Member: Terry Krook

Car: 1968 Chevelle SS

I had a ’69 Chevelle and sold it a couple of years ago; I regretted selling that car the moment it drove out of the driveway! Last spring I ran an ad on Craig’s list that I was looking for a ‘66 or ‘67 and a fellow from Seattle emailed me about a ‘68 he was thinking about selling. He was a lawyer and his business and family had got larger at about the same time and he had lost interest in the car. The ’68 had been sitting in his garage for the last four years and he told me that the starter had burned out while he was adjusting the valves; he had a new one for it but had not put it in. After a few emails it turned out that he had taken roller tip rockers off and put on Comp Cam roller rockers. To do this you must also install longer studs and unfortunately he did not do that and while turning it over a valve and a piston had made contact and that was why it would not turn over.

I asked a friend in the Seattle area (he used to own a body shop) to go have a look at the car for me. He knew what price we were talking and told me that in his opinion it was a very good buy at that price even if the engine needed to be replaced. I bought the car and borrowed a friend’s trailer to go to Seattle and get it.

Fortunately the engine had not run with the new rockers on it so by putting the original rockers back on we got it running and there seems to be little damage done. I do have some lifter noise that I will delve into in the fall but for this summer, the 40th birthday of the ’68, I am just going to enjoy it!

The car has had a complete frame off restoration and there was a huge bag of receipts that came with the car. From them I managed to get in contact with a fellow named Mitch Stamos from Philadelphia; he was the owner who had done the frame off resto. He was very surprised to hear that the Chevelle had made its way from Philly to the North end of Vancouver Island! He said that he had bought and sold many classic cars since this one, but the ’68 Chevelle is one of few that he would like to have back and asked me to let him know if I ever considered selling it.

The difficult thing was getting it ready for a B.C. inspection. It had no heater or defrosters which had to be put in, no wipers or washers, and no parking brake. All the holes in the firewall for the heater box had been welded up and smoothed so putting a heater back in was the biggest chore. Thanks to the Tin Man the wiper washer install was a cinch. Because the rear end has the larger axles, bearings and C-Clip eliminators, the stock parking brake parts will not fit anymore. The easiest way to put a parking brake in was to put disc brakes on the rear. These kits use a Cadillac caliper and it is really a very easy install. The only problem I encountered was the brackets supplied do not allow the bleeder to be at the highest pint on the caliper and it was difficult to get all the air out. To remedy this, I took the caliper off, put a piece of wood between the pads, and bled them un-mounted while holding the caliper so the bleeder screw was at the highest point; I also needed to install a new proportioning valve.

The ’68 is now on the road and ready for some summer cruising!

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