Words: Tommy Parry
When David grabbed this Chevelle back in the winter of 2010, he had high hopes but a modest budget to work with; he was just a freshman in high school. There were a few spots of rust and the need for a new motor, and for the moment, that was all he had on the horizon.
First, he rebuilt the ‘70s-era 350 and mated it to a TH350 transmission, and then turned his attentions to the body. Unfortunately, he found that the rust had spread far further than he’d anticipated, and he was forced to replace both quarter panels, the doors, fenders, trunk lid, rocker panel, rebuild the trunk floor, and patch the driver’s floor pan. The frame was also rusted through. With a set of original disk brakes and body control improved with Eibach lowering springs, David had himself a spiffy muscle car. Not bad for a highschooler.
As these cases usually go, once David had a taste of some genuine performance, he sought more and turned down the Pro Touring path. Next came a 2001 LQ4, a T56 and 4th gen Camaro disk brakes to bring his Chevelle up to a higher standard. After tearing the motor apart, David noticed some cross hatching on the cylinders, so he took the engine to a machine shop for cleaning up. While there, they installed new bearings, rings and gaskets. To squeeze a little more power out of the setup, David added a set of 799 heads to raise the compression ratio. These heads have BTR .660″ valve springs with titanium valve springs to complement the medium sized cam he picked out. For the purposes of a Pro Touring car, 425 at the wheels would be plenty.
After snagging a rust-free frame off of the Team Chevelle classifieds, he chucked off the rusted upper control arms and replaced them with a pair of UMI pieces, which he connected to a 12-bolt rear end with a 2.73 posi he grabbed off Craigslist for a steal. With some tubular bracing of his own construction, Global West extended travel coilover brackets front and rear, he’d have the roadholding that a Pro Touring car ought to have. Sometimes, you have to pinch yourself to remember that this is a high school student’s creation. If only I had a third of his dedication and mechanical know-how then.
Next, in went a pair of blue leather seats from a modern GTO before David sanded the body panels and coated them in some epoxy primer. Now, he had enrolled in college and his time was limited, but with the rust and setbacks he’d already had to contend with, he wasn’t going to throw in the towel quite yet.
In fact, the experience seemed to motivate him. Next came the restructuring of the transmission tunnel, the removal of the rest of the interior, and the assembly of a custom dash with Speedhut gauges. Since David’s quite the beanstalk, he had to find a tilt column that would help him wedge himself into the Chevelle’s cabin. After a quick trip to the junkyard, he grabbed two tilt columns from ‘70s Oldsmobiles, mixed the best bits of the two, and gave himself an ergonomic steering position for a meager $50.
Next, David had to balance his life between engineering classes and tinkering on his toy, but he was able to set aside a few hours every weekend. To help put that power to the ground, David employed a Strange 9” rear, Ridetech coilovers and 275-section tires on 17×9.5” wheels at each corner. Having a square setup might make the car a little on the pointy side, but no matter; this car was meant to go sideways around corners.
After sorting out the wiring mess, David had a functioning roller, but he still wasn’t quite content with the fit and finish of the Chevelle. After adding some chrome trim around the windows, he reupholstered the interior with basic PUI unassembled panels, installed some LED lights around the footwell and topped it all off with a set of leather seats from a Hyundai Tiburon. These manual buckets allow him to sit his lanky self more comfortably in the Chevelle’s cabin and wear a helmet when he took his toy to the track. With this sort of performance and mechanical expertise at a young age, it looks like David’s got a promising hot rodding future ahead of him. He’ll probably be pretty popular with a conversation piece like this Chevelle, too.
