The Chevelle Story

OK, so here's the story on my 1970 Chevelle SS 396. My dad traded a 1961 Chevy Impala with a 348cc 340 horsepower, 3-2 barrels, 5 speed set up. I remember it because it was fast and my dad painted it in our garage! Anyway, he found the Chevelle from some guy who wanted his Impala so they basically traded with some cash, this was when I was 12 or 1983. Dad used a local credit union and eventually it was kind of paid off but the title was lost some where in Podunk New Mexico.

Then when I turned 16 my dad handed the keys over and there was my first car! I remember it having about 78,000 original miles on it and I drove the crap out of it. It was fast, glass pack loud and got me around. At that time we were living in Washington State, Tri-Cities to be exact, and dad was taking a new job in Nebraska so we headed out and started driving and somewhere in Idaho during Memorial day weekend the as I was rolling down the road leading the way I heard a loud snap, crackle, pop and smoke started pouring out the back end like a southern mosquito fog killer. I pulled over and after further diagnostics we realized that the car had blown an piston ring and we were not anywhere near a service station and it was late Saturday afternoon. After getting some oil and stopping every 20 mins to add more we finally made it to a town, rested the night away and of course Podunk Idaho is pretty much all closed up till Tuesday except one U-haul station. After being quoted the price for a rental trailer and hitch that was well above $1500 of highway Idaho robbery and serious contemplations of my dad leaving the car because of finances or lack there of, and my pitching a totally HissyFit he wrote a check for the highway robbery job and we were on our way later that day. (Dad didn't even have the money to cover the check but he also knew we were being taken so there was bitch session to come later to U-haul) After arriving in Nebraska and taking the trailer back we found out that the actually cost should have been less than $500 and the nice Podunk Nebraska U-haul guy helped file a claim against the Idaho guy and stop payment on the check. In that deal, U-haul waived the fee overall and we got to keep the hitch!

So we rebuilt the engine with a .30 over bore and I was back on the road. I was a junior in high school, 1988, and drove that car for 8 years on and off as I bought other cars and would park it from time to time. Then I decided to go to Chiropractic college here in Texas and at the time I really couldn't afford to bring the car or didn't have a place to put it so the girl I was dating then, her grandparents lived in a Podunk Missouri town and someone they knew just built a brand new storage facility so I talked to the guy and rented the unit in 1996. The car has been there since!!!!! I think!!!!

I have kept in touch with the nice people and send my payments and even when I'm a little late they give me a shout and say hey just checking on you. Well, today, the family joke is that I have been paid $4620 for someone to restore my Chevelle and drive it around and they all can't wait for me to go and open the storage door and see my face/reaction when all that's sitting there is a note and a match box car that looks like mine. There so wrong! Bottom line is I am not really sure if the car is still there. But I really have to go get it and I say that every year. It will cost about $600 and I need a truck to pull it back, as I will once again rent a trailer to get it down to Texas and I even have space in my garage! I even think that I will put this priority over getting a new triathlon bike as my road bike seems to be getting me here and there.

So that's the story. I really Pray to God it's there.

What you think Steven.

rockon`