Hey, you guys!

I drove past this rough-looking '72 elky for sale on Sunday, stopped to look (against my better judgement). Upon closer inspection, I saw that it was an SS (or someone wasted a lot of time an money cloning a beat up SS). Round gauges, SS steering wheel and door panels, emblems on the outside of the body, 12-bolt rear, power front discs, everything!

The guy only wanted 5 grand! It was a project he'd bought to work on with his son, and his son lost interest, I guess. The guy wanted to make room to start on a big-block vette, just wanted to get rid of the elky.

It's an SS350, he has researched the vin and it's genuine. Original 350 engine (not the original intake or exhaust, of course). No carpet, plenty of dings and primer spots. The original color is red, but it was painted orange a long time ago.

After looking at my non-running projects for so many years, I'm so happy to have one that not only runs, but is a SUPER SPORT! I never expected to own an SS!

The whole family is stoked, my daughters all had to have a ride in it (one at a time, bucket seats, you know).

Anyway, just wanted to share the news. I've owned it for 6 hours now and it hasn't really sunk in. New pictures are in my signature, will try to get better quality ones over the weekend. Here's a video of me walking around it while it idles:

http://www.nonseq8r.com/chevy/elkyss.avi

congrats, very clean. i pick up my 69 ss for get this 2500! running and all. hell of a steal i need to post pics. projects are much easier to work on while they run, you dont lose interest in em.

Lookin good!

I'll bet with a weekend spent sanding, and a quick trip to macco for one of their $400 specials, You could have that thing looking awesome for the summer! :cool:

My wife would call it an eyesore, but I can see a diamond in the rough. Congrats on a good deal! Have fun with it!

Not sure if you know Alex. The only way to document a SS is with a build sheet or protecto plate. The VIN is of no help with the exception of a 72 with a 454. 72 was the first year with the engine designation in the VIN and the 454 was only available with the SS package. Fifth didget would be a W. Also the SS door panel emblems were Chevelle only, not used on the EC probably because of the vent window cranks. They could have been added to a SS car somewhere along the line but more than likely, someone was playing dress up. Be on the lookout for the build sheet, in the doors, over the fuel tank, on the floorboards, in the seat springs, It's realy the only way to tell.

Not sure if you know Alex. The only way to document a SS is with a build sheet or protecto plate. The VIN is of no help with the exception of a 72 with a 454. 72 was the first year with the engine designation in the VIN and the 454 was only available with the SS package. Fifth didget would be a W. Also the SS door panel emblems were Chevelle only, not used on the EC probably because of the vent window cranks. They could have been added to a SS car somewhere along the line but more than likely, someone was playing dress up. Be on the lookout for the build sheet, in the doors, over the fuel tank, on the floorboards, in the seat springs, It's realy the only way to tell.

True- but another pretty good tell tale, if it has the correct 72 dashboard with the seatbelt warning light & the SS round openings, but has the idiot lights instead of guages.

Only an SS car could have the Round Opening dash with idiot lights. A Non SS could have the round opening dash, but it HAD to have guages, as the "standard" dashboard didn't have openings for the optional guage package option. Of course its true an SS car could have also had that optional package as well- but since the majority were idiot light cars, i would say its a pretty safe bet!

Ben, It does have a round opening dash with idiot lights. Thanks for the info! It's got Sun gauges bolted to the bottom of the dash and a Sun tach on the column. I know it's not original, but I like it.

As far as it being real or not, I know that the vin on a '72 elky is really vague, and unlikely to be true proof. I knew that before I bought it, but 5 grand is a decent price for a running car with all of the SS goodies, even if it is "dress up". I also figured that if it were a clone, that's a lot of work and expense to clone a beat up SS. If you're going to spend all of the money on the parts, why not spend the money to paint it? I estimate this hasn't seen the street in more than a decade, and you could get a real SS for a reasonable price back then. Not much reason to put that much work into cloning. If you were to clone it, you'd know how much all the parts cost, and you wouldn't sell for five grand. Even if it was cloned 2 owners ago, you wouldn't clone an SS and then let it sit for long enough for mice to fill the exhaust with dog food (which is why it wouldn't start when the last owner bought it). If you go even further back than that, I can't imagine cloning an SS would be worth the effort. I can see that it could be a clone, but it just doesn't fit the circumstances. Maybe I just want to believe too much.

I have considered whether it's real, and the only cloning situation I think could be possible given the circumstances is that somebody already owned an SS, wrecked it, unbolted the good stuff, bought a regular elky and bolted it on all at once. However, if it's that hard to prove that it's real, it'd also be hard to prove that it's not, and since I'm not planning to sell it, it's an SS to me! :D

in answer to your question why someone would clone a car that many years ago... they wanted an SS ... I had freinds cloning SS & RT & GTX & GTO when they could still buy them !! its was easy a trip to the dealer & a couple of bucks would get you all the stuff .. in other cases it was a crashed SS mated to a plain jane base car .. these cars were cheap & plentyful its a sin to remember the things we did along the way .. thats the reason I find it hard to belive ANY car is real without solid paperwork & history !! & that is not very common as most of the time the buildsheet were trashed & orginal owners didn't worry about their racecar/Toys paperwork . I say just ENJOY the car no mater if its an SS or not :)

I definitely plan to enjoy it! I'm already thinking about Ben's suggestion of painting it before summer starts.

As far as whether it's real or not, it's real to me (Velveteen SS? :D ). Since I'm not selling, it doesn't need to be real to anyone else. Until somebody can prove it's real or fake, it doesn't matter. It's not being intentionally misrepresented it in the context of a sale (and even if the guy who sold it was misrepresenting it, I got a heck of a deal).

I'm not trying to bury my head in the sand - it's not like I'm new around here. I know more about these cars than anybody I talk to (except around here - I'm about average for TC). It's just that I'm not going to call it a clone when it's just as likely that it's real.

I'm just super excited about it either way.

Got some better pictures!

http://www.nonseq8r.com/chevy/smelky.jpg
http://www.nonseq8r.com/chevy/smelkyrearquarter.jpg
http://www.nonseq8r.com/chevy/smelkyrear.jpg
http://www.nonseq8r.com/chevy/smelkyrearend.jpg
http://www.nonseq8r.com/chevy/smelkyengine.jpg
http://www.nonseq8r.com/chevy/smelkycarb.jpg

very cool Alex, congrats

Who cares if it is a real ss or not!!! After seeing the pics, I think you scored a car worth more than you payed for. Enjoy it as is and repair as you go. GOOD LUCK!!

So I was kind of bumming today because it's too wet to work on the car - want to change the intake and carb to one that gives me better than 5mpg. Gave it a little too much gas at a stop sign (honestly accidentally - it was only like a third of the pedal travel) and spun the tires good. No forward movement, just swaying the back end around. I promptly let off the gas, but it was sure fun. I took off as calmly and quietly as I could (not very quiet at all). I'm in a much better mood now.

By the way, I can totally see what you guys said about the SS door panels after looking up some pics online. My SS emblems are right where the vertical rectangle thing should go in the middle of the door - looks like the vertical rectangle thing was never there. No glue marks or anything. They do seem to be elky door panels, though. There's no evidence of glue or emblem removal where the window cranks go. I checked the cowl tag, and it was built in the 5th week of January, 1972. Maybe they weren't sure how to do things in the beginning of the model year? Weren't they on strike then? Maybe contract workers didn't know any better? Of course, it's more likely that somebody replaced the door panels at some point and decided that they needed SS badges . . . My interior is black, the car has been repainted hugger orange. The original paint was Orange Flame Metallic and the original interior was black. That doesn't prove that my black SS interior is original, but at least it doesn't disprove it. My VIN does match a 350 4bbl engine, so at least that part is true. So far, I'm still at the point of not finding anything to prove that it's an SS and not finding anything to disprove it either. Oh, well. It's an incredibly fun car. Definitely got an awesome deal.