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Michael & Amanda Maxon's '70 |
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Car info: I grew up with this Chevelle, so it's more like a brother to me than just a car. We always had a boat and this thing towed those boats everywhere, even on a trip from Maine to Nebraska and back. We went west and north of the Great Lakes and I remember crossing the Canada/USA border. It's been repainted once in Maine, once in Nebraska, and again in St Louis, Missouri. Once my parents moved to Pittsburg, MO, it pretty much sat in the garage, save for one trip to the gas station in '95. My dad had ordered a bunch of parts for it, but never got around to paying it the kind of attention it deserved. He just ran out of time.
I have plans to take it apart a little, not frame-off or anything, but the front and rear fenders are getting some funky areas under the paint. Luckily, it doesn't get wet any more, so rust will no longer be an issue. The body mounts look decent, but I figure the lucky person that gets to fix fenders and paint it can advise me on those parts. Maybe I won't even have to do any work under there.
I have replaced a bunch of items already, not really sticking to the original theme. Headers, A/C deleted, aftermarket seat, and steering wheel reflect what would have happened if this car would have fallen into the hands of some high school kid. I've been drooling over the idea of a ZZ502, upgraded TH400, and taller rear gears as I spend plenty of time on the highway. I'll also be upgrading to the 15" factory SS wheels from Ground Up. I can't find another wheel that looks that good on this car. It would be wrong to change it. The original 14" wheels are in dire shape. I see they sell refinishing kits with the correct paint, but Mr. Rust can never truly be defeated that way. Currently, I'm gathering the parts and courage to replace all the control arm bushings, ball joints, and possibly some of the steering joints and parts. Dad mentioned this project over ten years ago!
I started a Facebook account just for the car and continuously add pictures of whatever I'm working on at the time. Since the pictures get a date, I can go back and tell when I did something, like installing a new radiator last November. It starting dripping (not from a hose) recently and is still under warranty.
Read on to see the rest of the story...
We drove to California in September 1969 in a white 1966 Chevy Impala. Dad had just gotten back from a year at Korat Royal Thai Air Base, Thailand. The new assignment was Castle AFB, CA to train in the KC-135 airplane. We ran into our previous housemates, Butch and Connie Smith, and they said they had found a great house on the Up with People ranch near Cathey’s Valley. It was a little far from the base, but we could share the house and the guys could carpool. We had a country setting and lots of space, and the price was definitely right. We had over 60,000 miles on the Impala, and thought that it might be reaching its limit, that it might be time to consider a newer car so we wouldn’t have to worry about a breakdown when we drove back to Goldsboro, NC for the next assignment. (A man can always find a good reason to shop for a new car…)
Training went pretty smoothly for Butch and Dad. Neither of them stopped to think before they went to the base on November 11th. When they got to class they realized it was Veterans’ Day and there was no class. So they made a leisurely trip back home, stopping at a Chevy dealer to “just look” at cars. Dad looked at a Camaro, liked it a lot, but realized that the trunk was too small to stow his golf clubs in it. There was another car that met his requirements (sporty, powerful, and bigger trunk), but he decided to go on home after doing no more than looking. He didn’t say a word that night about his automobile window shopping.
The next night after class, he asked me to jump in the car and go “see something.” We ended up at the same car dealer, only this time the other car, which had been in the showroom, wasn’t there. You can imagine the look on your father’s face, until the salesman came out and said “I saw you looking at that Chevelle, and I just had a feeling you’d be back. It’s out on the lot and you can test drive it.” You cannot test drive a car like a ’70 Chevelle SS and not fall in love with it! By the end of day November 12th, 1969, we were the owners of our very first new car!
We drove it in North Carolina, shipped it to Spain in 1974 and back in 1976. The little Spanish boys were in awe; they would touch it, leaving fingerprints in the dust on the car, and when we would come back to drive it home, they would smile and say “Que maquina!” (What a machine!) We brought it to Maine, then Omaha, and finally moved it to St. Louis. In August 1997 Dad drove it to the lake. Grandpa Kropf had just passed away, and somehow the Chevelle ended up in the garage, resting and gathering dust, until it was trailered up to Fort Calhoun in June of 2009. It’s still a Maxon car, and with any luck it will stay a Maxon car!
Model: Chevelle SS
Type: Coupe
Engine: 396/350+hp (aftermarket cam)
Transmission: TH 400
Rear End: 12 Bolt
Paint: Forest Green/White Stripes
Interior: Dark Green/buckets
