Chevelle/Cars

1965 Chevrolet Chevelle

“Malibu”

2-Door Wagon
(1965 production of the 2-Door wagon totaled 1668 and few remain)

I have been a "gear head" pretty much all my life. I have had some cool cars (my opinion anyway), some not so cool cars and I have killed (its a fact!) some cars. One of my favorites was a 1964 Nova wagon. It had a 327-300hp engine that was salvaged from the junk pile at Jack Douglass Chevrolet. Its previous life was in a Corvette that had spun a bearing. Turned out the bearing wasn't all that spun and after a quick rebuild - just bearings and rings without a visit to the machine shop - it was up and running. Bucket seats, Muncie 4-speed, headers, aluminum intake, Holley 4-barrel and a duel point distributor from a Corvette all made for a great time in that car. This odd fetish of mine, continuing to this day, has resulted in my owning (quite proudly) a 1965 Chevelle (300) wagon. Chevrolet produced 1668 of these "long-roofs" and I doubt whether many survive today. The purchase and subsequent rebuild is a really long and tedious story so for now I won't bore you with the details. Don't miss the picture gallery for images from the car’s sale listing, its delivery, the work required to make it into a solid reliable driver and, did I say, a really cool car. By the way - a huge thanks to Randy and all of the guys at Midwest Hot Rods - they rock!

DRIVE TRAIN

GM Performance ZZ383 factory rated at 425hp / 449lb-ft torque with aluminum Fast-Burn 62cc heads fitted with 2.00" intake / 1.55" exhaust valves, 4.00" bore and 3.80" stroke, 9.6 to 1 compression, four-bolt main block with forged pistons, crank and rods, steel hydraulic roller camshaft .509" / .528" lift 222º / 230º duration and1.5 to 1 aluminum roller rocker arms.
Hedman Hedders ceramic coated headers.
Streets & Performance (S&P) chrome accessory drive system with chrome alternator and A/C compressor.
GM chrome (S&P) Ramjet Electronic Port Fuel Injection managed by GM 1227730 (Z28) OBD1 ECM.
GM polished (S&P) distributor with Taylor blue spark plug wires.
GM 700R4 4-speed automatic transmission, lockup torque converter with Derale heat sink transmission cooler.
Flowmaster mufflers connected with 2.5" exhaust.
GM 12 Bolt 3:46 gear set with Richmond’s Powertrax traction (No-Slip) system.

BODY AND SUSPENSION

Saginaw 700 variable ratio power steering box by Mullins.
Wilwood 12" brake rotors, 4-piston calipers and integral parking brake.
Chrome power brake booster and master cylinder with stainless steel brake lines
Painless Wiring 18-circuit wiring harness with all new sub-harnesses.
Energy Suspension motor and transmission mounts.
Global West tubular front and rear control arms and sway (1 ¼" front and rear 1") bars.
Global West “Del-a-lum” bushings.
Classic Performance Products 2" drop spindles.
Edelbrock Inertia Active System (IAS) classic shocks.
Moog coil springs.
Budnik (17" - 7" front 17" - 8" rear) wheels and “Stinger” steering wheel.
Pirelli “P” Zero (235 /50/17" front 245/50/17" rear) tires.

INTERIOR

Vintage Air heating and air conditioning system.
Lokar floor shifter.
Original Parts Group gauge cluster with tachometer.
Ididit chrome steering column with tilt, 4-way flashers and headlight dimmer.
Power windows.
Power tailgate window.
Power (4-way) seat.
Original Parts Group door panels.
Dynamat Xtreame sound deadener and heat shield.
Julianos 3-point OEM style shoulder and lap seat belts.
Glide Engineering reclining bench seat with center arm rest.
Shaved door handles with remote electric door release.
PPG custom blue pearl.
Ken Harrison AM/FM Cassette radio.

Picture Gallery

The images below are of the car from the day I first saw it listed for sale, its delivery to Chicago and some of the work being performed. If you see a picture that is interesting, you can click the image to display a larger view.

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This page was last updated 09/26/2010