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Team Chevelle Member #721
Intro:
Our hobby needs "Original Benchmark" cars. If these types of cars did not exist, then who would set the standard for what a restored car should look like? Is it fair to the owner of an original car to tell him because he painted his wheels, his car is not original? I think we all know what that answer should be. By suggesting to the owner of an original car that he must do a full restoration because his wheels are painted, is ludicrous for our hobby. The intent here is to preserve an original car, with as little restoration as possible, without letting the car deteriorate.
According to the build sheet, the build date of this car was April 9, 1970 from the Kansas City Leeds Plant. The car was customer ordered through the Roger Dean, Inc. dealership in Charleston, West Virginia. The first owner, as listed on the Warranty Protecto-Plate, purchased the car on June 6, 1970. The cost of the car was $4,173.80.
After owning the car for less than a year, the second owner bought the car. Back then, the streets and foothills of Charleston, West Virginia were drag strips. This owner wanted to be "King of the Streets", and was, with the 4 speed M22 Rock Crusher, 410 gears, and the mighty 454 450 h.p. LS-6 motor. The previous owner, Dave Basham said "This car still has a reputation in Charleston among my age bracket, I had to uncover it at least once a week in it's 28 years in storage to let people see why at 3400 lbs. with slicks and 525 hp I NEVER lost a race".
After having his fun and keeping his challengers quiet, the owner decided to park this beauty in a barn with just 18,603 miles. He claims he parked this car for 25 years, starting it regularly and making sure all was well.
I purchased the car on August 6, 1999. I heard about the car from a friend who said this car was the Real Deal. I flew into Charleston, and drove 20 miles to Dry Branch, a small town just in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The car was in an old barn, covered. When I removed the cover, I knew I had to have this black beauty. This 100% numbers matching car was exactly what I had been looking for, for over 5 years. I guess I am one of the lucky guys who found the "Barn Car of a Lifetime". We agreed on a price, and a week later I was hauling my first fully documented, low mileage, unrestored classic muscle car home in a box. What a way to start in this hobby!
Unlike today with this type of car, back then the faster the car the better. When I got the car, it had headers and no smog system. Also installed were spring spacers. Fortunately for me, the previous owner saved the complete original smog system and original exhaust manifolds. The finish looked good, but needed a lot of elbow grease and TLC. Then my research began to find out more about this car and the history behind it. My goal was to have this car be the first unrestored original Chevelle to earn its certification.
I knew I had a great car to start with. After researching this car, there was not a lot I had to find for it. The biggest part I needed to locate was a complete, original, 30 year old exhaust system. Through the help of Chris White, and miscellaneous acquaintances and contacts, I was able to locate the entire exhaust system. The mufflers, hangers, tailpipes, resonators and tips are all original. You can see photos of the complete exhaust system in the undercarriage section.
Then the work began. I asked a very good friend of mine Rick Rozell, to come see the car and give me some advice as to where to start. Rick volunteered to help and we began to go through the whole car. After being parked for 25 years, I did not want to assume all was well with the motor, transmission, rear end, and undercarriage. We removed everything. When we opened up the motor, we noticed there was very little wear, as to be expected of an 18,000-mile car. Everything was solid. Other than major cleaning we found nothing wrong with the motor, transmission, and rear end. We took a section of the car at a time and did the same process throughout the entire car. This process required many tiresome hours, not to mention sore muscles from all the elbow grease applied.
All the hard work paid off in July 2001. Jeff Dotterer, the only individual who can certify Chevelle's, spent approximately 8 hours inspecting the car. He determined, during the certification process, this car met all the criteria required for certification. The car scored 5,180 points of a possible 5,500 to earn the title of the "First Diamond Benchmark Certified Unrestored Chevelle", and thus the donning of:
Thanks to Dean for sharing his Chevelle with us. More information can be found on his website at: http://www.ls6benchmark.com/ from which this information was provided to Team Chevelle.
Previous Feature Cars
July, 2002 Josh Gin - 1972 Chevelle MalibuJune, 2002 John Wolak - 1970 Chevelle
May, 2002 Dave Palmer - 1968 Chevelle SS
April, 2002 Jim Hudgins - 1969 Chevelle SS L-34
March, 2002 Dave Hidden - 1967 El Camino
February, 2002 Lenny Bryson - 1966 Malibu
January, 2002 Brian Widgren - 1965 El Camino
December, 2001 David Beaudoin - 1967 Chevelle SS 396
November, 2001 Brian Allen - 1970 Chevelle
October, 2001 Gregg Miller - 1970 SS 454
September, 2001 Wayne Matthews - 1970 SS 454
August, 2001 Rich Recupero - 1970 SS 396
July, 2001 Ben Rambow - 1969 El Camino Custom
June, 2001 Dean Ciampi - 1970 LS6
May, 2001 Rich Baratta - 1970 SS 454
April, 2001 Steven Soltez / Phil Valentine - 1964 Chevelle
March, 2001 Don Pell - 1966 Beaumont
February, 2001 George Mitchell - 1969 SS
January, 2001 Rich Cummings - 1965 SS
December, 2000 Bill Gillogly - 1968 Nomad
November, 2000 Michael Vogt - 1966 SS
October, 2000 Gene Chaas - 1967 SS
September, 2000 T.L. Wright's "70 Pro Street"
August, 2000 Ron Mathieu - '65 Chevelle
July, 2000 - Danny Fletcher, 1970 SS 454
June, 2000 - Billy Neal, 1967 Chevelle
May, 2000 - Jesse Robertson, 1966 Malibu
April, 2000 - Steve Wininger, 1970 SS
March, 2000 - Von Cassidy, 1969 SS 396
February, 2000 - Jerry Bethke, 1968 SS 396
January, 2000 - Steve Courter, 1970 El Camino
December '99 - Bill Taylor, 1970 SS
November '99 - Jeff Dover, 1969 SS
October '99 - Jack Hengehold, 1967 Chevelle
September '99 - Jake Bauer, 1966 Chevelle
August '99 - Jeff Glover, 1972 Chevelle
July '99 - Frank Clark, 1972 Sprint
June '99 - Al McKenzie, 1967 SS396 Convertible
May '99 - Mike Crown, 1966 SS396
April '99 - Wes and Linda Colby, 1970 Chevelle
March '99 - Matthew Silicki, 1969 Chevelle Malibu
February '99 - Kevin McBride, 1971 Chevelle
January '99 - Jim Campbell, 1964 Chevelle
December '98 - Doug Hinton, 1969 El Camino
November '98 - Chris Forno, 1967 Chevelle
October '98 - Steve Goldberg, 1969 Chevelle SS 396
September '98 - Devin Raynal, 1970 Chevelle
August '98 - Mike Hurta, 1970 Chevelle SS
July '98 - Tim Hornbeck, 1968 Chevelle Concours Sport Coupe
June '98 - John McCreavy, 1970 Chevelle SS
May '98 -Craig Bricco "Home Blown"
April '98 -Pop's 69 300 Deluxe
March '98 -Jason Renschler 72 SS
February '98 -Greg Thompson - 69 SS 396
January '98 - Dan Carr - 1968 El Camino
December '97 - Chris Martin - 1966 Chevelle Convertible
November '97 - Linda and Alex Alexander - 1964 Chevelle Convertible
October '97 - Michael Minery - 68 El Camino
September '97 - Dan Carr - 72 El Camino
August '97 - Mike Smith - 68 Chevelle
July '97 - Dale McIntosh - 67 Chevelle
June '97 - Dave Kaveshan - 65 El Camino
April '97 - Michael Pettyjohn - 69 Chevelle
May '97 - Steve Hagensicker - 67 Chevelle
Lou & Diann Ebare '67 Chevelle
Mac Logan '67 Beaumont
Skip Cain '67 Chevelle
Tom Horton '68 Convertible
Dave & Karen Stuessi '67 Convertible
Rick Bucci '71
Dave Bosell '65
Luiz Tinoco '67
Tom Turner's '72
David Mullin's '68
Jerry and Sheri Rutherford's '72 Chevelle
Bill Smith's '66 396-375hp
Brian Benthin's '69 Malibu
Rich Gribi, '69 SS - ( December '95, Thank's for starting it off Rich!)
Team Chevelle would love to feature your Car on one of our future monthly articles.
If selected as a feature, we will send you a high quality Team Chevelle license plate!To take part, send a few quality pictures to us and as much information as you can (we LOVE reading about Chevelles!)
Al McKenzie, Box 68, Porthill Idaho, 83853
Note: preference is given to submitted photos, unless you have access to high quality scanning equipment, we would prefer to do the image work and touch-ups.
or: Al McKenzie, Box 231, Creston, B.C. Canada, V0B-1G0
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