Bill Pritchards SS396.....CONVERT !

[Belair62]

I first became acquainted with this Chevelle in the fall of 1983. In the summer of 1983, my wife Marilee and I were in the market for a convertible, to be “Marilee’s collector car”. I told many friends and acquaintances to be on the lookout for a late 1960’s vintage convertible. In August of 1983, we located and purchased a 1969 Chevrolet Impala convertible. Some time in the fall of 1983, a friend, believing we were still in the market for a convertible, let me know that his sister and brother-in-law had a black 1969 Chevelle SS396 convertible that they were thinking about selling. I told him that we had purchased the Impala, but the Chevelle sounded interesting, so I would go and look at it anyway. He and I went to his sister and brother-in-law’s home to look at the car. I looked it over, and we went for a short drive in the car. For various reasons, I decided not to make a purchase offer.

The thought of this car did not occur to me again until April of 2002. By that time, I had been searching for a 1969 Chevelle SS396 convertible for 3 ½ years. In fact, I had purchased another one in June of 2000, but it was just not the ‘right’ car, so I kept looking. I had been following a story on a prominent Chevelle website ( ‘Team Chevelle’, www.chevelles.com ) about a gentleman who had located a very nicely preserved example of a 1969 Chevelle SS396 coupe, with 19,000 original miles. For some strange reason, all of a sudden the black convertible that I had looked at about 18 years earlier just popped into my mind. I had never seen or heard of the car since, and I had not spoken to the friend who initially told me about it for several years. I decided to call my friend to see what ever became of the car. To my complete surprise, he told me that his brother-in-law still owned it. He said that he believed the car had somewhere right around 20,000 original miles on it, and that he knew the car had only been taken out of storage 2 or 3 times a year for short drives ever since he owned it.

During our phone conversation, he related an interesting anecdote regarding the Chevelle. Shortly after his sister and brother-in-law purchased the car, they were going to go for a ride in it. The car sat on an old piece of carpeting out in the garage. The owner went out and started the car up. It was on fast idle, and he put it in reverse, and the rear wheels kind of ‘threw’ the piece of carpet just as his wife stepped onto it. She lost her balance and fell down, with her leg just behind the rear tire of the car. He backed up and ran over his wife’s leg, breaking it. By this time she was yelling loudly. He thought that she was at the very back of the car, near the rear bumper, and he had knocked her down, so he put the car in drive and pulled forward – running over her leg a second time. From that point on, she would not set foot in the car, and essentially wanted nothing to do with it. That could help to explain the very low mileage on the car.

On April 27, 2002, I went to the owner’s home. I told him that I understood he still had the black Chevelle convertible, and he indicated that he did. I asked if he would consider selling it. He said “Yes, but you won’t give me what I want for it”. We discussed his asking price, and although it was more than I had expected, it was not out of the realm of possibility. I asked to take a look at the car, and he opened the garage. It was cool and raining outside, so I did not ask him to back the car out for a better look. It was very dusty, but appeared to be a very solid and relatively unmolested car. There were just over 19,900 miles on the odometer. He told me that the car had around 18,000 miles on it when he purchased it. I looked it over as best as I could in the garage, and told him I would have to think about it for a while.

I gave it a lot of thought over the next couple of months. Finally on July 5th, I went back to his house and made a purchase offer for it. He made a counter-offer. I told him since I had last looked at it, I made a list of things I wanted to inspect on the car. Since it was a nice day, he backed it out of the garage and I looked it over very thoroughly. I took it for a short drive down the street and back. During the time I was looking at it, he said on several occasions that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to sell the car. He kept asking me to make him another offer. I finally agreed to his counter-offer price, but he again countered with a higher price. I said no, I would go home and think about it some more. On July 13th, I came back with checks made payable to him, in the amount of his original counter-offer price. He accepted and I took the car home.

A cursory inspection revealed the only non-original appearing items on the car to be dual stripe whitewall tires, Holley aluminum valve covers, a blue distributor cap, orange silicone spark plug wires, and chrome spark plug wire loom brackets. Radiator hoses, heater hoses, and clamps had also been replaced with aftermarket items. The original valve covers were in the trunk, inside the box that the Holley pieces came in. The owner had pointed out to me before I purchased the car that the original radio speaker had become inoperative, so a replacement had been installed. Again, the original speaker was retained in the car’s trunk.

The car still has the original Chevrolet ‘Protecto-Plate’ warranty card, listing the original owner’s name and address. It also shows the date of original sale as 1-17-69. I thought the last name of the original owner sounded familiar, but I could not place it. Then one day it occurred to me that name is the married name of a girl that I grew up with. I called her up, and after introducing myself (she remembered me) and giving a little background info, I got to the purpose of my call. It went something like this:



"I bought an old car last weekend, and the original warranty card has the
same last name as yours on it. I was wondering if you might..."

(she breaks me off in mid-sentence)

"Is it a Chevelle?"

"Yes"

"A black SS396 convertible?"

"Yes"

(she's speaking very excitedly now)

"OH MY GOD, YOU FOUND MOLLY'S CHEVELLE!!!!!"



Immediately I knew whom the original owner was. The woman to whom I was speaking was married to the original owner’s brother. The original owner and her husband live 2 blocks away from me. We worked together planning and producing our town’s annual car show for 10 years, so I know them well. To say I was flabbergasted would be an understatement!

I spoke with Molly a short time later. She kept saying, over and over, “You found my car! You found my car!” I asked her how many miles it had on it when she sold it, and she said “around 18,000”, which is exactly what the second owner told me it had when he purchased it. Molly got married in 1973 and she and her husband didn’t need to use the car, so she just left it parked in the old garage at her parents’ house. She was fond of the car and was reluctant to sell, so it pretty much just sat there for 5 years. This is where the second owner saw it sitting and finally purchased it in late fall of 1978.

Shortly after purchasing the car, I removed the Holley valve covers, and cleaned and reinstalled the original valve covers with new gaskets. I purchased and installed a new black distributor cap and original style, date coded reproduction spark plug wires. After filling the gas tank and driving the car a few miles, I noticed that there was a gas leak somewhere just in front of the gas tank. Gas would drip onto the right rear tail pipe; not a good thing. I suspected that the short pieces of rubber fuel line hose connecting the sending unit to the metal lines were probably still the originals, and might be dry rotted, so I decided to replace them. As I raised the rear end of the car up high in the air, I noticed a large quantity of gas leaking up near the engine. I discovered that the diaphragm in the fuel pump had burst. So now it seemed like a good time to replace the short sections of rubber fuel line in the engine compartment along with the fuel pump. While I was at it, I ordered and installed all new original style replacement radiator and heater hoses, clamps, and battery cables. I also ordered original style reproduction Firestone F70-14 Wide Oval tires, since the vintage dual stripe whitewalls were both unattractive and somewhat dry rotted. The original wheels were rusty, so I dismounted the old tires from the rims, had the rims sandblasted and painted as original, and installed the new Firestones. The car now runs and drives well, with no more leaks. We enjoy driving the car on nice summer days.

Early this year, Molly found some pictures of the car taken in 1969 shortly after she purchased it. She also found a few more from the fall of 1978 just prior to her selling it. I have posted a few of those pictures on our web site, http://home.att.net/~bpritchard , along with several other pictures of the car in its current state.

[Mr70]

What a Great Story,& a Great Chevelle.
Congrats Bill.

[JoeG]

Pretty Profile Bill---------------

[Chevy454]

Awesome write-up, and even nicer car!

[Zedder]

Hey Bill, cool car, cool story. I don't know which I like better

[hvychev]

I have seen the car and all I could say is it is awesome!!! I only wish that Bill would show it more often...he is under the impression that people don't like to see an original car with some slight "weathering" to it. I for one would like to look at a car like that any day over a restored one!

[LVCamaro]

I agree Frank...the original unrestored cars are my favorite. Very cool convertible, Bill!

SS

[JoeG]

Bill----Are your front fender wheel-wells plastic or steel--?

[SS427]

Bill, that story is a good this time as the first time I heard it. I don't think your grin has gotten any smaller since you got it and for good reason. Happy cruising and get out and show it!
Rick

[mmcporter]

Love those A body ragtops...keep enjoying the car.