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Team Member #57
I have always loved mechanical things, especially motorcycles and cars. I have continuously owned motorcycles since I was 18 and have ridden over 100,000 miles, but that is another story.
My cars have always been “old”, but definitely NOT “classics” at the time I owned them. Some were interesting (59 Plymouth Belvedere, 71 MG Midget) but none were very special at the time.With kids in the house, the family budget was always tight, but in the last few years, there have been a few extra dollars to spend. About 4 years ago my wife had a friend who called her to say she had ‘57 Chevy for sale. This was in the friends words; “a 2 door that is partially restored and has new paint” – for $3000. WOW what a deal , I left work early the same day to look. What I found was a ‘57 BelAir with 2 doors on each side (4 door model), all the chrome pulled off and stuck into the trunk, and house paint applied by a brush covering up lots of rust. Needless to say, I passed.
This got me thinking, and my wife to agree, that a car project (my “hot rod”) would be cool, and could be fit into the budget. So, I started looking.
I found a 64 Impala for $500 with a rebuilt engine, bought it on the spot and brought it home. Then I ordered catalogues and suffered severe shock. Darn, this was going to be expensive !!! I previously had no clue as to what a restoration/modification would cost!!
I started to work and realized that I had bitten off more than I could chew. At about this time I saw an ad in the paper for a 64 ElCamino , disassembled , sand blasted, no engine. The guy gave up on a restoration and was selling his project.
Ever since I was a young kid, (I’m still a kid at 51) I have thought that 64 Chevelles were really cool. I went to look at it “just for fun”. I loved it, but how many projects could I have ???
I woke up one night thinking – “my current Datsun pickup has about 170,000 miles on it so I need a new truck, but I can’t afford that AND a “hot rod””, so - -pickup truck - - -hot rod - - - pickup truck - - -hot rod - - - went around in my head. Until I had an inspiration; “Pick up truck hot rod” all in one. That, as they say, was the real beginning.
I bought the ElCamino with a better idea of how much money it was going to take to build it. I still had little idea of the time involved.
I sold the Impala for what I paid for it – but kept the rebuilt engine , hood hinges, fan motor, radiator, and lots of small stuff. It took a rollback and 3 pickup truck loads of parts to get the Elky home. It was TOTALLY disassembled.
I figured at the time that it would take a year to get it together. Ha Ha. It took 3 years. I forgot that life goes on and I could only work on it part time – like one weekend out of 3 on the average.
I went through many stages during the project.My wife has been great through the entire project – encouraging me to buy good quality parts, and to continue on when I was down. Nice to have her on my side, some guys have to fight their wife AND rebuild a car. After almost 3 years I wanted to give up, but persisted by making myself work on it. It was NOT fun anymore. Late that winter I decided that even though I wasn’t really ready, I would get it painted – damn the consequences, I needed to make progress. As I said : “I MUST do something even if it is wrong”. So, I made a date with the painter and did it. WOW – that was a good idea!!! It looked great and I began working feverishly again !!! I had to be careful of the new paint, but that is OK; Now I could see that it WILL get done !!!
- *Early on was optimism, anticipation and excitement.
- *Then it felt like a “long haul” and I kept plodding along on mechanical stuff. This felt good, but also felt slow.
- *At times it felt like it would never get done - especially when parts were the wrong ones or missing or needed to be modified etc.
- *Getting it mechanically done was a “high”. I could actually drive it and the rebuilt engine ran strong.
- *Body work was exciting till I found out how crash damaged and butchered it had been. The extent of concealed poor workmanship astounded me. I bought a welder and learned bodywork. After many months, I was at a low again. It seemed I’d never finish.
- *Then I had to “make” myself work on it. Some of the enjoyment was gone.– bodywork for over a year, and I’m not a bodywork man.
- *I learned to fabricate body parts and apply Rage Brand body filler in quantity. Then remove 90% of the filler by sanding.
Overall it has been a GREAT experience and I am glad that I have done it. This is something I always wanted to do – rebuild and modify a car from the ground up. I have personally installed almost EVERY bolt on the vehicle. Very satisfying, but I think once is enough.
This has been a father-son project and has taught my son Clayton a lot about mechanical and body work. It has also been good shared bonding time. He may have also learned a few cuss words along the way. Not to kid myself, I learned a heck of a lot about car repair and bodywork too !!!! Better than any auto repair course I could have taken.
Because it was completely disassembled, it was like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Many parts were the wrong ones and some needed modification. I got good at fabrication of brackets, body parts, and various missing pieces. There were lots of extra parts, some for other vehicles, some duplicates. Very confusing and challenging.
Would I do it again ?? Maybe, but now that I know what to look for and what it takes to get it done, I would pick a project that is less involved. Mechanical work is fun, bodywork is OK, but rebuilding every single part is too much !!!
Overall after selling about $1000 worth of extra parts that came with it, I have about $6000 and a million man hours invested – and it’s worth it.
For those who crave detail, I have kept a log of everything I have done. Long and boring, but interesting.
Previous Feature Cars
May, 2003 Steven Stull - 1969 Chevelle SSApril, 2003 Steve Howell - 1970 Chevelle Convertible
March, 2003 Gregg Haskin - 1972 Chevelle SS
February, 2003 Sean Thomas - 1970 Chevelle SS 396 (L34)
January, 2003 Bill Pritchard - 1969 Chevelle SS396 Convertible
December, 2002 Chuck Bonasera - 1967 SS 396
November, 2002 Mark Caruth - 1969 Chevelle Malibu
October, 2002 Kirk Cunningham - 1971 Chevelle SS454
September, 2002 Rich Hafer - 1970 Malibu SS 396
August, 2002 Dean Ribich - 1970 Chevelle LS6
July, 2002 Josh Gin - 1972 Chevelle Malibu
June, 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
All features copyright, Team Chevelle
