My 1966 Chevelle Malibu

My home is in Greenfield, Indiana, just east of Indianapolis. I was visiting my mother in southern Alabama when I found my 1966 Malibu. It was a personal project car of the owner of a small wrecking yard. He decided he had too many projects and needed to get rid of one. I bought the car in June 1996. I had a trailer hitch put on the S10 Blazer and rented a trailer at U-Haul for the trip home to Indiana. The Malibu was originally an Artesian Turquoise, 6 cylinder, powerglide car with a black interior with bench seat. I bought it without the motor and transmission, but otherwise complete. I was planning on dropping in a motor and transmission and drive the car, but sometimes things change a little. Actually, it changed a lot.
I started disassembling the car in late summer of 1996. In the fall of that year, I started doing some intensive work related traveling and progress on the car suffered. Due to extreme pressure and ridicule from my friends, I got started again during the summer of 1998. The front fenders, hood, doors, and trunk lid were removed and were chemically stripped in my garage. The car was stripped down to the bare shell, and all of the pieces were inventoried and placed in marked plastic bags or tagged and placed on the shelves. The shell and frame were then taken to be media blasted.
I was very happy when I saw it after being blasted because you never know what is hiding under the paint. After the media blasting, the car was nice and clean and turned out to be in very good shape. The dash area, windshield and back glass channels were in excellent shape and overall, the body was in very good condition. When everything was all nice and clean, the body was removed from the frame. The body stayed at the body and paint shop, I took the frame home to rebuild it and install the drivetrain. The body shop replaced the trunk floor, the lower rear quarter panels, and the front floorboards. With all of the body panels reworked, the car was ready for paint. The Malibu was originally Artesian Turquoise and that's the color that went back on.
In October of 1999 it was time to put the body back on the frame. We delivered the rolling chassis back to the body shop where it was covered with plastic before the body and new body mount cushions were installed. The final coats of Turquoise went on followed by the clear coat. The paint was rubbed out and the car was ready for me to pick up. This is where the fun began.
It took me about 16 months to reassemble the car. Part of this was due to laziness on my part, parts not fitting properly caused the rest. I not only had trouble with aftermarket parts but also OEM and original parts. I have a new awareness of what the people on the assembly line must have put up with. I spent a lot of time taking all of the wiring connections apart to wirebrush the pins with my Dremel tool. I incorporated all of the necessary wiring changes to the dash wiring to support the power antennae, the console, backup light switch, etc. before the dash was assembled and installed. All of the original dash chrome was re-chromed by APC. When I was finished, I turned the key and everything worked properly.
The seats were professionally recovered and a new headliner installed. New carpet, door panels, and deluxe seat belts were installed along with new sunvisors, sunvisor mounts, rear view mirror and rear view mirror mount. The console was re-conditioned and painted. The original bumper jack was re-finished and painted and installed in the trunk along with the new trunk mat and spare tire.
I have put about 3500 miles on the car since it was finished. The Malibu won runner-up in class at Super Chevy-Indy July 2000, 2001 and many awards at local car shows.

Specifications:
1. 1966 Chevelle Malibu 2 door hardtop
2. Artesian Turquoise with black interior
3. Bucket seats
4. Console (clock works)
5. Muncie M20 4-speed transmission with stock Muncie shifter
6. 1975 350 ci, bored .060 with reworked heads
    a. Edelbrock Performer RPM intake
    b. Holley zinc plated 3310-6 750 cfm carburetor (won at Chevellabration 2000)
    c. Dual pattern cam, 222/232 @ .050, .465/.488
    d. Jet-Hot coated Flowtech headers, 2 1/2" exhaust all the way back
7. Updated with power steering and power brakes
8. Original radio (works)
9. Power rear antennae (original rear antennae car)
10. Tinted windshield
11. Bumpers re-chromed, all stainless polished
12. American Racing AR200S 15x7 wheels Front, 15x8 Rear
13. B.F. Goodrich Radial TAs, P215R65 Front, P255R60 Rear