['97ventureowner]

Welcome to AF !!
That was my favorite generation of Montes, the '73 to'77s. I owned a 1976 back in the mid '80s, picked it up for $150 back then. ( I actually bought it from a repair shop who was selling the car to pay the former owner's bill.)Of course the engine blew in it a couple of months later, but that didn't matter because I had an engine all ready to go. I took a Chevy SB400 and bored it out to a 406 and did some other high performance mods to the engine.I always wanted a 1973 model because I thought they were one of the coolest cars of that era. Unfortunately, living in the Rust Belt, there weren't any available in good condition, so I found a front header panel from a '73 and mounted it on my '76. It took a little modification ( mainly going from a 4 rectangle headlight to a 2 round style,) but in the end it came out great. I really wanted to screw with people's minds and was planning to put a set of '75 taillights on the back that I had, but never got around to it. The car ended up rusting out to the point where it wasn't worth saving, so I pulled the engine and put it into my next Monte, a 1978 I discovered a couple miles from me for $100 (seized engine.)
A good set of rims and perhaps a custom paint job would be a good first start if you want to customize your car. I don't know if you are aware of the National Monte Carlo club but you could check that out and see what other owners have done to their cars:http://www.montecarloclub.com/