Don's 1968 Chevelle Concours

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Matador red - black vinyl roof - 307 2-sp column shift automatic "all original"

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More Pictures

Here's the story:
Last year, we were on the Spoon River Cruise, and there was a 1969 Chevelle for sale in Lewistown or Cuba, Illinois. It wasn't anything special - just a daily driver that was modified slightly. It had the usual hot-rod modifications like chrome air cleaner, headers, aftermarket intake manifold and carburator, jacked-up rear end with big tires and of course the "racing" steering wheel. The guy wanted $7500 for it. I looked it over, noticed it needed some body work and interior work and took his phone number but never called him back. It definitely needed some work, but I really wanted a '68, not a '69.
We agreed (the wife and I) that when it was time for a new car, I could spend $20K, so if I wanted to, I could buy a Chevelle and fix it up and also buy a low priced econo-box; so long as both didn't go over the maximum. I kept looking on the Internet but most of the ones out there are fairly expensive; $20K to $26K for restored Chevelles. Not within my budget. One day, I saw one for $2K. I checked into it and found out that it was '68 Chevelle that was stripped down for a frame-off restoration, and it was in southern Illinois. The guy (name withheld) said it didn't have an engine, transmission, or wheels. It had a 10 bolt "posi", and he could sell me a 4-speed Munci out of his truck for an extra $600. I took a day off a few days later and went down to Anna, Illinois to take a closer look. When I got there, it was sitting in his yard, covered with a decrepid tarp and weeds growing all around it. It was really worse than I thought, but hey, it was going to be a project car anyway. It basically had more rust than the pictures showed. Definitely needed a bunch of sheetmetal work, and some welding. He had a lot of parts in storage above his garage as well; bucket seats, center console, wiring harnesses (a couple of them), assorted interior parts. The doors, fenders, hoods (yeah, hoods - an SS hood, and other stock hoods), grilles, etc., were in the back of his garage. He had some new stuff as well; body mount bushings, suspension bushings, center console shifter plates, firewall insulation pad, and some other stuff. He also had the clutch and brake pedals for a manual transmission. It was really tough to decide wheither or not to go for it.  After mulling it over for a while, I decided to go for it. I still, to this day, don't know if it was a really good decision, but I really wanted a Chevelle.
He also offered to have his brother-in-law tow all the stuff up to my house for $300, so I took him up on that deal as well. So I ended up forking over $2600 for the car and transmission, and $150 'deposit' for delivery and a promise to pay the additional $150 upon delivery.
That Saturday, they showed up around 11:00 I think, and unloaded the "junk" in my yard. You should have seen the trailer they brought it in on. Piled high with stuff. (See the pictures of the unloaded stuff.)
Well, I now have a Chevelle. I put the body and frame into the garage, and the rest of the stuff in the shed or behind it in the back yard.

Because we were planning to go to Europe in '05,  I agreed not to spend any money working on it until afterwards. I have been keeping my eye out for Chevelles to compare prices, and because I'm a dreamer. We were at the Super Wal-Mart on Dirksen Pkwy on Oct. 16 and I picked up the Springfield Shopper from October 14, 2004. I took it home and flipped to the automotive section.
There was this ad:

1968 Chevy Chevelle original, 528-xxxx
(phone number withheld for respect of privacy)
Being the procrastinator I am, I waited until the next day. I may have waited because I was reluctant to buy another Chevelle because I already had one in the garage (albeit a major project).
I called on Oct. 17
I got a return call on Oct. 18
(Name withheld) said it was an original 1968 Chevelle, red with black vinyl roof, show-room condition, slotted mags,
with a crate 307 with just a few miles on it, selling it for $10,000 (emphisized show car to dissuade bargain hunters).
He needed to (wanted to) clean it up to show so he was reluctant to show it that day. He also said it needed to be charged up or a new battery installed before he showed it. He also said "The doors are solid, drives really nice". It sounded like a pretty nice car.
I went to see it for the first time on Oct. 23, early in the morning with Colleen.
Of course, it was love at first sight (if you can love an inanimate object). It looked almost off the show-room floor, except that it had polished aluminum "mag" wheels; similar to the Centerline style I had on my old Chevelle except no rivets nor center "spinner" caps. It was red with black vinyl just as he described it. The doors were solid too. It wasn't driveable and still sitting in the corner of the garage because the battery was not charged up. The tires were under-inflated as well. So, no test-drive today. I told him it wasn't a big concern with me (justified by what I considered a well maintained vehicle). It was a little dusty. The vinyl roof was in really good shape. I looked under the hood an discovered that a mouse had made a nest on the intake manifold just under the air cleaner bonnet. There were some blue feathers and what looked like bird seed shells so I initially thought it might have been a bird's nest. Removing the air cleaner cover revealed the true story - acorns all over the inside. Everything under the hood except the mouse evidence looked original. Inside, the only thing not original was the stereo which was installed in place of the original radio. The Chevelle turns out to be the Concours model - the luxury version of Chevelles, including the following features:
*Split beach seat with fold down arm rest
*6 bow headliner
*longer than normal arm rests
*simulated wood grain dash emblem (above the glove box door)
*extra thick carpeting with heavy jute padding
*carpeted lower front door panels
*extended back seat door panel arm rests with built-in chrome ashtray (mostly found in convertables)
*Concours fender emblems
*Deluxe seatbelts (I'm not sure what that means)
*Approximately 8000 produced

What some (but not all) Concours models might have had, but this one doesn't:
*2-3 inch wide chrome strip running between rear tail lights
*Concours front header emblem and rear trunk emblem

He told us his story behind the Chevelle.
He purchased it from a consignment car lot in Springfield 05/06/99 (found a registration sticker with "<<fill-in>>" as the dealer) for a wedding present to each other, it was rarely driven because they considered it to be more of an investment than a daily driver. It was parked in the garage (which had the windows boarded up to prevent sunlight and tornados from getting in) and only ocassionally driven (he was paranoid of tail-gaters, throwing rocks up, the rain - you name it). He said never waxed it but it looked like it was just waxed.

So on Oct. 26 I delivered a cashier's check for $10,000 (which Colleen was so graciously went to the bank to get for me) and picked the car up. It was raining just a little bit. I took it out for a test drive (the battery was charged up by then). The brakes on it were really touchy - kind of like my old '68 Chevelle. I drove it home very carefully. I didn't have room in the garage, so I parked it outside, in the rain. So sad.

Oct 30: Gave it a sponge-bath because it was parked outside for a few days and it had been raining, and the cats had put muddy paw prints all over the place; hand washed a little spot at a time, then dryed, waxed and buffed. Put Armor-All on the vinyl top, dash pad and door panels, tire gel on the tires, and semi-chromed the aluminum mag wheels. With the left over Armor-All still on the rag, I shined up the radiator hoses, heater hoses, and power steering hoses. Looks like I need to take stuff off the engine and spruce it up a bit. The Chevy orange is burned on the center intake manifold and looks bad. The exhaust manifolds still have a little color in them, but have a lot of rust spots on them. The battery tray is rusty in some spots and needs to be cleaned up a bit. Everything under the hood looks in good shape, but needs a little cleaning and some painting to get it into show condition. Maybe a winter project for me.
Oct 31: Went to (Name withheld)'s house to get the stock wheels - no trim rings though. GM 14x7 Trim Rings are $68-$75 each - repros are $70-$89 for set of 4. Luckly, I got the Rally center caps - ($80.50 each on the web).
Nov 1st?: Drove it to work to show it to the guys at the office. Drove it to State Farm office after work so they could take pictures of it for insurance purposes.