Hi,
I have one. They are addictive. I bought mine after I got a 70 monte 350 in trade and drove it a while before selling it. They drive GREAT. There are still some great deals out there on the Monte SS and the 402's are even better. Be careful, many of the 402's are faked into SS's pretty regularly.
Some Hints:
SS 454's
No 4 speed's made
No LS6's known
Not all SS454's had bucket seats, some were even bucket colum shift, bench colum shift.
Not all SS454's had Tach's
ALL and ONLY SS454's had the "boxed" rear control arms
ALL SS454's had the Load Leveler system. HOWEVER, some 402 Monte's and 350's ordered this system as a RPO, so there are some BB monte's that have the LL system and ARE NOT SS's (the 402's).
The SS's had special interior knobs in 71 (not sure about 70?)
There may be more, there is a great site
www.firstgenerationmontecarlo.com that has bunches if info.
Hope this helps, and be careful, they are now faking the SS454's pretty regularly.
Rich