My father was (RIP Dad 4/4/50 - 2/7/04) into muscle cars in the 60s. He used to race a '63 Impala 283/powerglide in stock class. The Impala was replaced with a '68 Nova sporting a muncie 4 speed/4.10 gears and a hopped up 350. He tore up the streets of Syracuse, NY, Ionia, MI and all points in between with that Hugger Orange Nova. He was always a Chevy/GM guy. That naturally made me into the same thing. I always thought that my father would wind up later on in life with a 68-72 Nova. We would go to a car show here or there and I'd listen to stories about this car and that one, and these people my father used to run with when he worked on the railroad in the 60s/70s. We always remarked about how there were more chevelles than you could shake a stick at. Most of the shows we went to were filled with camaros and chevelles. If there were too many fords or mopars there, we'd leave.
When I was in college, one evening my father called me on the phone at my house and I guess he had my mother holding the phone by the rear end of the '72 Chevelle he just bought for $2500...while he revved the engine up so all I could hear through the phone were the sounds coming out of that thing. This was in 1997 or so. I think his business was doing well at the time, and it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up. I drove to my folk's house that weekend and my father and I stayed in the barn tinkering with his new old car. He was so happy. I remember turning in because my eyes were crossing, waaaaay late that night, and he was holding the alternator in one hand, scrubbing years of gunk off with steel wool in the other hand. I think he stayed out there messing around all night. He bought headers, an intake, a 390 4 barrel, an HEI, and some valve covers (all used) off a friend of his, and we installed those items the next weekend. He loved that car. The engine and trans were overhauled and mildly built up a few winters later. Then the body was redone and painted red/white sport stripes in around 2001 or so. My father passed suddenly in 2004 at age 53. A couple years after he passed my mother called and told me out of the blue that my father would have wanted me to have his Chevelle, so we made arrangements for me to take ownership of it. I have had it ever since. That is my Chevelle story and I'm sticking to it.
This is what it looked like when my father bought it...
