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1967 Chevelle

Jack Hengehold

Cincinnati, Ohio

Team Chevelle Gold Member #270

If cars have always been my major weakness, then this particular car is my achilles heal. Talk about your basic money sinks. I bought the car locally for next to nothing ($250) in 1988 in a non-running condition. My original intention was to build the car into an all-out, trailered, drag race car. Just for the heck of it, I got it running, basically as I bought it, with the original oil burning 6 cylinder, leaking powerglide, wrecked, stuff failing out of the car thru the holes in the floorboards and trunk (has anyone seen my bumper jack and tire iron?), etc. I was racing my '66 Chevelle Convertible at the time (another story, another page in the future), so I was not in a hurry to do the race car build up on the '67 Hardtop. I actually drove it like that back and forth to work just so I would not have to drive when we went out for lunch. Actually that plan backfired when my co-workers called my bluff and claimed they did not mind being seen in the car and insisted that I drive. I lostseveral good trim pieces off the car during this period as I think people thought that this car was an donor car for theirs. Unfortunately, I waited too long to retire the convertible from racing, as I blew up the 327 at the track (threw a piston rod through the oil pan before I even got around to putting all the chrome back on the car). I stored the convertible and started to work on the '67 Chevelle Hardtop race car buildup.

I gutted the trunk, the floorboards, the front fenders, doors, interior, etc. I also removed and sold the original engine, transmission, differential, gas tank, radiator, etc. The car was at my parents' house at the time and thankfully they never called the junk man to take the car, although Dad claims that at least one scavenger did inquire about towing it away. I would not have wanted the car in my backyard and wonder how Mom and Dad put up with it---thanks M&D. Anyway, at one point, with the car in a pitifully stripped state, and sales of several unwanted car parts, I actually had a positive cash flow from the car of several hundred dollars. This, in hind sight, is similar to the roller coaster just clicking to the top of the huge hill, just before the real ride begins. I made progress for several months with fabricating sheet metal flooring, trunk, installing parts of the roll bar. I also located some major engine components, a 4-speed transmission, 12 bolt posi differential from a later model, etc. But then, other things (apartments/condo distant from the car, motorcycle, boat, social stuff, wife, house, first child, etc) sidelined my interest and ability to make notable progress. Several years later, after my wife Kathy and I had settled into our house, I got around to setting up the garage shop, and finally brought the car home.

With the car in the garage, a minimal shop setup, and more Jeg's and Summit mail order performance part deliveries than I have had the courage to tally, I finally got the car running in June '96. The UPS guy was at the house so much I was considering adding him to the pit crew. The car was not the all-out, trailered drag car that I initially envisioned, but a milder (and cheaper???) first revision of a work in progress. My first trip to the track was very disappointing with 1/4 mile ET's in the high 13's (very first run over 14 seconds). In comparison, my veryfirst run was about equal to my less potent '66 convertible when it was still competing. The interest cycle fluctuated again, but I eventually was able to make some improvements in traction, tuning, setup, etc and obtain a 12.88 second 1/4 mile still using the 4 speed.

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More recently I embarked on some major revisions to the car. First off, I gave up on the 4 speed idea....finally accepting the reality that 4 speeds are fun on the street (and track for that matter), but usually get you eliminated in the 1st round of competition. I installed a manually shifted Turbo 350 automatic transmission coupled with a mid-3000 rpm stall TCI torque converter. I also made improvements to the cylinder heads, with porting, new undercut valves, springs, retainers, screw-in studs, stainless steel 1.6:1 roller rockers, stud girdles, etc --- all the things I was going to do originally, but ran out of money. I also took the opportunity to install a higher lift/duration Competition Cams setup. Despite the current and planned improvements, I do not forsee the original vision of this being a strictly drag strip duty car.

The most recent thing done to the car was to finally have the exterior restored professionally. I had previously done some hack work myself with installing quarters, contracting some off-the-car enamel painting of doors, hood, fenders, etc, but the car was a real hodge-podge of primer and mismatching paint. I took the car to Jim Wilkens Paint and Auto Body in Cleves, Ohio who did work on my convertible and a 1955 Chevrolet 2dr Hardtop that I wish I still had. Anyway, Jim and his staff did an all out restoration of the exterior and subcontracted some new glass and frame work. They took everything down to bare metal, installed new quarters, and several other miscellaneous patch panels, before sealing everything in K36 primer. The final color was a base coat of Brilliant Blue Metallic (Chrysler Truck code PCH used on 1996 Indy Edition Dodge Ram Truck and Vipers), complemented by black Z28 style stripes to go with the cowl induction hood, and then covered with the clearcoat. The week after I got the car back from the body shop, I finally made it to the racetrack to test how the automatic transmission and induction system changes affected my quarter mile times. To my disappointment, my best time to date is 12.70 @ 105 mph, but I have several things that I still need to tweak since the modifications which will hopefully improve these times.

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Car:

Engine:

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Transmission:

Differential/Suspension:

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