GM Reject on Musclecar Enthusiast

[69Shelby]

Got the May 03 Issue of Musclecar Enthusiast today. Has a great story on Frank Chicherchia's 69 L-78 Post SS Chevelle. Beautiful car. Is that a rubber floor mat that I see in the picture??? Were the Post Cars equipped with just rubber floormats? As a kid I remember tooling around in some real basic Novas with no carpet just a rubber mat kinda like my Dad's pickup at the time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

[MYSTERYCHEVELLE]

Yes, I believe that was the case...fellow Chevelle enthusiast Don Lightfoot may chime in here, he owns one of the nicest 69 Post cars in his country /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/worship.gif

[PATRICKJOINER]

That beautiful Chevelle no longer resides in Frank's garage. Sure is a neat car though!!

[Keith Tedford]

These cars, post and hardtop, came with the full 300 Deluxe interior except for the SS emblems on the dash and steering wheel. They were Chevy's answer to the Roadrunner. No one reproduces these interiors, so not many remain that are in good condition. We came up with seat material from SMS Auto Fabrics in Portland, Oregon to repair the seats. A local dealer came up with a rubber mat. We were fortunate that the rest of the interior was in good shape. Over half of these cars that I have run across have L78 motors. Don's also has aluminum heads. Definitely a nice example.

[Don_Lightfoot]

Mike and Keith - it's amazing what rewards a guy gets when you buy a couple of Chevelle dudes a lunch /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif, thanks for the kind remarks.

If anybody is interested in the suttle differences between a Malibu and a 300 Deluxe you can check out this page (http://www.geocities.com/don111ca/page9.html) on my website.

When Frank's car was recently listed on eBay I downloaded all 75 pictures, that car is detailed to the nines. Also, that car does have documentation, unfortunately mine does not, but I don't lose any sleep over it - just enjoy the darn things /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif

[Jeff H]

What would the price difference be between an SS396 and the equal 300 deluxe version?

[Keith Tedford]

I understand that the Malibu package added about $80. It doesn't sound like much today but was the best part of a week's wages for the average Joe back then. Our car had the L78, M21, F40, 4:10 posi, and tinted glass all around. It cost about $3360 according to the original owner. If you didn't want to be fancy, performance came pretty cheap. Come to the Chevelle show at the Holiday Inn on Grand Island in the Niagara river, July 11-13, and you will see at least 3 of these cars first hand. The show is affiliated with ACES and Chuck Hanson is supposed to be there. Don Lightfoot has been the inspiration for all of this. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif

[ORIGLS6]

The "GM Reject" owned by Cliff Perry of Astoria, IL. was a terror on the Central Illinois and Iowa strips for a while. I saw the car run a number of times at our strip and at Beardstown, IL.
The photo of the car in this particular article makes mention of the car being campaigned in Maryland, if I recall correctly. However......the picture was taken at Beardstown!
This car and a '64 Thunderbolt left Illinois together in the mid '80s headed to California and Boyd Coddington's shop. The Chevelle turned up for sale at SC Indy just a few months later. Kinda lost track of it after that until a few months ago. Very Cool Car!

[Mr70]

It is a very nice Chevelle.
Hey SS47,It's Frank! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
Greg Dieterly from Russiaville Il. Bought this Chevelle next,then Had Brian Caudell restore the car.At the same time my good friend was having Brian restore his Astro Blue LS6 Chevellle in the early 90's.The LS6 had all of it's original parts intact,but when he got the car back from Brian,he found repro parts here and there.He found out later that his original LS6 parts were added over to Gregs "GM Reject" during restoration.
Needless to say,he wasn't happy,and went unanswered from Brian.To this day he still looks at the "GM Reject",and sees his Tail pipes,Center caps,smog equipment.
We saw it at Atlanta NCOA Convention in July 1995,of which I still have those pix.It looked different then.
Greg sold it to Paul Lillick not to long ago,and Paul sold it to the east coast,where some extra options were added to it,and increased it's asking price while on Ebay.
It's a nice car to look at,...Ay Sam??? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggthumpup.gif

By the way,I just heard Chuck Hanson just bought a 1969 L78 Post sedan Chevelle from a close friend of mine here in Ill.
It is a Lemans Blue Chevelle,and was at VOLO in the Mid 1990's.It came out of Arkansas originally,and is again for sale. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Keith Tedford]

Sort of like the beutiful woman. Not quite so beautiful once you see her reputation and flaws. Ours may not be top show car quality but it is 100% honest. It was enough to win us people's choice at a local show amongst much nicer cars. Tainted cars are just that, especially in the big dollar arena, and it isn't even the car's fault. I like my reject just the way it is, 1969 gauges and all.

[ORIGLS6]

Keith/Rick,
I agree. With all the money and time thrown at this car, I would personally rather see it in it's original form. Just seems to taint the car's history by trying to 'convert' it to someone's view of what it could have been. Just my opinion, and we all know what that's worth. Still, I have to admit it's good to see that it's still around.

As I think back, it was probably the late '80s to early '90s that the two cars went to Coddington's. They were both at Rich Gebhardt's first shop in Jacksonville, IL waiting for a trailer when I saw them.

Dennis