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History and Ownership of this 1970 LS-6 Chevelle Super Sport
This car was ordered through Denooyer Brothers inc. of Kalamazoo Mi. in the fall of 1969. It was built the third week of Jan. in Atlanta Ga.
The original owner drove the car for 2 years. In 1972, it was sold to Quality Car lot in Holland, Mi. A gentleman from Holland bought the car from Quality, his name is Dennis Duffy. At that time the car had approx. 40,000 miles on it. Dennis drove the car for two years and decided he had enough fun with the LS-6 and wanted something newer. Dennis went to Denooyer Chevrolet in Holland and traded the Chevelle in for a new 1974 Corvette. At this time the car had approx. 60,000 mi. on it.A fellow by the name of Denny Koster saw the car sitting in the used car lot at Denooyer’s. When Denny first saw the car, he noticed that it had a Red interior instead black. He almost walked away, but the 454 emblems on the front fenders caught his eye. When he saw that it was an LS-6, he decided that he could live with the red interior, and bought it for $1,150 dollars.
A week before Denny had just bought a 69 SS Camaro with the 375 H.P. 396 for $800 bucks. A month later a friend of Denny’s was looking for a cool car and stopped by to look at the cars sitting in the garage. His name is Ron Green. Ron didn’t like the flimsy bumpers on the Camaro because he didn’t think they would hold the weight of the car in case he had to jack it up to change a flat tire.
Ron told Denny that he would like to buy the Chevelle, but he didn’t want that “Big” gas guzzling engine in it.
Denny happily removed the engine and trans. and installed a 6 cyl. in the car. Denny sold it for $1,000 dollars. He put the engine and trans. away for safe keeping. Ron drove the car for 6 years. Ron stored it during the winter as much as he could. One summer evening in 1980 Ron and his friend Raul Martinez were cruising around in the car and Ron mentioned that he was thinking about selling the Chevelle. A deal was made and Raul was the new owner! Raul paid $400 for the Chevelle. The front seats were a little worn, so Raul went to the local salvage yard and found some red buckets out of a Mustang. (yuck) lol. Raul had a lot of fun with the car. He also had a 1970 Chevelle Convertible at the same time. He was thinking about taking all of the SS stuff off of the LS-6 and make a clone SS out of the Convertible. Thankfully he sold the LS-6 before that happened to Randy Johnson in the fall of 1981. Randy bought it for $700. He had the Chevelle repainted and put a 350 small block in the car for a little more get up and go! Randy enjoyed the car for awhile before selling it to Robert Baile from Fennville Mi.In 1988 my friend Denny Koster called Robert and asked if he would be interested in the selling the car.
Robert knew that Denny had the original engine and said no, and asked if Denny would sell him the engine. Of course Denny said…NO. Denny gave him his phone # and told Robert if he should change his mind, to call him.In 1989 Robert’s wife called Denny and asked if he was still interested in the Chevelle. Denny went and looked at the car. He removed the driver side door panel. On the back side he found the “Buildsheet” still attached and in very good condition! This was done to confirm that it was that same car he sold back in 1974!
Denny promptly laid out the $1500 dollars Robert wanted for the car, loaded it up on a trailer, and took it home where it will be restored and reunited with its original engine and trans.
The restoration began with removing the body from the frame.
The frame was brought to a friends place to be sand blasted and restored and painted. The engine was disassembled and rebuilt to the factory specs. It was also balanced and blueprinted. The original M-40 auto trans. was also rebuilt. In 1995 the body was sent to a local restoration shop called Pro Body. The body was in good shape for its age. It still had a solid trunk, floors, and the original rear quarter panels were free of rust. The body was block sanded to perfection, primed and painted in the original Cranberry Red Lacquer. After the body was set back on the frame, the car was brought back to Denny’s home and parked in the garage in pieces, where it sat for the next six years. Fast forward to the year 2001, It was the end of September; I had just sold my 1970 Chevelle SS Convt. Numbers matching 396, 4 spd., Fathom Blue, White stripes and a bright Blue, bucket seat interior. Man... I could kick myself for selling that car.
My friend Denny called to tell me he was going to sell his Red LS-6. We worked out a deal, and walah! I was the newest owner of the King of Muscle Cars! It still had to be put together, but that’s o.k. I spent the next two years, sending parts out to be reconditioned, ordering new parts, posting a lot of questions on Chevelle tech, and doing a lot of research to make sure everything was done as close to factory specs. as possible. I started to put the car back together with the help of my friend Bob in April 2003. I wanted to get it done in time for Chevella~bration 2003, because the feature car was the LS-6. We ran into a few snags along the way and I wasn’t able to bring the car. During the course of the summer I lost 55 Ibs. working on the car. I like to think of it as my Chevelle diet, (no calories). In September of 2003 after a 27 hour marathon the car was finally finished just in time for the Frankenmuth Auto Fest here in Mi.
There were approx. 3,300 cars at the show. The LS-6 was selected for a top 25 award! In June 2004 I took it to Chevella~bration in Tenn. where it took home a Top three award in the 70 stock class. I guess all that hard work finally paid off!
Photo Backgrounds of Brian's LS6 are available here
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