How to get the Training Day car?

April 22, 2007 11:15 AM

How to get the 1979 Monte Carlo that Denzel drives in Training Day?

I just saw Training Day and want that car. I found some trivia with information about the car but am not sure where to start. I did a bit of research on Dayton Wire Wheels and Flowmaster. Is the best way to buy a 1979 Monte Carlo and then find a knowledgeable garage nearby my place (I live in LA) that can paint it and fix up the inside?

How much can I expect to spend on this? Is a car novice going to get taken advantage of by mechanics?

posted by charlesv to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Resto-mods are a can of worms like no other. Most any car from 1979 will require significant, expensive work. I highly reccomend finding someone who has already had all this work done and is trying to cash out of the money pit he's gotten himself into. :)
posted by milinar at 1:06 PM on April 22, 2007

I bought a nice one-owner 1978 Monte Carlo a few years ago for $1500. Of course, my teenage son promptly totalled it (sniffle), but they're not hard to find, and not horribly expensive. Hydraulics, wheels, etc. may set you back $5K or so. Montes are very popular in the lowrider scene, so you may be able to find one already customized like you want in places like this.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:44 PM on April 22, 2007

You can get restored Montes at Chevy Trader, but they won't be cheap. Or you can get a really used one and spend several grand fixing it up... it'll be a wash, financially, but at least you'll know what's been done to it.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:15 PM on April 22, 2007

I'd get a car and then fix to spec. Much of the stuff your need to do (bushings, brakes, shocks, fluids, wheels) is stuff that even a meager $400 tool investment at Sears will let you do. Driving a car of this age, especially a significantly customized unit, is a constant battle of niggling things that you'll get hosed on if you don't do them yourselves. It's as bad as a boat at 1/4 the cost.

Besides, fixing a clean car, even if you get someone else to do the work, allows you to specify good/better/best along the way depending on your budget and needs.

And for stuff like body work you can get a much better result then you can afford to pay for if you do it yourself. The difference between a $500 paint job and a $5000 paint job is $500 in paint and $4000 dollars in labour. Labour most of which anyone can do. Stuff like removing/installing trim, block sanding, treating surface rust and pinholes is all doable by the novice. Best if you can find a shop that'll let you do all but the final sanding.

For example it took me an entire day to remove the trim on my '66 in prep for painting. Not only did I save $300 in labour I also saved many of the body clips that a professional would have destroyed and then charged me for replacing with repos.

PS: If you are just after the vague look rather than the specific implementation the Buick Grand National is a similar looking car equipped with a turbo charged V6 with _lots_ of potential. The same basic engine was available in 80 Monte Carlos which had head and marker light differences compared to the 79. I don't know enough about these cars to speculate on the possibility of swapping grills/bumpers but I do love the sound of a turbo spooling.
posted by Mitheral at 5:12 PM on April 22, 2007