Father and Son L78's
 

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

WOW WOW, that 65 is crazy cool

----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

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

1965 m22
 

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

Paul

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.

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!

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.

Yes, Cypress Green.

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