it never rusted.