Hey everyone,
I'm a bit of a lurker here, I read the forums on a regular basis but almost never post. Bit of back story first. I own a 1969 Chevelle Malibu, my father originally bought the car for himself as a project, then when my younger brother turned 16 and they weren't sure about his transportation I made a joke that I would give my brother my 1991 Ford Explorer if dad would give me the chevelle, as it turned out the joke backfired in a good way, dad handed me the keys and told me it was mine. I was 18 or 19 at the time.
Now I've never been much of a gear head, I've always been more into building computers than cars, but that changed when I got that car, there in lies the problem, I'm now 23 (so I've had the car for 4-5 years), but I dont know enough to "really" work on it. I have replaced things I could on my own (like alternator, starter, small things).
The car runs and drives, most of the work is cosmetic / getting the tuning right type of stuff. It has a small block 350 crate motor with (estimating here cause it had not even hit the break in point when it was installed in the car, less than 5k miles on it and i didnt/dont drive it much, probably around 10k-20k miles on the engine) 3'' straight pipes, hurst shifter with kit / gears from jegs, 400 turbo transmission. Considering it starts and is driveable i'd say dad gave me a good start (could have been worse anyway).
The thing is like I said, I don't know too much about cars (i enjoy learning though) , I was kind of hoping that there might possibly be someone from the forums that lives near me or could recommend a good shop (if it comes to that, would prefer to learn with help) in southern Indiana / northern Kentucky (i live in Indiana, right near Louisville Kentucky). Sorry that this post was so long. I guess I kind of got carried away. Thanks in advance to everyone for taking the time to read it.

Can't recomend a shop for you, but it does not get much easier than these old cars, when it comes to wrenching. If you can build a computer that works, I would say you have the technical know how to progress to bigger jobs. Baby steps......nothin wrong with that.

^^What Brian said. Willingness is the key, and you certainly seem willing.

As you've no doubt seen on this site, folks here will follow your progress if you have a specific problem or task you want to try. We'll post pictures, walk you through something, and there's already enough info on here you could read about what you're planning on trying ahead of time to know what you're in for.

Tuning is actually pretty easy, just need to do one thing at a time. If you have the timing set and can adjust your carb, about the only other thing you'd need is oil changes.

Cosmetics can be an art... depending on what you're looking at doing, might not want to practice on the chevelle, LOL.

Good luck! Hope someone is close enough to get you started!

thanks for the fast replies, ill try to get some pics of it up this weekend when there is enough sun for them to be detailed enough. Its got some rust (not a lot, but with that stuff any is too much). No your right, i'd rather not practice learning body work on the chevelle, so if i could find someone in my area willing to teach / help me that would be great, if not i will most likely have to find a good shop in the area. I dont know how to adjust the carb but from what my father told me I may not want to, its either going to need to be rebuilt or its going to need a new one, this is from what he said, could be tuned wrong, I dont personally know. When I'm at a full stop if I fully open it up, it seems to bog down like its either getting to much fuel or too much airflow, I dont know which.

A few comments:

Update your location in your profile.

Sounds like a lot of things you've accomplished so far have you on the right path. Lot's of guys on this site have done more, but have lived more years. So keep up the progress.

As far as learning body work: If you can't find someone here, is there a local body shop you can hang out at and volunteer to sweep floors or answer phones for free? Is taking night school body shop classes at a local vo-tech an option?

Fellow geek by day and gearhead by night!
The best thing you can do, before starting any project on the car is to peruse the forum related to the project and learn all you can. Be sure that when you ask questions, because you know they will come up, that you always give pertinent information relating to the question. When asking for help deciding on what brakes to go with or, what suspension to buy, always state what the car will be used for primarily. It's very tiresome to ask repeatedly for more information when reading posts and occasionally posts get skipped because of it.

Try not to post long winded and always use punctuation! If your post has multiple parts to it, for the love of pete, separate them with carriage returns or bunch into small paragraphs. IF you need a long post, try to summarize or give cliffs notes for the skimmers!

Start your projects small and if at all possible, try to keep parts that were native to the car with the car. Aftermarket stuff is not always great, and many times a rebuilt OE part is a much better choice.

Welcome to TC!

Before the internet; I had to find local people that were into hot rods, try to become friends with them, and learn everything I could by helping them work on their project cars.

I wasn't born a mechanic, my dad was never into turning wrenches, but I found ways to surround myself with people that knew more than me and were willing to teach.

It still may be an option.

Carbs are not terribly difficult. They need to be clean and adjusted properly, that's it.

Start a post on your off-idle bog in the performance section. You'll have people (myself included) walk you through it. Timing is first, though - it's a major contributor to that bog if it's not advanced enough. Get a timing light from Sears and you'll be ready to start, you need the real numbers, not "its timed OK". If timing is set to factory specs it will NOT run the way it should. Heck, just do a search on off-idle bog and you'll see what I mean.

Update your location in your profile.

I'll do that asap, thank you for the advice.

As far as learning body work: If you can't find someone here, is there a local body shop you can hang out at and volunteer to sweep floors or answer phones for free? Is taking night school body shop classes at a local vo-tech an option?

I'll look into the local body shop thing. As far as the classes, I'll look into those as well but it would really depend on cost.

My first recommendation is to join a local Chevelle club. If there is none, join another car club. People you meet and make friends with in your area can be a good source for advice and help. Especially the older "seasoned" members. They grew up working on these cars.

This forum is a good place to ask questions but some things will need "hands on" your car to really get answers.

Good luck and don't give up.

The best thing you can do, before starting any project on the car is to peruse the forum related to the project and learn all you can. Be sure that when you ask questions, because you know they will come up, that you always give pertinent information relating to the question. When asking for help deciding on what brakes to go with or, what suspension to buy, always state what the car will be used for primarily. It's very tiresome to ask repeatedly for more information when reading posts and occasionally posts get skipped because of it.

Try not to post long winded and always use punctuation! If your post has multiple parts to it, for the love of pete, separate them with carriage returns or bunch into small paragraphs. IF you need a long post, try to summarize or give cliffs notes for the skimmers!

Start your projects small and if at all possible, try to keep parts that were native to the car with the car. Aftermarket stuff is not always great, and many times a rebuilt OE part is a much better choice.

Welcome to TC!

Thank you, all great info and ill keep it all in mind for future posting / searching.

My first recommendation is to join a local Chevelle club. If there is none, join another car club. People you meet and make friends with in your area can be a good source for advice and help. Especially the older "seasoned" members. They grew up working on these cars.

This forum is a good place to ask questions but some things will need "hands on" your car to really get answers.

Good luck and don't give up.

Thanks, I don't know if there are any local Chevelle clubs, I'll look into that asap, sounds like a good plan though, thanks for the advice.