69 Chevelle Malibu SS 350 4 Door

OK before any of you start railing on me about why would I put so much time and effort into a 4 door and start saying 4 doors should only be parts cars I must say I have had fun with this project. I also did not do it for the money.

I started with a car with the last inspection date in South Carolina in 1991. I found it in the NC Mountains, it had been garaged stored but suffered from the rear window and front fender cancer. I may have paid too much for it but part of the deal was they would deliver it halfway across the state to my house.

I promptly pulled the dead 307 and PG from it and removed the front end. I replaced the fuel lines, body bushings, POR-15 nd the whole underside. I performed a disk brake conversion, rebuilt the whole front end, replaced the rusted tank, lines and sent it to the body shop for rust repairs and preliminary paint.

Jimmy Keeling at C and J Auto Body in Asheboro replace the trunk to rear window filler and package tray. The filler was new from Impala Bob’s and the package tray came off of a junker in a salvage yard in Oklahoma. The front doors required rust repair as did the rear window channel and right tail lamp tail panel.

While the car was gone I pulled a 350 and 700R4 from an 88 Caprice Police Car. I had the transmission built and rebuilt the 350 from scratch after finding a small crack that had to be stitched. This was my first engine complete rebuild. I also used the quick ratio steering box off of the police car and installed the adapter kit for the lines and rag joint.

When the car came back from the body shop I installed the drive train and continued on with the repairs/ modifications. I installed a tack gauge set that I purchased from Ausley’s and a 69 retro radio, also from Ausley’s. I used kick panel speakers from Custom Auto Sound. I had the A/C restored and repaired by Classic Auto Air.

James Hinshaw recovered the seats and door panels. He has been a great help finding the unusual parts needed for a 4 door. Being I live near Burlington, NC he has also pointed me towards resources he uses.

As a mention, Big Tony’s helped me with a lot of the body panels, brake conversion and trim parts. Also, NPD for the wheels.

When everything was assembled I sent the car back to paint where Jimmy Keeling finished it up.

It is hard to remember everything I have done to it but I do have a stack of receipts to remind me.

When I do another car I have learned a few lessons. The first one is not to jump on the first car I find. The 4 door has a great under carriage and frame but it needed other expensive repairs.

The second lesson is to keep all of the nuts and bolts more organized as well as small parts.

The third lesson must be to keep on a closer budget, projects like this can get out of hand.

The fourth lesson is to reuse old parts, new reproduction parts are horrible.

Finally I will look for a car with the options I want. If I want a particular engine and option level I will take the time to find it. A more finished car is also a plus.