Member: Martin Schicchi

Car: 1968 Malibu

May 1968 (I was only four years old) my uncle went into Morrison Motors (now Victoria Motor Products) in Victoria BC to buy his first car. Whether it was the ads that he had seen in the magazines or commercials on TV that convinced him that he needed to take the new Malibu for a test drive. The powerful engine, the new car smell and gleaming chrome was all that it took to convince him that the $3,500.00 would be money well spent! Yes sir, the 68 Malibu 2 door hardtop with 327 ci engine, double bump high compression heads, dual exhaust, rally rims, Jade Gold interior and metallic dark green paint had found a new home!

The Malibu story now fast forwards nine years to 1977. My father bought a brand new F250 super cab and sold his 1975 F250 single cab to his brother (my uncle) who already had the Malibu. My uncle decided to sell the car to my grandmother as she was looking for a used car to drive.

Fast forward again to 1982 and now as an 18 year old it's my turn to own the Malibu. From the very first day Granny drove home with her Malibu, I wanted it! One could certainly use the phrase that 'it was driven by a little old lady on Sundays to go to church'. When my chance finally arrived for me to own it, a mere $1,500.00 brought my dream to reality.

My dream machine, although beautiful to my eyes, did come with a few dings and paint chips. Overall, it was in great condition. In the spring of 1985 I stripped it down and sent it in for a cheap paint job. As I also had a work van, the car didn't see a lot of action. In 1987 I got married and handed the keys over to my bride. A few years later and the kids started arriving - all boys. A two door wasn't working out for us so the Malibu got parked .

Sixteen years later, the boys had grown and I started to dream about my Malibu again. In 2005 I got the official go-ahead from the wife to begin the resto of the '68! It was to be "restoration family style"! The boys and I tore the engine apart and rebuilt her from the bottom up. The interior got a major redo and all that was left was the paint. With my two older boys being close to driving age they really got car fever. We brought the car out to a few shows and to Franchelli's, our local cruise spot.

It was Feb. 2007 before the money being saved for a paint job added up to something decent. Family vacation would be put on hold and the boys and I stripped her down in a day and a half, every part labeled, tagged and bagged! Then we borrowed a flat deck trailer and brought her to the paint magicians, G&L Collision. The brothers work as a team. One does the bodywork and the other the paint work. The body was stripped down to bare metal with razor blades! I had to purchase a few new parts to replace those that had long since passed their prime, however, all in all the body was in excellent shape from all the years of storage.

While I was waiting for the body to be finished I ordered a whole pile of new stuff to do the job right. When the order came in it was like Christmas - all of my shiny new parts were just waiting for their new home. I cleaned and painted the entire frame, bent new brake and gas lines, new bushings etc. I worked on the frame everyday and before long I was done and anxious for the call from the paint shop. I had also painted all the interior parts including the dash instrument panel, not an easy task. I tried to buy a new one but as anyone with a '68 knows, not all parts are available.

I had another problem. I didn't have a place with enough room to assemble the car as the frame work was done in one of those Costco shelters. It was ok for the frame work but not for the finicky assembly work, so I had to convince the wife that we needed yet another addition onto our workshop. Two weeks later I had a nice clean 18 x 25 car assembly plant but still no car! I was starting to get impatient because I had entered my car in the Jenner Chev car show at the end of May and it was now the second week of April.

The call that I had been waiting for came and then the work began. When I saw the body back on the frame as a complete car, it was so gorgeous and polished to perfection. I had a little over two weeks to pull off my own version of "Overhaulin". I took two weeks off work and worked on the car during the day, putting as much of the parts on that I could and in the evenings a lot of friends helped out with the larger parts - bumpers, front and back windows, headliner and interior. We did all that with two days to spare before the Jenner show. I was so proud of our accomplishment! The car was perfect and when we drove up to the show the officials parked our car right in the front of the main entrance. There was a lot of activity around my car during the show and although my car didn't win any official prizes, I couldn't have been more pleased! I just "love" cruisin' in the Malibu.

My oldest son caught the fever while we were restoring my car and bought himself a '68 Malibu as well. He's just picked up all of the sheet metal parts for his car and we will be starting on his next!

Martin.

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