Father and Son L78's

[67since67]

I've known Larry W since Christ was a paperboy. I have images burned in my brain of his brand new '65 L78 BelAir when I was 15. Ordered it in Feb '65, delivered in June, M22, 4.56. Larry is one of the old school fast car guys in town. Great backstory.... for another time.

Larry is fortunate to have raised a car guy son, Sean W who is a member here and owns an L78 Nova. Sean had his Nova shipped here (Waterloo IA) from Boston (Go Bruins!!) to have Dad attend to some details and to participate in the 40th Annual 4th Street Cruise on Saturday. (Over 800 cars).

Attached are pics cruising 4th Street (it was 4 lanes back then), and also the cars together at the fairgrounds Show and Shine on Friday evening. Great guys, great cars!! :beers:

Bill W

[67ssmn]

WOW WOW, that 65 is crazy cool

[olredalert]

----Bill,,,You make it sound like you have a bit of New England in you too. Being a Boston suburbs kid as well as an Ohio boy (divorced parents) I miss the bruins as well. A neighbor had yearly seats and used to take his son and me to the games. The fans back in the late 60's were way more dangerous than the players. I saw a guy throw a full bottle of beer at one of the officials once (Oh the shame, good beer wasted,,,LOL). Oh,,,He missed!.....Bill S

[Bill Pritchard]

Those wheels look perfect on the 65 Bel Air :biggthumpup:

[fsc66]

No production of M22 transmissions in a regular production 1965 Full Size car.

Paul

[mprice]

The 65 sedans don't get the respect they deserve. My is not an L78 but it is the earlier version before the L78 was available, it is a 400 horse 409 with original drivetrain.

[carnut4life]

Can't wait to hear more about this car Bill, is it Cypress Green? At first I thought it was Danube Blue until Mick posted pics of his car. Love them both!

[67since67]

----Bill,,,You make it sound like you have a bit of New England in you too. Being a Boston suburbs kid as well as an Ohio boy (divorced parents) I miss the bruins as well. A neighbor had yearly seats and used to take his son and me to the games. The fans back in the late 60's were way more dangerous than the players. I saw a guy throw a full bottle of beer at one of the officials once (Oh the shame, good beer wasted,,,LOL). Oh,,,He missed!.....Bill S

Bill, my connection is a long time friendship with a Bruins player and his family, Craig Smith #12. I was thrilled when he went to an original six team as a free agent a couple years ago. He comps me tickets when I can get there, Sean W is a Bruins season ticket holder also.

[67since67]

Can't wait to hear more about this car Bill, is it Cypress Green? At first I thought it was Danube Blue until Mick posted pics of his car. Love them both!

Yes, Cypress Green.

[67since67]

No production of M22 transmissions in a regular production 1965 Full Size car.

Paul

Paul, I had conversation with Larry this morning to get my facts straight. The attached pix from Colvin's By The Numbers, the bottom line of page 329 lists one M22 with 4.56/4.88 one pass car. That is Larry's car. Note that the top page has penciled in "post model". He distinctly remembers M22 being listed on the window sticker.

Larry ordered the car in Feb after the L78 was released on Feb 15th. The M22 was released late April, Larry's car was delivered in June. Assumption is the delay was waiting for the trans. Unfortunately the trans is now MIA.

Larry broke the cluster gear very early on. He took it to John D, lead heavy repair tech at Schukei Chevrolet and go-to guy for hi-po car repairs
John calls Larry, his dummy shaft to retain cluster needle bearings for assembly was not large enough (7/8"). Larry, a tool maker by trade made him a 1" dia. dummy shaft.
The 1" cluster shaft was not released for M20 and M21 until the '66 Model year.

Al Colvin and Warren Leunig have been involved in documenting Larry's car.

Any additional information would be appreciated. - Bill W

[olredalert]

----I know of a 65 Corvette in Nebraska that has it's original M-22. It seems safe to say that they wondered over in to the rest of the Chevy line up! The case has anomolies from later M-22's as might be expected. I can find more out about that if anyone is interested. The owner and I spent days at GM Historical about another of his rare cars and I'm fairly sure he found info on early M-22's. Just a heads up, but he may not want to divulge any info at this time! Hope this helps!....Bill S

[Denis]

1965 Corvette L78 425HP M22 Big Tank (http://corvettes-musclecars.com/gallery2/v/al_corvette/1965+Corvette+L78+425HP+M22+Big+Tank/)

[fsc66]

Yes, I reviewed all the data again and we now have GM records that show there were no production cars with an M22. Now it's possible that the car was ordered through the COPO program and that would be another story. I'll wait for Warren to chime in anyway about this M22 info

Paul

[RPOLS3]

What a great story - thanks for sharing.

[PeteLeathersac]

'

What of the '65 M22 Production Chart w/ 1x only built indicates it was a B-Body?
Also, keep in mind the 1x built '65 300 Post 396/425 was an M22 car as this thread a few months back...
https://www.yenko.net/forum/showthread.php?t=169745
:beers:
~ Pete

.

[markjohnson]

The SINGLE 1965 Olds M22 application would be interesting to know more about. Obviously, there’s quite a story (and car) behind that lone production figure!

[jeffschevelle]

'

What of the '65 M22 Production Chart w/ 1x only built indicates it was a B-Body?

There is another internal GM document pictured in Colvin's book that shows p/n 3879991 being M-22 for "154-600-164-600" models with 4.56 or 4.88 gear.

[jeffschevelle]

Yes, I reviewed all the data again and we now have GM records that show there were no production cars with an M22. Now it's possible that the car was ordered through the COPO program and that would be another story.

See the column heading on the original chart (not the typed one) from Alan Colvin's book. It has "C.O." above it. In the book (which you cannot see in the pic posted above) underneath that Colvin has a note that says that means "Central Office Production/Assembly Plant Shipments".

You'd think there would have been a column for "Chev" for Chevrolet Assembly Plant shipments (like the columns for Olds and Pont). But apparently all shipments to any Chevrolet assembly plant (whether for RPO or COPO) were lumped together in that column.

[jeffschevelle]

The SINGLE 1965 Olds M22 application would be interesting to know more about. Obviously, there’s quite a story (and car) behind that lone production figure!

Did they build Olds's at the KC plant in 65 ?

I have a real 65 M22 main case, with assembly stamp date of April 28, and a 5K129xxx partial VIN stamp on it. When I bought it I was hoping it would turn out to be the one from the 65 Chevelle COPO car. But the VIN sequence number is WAY too low to be the VIN of a Chevelle built at KC after April 28.

Is there any website that has monthly Olds production totals for each plant, like the Chevellestuff site has for Chevelles? If there was, then I could see if this VIN sequence number matches up with May-65 Olds production at the KC plant!