Guys, what is the concenses(spelling?) on using a 70's Chevelle as a daily driver? I put about 80-100 miles a day to and from work, sometimes a little more. Its mostly highway driving, but some local stuff too. Would a very good resto hold up under the stress. I love driving my 71, but it doesn't have air (live in FL) so I would try and find a real good resto with air. This would also make a good case as to why I need two Chevelles. I think it would hold up just fine, but would like some comfirmation for a comfort level. I would be selling my 98 GMC truck to do this. Big step back in time!

**** yeah! Do it, man!

I am building a '70 to be a weekend cruiser. I will be driving it around to drop off movies at BlockBuster, run to McD's, or to stop by the liquor store. Might even run it to work every once in awhile.

These cars were built to be driven. So drive it! There are plenty of aftermarket (or even original) parts that will help pep up an old Chevelle for daily use.

Its your car, do what you want with it. If someone complains that you are 'running a classic into the ground', tell them to go *%&# themselves! You will probably take better care of a daily-driven 'velle than you would if it were a Hyundai.

I hope I was clear enough that you can understand my comfort level on the subject.

Wow! This is some pretty fancy software Al is running. The four '*'s at the beginning of my last post was actually the word: *****. The software must have monitored and corrected my cussing. Technology and colorful expressions must not mix.

Boy, what my mom wouldn't have given to have something like this around when I was younger!

Ain't that the ****?

Make a very good daily driver! Get a air/fuel ratio gauge and dial in the carb. Yo will get 22 - 24 mpg with a small block and decent gearing. Good ride, plenty of power, easy maintenance, and no dealer hassles (may be best thing). Really nice since rust is not a problem down there. tom

Does the software screen for George Carlin's "7 bad words you can't say on TV"? Let's see:

1) ****
2) ####
3) ****
4) ####
5) C###sucker
6) Mother****er
7) ####

It looks like it only caught 3 - I had to edit the others with ###. I guess we'll need to keep ourselves in check.

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Rainer - Team Chevelle #50 - Gold Member
'68 SS396
'70 LS3 400 Malibu
& the newest - '70 Malibu convertible!
rseitz@chevelles.com


[This message has been edited by Rainer (edited 06-09-99).]

I drove my 68 SS 396 (325 hp/th400) 80-100 miles daily for 3 years. The front of the car has picked up a lot of chips, plus the repo seat covers are starting to wear. I didn't have air either, and I live in southern Arizona. My biggest gripe was in paying for premium gas while getting 12-14 MPG and being real hot. Other than summer, it was fun to drive though, and passing cars / semi's going uphill was fun. I recently got a SUV that gets 17 MPG, uses regular unleaded, and has cold air, so it can finally be a weekend cruiser. I'll probably still drive it to work occasionally once it cools down.

My '66 Malibu is a daily driver. It is my only car now and sees approx. 350 miles per week. I don't know what my mileage is with a ZZ4 and all the trimmings; it is probably a little less than 20 MPG. 3.55 rear gears, 1000 RPM over stock torque converter, Edelbrock 600 CFM carb. I went through two aluminum radiators (company name starts with a "B") and am now running a US Rad copper/brass with no problems. Torque converter also mysteriously blew up recently and had to get trans rebuilt (TCI Street Fighter).

The combination I have works very well for a daily driver. I think the main thing is the high stall converter means I can navigate through slow moving traffic without the pedal being oversensitive. The carb hasn't needed any adjustments for over six months now. I ran the car everyday in the Winter also, and the only thing about that was to not hit the accelerator while turning because the posi would make the car try to spin out.

This car also goes to and from Ohio every two months or so, which is 800 miles round trip. For a small block the 3.55 and non-overdrive auto are fine for highway driving.

My opinion continues to be that if it isn't driven (alot) it ceases to be a car and becomes "automobilia" or auto-art. Websters 7th collegiate says :"car; a vehicle MOVING on wheels" - "automobile; a vehicle designed for passenger transportation".
I say build it as you like it, modifications and all, then drive it. If it gets worn, rebuild it again as you like it at that time.
The Smithsonian has many examples that will last forever untouched - therefore you do not need to provide that service.

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Now if it were a low mileage LS6, or something rare like that, it would be a little different.

Myself, I would rather buy a high milage car so I don't feel bad about puting miles on it, because I certainly will.

It makes me smile to see a Chevelle on the road, no matter what shape it's in.

They make great drivers. It's not a mistake that they are still around after 30yrs.

Rick,

I used my '71 SS 454 as a daily driver for four years but I only lived 5-6 miles from work. I currently use a '69 Camaro (350, 700r-4, no A/C) to drive 100 miles per day and have to admit that sometimes it does get tiring - these cars are not quiet or smooth. It is then that I use my Tahoe for a couple of days - until I get tired of it being gutless and ordinary....

In your case I'd put Vintage Air in the '71 and keep the truck. This way you'll have the best of both worlds.

I agree 100 percent. Drive the wheels off the thing. My son's 71 has about 46K on it and he drives it every time he gets a chance. My 67 is waiting for the new bullet, radical small block, it will be driven and raced some.

The trailer queens out there are fine, let them drag them around to shows and wow everybody. But I bet my 67 is more fun, bust this baby in the ass and stand by for some excitement.

Wally
Gold #67

I'll have to agree with Kevin, that driving your toy on a daily basis gets old after awhile. I've been driving my 68 SS daily since my Honda died last Sept. What was only supposed to last for 2 months has lasted for 9. One of the drawbacks is that I can't have the Chevelle down for repairs, etc. for a few days because its what I use to get around.

I also agree with Jason that I always get a kick out of seeing a nice Chevelle on the road!

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Rainer - Team Chevelle #50 - Gold Member
'68 SS396
'70 LS3 400 Malibu
& the newest - '70 Malibu convertible!
rseitz@chevelles.com

I agree they are good daily drivers.. my 70 el camino is my daily driver, i.e. i have no other car to drive and i drive a LOT. and i have no heater/ac/radio!! and the damn thing squeaks like theres no tomorrow. but other than that its been extremely reliable and a good driver. it all comes down to how spoiled you are with new econobox cars that get 30mpg and have ac, etc.

mike

I drive my 66 EC everyday. It is my only transportation (other than a high strung 67 EC that's going racing). If you keep the engine calm and keep your gearing reasonable, these cars make great drivers. My EC still works for a living, hauling parts (500-600 lbs at a time) to the heat treater and plater. I upgrade when something need replacement. Poly bushings, KYB shocks, and heavy anti-sway bars make driving very enjoyable. I just accept whatever mileage I get http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

My 70 was our family car for many years. The stock 350/300 (I added an HEI) with 3.31 gears gave us around 18-20 mpg on the road and about 15 around town. We had ac, ps, pb and a 4 speed. It was comfortable and a pleasure to drive. Also a kick when leaving a light with tires smoking and the wife and 3 kids smiling at the guy getting left behind.

People seem concerned about "wasting" a perfectly good Chevelle or Camino by driving it daily and having to repair it occasionally. Consider this: go out and buy an average new car. Then drop a fresh engine, trans, interior, suspension and paint into a Chevelle. Drive them both for 100,000 miles. In the beginning, you started with pretty much two brand new cars. At the end, you have two well worn cars. BOTH of which will have required some maintenance and possibly repairs along the way. This is where everyone jumps in with the "apples and oranges" comparison. I say the bottom line is this; either way, over the long run, you are going to spend a lot of money to drive a car. Both up front (buying)and down the road (maintenance). The least you can do is drive something you really enjoy. (I'm waving the Chevelle flag here) Dave

I have a 70 Sedan that gets (got http://www.chevelles.com/forum/frown.gif) driven every day.. I mean every day; Rain, Snow, Scorching Heat... every day it could run I did... and I am a firm beliver that once you do not use a tool, you no longer respect or like/love the tool and should't have it any more.
I have seen too many cars just sit in garages and never get used, mean while the owner is spending way too much time telling me about how much it's worth and "fast" it can go... in the back of my mind I just figure out it's worth in scrap metal and reusable parts and ask him when it was last run...

run it every day you can, smile and thank John Z. DeLorean for giving us all a reason to want to get up very early on a saturday, just to get parts to be rolling for saturday night!

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Francis Taracido
Sniper0666@aol.com
Proud Patron of Quadzilla

Yeah, what they all said. Drive it! My 68 SS396 is driven daily over 350 miles per week. I have no other car. Of course it has been upgraded to this status- All poly bushings, lowered, perf. tires and shocks, disc brakes, etc, etc. My insurance is cheap (by Atlanta standards), parts are cheaper than new cars, and I feel a lot safer with some real steel around me than in a modern tupperware jellybean. These old cars have a character, a kind of soul to them that just isn't found in todays cars. And they're just plain cool! Life's too short to drive a boring vehicle.

One of my favorite things about the older cars(Chevelles in particular) that I always liked is what you end up with. What I mean is that someone can't go to a car dealership and walk out with a car just like yours. Guess in short it's kinda fun to be unique(and look cool).

I say drive the Chevelle within reason. I drive my '70 SS fairly often, but I draw the line at leaving it in a crowded mall parking lot for extended periods or taking it to the movies. Basically, the car is more susceptible to theft because of its older technology, and there are jealous idiots that might vandalize the car if it's left alone too long. But, it's cool to pull up to the local blockbuster or Mickey dees and have everyone eyeballing the chevelle because it stands out. Enjoy the car by driving it.

THANKS for all the replies, you guys really know how to rally around the Chevelles. No the only problem left is to find me a car. I don't think I'll use my 71, it gets about 10 mpg (on the road)! I think I'll look for a mouse with air. Too bad I let one get away a couple months ago, it was a SS clone with a mildly modified mouse w/auto, and best of all, it was a 70 (my favorite year!).

Some more thoughts to chew on.

How are some of those guys getting 20 MPG with a ZZ3 and 3.55 Gears, coasting downhill?? I only get 14 - 16 MPG with my 305 on the highway less in the city ( got to use those secondaries) and have 3.08 Gears, but my car is a tank and I also drive 70 - 80 to keep up with traffic. I drive about 35 mi to work all highway. This tends to kill my exhaust components. Stay away from headers if you can. A 700 R4 would be a cool but expensive upgrade. This was my only car for almost 2 years, but now I have a daily beater, but I hate driving it. Go for it if you can find a nice AC car

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73Malibu, if I drove mine 80 mph or put my foot in the secondaries a bunch milage would drop to 8 - 10 mpg. When I travel I like to drive on secondary roads and enjoy the trip. Go slow enough so other folks can enjoy watching your classic Chevelle go by. Install a large vacuum gauge, the lower your manifold vacuum, the lower your mpg.

[This message has been edited by 64elcamino (edited 06-10-99).]

I drive my 65 SS daily. I'm in sales so a 1000 mile week isnt to out of the ordinary for me. I am also perplexed at the sub 20mpg figures you guys are getting. I have a 383 in my car granted, but around town Im lucky to get 12-13 if Im really loafing around? With 3.08 gears I would have thought alittle better. I would say my motor and a ZZ4 have to be pretty close in horsepower. Go figure.

Try a manual trans, with no slippage mpg's go up. Or a th350 with a lock up convertor. 3.08 gears don't always relate to better milage, I changed from them to 3.73 in my old truck and actually gained mpg. The vehicle has to be in balance,you can't expect a built motor with a stall converter to get top milage, my 70 was just as the General designed it (except for the HEI) and it was an all around good car. I have also found that my elky with it's little 6 in it only gets 10 mpg because it has to work so hard to get that 4000 lbs rolling.

I had an original but rusty 68 el camino SS 396 4 SP but with a 350 in it. I drove it for 5 years as a daily driver untill the steering box pulled off the frame because of rust. I sold it for parts for more then I paid for it. It was a great car that never let me down untill its rusty end.

There are lots of reproduction parts out there for many models of Chevelles, so using one a lot doesn't really matter a whole lot. I would be concerned though if it were a car for which the original seat material wasn't available, or the year round driving means that the body has got 2 years or so until rust through. In decent weather I drove my 250 six cylinder Powerglide Malibu 60 miles a day for work. I was shocked to figure out that it delivered an honest 30 (imperial) mpg., as I figured I'd only get 18 - 22. Also, I'm sure I was smiling all those miles.

No...no...no. Let's be open-minded here. To some, driving their Chevelles is a religious experience. I like to drive my 454 when I want the pleasure of 450 HP under my right foot and no where in particular to go (or when I want to race). I think driving it daily would lead me to take it for granted, or worse, to despise it (great power, but woefully sorry suspension and handling..not to mention 9 MPG). Daily driving is what my 6-cyl. fuel-efficient, air-conditioned, unfailing and unbreakable Chevy pick-up is for.

By the way...C-O-N-S-E-N-S-U-S (sorry, couldn't help myself.... a terminal case of geekness) http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

I still don't see anything wrong with building a mild daily driver Chevelle if that is what you intended to build it for. A nice 350 backed by a mild TH-350 or (700R4 if you are doing highway miles and have the bucks)with a fully redone suspension should work well. Crusing is nice, but especially in Boston if you are commuting to work you need to keep up with traffic which can get above 75 MPH, that brings me above 3000 RPM with my TCI Sat nite Special converter on My TH-350 and 3.08 Gears out back. That gets old after 40 min or so, but I only drive it to work a few times a month to keep it fresh. Obviously a 454 is fun but would make you broke driving it every day.
A nice swap would be a LT-1 or LS-1 camaro with 4L60E from the wrecker yard into a clean Chevelle chassis. Of course I couldn't afford to do that but it would rule

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drive it until the wheels fall off THEN PUT NEW WHEELS ON. im restoring one (with a few mods) for daily 100+ miles/day commute. im converting to a 2004r tranny for the gas milage and my little 307 is beefed up but gets 15mpg now but im hoping to get 20 or so with the new tranny, it's in the paint shop now and i don't care about fixing stuff wrong with it since it is DIRT CHEAP and it is a cooshie cruzer like a caddy. it will look like an SS when im done but be my daily driver with a/c (im in texas) i just sold a 91 Z28 in perfect condition to get this car with no regrets so like i said DRIVE IT UNTIL THE WHEELS FALL OFF PUT SOME NEW ONES ON AND ENJOY jk

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members.aol.com/jnkb2cool/chevelle.jpg (http://members.aol.com/jnkb2cool/chevelle.jpg) John Krenn
Ft.Worth, Tx

The only drawback to driving your Chevelle daily is that you increase your odds that some dumbsh#t talking on a car phone will blow a red light and total your baby. It seems like these cars attract dumb#sses by the dozens. (Check out my post, "Magnets for dumbsh#ts" in the bench racing forum) I'm extra defensive when I'm driving my 71. On the plus side, if you do have a run-in with one of today's plasticmobiles, you'll probably walk away, provided you are wearing your seatbelt, of course. Overall, you are increasing your odds for involving your Chevelle in an accident by driving it every day. Think how sad it is to put years worth of work and sweat into a car (not to mention the money) and then have some idiot wipe it out in an instant. I'm not an advocate of the trailer queen crowd either, my vote is to find a way to meet in the middle. It's just as big a shame to pour years worth of labor into your ride and then just let it sit in the driveway.

I drive my 67 Malibu as a daily driver. I put maybe 120 miles a week on it a (not much). It can get old some times mostly because how noisy they are. I can hear everything on the road. but I still love it! My 67 has ac but I hardly ever use it. 90% of the time the windows are down, partly because it sometimes stalls with it on (damn carb) have not been able to dial it in yet err. I am going to line the hole interior in dyno mat. anyone ever done this? I am hopping it will cut the road noise down. Just beware sometimes you will want to just sell it and buy a rice rocket.


Later

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Hot66ss

66 ss
67 malibu
Aces Member 2380
Team Chevelle member #262
GEN X Member #15
Http://members.aol.com/chvellss

I vote for using it as a daily driver. I drive my 69 to work every day (unles it's in the garage having more toys added). The exception is when there's snow on the road- hard to keep it from getting squirrely with those fat 295's on the rear. I only drive 12 miles to work so even at 10 mpg it's not too harsh. A/C, power steering and disc brakes are a must. I am thinking of installing a 5 or 6 speed trans to improve the mileage, but other than that it's a great vehicle to commute in. By the way, I'm curious- am I the only one that thinks up things I need to get, just for a reason to take the car out of the garage and cruise around?

Well my Lumina just yanked the rear strut out of the upper mount on me Monday driving home from work. It sounded funny driving home and felt loose. My jaw dropped when I crawled underneath I must have sat there for 30 min or so. New cars are such pieces of junk. The upper mount has no metalic saftey catch, it is a 100% rubber connection, the rubber ripped through and it yanked out. This would never have happened in my Chevelle. Now it will be my daily driver again for a month or two unless I smash the lumina with a bat after trying to fix the struts. ;(

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Frank W
Gen X Member#22 (MA)
73 Malibu Coupe
http://hometown.aol.com/folingo/myhomepage/auto.html
Mighty 305 Power

I think Rick's question is this: If he buys a really nice restored Chevelle and drives it a lot, will it hold up? I think the answer is no. If you want a car to stay in a nice restored condition you can't drive it a lot. The thing about highly restored cars is that the finish on many of the parts is not as durable as the original. Those nicely detailed tail light housings will deteriorate quickly under heavy use.

I would suggest one of two things:
Buy a Vintage Air setup for your 70.
OR
Buy an unrestored but drivable car that has air. Then rebuilt the critical systems and drive the heck out of it!

I have no problem with using a Chevelle as a daily driver. I've done it before. But if you're asking if a restored Chevelle will hold its value under that kind of use, the answer is no.

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Jameel Qazi
#'s 67 SS