Barn find '68 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe

[OhioC5]

Long boring story so I'll try to keep it short. I'm a sucker for a 68 Malibu with a 4 speed. Guy at work bought this 1968 327 CID, Muncie 4-speed, posi-trac, bucket seat, center console Chevelle from the original owner. It has some fantastic documentation that will come with it. The Chevelle hasn't been driven in years. I'm fairly confident I'll be driving it very soon. The flatbed tow truck is going to pick it up for me on Saturday. I bumped into the guy at work and asked him if he still owned the old Chevelle. He said, hey why don't you buy it from me. Sold, I'll take it!!! I just happened to have the money in my pocket and was in his office for a meeting. So it was fate.

The body is a little rough, but the interior is in very good condition. Dash pad has no cracks, door panels look good the headliner is perfect, You know, the drivers seat needs a little repair on the seat cushion. Carpet looks OK if it was cleaned but probably need to go. Floors and trunk floor are great. Usually a vinyl top car will rust under the vinyl and leave huge cancer holes. The one doesn't experience those types of problems. He pulled back some of the vinyl top to see condition of body around window.

I'm going to pick it up on Saturday and see what I need to do to get it running. It's just been sitting a number of years. I need to find one hub cap that's missing. Install a new clutch kit, get the brakes working and drive the hell out of it. If the motor is in need of rebuild it may just go to auction.

So here's the find, let me know what you think.

 

[TURBOTIMMER]

Cool car. I love original cars. I would leave it alone and drive the wheels off it. Only original once.

 

[OhioC5]

Yea, it's kind of cool right. I'm going to find a hub cap to replace the one that's missing. Get a clutch kit, inspect brakes, fix seat, tune it up and drive it every chance I get. I restored 2 Chevelles and have no ambition to do it again.
If the motor is locked up or something like that the car will go to auction. I had a '68 4-speed when I was a kid, this one has some sentimental value to me. That's one of the reasons I had to have it, but I'm also going to use my head.
If it starts to get to deep I'll let someone else play with it.

 

[OhioC5]

It needs some new carpet too. The guy I got it from has left it outside a few months and it got pretty wet. His wife was on his butt to get the car out of his yard. I've looked at a bunch of A bodies in my time and they're all rusted around the rear window. I was amazed this one only has a very tiny hole in the window track. It's maybe 1/4"

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

nice find

 

[TURBOTIMMER]

It needs some new carpet too. The guy I got it from has left it outside a few months and it got pretty wet. His wife was on his butt to get the car out of his yard. I've looked at a bunch of A bodies in my time and they're all rusted around the rear window. I was amazed this one only has a very tiny hole in the window track. It's maybe 1/4"

Tell me about it.

 

[OhioC5]

Oh man, been there too. My '69 had to have major surgery, the firewall in my 69 was even bad. I guess you know what I mean. That's why this car amazes me, good trunk, good floors, firewall and around front windshield is all solid.

Is that Butternut Yellow? My '68 has a repaint, original color is butternut.

 

[TURBOTIMMER]

The Buick name for the color is cornet gold. It's a very rusty 70 GS 455. Not really worth saving, but it's a labor of love. My dad was a salesman at the dealer that sold it new. He might have even been the one that ordered it. Needs everything.

If your car is solid underneath, than that's a real find. Not many like that up here in the rust belt.

 

[OhioC5]

That makes it worth saving!

Check this out. Bill of sale, protecto plate and I believe I have the original coupon book for payments. If I'm looking at it right the payments were $20 bucks a month,

 

[TT/Ameasap]

If you decide to sell, lemme know. Your in Ohio right?

 

[OhioC5]

Yes, northeast Ohio. It's going to be for sale at some point. My plan is to get it running and driving. A couple people have reached out to me with interest. I have about 78 pictures in a photobucket folder if you want to see them shoot me a PM.

 

[OhioC5]

 

[Pronto]

Brings back memories, I had a 68 Chevelle in high school.

 

[TurboWh1]

Love the 68's! Nice grab That car will be very nice for someone. I'd love to take on another restoration but I have two I need to finish first

 

[OhioC5]

Ok, just returned from the shop. It's definitely a 12 bolt rear end, Saginaw transmission and the front pad of the engine matches the VIN. The motor is locked up tight! I don't think there's enough lubricant made to free this one. 36 years and not turned over did it in. The trunk is in amazing condition there's not a hole to be found. I haven't found anything significant wrong with the floors, it has a bunch of undercoating everywhere. After Giving the car a closer inspection I'm not sure if I can call it a survivor or not. It may be on life support. As someone stated earlier the car is a great foundation for someone to restore. However, as good the floors, trunk and frame appear solid every other body panel has some cancer. It needs fenders, doors, quarters, the passenger side front wheel well and rear wheel houses. The radiator support has rot on the lower section as well.

Here's the plan for now, I hope I'm not making a huge mistake. I feel incredibility guilty for not just driving this thing around on a trailer to show people because it's so cool and documented. I'm going to pull the engine and put it on a stand until I can get it to the machine shop. This car needs to have the correct engine in it. I'm going to put a new clutch in it and stab an engine I have in the bay so I can drive it. The fluids in the rear diff and transmission will be changed and I'm going to make it safe as I can by replacing all of the brakes. My buddy is helping me, he has strict orders not to take anything off of the original engine or throw anything away. We're not going to put a battery in the trunk, cut any wires or do anything stupid, if possible. All the car has is the factory manifolds and one piece of exhaust pipe hanging over the rear axle. I'm not even going to take that manifolds off of the engine yet. I guess we'll find out if the transmission is still any good. The engine oil looked fine just like the guy told me.

I've had a few A-bodies. This car blows me away, it rusted in the strangest places. I'm going to post some more pics for you guys. Why the hell didn't it rust under the vinyl top, around the trunk, floors or firewall and those damn boxes by the the frame. I can't remember what they're called at the moment I'm tired and old.

It still has the AM radio. The transmission cross-member rusted in half, but there's no holes in the floor? It looks like it may have sat on a dirt floor or something. I found all kinds of cool stuff in the center console. There's an old hot wheels car, some maps, receipts for warranty work on the transmission and a whole bunch of service. Funny, one says something like, customer complains transmission goes into reverse too easy. I'll post some of those later. It makes me happy other guys appreciate this kind of find. I think my wife thinks I'm nuts but I get pretty excited looking at all of the old stuff.

 

[OhioC5]

Here's a little update on how it looks now. I spent a lot of time cleaning, painting and wrenching. I ordered center caps and beauty rings for the rally wheels. Can't remember if I posted, but it now has 4-Wheel disk brakes and pretty much everything mechanical is new. All of the lights work, speedometer works and it shifts through the gears real nice.

 

[monteperformanc]

Nice work! Just curious but how did you fix the vinyl roof near the rear window? It looks all torn up in one pic and then it looks good.

 

[OhioC5]

The pictures are a little out of order before my last post. The top was very nice and the guy before me ripped it all up. I used a razor knife, trimmed up all of the loose stuff and painted the metal flat black.

 

[JustABuick]

Sweet find! My '68 Camaro is in MUCH worse shape, and has also been in Ohio its whole life...just goes to show what some TLC and good storage can do for two similar cars, same age, in the same area....

 

[LIVE4RDO]

Nice work.

This is mine: 68 Chevelle 300 Sport Coupe