After working on a Chevelle that I purchased almost 3 years ago that ended up being a 6 cylinder car, I decided that the car would never be the car I had hope to own and drive to car shows and decided to make a detour on my current project. I was able to locate another Shadow Gray Chevelle that was a SS 396, 4 speed car in the local area. The car had only the frame and body of the car. The previous owner had already disassembled the car. The car came with most of the parts in boxes and the body already sand blasted and primed. The original running gear was already long gone, since the car had been used for drag racing.  

The first thing I did was to prepare the new frame for powder coating, since the first car I got the frame didn’t come out all that great since it was pitted. The frame had 3 layers of paint on it, of which was one color of blue which was put on when the car was used as a drag race car. The previous owner painted the frame black to cover up the blue, but every time it got chipped the blue always showed through. I decided to smooth all the corners and transitions spots on the frame to make it look uniformed.  Once all the welding was finished I has it sand blasted and powder coated satin black, the same color used by freightliner on their trucks frames.

I was able to use all the running gear from the first car that I had already replaced or rebuilt. I disassembled the first frame and put the front and rear suspension on the new frame. I used the motor (1969 396) that I had from the first car and replaced the turbo 400 with a M20 4 speed transmission. All of the parts are date correct for the car except the motor of which I have been looking for a correct date coded motor.  I added the Garner Exhaust system to complete the frame. Once the frame was complete I then wrap the frame up in plastic and took it to the body shop to be reunited with the body that was being worked on. 

Since the body had already been sand blasted and primered it save time having to do any stripping of old paint. The body was almost a rust free body except for a few small spots around the rear window and on the left quarter and lower front fenders. The car came with all new reproduction front fenders, but I was able to get the original front fenders from the owner and had them sand blasted and are being used on the car (primered green in the photo’s. The right rocker had to be replace do to an object falling on it and bending it. The body has been sanded and filler used to fill in any low spots on the car. Photos show the progress of the body work since March of 2008. A friend of mine is doing the body work on it. His name is Bill Lefever form Lefever Classic’s.