New guy with an L78

[Tiger Joe]

Have been reading this forum on and off for years, but finally decided to join after picking up my latest project.

One owner 69 chevelle L78. 53,000 miles. Guess technically now I’m the second owner.
M21
4.10 rear
Bench seat
Original color is lemans blue with black interior

No options car. This car was bought for drag racing. It has been in my family since new- original owner was my dads cousin. Car was raced and driven daily for several years. Parked in 1978 for a restoration that was never finished. The bad news is the car did end up sitting outside for several years recently.

Car looks a bit rough but it’s mostly all there. I also have EVERY piece of documentation for the car- window sticker, build sheet, POP, and even the original financing papers.

Going to try to attach some pics

[Tiger Joe]

Testing photos

[SPEEDYB]

Very cool

[ruralrte66]

Cool 69, Neat Story, Thanks For Sharing..

Gregg

[RPO LS7]

0

[RPO LS7]

B

[67ssmn]

check out them mc crearys

[Tiger Joe]

check out them mc crearys

My dad was actual a McCreary tire dealer in the 70s and sold him the tires on the car. Believe it or not they held air enough to roll it!

[carnut4life]

Congratulations Joe and welcome aboard!

[TimG]

Cool car, post more pictures when you can. I'd love to see the paperwork.

[msclassiccars]

Very cool car and even cooler story.

Thanks for sharing!

[tunes]

Welcome to this site and what a great car to own. Of course I may be a little partial being I own one similar to yours. I'll look forward to seeing more pictures and progress as you put it back together. Kansas City built?

[Tiger Joe]

Thanks everyone. i was posting from my phone last night, so I can type more in front of the computer now...

so a little more of the story for how this car came to be. My dads cousin and his brother were huge gearheads their whole lives. the brother actually had a 69 z28 he street raced regularly.

so the owner was in the service, went to Nam, came back and decided to use his "blood money" as he called it to buy a car. We live in the south hills of Pittsburgh- pretty close to Yenko Chevy. He actually looked at a Yenko Chevelle the day before he bought this car. At the time, the brothers thought they could make this L78 as fast as a yenko and save some money.

the car almost immediately got a set of hooker headers, a hurst shifter, and a SW tach. from my dads memory, the car ran of best of 12.14 on slicks. from what I can tell the only other mods to the car were 1- obviously clutch replaced, 2- original carb replaced with a double pumper, and 3- a set of LS6 heads was swapped on, BUT the original 840s came with the car.

mind you, while the car was being raced on weekends, it was his daily driver. he hauled his family around in it and commuted with it. at some point, it was bumped in the quarter panel and repaired by a shop. after a few years the work started to show, so it was decided to tear the car down for a repaint.

well as you guessed it, life happened and the car sat. it was garage kept until the early 2000s, when the garage was lost. with no place to work on the car, it just sat until sadly the owner died.

at the time i bought the car i didnt know any of this documentation would come with it, but i have- window sticker, original POP- completely warranty book from dealer with metal tag attached, owners manual, key blanks, and even the original front license plate screws that were never used. finance papers from original purchase show he paid $3,700 for the car in July 1969

the car was assembled in Baltimore MD according to the window sticker.

my dad and I are working on this one together. we have the body on a rotisserie and the bare frame ready for sandblasting. We are trying to get our GTO finshed this year and hopefully finish this Chevelle for next summer.

[Tiger Joe]

oh ya thought I would share this photo as well..

so my family likes to keep their cars thats for sure! this is my dads 1971 Chevelle. He bought it brand new. sadly its not a SS- he couldnt get insurance due an accident. while I dont know if its a super car since its only a 350 automatic, its very special to me. this car is 100% original other that maintenance items.

[oldstv]

I love the history and both cars!

[Bill Pritchard]

I love the history and both cars!

x2! Welcome to the site and keep those updates coming, including those about your GTO!

[Pro Stock John]

Great save.

[gtomike1967]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[firstgenaddict]

Lemans Blue L78... My favorite color and solid lifters with 3 pedals.
:3gears:

[SS427]

Welcome aboard as a contributing member and not just a reader. Great stories on these cars and I assure you we are all interested in its progression. I showcased our Yenko restoration on here and it was well received. We are due for another 69 Chevelle so get started and keep posting!

[Tracker1]

Welcome aboard as a contributing member and not just a reader. Great stories on these cars and I assure you we are all interested in its progression. I showcased our Yenko restoration on here and it was well received. We are due for another 69 Chevelle so get started and keep posting!

Also known as THE Chevelle Restoration of The Century!!!! :)

[cook_dw]

Congrats on the recent purchase. Hopefully you take us along for the ride on the restoration journey.

[qzjrd5]

Looks like a great car and congrats on the find!

[DW31S]

Welcome aboard! Great members here who are always eager to help should you need it. Love the ‘71! I’m often more impressed by an all original, more pedestrian type car that hasn’t been abused or cloned than a restored high horsepower muscle car.

[Tiger Joe]

thanks again everyone for the warm welcome.

updates on the Chevelle will be slow as we are focusing on the GTO right now.

[olredalert]

----Uh-Oh,,,Now we need pics of the GTO! You should have told us you were putting in a new septic tank. Nobody wants to see pics of that,,,LOL!....Bill S

[Tiger Joe]

so here is a pic of the GTO before I tore it down:

bought the car as a supposed driver. it was nice looking but if you went over it you could start picking out the flaws. well I found more bondo on the car than I wanted. also found rot in the fenders (on a rot free car no less!). The car was painted the wrong green so i decided to respray it back to the correct palisade green.

its a pretty cool car- 455, auto, A/C, power drivers seat, tilt wheel, rear defrost, remote truck. etc. really well optioned out car.

[Mark2002]

Very Nice. Please keep us posted on the progress.
I too am a new owner of a 1969 L78 Chevelle and just joined also.

[Tiger Joe]

well the GTO is done! put some miles on her this weekend. my first vinyl top install too. now time to dig into the Chevelle

[mockingbird812]

Nice TJ! Looks great. What does Pontiac call this color? Enjoy!!:3gears:

[Tiger Joe]

Nice TJ! Looks great. What does Pontiac call this color? Enjoy!!:3gears:

In 1970 it’s Palisade Green. I’ve also seen it called Aspen green or green mist

[Tiger Joe]

well everyone a long overdue update. i feel like we are making pretty good progress but one of our biggest hold ups is just waiting- waiting on parts to arrive, waiting on the sandblaster.

so with the GTO finished in May, we started on the frame. got the frame sandblasted in mid-June, and spent all summer doing bodywork and paint on all everything you will never see. we are back at the stage of having a rolling chassis, but i forgot to snap a pic with the wheels back on.

Mid August we had a dustless blasting company come out and blast the body shell. Overall not terrible, I've certainly fixed worse. starting on the body work in between trying to finish up any outdoor projects before winter hits.

engine is also at the machine shop. hopefully I dont end up in machine shop jail. its just so hard to find someone around us. right now its been there 1 month and I havent heard anything.

here are a couple pics of the process

[Bill Pritchard]

Looking mighty fine!

[Tiger Joe]

well i got some good news from my local machine shop today. I had a set of heads with them, not for this chevelle, and i got the call they are done. just under 3 months. they have had my chevelle engine for 1 month so maybe i wont be in machine shop jail with it!

[Tiger Joe]

So trying to go through the transmission encountered a slight problem. How do I remove the handle from this old Hurst? It doesn’t look like any of the pics I found online

I tried pulling the bolt that runs front to rear, nothing.

[Bill Pritchard]

IIRC, you have to slide a thin metal shim down between the handle and the shifter body to disengage a detent from a notch in the handle. Then with the shim inserted you should be able to pull the handle out. Hopefully someone else with more intimate knowledge will chime in here to either confirm or refute!

[big gear head]

crash (Eric Davidson at Crash Enterprises) sells all of the tools that you need to rebuild those shifters.

[Tiger Joe]

well i think i am officially one of the worst thread update posters in the history of this site.

most of the work on the car has been very slow, dont think anyone wanted to see pictures of me sanding body work over and over. however we have some major progress.

car is back to lemans blue for the first time in 45 years.

[sixt9rsx33]

Paint looks great!

[COPO]

Looks awesome. I think LB is one of the best 69 Camaro colors especially with white stripes really make it pop.

[Tiger Joe]

Thanks everyone. I’m wetsanding and buffing till my arms fall off this past week.

[Tiger Joe]

Here is a cool piece of history that came with the car. Most of the NOS parts that came with the car were purchased from Yenko

[Tiger Joe]

well like I said before, I'm probably the worst thread updater of all time, but the car is done (or as done as they ever can be). I spent the end of June and beginning of July putting the interior together and then all of the original glass back in the car.

I ended up buying repop bumpers for the car, because the chrome shop was farting around and I didnt have my originals back. well i just got a call yesterday my originals are finally done- after almost 40 weeks!

drove it about 20 miles so far, runs great no issues. car gets lots of attention everywhere i have taken it in those few miles. took my dad and I just under 2 years to get this done, and that included me painting my GTO during that time.

[Bill Pritchard]

You might not consider yourself good at thread updating, but I guarantee you have way more ambition than I do! The car looks great, congratulations :worship:

[big gear head]

More pics please.

[dykstra]

Agreed Freddie!! Gorgeous!!

[Tiger Joe]

I’ll get more pics as soon as I can. Actually hurt my leg can’t walk at the moment. Hopefully back in the garage soon

[Too Many Projects]

Absolutely stunning. LOVE that color..:biggthumpup:

ONLY 2 years...you make me feel like a slug.