TC member #35 Gold
A bit of background:
The blue Chevelle was my aunt and uncles. I fell in love with the car the first time I saw it and I asked my aunt to not sell it without giving me a chance to buy it first.
That was in 1969-70. My thoughts then were to “soup-up” this basic model into a sleeper….ahhh youth. Years passed and in early 1990’s she decided to stop driving and sell the car. A deal was struck and I flew to California and drove the car back to Illinois. What an adventure! It is a California Car with just a few over 50,000 actual miles on it. My aunt had the car repainted at some point since it had faded from the effects of the sun. The original two-tone color scheme was arctic white over azure turquoise. Due to this color scheme it has the trim molding for a vinyl top. It is a 250 cu 6 with a TH 350 automatic transmission. I plan to restore it to the original colors and it needs some upholstery work done to bring it back to full glory.
Since I now owned a low mileage basic model Malibu, and I was older and wiser (?), I decided no to “molest” it. I had some changes in my life that led me to want to make that “car from my youth” so I started looking for a ’67 or ’69 Chevelle. As luck would have it, a 69 Malibu turned up within 60 miles. It had been repainted from green to yellow, and had been a 6 cyl car, now sporting a 350 cu. in. and TH350.
Hmmmm the foundation for a mild and wild pair of Malibu’s? Then I began (with the help from a couple of young guns, Jason and Mike who ran a body shop and were redoing my ’76 GMC pickup) to gather the parts to build a peppy 427. Yes, a COPO clone with the tag “NOT COPO.” Anyway, once the engine was completed and the mechanical/safety issues were addressed on the chassis (i.e. front disc brakes installed) etc
. off to the track to see what was what. The best we could seem to do was 13.2’s but not too bad for a street-able car with a 2.?? rear end ratio. The car met it’s end with a sudden stop into a low-boy semi-trailer, but the engine survived! Shoot, I hadn’t even gotten it painted! Sigh! But, on to the next incarnation.
Since the engine had survived and I had this ready made parts car, I once again began looking for a ’69 for the wilder part. I found an ad for a ’69 SS in southern Indiana. Went to look and ultimately bought the car. 
It was painted dark gray and had a 402 in it, M21 and a 12 bolt 4.10 rear, along with a dented right front fender. (I had one of these from the yellow car!!) The (second) owner sent along the original block etc. which I have stored currently. The 427 went to the shop to clean the bores etc. and returned a 433. The body went to Vic’s Body Shop for repairs and repaint to original cortez silver color. By the way, Vic has quite a collection of El Camino’s in various stages, and the Chevelle he had when he got married.
Hence, he is a fan of the model. Since this was a winter project, and there are successes and pitfalls (I had to redo the engine yet again due to a nasty argument between a cam lobe and lifter that I had set TOO tight) it seemed to take forever. I was down more than driving for about a year. Mike Hurta (Aug98 feature car) offered suggestions on the internals of the engine and so the third version was finished and installed about the time the body was ready to reassemble and paint. With all this “downtime” I selected the handle DT69SS for the chat (DT for downtime). The car’s interior was given new carpet and recovered seats but as many original parts (door-cards etc..) were used as possible. Also a new vinyl top was installed. The bumpers are due to go for re-chroming sometime in the future. There is always something to be done in a “resification” project. Modifications I’ve done such as different dash with cd, driveshaft loop and dual disc clutch with/scattershield (gotta have”em), Art M. hop-stop bars (what a difference), can all be undone when/if the car goes back to stock configuration. Does a project car ever really get finished??
Engine:
- 454 block bored .030
- 396 forged crank
- Stock rods
- Forged pistons
- Comp cams 306 S
- Merlin iron oval port heads
- MSD ignition
- Roller rockers with stud girdles
- Torker-2 intake
- Holley 850 carburetor
- Hooker super comp headers
- Dyno Max mufflers
Photo Backgrounds of Dan's Chevelle are available here.
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