Member: Michael Stewart

Car: 1980 Malibu

My ’80 Malibu was purchased by my uncle from the original owners in 1988 for the sum of $1200.00. My uncle remembers that the owners had tears in their eyes as he drove away in the car. My uncle turned around and sold the Malibu to my Grandma in 1991 and it became granny’s daily driver until the summer of ’99. The dreaded “rear frame rust” had forced Granny to buy a newer Buick! On a promise that I would fix up the Malibu I was given the Malibu for my birthday/grad present in Feb 2000. The car had only 112,000 kms on the odometer.

After getting the car , modifications that I could afford were in order. The first thing was to remove the hub caps and put a flat black treatment on the rims. Next was to improve the sound of the under powered 267 by installing a flo pro muffler on the single exhaust system. I, at least, had a car now that sounded like a V8! Other modifications that followed were a set of Firebird Alloy 15x7 rims topped off with 235/60 BF Goodrich tires. You can tell we are a car family because I received the tires as a graduation gift! The Malibu was slowly changing its appearance and the rims and tires made the car look great! The next modification was the installation of Honda Accord bucket seats. This work was done by Jeff Horsfall of Duncan. The seats are comfortable and offer lots of leg room for my 6’6” height!

Further changes occurred over the next few years. The 267 was replaced by a 350 four bolt main bored .30 over. The 350 has a mild cam, MSD HEI coil, Edelbrock dual plane aluminum intake with 600cfm carb, and Hedman headers. I am now looking for a pair of high flow heads to complete the engine modifications. The single exhaust system was replaced with dual 2.5” pipes with flowmaster 40 series mufflers. The transmission was rebuilt by Duncan automatic and now has a shift kit and a 2200 stall convertor. The Malibu runs a lot different than it did when I got the car from “Granny’! To complete the drive train future plans are for a Moser 9” with 3:73 gears.

I love working on the car. The Malibu has provided me with stress relief when other things in life just don’t seem to be going right. I have enjoyed drag racing the Malibu at the once a year drags at the Thunder in the Valley races in Port Alberni. As I indicated earlier in my story, the frame rust did catch up with the Malibu and a rust free frame from another Malibu was transplanted. It was a two week job repairing body mounts and swapping frames.

My ’80 Malibu is my home built “muscle car” that gives those big dollar cars a run for their money. It is an on going project and is definitely part of the family. Plans are for a nice paint job but for now I enjoy cruising in a quick and reliable car. I feel that the ’78-’83 Malibus are becoming quite popular; in fact in a recent Hemmings they predicted that the Malibu may be the next generation collector car.

Mike

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