Hello,I am new to this forum, but not to Chevy Restoration's. I have a restoration shop in North Fl. I am in the process of restoring a 68 Malibu Convertible. The car is a one owner all documented with protecto-plate. The owner ordered it with a 327 275 hp, 3 speed floor shift and bench seat. Manual lift top and 3.31 posi. rear.
The rolling chassis and drive line is done. Now in the process of preparing sheet metal for paint. Matador red with black interior. When I ordered the interior door panels and seat covers from NPD, they could not supply me with the correct patterns. unable to help me I decided to search a A body GM's and see what I could find. At last I found a match in a 68 Buick skylark with deluxe interior. Has anyone ever seen a 68 Malibu delivered new with this combination?
Another oddity was when I ordered a new radiator core support I noticed the radiator opening was 21" wide on the old one and 29" inches open on the new one. Also the original radiator core was 21" 2 core and the new one is 29" wide and 3 core. The owner told me he had a over heating problem at idle from day one, when he returned to the dealer, they said, there was nothing wrong it must be the nature of the engine. Come to find out the factory installed a 6 cylinder core support and radiator. We are keeping the old parts for talking points. The car is being restored to 100% original. To be done in about 4 months.
Any comments on this will be appreciated.
Thank,
bowtiefredo

Actually, I've seen several 307 equipped Chevelles with the small opening core support. I'm not sure on the 350 or 327 cars.

Actually, there were many 68 Chevelles delivered with the Buick interior, (Due to a strike or something like that I believe). I don't have any info on the numbers, but this topic has been discussed many times on this site. If you do a search, I'm sure you can find just about everything you want to know about the Buick interiors, including pictures. For what it's worth, your cowl tag should also indicate whether or not the Buick interior was factory installed.
Good luck,
Patrick

Thanks men for all the response.
The Trim number is 765-158.
Also this model common to have a 3 speed transmission with a floor mount and bench seat?
Thanks again,
Fred...
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f184/Bowtiefred/Engine-1.jpg

Fred,

You need to contact Chris at www.legendaryautointeriors.com as he has been tracking the few 68s that have Buick/Oldsmobile interior parts, trying to find a date range. Your trim tag numbers you posted indicate Buick bench seat interior. SO it sounds like you are on the right track.

Fred,

First of all, welcome to Team Chevelle! :waving:

Second, a big thank you to both you and the car's owner for leaving it all stock and NOT cloning into an SS396 like a zillion other people have done :thumbsup:

And finally, to answer your question - a floor mounted 3 speed transmission from the factory is indeed unusual. Not unheard of, but unusual. Although there are no production records kept by GM documenting just how many of a specific combination were ever produced, I would guess that there were more floor mounted 3 speed with bench seat produced than with bucket seats. I'm guessing that, because if they didn't have the extra $$$ for a 4 speed, then they probably also didn't have the $$$ for bucket seats.

Thanks for posting the picture of the engine & trans in the chassis - looks great :yes:

I know this in the wrong section but I started this post when I first joined the forum. I wanted to post an update. After 2 years in the making the Malibu is finally finished. Here are a few images of the final product. I will upload all 240 images on my web page soon.
Thanks for looking.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f184/Bowtiefred/212.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f184/Bowtiefred/215.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f184/Bowtiefred/218.jpg

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f184/Bowtiefred/223.jpg

Good looking car. I have the same car, but has white top and red interior. What site can I go to for the pics?

Here is where you can view a few more images of the Chevelle

http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f184/Bowtiefred/?start=0

Good looking little 68. Good to see you got it finished.

Very, very nice! I hope the owner is happy.

Thanks Fred red 68 chevl for the LAI interior I have been looking for the buick bucket seats 766 170 also I dropped a line for chris thanks George

very nice 68 vert.....you did a beuatiful job in restoring that car.:thumbsup: