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Team Chevelle Member # 570
My Chevelle story begins in 1968. I graduated from high school, and my dad bought a new 68 Malibu. It was a 2 door hardtop with 307 and powerglide, turquoise with white vinyl top and interior. This was a real sporty car for my dad, his last new car purchase was a 1964 Chevy Bel-Air 4 -door sedan with 230 six and three on the tree. I really liked the looks of that car, and wanted one for myself. I did get my own 68 Malibu in 1970, it was red with black vinyl top and white interior. This car had a 327 and a 4 speed, and was great to drive. I got married in May 1971 and the Malibu was our family car until a kid came along and offered me more that I thought it was worth, and we had to walk to the local Chevrolet dealership to get a new car.Next it's 1990, I'm turning 40, and my wife and I decide we'd like to get another 68 Chevelle. It had to be a convertible, and an SS car with 4-speed. We looked for a long time, found basket cases and complete restorations (which we couldn't afford), and finally found this car in Rumford, Rhode Island. We got the owner to send pictures (it was blue with a white top and white stripes then) and decided to do a road trip to check out the car. I didn't own a truck or trailer at this time, but the owner assured me that the car would make the return trip to Wisconsin if I chose to buy it. We set out over the long July 4th weekend drove straight through to get there, and checked out the car. It was a good '20 yard' car, if you know what I mean, but it was a true SS car as evidenced by the 13867 on the cowl tag, and the engine (not the original) did seem to run well. We negotiated a deal, and porceeded to drive the car, not home first, but up the coast of Maine, since we had never been in that part of the country before. We did head for home, and the only trouble we had on the trip was a faulty headlight dimmer switch which caused us to have to stay overnight to wait for the parts store to open the next day.
We got the car home and drove it for a couple years before deciding that it needed some attention. The engine was getting tired, and since it was not the original (turned out to be a 71 402), we decided to do something different. At a car show, I met a guy who was redoing a 1971 Camaro. He saw my 68 SS-396 and asked if it had the original engine. I told him it didn't, an he said "I've got one in my Camaro, but want to build something bigger." It was not the orignal engine from my car, of course, but was a 1968 396 engine with the right prefix, and was built about 3 months after my car was. I bought the engine for $600.00, and we were off to the races as far as the rebuilding of the car is concerned.
Everyone knows that the further you get into a project, the more work you find to do. This car was no exception. We ended up replacing both front fenders, all the interior floors, both rear quarter panels, and rechroming both bumpers. Suspension work consisted of replacing the drum brakes with discs, steering, and master cylinder from a 1979 Trans Am, Hotchkis springs at all corners, Hotchkis rear axle locating arms and rear sway bar, KYB gas shocks, and polygraphite bushings.
When the body was ready, we sparayed it 1990 Camaro Dark Teal Metallic basecoat/clearcoat, and put everything back together with a new black top. The interior was in excellent shape when we purchased the car, so we just cleaned everything and reassembled it. We did have to find a dash pad, since the original was missing when we purchased the car. We got it all together in October of 1994, and rolled it out on a set of Corvette 15x8 Rallys with 235-60r front and 275-60r rear tires. Last year we decided the engine needed some work, since it was using plenty of oil, so it was removed, bored .060", balanced and blueprinted, fitted with 9.5:1 forged pistons, a Comp Cams XR282 roller cam, Harland Sharp roller rockers and Edelbrock Aluminium Heads. This is topped off with a Holley 750 double pumper on an Edelbrock Torker 11 manifold, Jet Hot coated Hedman Headers, an Accel HEI distributor and MSD 6AL Borg-Warner Super T-10 4 speed with Hurst shifter to a 3.31 12 bolt rear end. While there is always a 'Wish List' of things I'd like to do to improve the car, it's still a joy to drive, and that's why it was built.
We've participated in Hot Rod Power Tour since 1997, and any other driving events we can find, but the best part of this car is Driving!! See ya on the Road. Gregg Miller
Photo background of Gregg's 1968 is available here.
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
