A read in a recent magazine article on a 427 COPO Chevelle where they state the 427 Chevelle looks like a plain jane Malibu.

I have to laugh every time I read this and can't believe people still say it.
Don't know why people say this as they share so many more parts with the SS then the Malibu.

Back in the 1980's, I can understand the confusion, but today a 5 min. internet search on 69 Chevelle images will clearly show that a 1969 Malibu looks a lot different then a 1969 SS396 vs. the 427 Chevelle.

The 427 Chevelle did have Malibu interior emblems and a bow tie on the grill because they could not use the SS396 emblem but still used SS wheels and mostly all the SS exterior parts.

How do you mistake such Super Sport items such as ;

SS396 and 427 had two big bumps on the hood vs Malibu flat hood.
SS396 and 427 had short side trim vs Malibu long trim and silver accent
SS396 and 427 had black out grill and rear panel vs Malibu's more silver grill and rear panel
SS396 and 427 had two big chrome exhaust tips and SS wheels.

All you need to do is read the Malibu quarter panel emblem that reads M-A-L-I-B-U that is not on the 427 Chevelle.

I tried to put together some google images showing the SS396 and 427 looks a lot more alike then the Malibu.

I hope some day they will stop saying the 427 Chevelle looks like a plain jane Malibu but I guess it is one of those myths that will not go away :)

Back in the day if it did not have an SS emblem on the car it was probably slow. I think that is why they say that. Back in the day if you put one of those cars side by side and asked 1000 people which car is faster 995 would say the one with the SS's.

I agree with most of your rant. There are known copo 427 cars that initially came with the flat hood. During restoration, most opted to add the ss hood as it just fits. Not sure if the hood had to be checked off as an option or if it was deleted on these few examples. Most literature reguarding the copo 427 cars do state that they were malibu based and that is just incorrect, even fisher body was fully aware of the "ss" body differences when they were assembling the body panels.

Jerry

I have not seen any build sheet or original pictures of a 427 COPO Chevelle with a flat hood.
The buildsheet calls for the SS396 equipment so they should have come with the SS396 hood.

A yellow 427 COPO Chevelle was restored with the long Malibu lower body trim and silver accent and is said to have been built like that.
That car also has the SS396 hood.
That is the only one I know of that was built like that.

There could be some mistakes made on assembly but definitely most 427 COPO Chevelles had the SS396 hood.

I bought our COPO Chevelle new. On the outside it looked exactly like an SS396 car less the emblems. The grille emblem was the blue bow tie. It had Chevelle by Chevrolet on the header and deck lid. The interior was all Malibu. The one difference was the steering wheel emblems. Mine has the blue bow tie, A friends had the Chevelle emblem, and the third had SS. The SS wheels had the SS emblems in the centre caps. The L72 was a direct bolt in replacement for the L78 so no big deal there. About the only other unique thing was the KQ 4.10 posi rearend. We've had two L78 cars and still own one. Both are/were a yawn to drive compared to the 427. The extra hp and torque makes a huge difference. Perhaps the big port heads liked the extra air flow too.
This picture was taken a month or so after I bought the car. Other than the wider rims and tires on the back, this is how these cars came. The F70 x 14s were absolutely useless for any kind of acceleration. I've never seen any when new without the SS hood. Could have happened. For the longest time, even the big name restorers didn't fully understand what they were dealing with. They were putting all the emblems on the breather lid and rad support. Up until 2002 people couldn't even agree on what COPO meant. All they had to do was look in the old Chevy parts catalogue and there is a page explaining it in black and white. I've owned mine since new and I'm still learning. As often as not, learning and the history are as interesting as the cars themselves. :)

Keith, back in the day when your car was new, what kind of comments did you get from people who saw it?

Did they think it was an SS396?
Did they think you removed or changed the emblems?
Did they think you installed the 427 ?

If someone was shopping for a 1969 SS396 and they were familiar with the SS396 options it must have been confusing for them to see a 427 COPO Chevelle.

I have asked others who knew about the 427 COPO Chevelle at the drag strips and have seen some 1969 dealer ads where they were known as "factory 425hp Chevelles"

We first found out about the COPO deal through a friend who worked in the Oshawa main office. I worked with his brother. The brother ordered one in early calendar year '69 when we first found out about them. The dealer didn't know anything about the COPO deal until he ran the COPO option numbers. Perhaps GM just sent the COPO info to certain performance oriented dealers. Several dealers in Toronto sold these cars. A dealer in Sarnia sold at least on. Central Chev-Olds in London Ontario sold some too. I'd just bought a Ram Air Firebird the summer before so was reluctant to run out and buy another car. The first car didn't get to the dealer's lot until July. The dealer ordered a second one identical to the first for stock. I couldn't resist. The third was brought in from Chevy Younge Holdings, a dealer in Toronto. This was for another friend who wanted one.
Word gets around pretty quickly and these cars were pretty common knowledge around here. Nurse Chev-Olds in Whitby got a red COPO Camaro in for stock. Problem was, people couldn't afford them. $4500 was a whack of money in those days. The dealers didn't have people flocking in even knowing what the cars were. I was fortunate in having a decent paying job but buying these cars kept me broke too. By the time I get ours restored, I'll be as broke as I was when I bought it new. Things never change. Just having a COPO car didn't make you top dog. There were guys around back then too running race cars on the street. They would have eaten me alive. I finally have a reputable body man lined up to do the body. There is the old saying, "The older I get, the faster I was." I need to get the car back on the road again just to refresh my memory before I'm too old to shift gears. ;)

That is a nice picture of an original 427 COPO Chevelle.

I been looking for pictures of an original 1969 Malibu for comparison and they are hard to find.

this Malibu looks close to original except wheel/tire/hubcap combo

i know a person that originally bought a lemans blue,with white stripe,just like the silver one above. last i heard the car was behind a barn with bullet holes in it. this was in the early 80's.

If that car behind the barn is still there, it would be well worth picking up even with the bullet holes.

A chevelle kept behind the proverbial barn for 30 some years isn't gonna be a pretty sight, the bullet holes are the least of it's issues.

Jerry

i know a person that originally bought a lemans blue,with white stripe,just like the silver one above. last i heard the car was behind a barn with bullet holes in it. this was in the early 80's.

I thought that silver was the only color for accent at the bottom?

no. copo chevelles in 1969 were solid colors,with,or without ss stripe down the side,the only thing that said ss was the steering wheel. i have never seen a 2 tone color copo car.

Here's that Daytona Yellow 69 Copo with the lower section painted silver. I was parked near him at the MCACN show in Chicago.
The car has a broadcast sheet also.
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e43/Rixls6/69ChevelleCopoMalibutrim.jpg

I have not seen any build sheet or original pictures of a 427 COPO Chevelle with a flat hood.
The buildsheet calls for the SS396 equipment so they should have come with the SS396 hood.

A yellow 427 COPO Chevelle was restored with the long Malibu lower body trim and silver accent and is said to have been built like that.
That car also has the SS396 hood.
That is the only one I know of that was built like that.

There could be some mistakes made on assembly but definitely most 427 COPO Chevelles had the SS396 hood.
Joe, I saw the yellow COPO Chevelle with Malibu trim at the MCACN show last weekend. The exterior had all the Malibu trim, including "MALIBU" letters on the quarters, lower silver accent moldings, etc. It didn't have the side pinstripe that all Malibu 2 drs had though. A "normal" COPO was right next to it for comparison. It was just like an SS396 on the exterior except no SS 396 emblems. Bow tie on the grille. My guess is that the "Malibu" trimmed COPO was either an assembly line mistake, or some kind of special order on top of a COPO order. An interesting point is that all COPO front fenders were not punched for SS396 emblems so other than emblems that would be different than an SS396. BTW the Malibu in my signature has the correct trim and accent paint, including pinstripe. Just the SS wheels aren't correct.

For over 20 years I've read in the magazines that the 427 Chevelle is "a plain jane Malibu", or "a base coupe with 427 power" or " it is not even an SS".
I have always said they do not look like a Malibu but have most of the SS396 parts on the outside.

Have even posted this many times over the last 10 years but they continue to perpetuate this old Chevelle myth.

Now this yellow 427 COPO Chevelle pops up with the Malibu trim just to add to the confusion. :)

This yellow car is the only one I have seen with Malibu body trim but it still has the SS396 hood so it is definitely an oddball.

I know the guy who had it restored and he is knowledgeable on these cars so I assume they restored it correctly.

Do you know if it has a build sheet?
It would be interesting to compare it with the build sheet from a normal 427 Chevelle.