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What Joris lacked in age and experience, he made up for with resources and ambition. Being a farm mechanic, he had access to so many tools that he never felt that taking on a project as large as this was unrealistic. This ‘69 Chevelle Malibu was both his first American car and his first automotive project, and it had seen better days.
Having tools and plenty of space to work on this Chevrolet helped him start, and the support from friends at the Pro-Touring forums helped him find his way. Some people respect a youngster willing to fling themselves in the deep end and dog paddle his way out of drowning.
The previous owner had owned it since ‘72, and was forced to sell due to changing properties without having a way of moving the car. Unfortunately, it sat parked outside for about twenty years, so it was rusted pretty thoroughly, but Joris didn’t give a damn. Blue exterior, blue interior, and an original 307 was all he could think of. The thought of a beautiful project like this was enough to carry him through the following day, when he returned home at 4 in the morning and had to clock in a few hours later.
The first order of business was putting together a modern powertrain. The formula is simple, but very effective. A freshly built LS2 with forged internals and a custom camshaft make ~500 horsepower and similar torque. That grunt’s sent through an F-body T56 to a rebuilt 12-bolt posi with 3.55 gears.
That was the easy bit—getting the chassis in fighting shape took a little more work. First, Joris straightened and repaired the frame, then boxed and braced it with 1 ¾” pipe. Underneath all that, he bolted on a set of Aidan American coilovers and tubular suspension of mixed brands. When it was sent off to the shop for galvanizing, it came back to Joris with the added bonus of an uplifting report: the frame wasn’t warped in the slightest.
After getting the motor in place, he hit his first speed bump. Sadly, he had to remove the engine in order to notch the crossmember—the headers just wouldn’t fit without a little trimming. While it was off, he went ahead and drill and tap the LS2 knock sensor ports to accommodate the larger LS1 knock sensors; he plans on using an LS1 computer and sensors.
Getting the brakes in place was a matter of sourcing the right OEM bits and trimming them to fit. The front brakes consist of the four-piston calipers from a Cadillac CTS-V and rotors from a C7 Corvette. This wasn’t quite a plug and play affair; fitting the fronts required he machine the hubs—shrink them slightly—to fit the rotors.
Upgrading the rear was a simpler task. The brakes are LS1 Camaro brakes. Though they bolted neatly to his 12-bolt, he needed to space the calipers out slightly to align with the rotors.
As we can clearly see, there’s a grand future in store for this rusted relic. With Joris’ youthful ambition and unusual focus, a strong selection of parts, and encouragement from his online friends, we should see something quite special from this young man in no time.
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