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Team Chevelle Gold Member #29
My saga begins in 1997 when I finally saved up enough pennies to seriously search for my dream car, a 1966 Chevelle. I figured out that I'd try out a search over at Trader Online to see what I could find and ended up finding a project 66SS about 30 minutes from my house.
It was completely in pieces and needed some TLC. I looked over the car a couple times & was satisfied that this is what I was looking for, minus the fact that it was in 1000 pieces. The previous owner was kind enough to throw in a good deal of extra parts, I ended up getting 3 hoods, 3 rear ends, 2 sets of front fenders, & countless boxes of miscellaneous parts. I ended up selling most of the parts so far, and I think I might have actually made money on this car, at least I try to tell myself that!
I started the resto as soon as it was in the garage. Everything was going well, until I realized that 50% of the parts I received with the car were wrong. My friend Rob, who I have to credit for turning as many wrenches on this car as I have, was calling it a Novelle because half of the parts were for a Nova. I'm pretty sure my picture is on the 'Wall of Fame' over at Summit Racing & Year One after all the orders I placed with them!
I finally had the motor in and running and all the body panels on by Mar1998. I called up my bodyshop (Northwind Auto Body, West Deer, PA), which is actually owned by my cousin & let him know I was just about ready for paint. Right about this time, I noticed some white smoke coming from the exaust and was praying that it was just because it was cool outside. Of course, that was not the case. I pulled the heads off & had them pressure tested to see if there were any signs of trouble. The machine shop was kind enough to break it to me gently, but the bad news was that the valve guides were installed poorly & all of the water jackets were cracked. I wanted to add some performance mods someday, but quickly decided that this was that day.
I ordered the Edelbrock RPM package which included Oval port heads, manifold and cam. At this time I also robbed my piggy bank and bought a 750 Holley carb, MSD Pro-Billit distibutor, Crane Ignition & some other toys for the motor. The package definitely made a difference in power. It had the lopey cam sound I had always loved and just looked mean under the hood.
I finally made it to the body shop in the middle of November 1998, and got it back a couple days before Christmas. I couldn't beleive how good the car looked in one solid color. What an improvement from 2 shades of primer and maroon! I received my plates for it in March 99 and the 3rd time out of the garage a nice fellow (edited) in a Dodge Durango decided I needed to redo the passenger side. He pulled out of a convenience store without looking, and hit me right after the door, crushing the entire 1/4 panel. I'm pretty sure that was one of the worst days of my life. I sent it back to the body shop for the 2nd restoration, and was finished just in time for the Hot Rod Super Nationals in June 99.
This was my first restoration and trust me, I'll never forget it! It was definitely a learning experience and I love the feeling I get when I wind out the gears on a nice back road (of course my tires don't like that feeling I get)!
Specs
- 1966 SS396 (Vin # 13817)
- 396 ci block .030 oversize
- Edelbrock Performer RPM Heads
- Edelbrock Performer RPM Manifold
- Edelbrock Performer RPM Cam
- Holley 750 Carb
- Crane Hi-6 Fireball Ignition
- Msd Pro-Billit Distributor
- Pete Jackson Gear Drive
- Heddman Headers ( Jet-Coated )
- Flowmaster Exaust with H-Pipe
- Muncie M21 4-Speed With Hurst Competition Shifter
- Ram Power Grip Clutch
- 3:31 Gears (Soon to be 3:73)
- Master Power Disc Brake Conversion
- Hotchkis Rear Control Arms
- Weld DragLite Wheels (Fr. 15x6) (Rr. 15x8)
- BfGoodrich Radial T/A Tires
- Fronts 215x60x15
- Rears 275x60x15
You can check out more pics and read all about the restoration over at http://members.xoom.com/Pgh_Knights.
Team Chevelle would love to feature your Car on one of our future monthly articles.
To take part, send a few quality pictures to us and as much information as you can (we LOVE reading about Chevelles!)
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
