When this photo of our ’68 Chevelle project was taken on Thanksgiving Day of 2006, I knew we had a long road ahead of us. Its first appearance in PHR was in the April 2007 issue, where it made a big splash with “Project Car Makeovers!” screamed loudly on the cover. In that issue, we started with the car you see here—14-inch slot mags and all—and performed a down and dirty visual transformation. After a swap to some 17-inch Vintage Wheel Works V40 wheels, Nitto NT01 tires, a spring trim up front, some vinyl graphics, and judicious use of some Dupli-Color spray bombs, we started turning heads in a hurry.
With that done, we performed rapid-fire mods to our Chevelle (originally a 307 Malibu rebadged by the previous owner), tackling the suspension (CCP), rear end (Currie 9-inch), engine (496-inch big-block), transmission (TCI Turbo 400), three-point harnesses, shifter, gauges, slicks, fuel tank, and overdrive (a fuel-saving Gear Vendors unit which you’ll read about soon). We also tweaked, tuned, tested, and retweaked several times along the way, chiseling our quarter-mile e.t. down to an impressive 11.31/117 on pump gas and on pure motor.
Through the months, we’ve spent (including the car) somewhere between $35K and $40K—depending on whether you count stuff we’ve done twice and if sold take-off parts count to bring the total down. We’ve tried to keep our decisions on the modest side, and we’ve managed to keep things in line with what the average guy would have in his low 11-second street-driven Chevelle. Of course, we did cram all that spending into less than two years, where most folks would probably spread that out over 5 to 10 years. Hey, that’s magazine life. If we took longer than that, you’d wonder if we were doing anything!
So now we’re at a crossroads where we need to finish things up. We’ve got a few ideas. One thing we need to address is the sloppy, slow-ratio steering, and the small front brakes. In terms of bringing the Chevelle up to modern performance car standards, there is much improvement to be made in that area. Then there are comfort items, like air conditioning, stereo, and nav system. To many readers, a street car just isn’t a true street car until that stuff is taken care of. Beyond that, we need to address some body and paint problems. We’ve lost some trim pieces, and there’s some rust beginning to show through. One thing we learned from Project g/28—our ’76 Camaro—is that once you get the paint looking nice, it’s really hard to hit the road. Sometimes, “too nice” can destroy the driving experience. Right now, the Chevelle is a ton of fun, and we never worry about stone chips or door dings.
What do you think? Should we paint it, or do some more performance mods next? Should we retire it and move on? Post your thoughts below!