Member: Jim and Lisa Walker

Car: 1968 Chevelle

About ten years ago I was on my way home from work and on the side of the highway I spotted a 1968 Chevelle with a for sale sign in the window. What really caught my eye was the colour scheme of the car, consisting of SS colour patterns, a big block hood and a black vinyl top. At the time I owned a 1969 Beaumont Custom 4spd 300 horse 350 posi car that was stored in three different sheds. I had just purchased a house and did not have the time to restore any cars.

When I arrived home I excitedly told my wife about what I had noticed and she suggested we go look at it. After I picked my jaw up off the ground we jumped in the truck and went for a drive. Arriving on scene we saw that the car was actually a 327 4 speed Malibu with a bench seat.

The owner started the car and it made one heck of a whining noise. He stated that the 327 was balanced, blueprinted, had a Pete Jackson gear drive (that he had shaved the back of the gears to make them louder), and a 5 angle valve job. So we were off for a test drive and with some small amount of dickering the car was parked at my house the next day. Even though the Chevelle did not turn out to be a SS car it was too nice of a specimen to turn down. It wasn’t until we arrived home with ‘new’ addition that we found out it was #45 off the assembly line in ’67 for the ’68 model year.

The first thing I changed on the Chevelle was the front brakes. I added front disk brakes, a 8” dual diaphragm power booster from a 1996 Z28, a stock disk brake master cylinder and a quick ratio power steering unit from a1996 Z28.

The following are changes or upgrades performed on the Malibu over the last 10 years:

• Bucket seats
• Under dash CD player, amps and Subs
• Big Block LS6 front coils
• Station Wagon rear coils
• Flow Master 40 series 2.5” dual exhaust
• Hotchkis Rear heavy duty sway bar
• Changed the 327 for a balanced and blueprinted .060 over 454
• Ceramic coated Flowtech Headers
• Replaced the M20 4 spd with a built up 700r4 and a 2500 stall converter

With the new motor and transmission combo it wasn’t long until the 12 bolt 4:11 posi tore apart shattering the pinion gear. With a little research a new 4:11 posi was built with a stud girdle to keep the carrier from walking around in the housing. At this time a set of rear disk brakes was added as well.

We cruise around the Island a lot when the weather is good and visit the show and shines here and on the mainland.

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