A new life for a Chevelle SS
Old Cars reader rebuilds rough 1969 Chevelle SS to an outright stunner!
Story and Photos by Kevin Byers
It all started when I was young. I would watch my dad, uncle and grandpa work on their old cars and always wanted to have one of my own. I was always kind of fond of Chevelles. Off and on, I would look through Auto Trader with hopes of finding one in my price range to bring home and restore. In the fall of 2000, the journey began when a coworker took his daughter to see cows on an Ohio farm. While he was there, he saw what he thought was an orange Chevelle sitting out in the field. The following week, he told me about the car he had seen sitting in the farm field. He gave me directions to the farm, and the following weekend, my dad and I went to the farm to inquire about the vehicle. The farmer said it was not for sale and that it was his son’s car. He continued to explain that his son would be coming into town the following week for a wedding and proceeded to give me his son’s phone number, which I called. During the conversation with the farmer’s son, he confirmed that the car was a 1969 Chevelle Super Sport and it had been sitting in the field for more than five years. The car had originally come from North Carolina, then went to Michigan, Ohio and, finally, the farm. It hadn’t been on the road for many years and at some point, it had been stripped down in order to become a drag car. It did not have a motor or transmission
The son and I agreed to meet the following weekend in order for me and my dad to view the car. The weekend came and upon our inspection, it looked like someone had been going for the “Dukes of Hazzard” theme. The Chevelle was orange and had a CB antenna base mounted on the trunk lid. My dad and I continued to learn that there was very little interior inside the car. The deck lid had also been left open, allowing a small tree to grow through the large hole in the trunk floor where a battery used to sit. The sheet metal appeared to be in decent shape, despite small patches of rust. The engine was gone, and the only items under the hood were two steel wheel wells lying inside the engine compartment.
After negotiating the price, my dad and I decided to accept the challenge of rescuing and restoring the Chevelle. Once we got it home, the restoration began. The dream was to restore it to its original showroom condition. As we disassembled the car, we found more and more issues. The main issue was the rear frame rails had rotted out due to a hole in the trunk floor.
Since the rear rails were so bad, my dad suggested that the vehicle would instead be a candidate for a pro-street car. Therefore, we took it down to just the frame and cut the rear rails off. We fabricated the rear frame rails and narrowed the rear of the frame. Then, we purchased and narrowed an old Ford truck 9-inch rear end. For approximately three months, we designed our own four-link suspension system, because the pro-street rear frame rails that we purchased from Summit Racing would have eliminated the rear seat. As a result of our design, we were able to repair and fabricate rear frame rails that would accommodate a rear seat. This meant that any four-link suspension we would buy would have to be modified in order to work. Once everything was mocked up to fit, I painted the frame.
Over time, we continued to find parts needed to adequately complete the rebuild. For example, we purchased a Muncie four-speed from my uncle. For the engine, we preferred a 396-cid V-8, but did not acquire one due to the expense and lack of availability. Instead, we used a big-block Chevy 454 that came from a mid-’80s Suburban that had previously caught fire. My grandpa had originally purchased the engine from a salvage yard. When the salvage workers were removing the engine from the Suburban, they dropped it twice, resulting in one of the cylinder heads getting broken and the oil pan being punctured. Despite the damage, the block was good, so we took it to our local machine shop for repair.
I wanted the big-block to have a healthy sound and a lot of power. The machine shop had it for more than a year. The workers were trying to find new cast-iron cylinder heads that would fit big valves. During this time, my dad and I worked on restoring the chassis and body. Over time, we found a homemade rotisserie to put the body on. We purchased it for $100 from a man who used to restore Model T Fords, so we had to modify it in order for it to accommodate the Chevelle body.
Once the body was on the rotisserie, the real work began. We began sandblasting the inside of the cabin as well as the underside. We continued to meticulously patch holes throughout the floor and around the windows. We fabricated large rear wheel wells and a new trunk floor in order to accommodate the new 15x15 Mickey Thompson tires.
My dad and I completed rebuilding the Ford big-bearing 9-inch rear end with Positraction and 4:10 gears, as well as the Muncie four-speed. Eventually, we received the engine back from the machine shop. My dad was a heavy machinery mechanic for more than 30 years. His extensive knowledge and experience proved beneficial in rebuilding the engine and drivetrain ourselves. After it was built, we placed the engine and transmission in the frame.
As time elapsed, life responsibilities and priorities pleasantly changed. I was blessed to become a husband and father. As a result, the restoration was placed on hold for several years. I am a supervisor of a finishing department, which allowed me to take various car parts to work throughout the years and paint them during my breaks. This allowed me to keep the project moving. Over time, my family and I moved to a new location farther from my parents’ home, which was where the car was being stored. As a result, I was not able to work on it as often as I would have liked. In order to bring the car home, I needed to renovate an old pole barn located on my property. This took some time. By 2019, I was finally able to load the body of the car onto a trailer and bring it home. Now I could begin the body work.
All of the rust had already been repaired by my dad and I several years prior. It took many months to correctly fit all of the sheet metal. Long hours were spent adding and grinding welding rod, which was added to the edge of the panels in order to create a 3/16-in. gap. Once all of the sheet metal was properly fitted and the gaps adjusted, I started straightening panels. This turned into many hours of block sanding, which turned into many weeks. I was trying to achieve a laser-straight car. Once I was pleased with the outcome, I disassembled the panels in order to paint the edges and door jams. After I finished painting the edges and door jams, I reassembled the car in order to paint the body. I chose GM Arrival Blue as my paint color. I painted the car at home in the pole barn I had previously renovated.
Years ago, when I was stripping the car, I discovered holes in the body for trim pieces and realized the car originally had a vinyl top. Therefore, I decided to put a vinyl top back on it. In addition, I purchased new chrome bumpers and trim for the entire vehicle, because the original parts were not salvageable. I also purchased a wiring harness and new glass.
In regards to the interior, I purchased a correct black vinyl SS interior kit. I successfully installed all of the interior except for the two front bucket seats, because they were ’68 Chevelle seats that had pushbuttons on the sides instead of in the middle of the backs. This proved problematic, because purchasing new ’69 Chevelle seat frames would be expensive. My dad recalled that my grandpa had two 1969 Chevelle Super Sport bucket seats that had been sitting in his basement for approximately 30 years. (They were once in his ’57 Chevy Bel Air.) My grandpa graciously let me have them for the car. Therefore, I was able to reupholster and install the proper seats in the car.
As time allowed, I continued to restore the car to completion. Everything except for the engine machining and four-wheel alignment was completed at home. In the summer of 2025, after 25 years of perseverance and determination, my dad and I took it for a drive. In August 2025, I registered it in a local car show for the first time where I enjoyed the opportunity to share the journey with other car enthusiasts. Lord willing, I plan to continue to enjoy and share this accomplishment with others.
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