My 70 LS-6 project

[BLACKLS5]

Any pictures of the car when you purchased it, before restoration? Of course the ebay auction listing from the previous thread is long gone. Where did the car come from to be so clean and have such limited rust? Very nice car....

[Xplantdad]

Glad I could help in some small way [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

Keep the pics coming...I love pics of cool stuff!

[Z15 SS 454]

Sorry for the long winded explanation but here goes.This car was purchased new in Park city Kansas and resided in Garden city Kansas until i bought it in 2005.
Good news is Kansas is a title state and all previous owners were listed and all but one contacted by me so the history is fairly clear.

1-Original owner ordered car as a L-78 in dark blue with no options from a small &quot;gas station dealer&quot;. He wanted the fastest Chevelle that was offered as he had a 68 L-78 new and then a 69 L-34 new and was not happy with the 69.He must have been thrilled with the 70 but only owned it from the end of January 70 till April 70.

2-Second owner was a self proclaimed street racer and did a little super stock racing with car as well.He told me he genuinely cared for the car as it was &quot;his baby&quot;. While in his care he took out the LS-6 and installed a L-88, The LS-6 would remain complete in his garage until 1984. This owner had car from April 70 until June 1974.

3-Third owner had the car a short time as it was re possessed by the bank for non payment ($1170 bucks HA !)This is documented by titles listing lein holder as said bank.

4-Fourth owner ruined the car but subsequently saved it. He managed this feat by butchering the tunnel with what looked like a dull screw driver to install a four speed,painted the car red oxide primer,drip rail moldings and windshield moldings included so it looked like a sleeper. (His words not mine)
The death blow was when he crashed out ruining the fenders,inners,grille and the HD radiator. He told me the car never was driven again and this was summer 1975.

5-Second owner tried to buy it back but car was looking &quot;shabby&quot;and thought better of it.
6-Car was purchased by two others and sat in various garages from 1975 till 2003 when the gentleman I got it from finally got it after a long 28 years of trying to obtain it.

The guy i bought it from (Gary) says that he had tried to buy this car since 1970 as it was the only car to beat him in his 69 L-88 vette &quot;allegedly&quot;. He was always a step behind but kept track of it.
Gary bought the original engine from second owner in 1984,The original trans in late 90's and obtained the car finally in 03 when sadly he was diagnosed with lymphoma and died in mid 2006.

The only people that knew what the car was were owners 1,2 and Gary as all others thought it was beat up chevelle.

I will be posting pics of all the original parts that some how made it through all these years, Sorry for long post.

[chevyman0429]

Wow, Thats absolutely amazing how nice that car looks naked. I had to put a bib on drooling over the pictures. Keep the pictures coming.

Mike

[BLACKLS5]

Man that's quite a history. Thanks for taking the time to share the story. Does anyone know if late L78 ordered cars were automatically upgraded to LS6's or would the order just kick back as Not Available?

[Mr70]

They couldn't automatically upgrade w/o a paying customer agreeing &amp; paying beforehand on the other end,so kicked back to the ordering salesman as not available,and if a paying customer was waiting,was told and asked what he wanted to do next.

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Tough question, do you want an LS6 vs the L78 you ordered.......hmmm

I love L78's but an LS6 is a nice alternative. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img]

Ryan

[69LM1]

Awesome work, and history!

RichPern

[Z15 SS 454]

Agreed, Although i could not talk to the first owner about this due to his wife not letting me talk to him &quot;about some old car&quot;.
I tried twice and she was nasty, her wig must have been on to tight. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img]

[Z15 SS 454]

Found some more, These pics are random due to not putting them in a file at the time.Dont ask, Dont know why.