74PanteraGTS
08-17-2014, 01:38 PM
Hello everyone.
I have been on here for a while, but have never really made any posts. I finally have a story that is post-worthy.
When I was 19 years old (I am 38 now), I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Az. The first major purchase that I made for myself as an adult was a 1972 Chevelle SS 454. A buddy of mine at work saw an ad in the paper that read Big Block Chevelle for sale. "Project" Must sell. I called the number and went to see the car. The Chevelle had been stripped down as the current owner at the time (A very affluent young man) had visions of a drag car. He had the engine built, couldn't ever get it to run right, and the car had been in a small fire. The car was metallic brown with the remnants of a white interior. Yuck. lol. Then I saw it. The W in the VIN. I did a quick look at the numbers and saw that this was indeed a numbers matching car! Engine, trans, rear end, everything matched. It was even an A/C car with a th400 and a console with a horse shoe shifter. He told me the story of why he needed to get rid of the car was because he had taken his college money while his parents were away in Europe for the summer and was trying to build this car instead of paying for school. His parents came back early and told him to get rid of the car or they were cutting him off. Needless to say, he was ready to sell. I asked if he happened to have kept any parts off of the car when he stripped it and he took me to a shed behind the house and opened the door. There was every single part the car had been born with. We agreed on a price of $2,000.00 and I was the proud owner of a 1972 Chevelle SS 454.
The car had broken some teeth off of the distributor; to paraphrase the mechanic that fixed it, it ran like a raped ass ape. The kid had built the engine to the tune of approximately 700hp. It was almost undrivable. I kept breaking things like rocker arm studs every time I drove it so I eventually detuned it, put the original heads back on, smaller cam, etc, and had a nice little driver. Since I knew next to nothing about restoring a car, I took a 6 pack of beer with me to the base garage and bribed the old guys there to help me get the car pointed back in the right direction. I drove the car for two years while working on it as I could afford it and the car was in primer, with different colored body filler dotted here and there over the car. I got so much crap for have a car of many colors, but I loved it. Me and my girlfriend at the time spent a lot of nights doing the body work and sanding, sanding, sanding on that thing. I was sent to Saudi Arabia and since I got paid extra for being in a forward area, I could afford to buy a new interior kit for it and to have her painted once I returned. I have had a lot of memories in that car including all those that said it would never get done. I have rebuilt the top end in a friends carport to his wife's disapproval, driven it from Arizona to Iowa and back again multiple times on 7 cylinders and it never once let me down. The car was always rust free to boot. I drove it for almost 7 years in Tucson. Think about that for a moment. A black, big block Chevelle, with a black vinyl interior, in Arizona, in the summer, with no working A/C. Ahhhh youth. I never did turn on the heat, because the big block put out enough that I was never, ever cold in that thing. lol
Eventually I got transferred around and ended up in Stockton, Ca. I of course brought my beloved Chevelle with me that had taken me 8 years to restore as I just upgraded as time and money allowed. I called Hagerty insurance and told them about my move and they said my insurance would transfer. Shortly after moving to California, I was shown some Stockton, Ca hospitality in the form of my Chevelle being stolen by a neighbor. They put two rods through the oil pan and stripped her where she stopped. Taking the top half of the engine, hood, trunk, the entire interior, radiator and other misc. The hood was up on my 67 convertible Camaro that morning too, but they were not able to get that car going. When the police called me about finding what was left of the car, I almost threw up when I saw her. I called Hagerty insurance up and told them my car had been stolen and stripped and they said they would pay out as soon as I sent them pics of the damage to the garage that it was stolen from. I lived in apartments at the time because I hadn't sold my home in Tucson yet and couldn't afford two homes. Hagerty politely told me that they would not be paying out anything. I actually did throw up after that conversation. The neighbor had stolen my identity and the police arrested him for trying to break into mailboxes. He had a driver's license with his picture but my information on it when he was arrested. They found some of my parts in his apt. I was told I could sue him, but that I was number 12 on the list and that it would cost me more to sue him than I would ever get out of him. Last I heard he was caught red handed during a home invasion and that he was getting his first federal strike put on him. I hope he has a cell mate named Bubba that is hung like a horse and thinks he has a purty mouth...... Karma.
I kept the car at a friend's home for two years and couldn't bear to put the car back together. I reluctantly sold her to my buddy who was going to give the car to his brother as a present. He assured me the car was going to a good home. I had both build sheets for the car, I gave him one and I kept one. His brother thought the car was too far gone and the car got sold to parts unknown. That was just over 10 years ago.
I eventually sold the Camaro, but have beaten myself up over selling that Chevelle for over a decade. My significant other and I have talked for 3 years about trying to find the car. I misplaced the build sheet and we had gone and gotten the paperwork to request the VIN from the DMV for all the cars that I have owned over the years but never got around to sending it in. Early this year, we found out that we would be having our first child. A little girl who will be named Elyse (hey its ok to name your kid after a car so long as you change a letter right?) needed a room of her own so my office got demolished. Low and behold, I found the build sheet I had misplaced years ago. I set it in the living room and continued to paint the nursery. Eycleisha, my fabulous significant other, had been urging me to get a muscle car that the three of us could take to Cruising Grand in the summers. I only have two seat cars so I needed something else. I had been spending a lot of time researching Nova's and had come inches close to buying a gorgeous '74 Nova two weeks ago, but something told me not to.
I'm never on Ebay. Seriously, never. I have been looking at Novas, not Chevelles, so I do not know what possessed me to type 'Chevelle SS' into eBay's search function. When the cars started popping up in the thumbnails, one in particular caught my eye. Just a black Chevelle labeled "project". I literally thought to myself, "That's my Chevelle." I opened the ad and started looking at pictures. The third pic showed Hooker headers that had the bottom scraped up, just like mine. The 5th pic was of yellow ladder bars....just like I had on my car. The 7th pic showed a craptastic fiberglass patch in the trunk under and to the right of the latch...... just like mine had because I couldn't afford to fix it correctly. I pulled out my build sheet and compared the VIN........ HOLY F***BALLS BATMAN! This IS my car! I almost fell off my chair and was in a fog the rest of the night.
I sent the seller an e-mail and waited.......
No reply by the next morning. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Maybe he listed it on Craigslist too? I did a search near where the Ebay ad said the car was located and YAHTZEE there it was! The Craigslist ad had a phone number. I called and left a message. Shortly thereafter I got a phone call back and I chatted with the seller. He had some details about the car to confirm that it was indeed my old Chevelle. He said he would rather it go back to the third owner (ME!!!) than to some random person that wasn't going to treat it well. The car has been sitting in storage for a decade. He had put a new SS dash in it, bought and recovered SS bucket seats, and he had bought a new center console, horse shoe shifter, carpet, headliner, and new door panels. He was asking a bit more than I can really afford right now especially with Elyse on the way, but Eycleisha said that it didn't matter, put it on a credit card, sell something, dip into retirement if we had to, but she told me that I WAS GOING TO BUY THAT CAR. She told me that it doesn't even matter if it sits for years on the side of the house until I can afford to restore her, I'd regret it if I didn't buy her. I may have to keep Eycleisha. I called the seller back and we agreed on a price. I will be wiring money tomorrow and making arrangements to bring my baby home. For the second time, I will rebuild her from nothing. I first bought her at 19 years old. I am buying her the second time 19 years later. As soon as I find the pics from the first time I owned her I will post those along with new ones when she arrives.
I have a few decisions to make. Take the Chevelle full on pro touring, back to stock, or the way I had her in the 90s? I'm leaning more toward how I had her set up when I was in my twenties, except with Air Conditioning. There is just something magical about driving a big block sucking in copious amounts of air through a carb that no fuel injected motor can duplicate. I think I may add a Gear Vendors overdrive unit and keep any mods that I do make bolt on only, just in case I want to put her back to original someday.
My September is going to be an eventful one. I have two babies on the way. Elyse, and my Chevelle. I'm almost overcome with emotion writing this. It's a good day to be me.
Terry
I have been on here for a while, but have never really made any posts. I finally have a story that is post-worthy.
When I was 19 years old (I am 38 now), I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Az. The first major purchase that I made for myself as an adult was a 1972 Chevelle SS 454. A buddy of mine at work saw an ad in the paper that read Big Block Chevelle for sale. "Project" Must sell. I called the number and went to see the car. The Chevelle had been stripped down as the current owner at the time (A very affluent young man) had visions of a drag car. He had the engine built, couldn't ever get it to run right, and the car had been in a small fire. The car was metallic brown with the remnants of a white interior. Yuck. lol. Then I saw it. The W in the VIN. I did a quick look at the numbers and saw that this was indeed a numbers matching car! Engine, trans, rear end, everything matched. It was even an A/C car with a th400 and a console with a horse shoe shifter. He told me the story of why he needed to get rid of the car was because he had taken his college money while his parents were away in Europe for the summer and was trying to build this car instead of paying for school. His parents came back early and told him to get rid of the car or they were cutting him off. Needless to say, he was ready to sell. I asked if he happened to have kept any parts off of the car when he stripped it and he took me to a shed behind the house and opened the door. There was every single part the car had been born with. We agreed on a price of $2,000.00 and I was the proud owner of a 1972 Chevelle SS 454.
The car had broken some teeth off of the distributor; to paraphrase the mechanic that fixed it, it ran like a raped ass ape. The kid had built the engine to the tune of approximately 700hp. It was almost undrivable. I kept breaking things like rocker arm studs every time I drove it so I eventually detuned it, put the original heads back on, smaller cam, etc, and had a nice little driver. Since I knew next to nothing about restoring a car, I took a 6 pack of beer with me to the base garage and bribed the old guys there to help me get the car pointed back in the right direction. I drove the car for two years while working on it as I could afford it and the car was in primer, with different colored body filler dotted here and there over the car. I got so much crap for have a car of many colors, but I loved it. Me and my girlfriend at the time spent a lot of nights doing the body work and sanding, sanding, sanding on that thing. I was sent to Saudi Arabia and since I got paid extra for being in a forward area, I could afford to buy a new interior kit for it and to have her painted once I returned. I have had a lot of memories in that car including all those that said it would never get done. I have rebuilt the top end in a friends carport to his wife's disapproval, driven it from Arizona to Iowa and back again multiple times on 7 cylinders and it never once let me down. The car was always rust free to boot. I drove it for almost 7 years in Tucson. Think about that for a moment. A black, big block Chevelle, with a black vinyl interior, in Arizona, in the summer, with no working A/C. Ahhhh youth. I never did turn on the heat, because the big block put out enough that I was never, ever cold in that thing. lol
Eventually I got transferred around and ended up in Stockton, Ca. I of course brought my beloved Chevelle with me that had taken me 8 years to restore as I just upgraded as time and money allowed. I called Hagerty insurance and told them about my move and they said my insurance would transfer. Shortly after moving to California, I was shown some Stockton, Ca hospitality in the form of my Chevelle being stolen by a neighbor. They put two rods through the oil pan and stripped her where she stopped. Taking the top half of the engine, hood, trunk, the entire interior, radiator and other misc. The hood was up on my 67 convertible Camaro that morning too, but they were not able to get that car going. When the police called me about finding what was left of the car, I almost threw up when I saw her. I called Hagerty insurance up and told them my car had been stolen and stripped and they said they would pay out as soon as I sent them pics of the damage to the garage that it was stolen from. I lived in apartments at the time because I hadn't sold my home in Tucson yet and couldn't afford two homes. Hagerty politely told me that they would not be paying out anything. I actually did throw up after that conversation. The neighbor had stolen my identity and the police arrested him for trying to break into mailboxes. He had a driver's license with his picture but my information on it when he was arrested. They found some of my parts in his apt. I was told I could sue him, but that I was number 12 on the list and that it would cost me more to sue him than I would ever get out of him. Last I heard he was caught red handed during a home invasion and that he was getting his first federal strike put on him. I hope he has a cell mate named Bubba that is hung like a horse and thinks he has a purty mouth...... Karma.
I kept the car at a friend's home for two years and couldn't bear to put the car back together. I reluctantly sold her to my buddy who was going to give the car to his brother as a present. He assured me the car was going to a good home. I had both build sheets for the car, I gave him one and I kept one. His brother thought the car was too far gone and the car got sold to parts unknown. That was just over 10 years ago.
I eventually sold the Camaro, but have beaten myself up over selling that Chevelle for over a decade. My significant other and I have talked for 3 years about trying to find the car. I misplaced the build sheet and we had gone and gotten the paperwork to request the VIN from the DMV for all the cars that I have owned over the years but never got around to sending it in. Early this year, we found out that we would be having our first child. A little girl who will be named Elyse (hey its ok to name your kid after a car so long as you change a letter right?) needed a room of her own so my office got demolished. Low and behold, I found the build sheet I had misplaced years ago. I set it in the living room and continued to paint the nursery. Eycleisha, my fabulous significant other, had been urging me to get a muscle car that the three of us could take to Cruising Grand in the summers. I only have two seat cars so I needed something else. I had been spending a lot of time researching Nova's and had come inches close to buying a gorgeous '74 Nova two weeks ago, but something told me not to.
I'm never on Ebay. Seriously, never. I have been looking at Novas, not Chevelles, so I do not know what possessed me to type 'Chevelle SS' into eBay's search function. When the cars started popping up in the thumbnails, one in particular caught my eye. Just a black Chevelle labeled "project". I literally thought to myself, "That's my Chevelle." I opened the ad and started looking at pictures. The third pic showed Hooker headers that had the bottom scraped up, just like mine. The 5th pic was of yellow ladder bars....just like I had on my car. The 7th pic showed a craptastic fiberglass patch in the trunk under and to the right of the latch...... just like mine had because I couldn't afford to fix it correctly. I pulled out my build sheet and compared the VIN........ HOLY F***BALLS BATMAN! This IS my car! I almost fell off my chair and was in a fog the rest of the night.
I sent the seller an e-mail and waited.......
No reply by the next morning. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Maybe he listed it on Craigslist too? I did a search near where the Ebay ad said the car was located and YAHTZEE there it was! The Craigslist ad had a phone number. I called and left a message. Shortly thereafter I got a phone call back and I chatted with the seller. He had some details about the car to confirm that it was indeed my old Chevelle. He said he would rather it go back to the third owner (ME!!!) than to some random person that wasn't going to treat it well. The car has been sitting in storage for a decade. He had put a new SS dash in it, bought and recovered SS bucket seats, and he had bought a new center console, horse shoe shifter, carpet, headliner, and new door panels. He was asking a bit more than I can really afford right now especially with Elyse on the way, but Eycleisha said that it didn't matter, put it on a credit card, sell something, dip into retirement if we had to, but she told me that I WAS GOING TO BUY THAT CAR. She told me that it doesn't even matter if it sits for years on the side of the house until I can afford to restore her, I'd regret it if I didn't buy her. I may have to keep Eycleisha. I called the seller back and we agreed on a price. I will be wiring money tomorrow and making arrangements to bring my baby home. For the second time, I will rebuild her from nothing. I first bought her at 19 years old. I am buying her the second time 19 years later. As soon as I find the pics from the first time I owned her I will post those along with new ones when she arrives.
I have a few decisions to make. Take the Chevelle full on pro touring, back to stock, or the way I had her in the 90s? I'm leaning more toward how I had her set up when I was in my twenties, except with Air Conditioning. There is just something magical about driving a big block sucking in copious amounts of air through a carb that no fuel injected motor can duplicate. I think I may add a Gear Vendors overdrive unit and keep any mods that I do make bolt on only, just in case I want to put her back to original someday.
My September is going to be an eventful one. I have two babies on the way. Elyse, and my Chevelle. I'm almost overcome with emotion writing this. It's a good day to be me.
Terry