My buddy just scored this 65 Malibu

Elias Graves

Elias Graves

Common misfit
He's been driving truck in the oil field in North Dakota and spotted this in a field.
It's a 65 that came with a 327 and a 2 speed power glide. The motor is not original but appears to be a mid 60s 4 bolt Corvette 327.
There's no rust-through anywhere and all dents are minor. Nearly all the trim is with the car and is in very good condition.
The interior, however, is gone.
He brought it back to Oklahoma last weekend on a trailer, still unsure about his plans. He's not a big Chevy guy but this one was so unmolested and in decent condition that he couldn't pass it up for the price.
Anyway, his brother Mike is a big Chevy guy and bought it on sight. His plans are still forming but I think he's going to use the 327 and just make it into a nice hot rod. He already has a 1/4 mile Nova so this one may become a streeter.

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Yeah. Lotta work but the body is solid without being half bondo. I'm shocked it's as rust free as it is after sitting out all these years.

Next up, he's eyeballing some 50s panel trucks for me...
 
man, there is a LOT of work to be done there. i don't think that car will ever be worth a quarter of the $$ it will take to bring that back.
 
Elias Graves said:
I dunno. He bought it for $2,000. I've spotted many 65s in the $25,000+ range.
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from the look at those pics, it will likely cost him every bit of 20 grand to get it back to restored condition. especially if he's going to restore it with real GM parts.
i'm just sayin'
 
mongooz said:
from the look at those pics, it will likely cost him every bit of 20 grand to get it back to restored condition. especially if he's going to restore it with real GM parts.
i'm just sayin'
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More than that.

He'll drop $30K in the LMC catalog (or whatever it's called) before taking a wrench to it.

To restore that car would be a labor of love done by an enthusiast with the full understanding that doing so will be a terrible financial investment. But, if it pays dividends in years of smiles and enjoyment, it's worth the expense.

Having paid unimaginable sums of money and countless hours of grueling, meticulous work restoring an old Z car that was a show quality stunner when complete but not worth 1/3 the cost of the process, I speak from experience. I loved it, and have no regrets. Never again though. I'm too old for that shit now, and thinking about the number of times I took that out of the nice, safe garage for a thrill only to have some asshole open their door into it, back into the passenger side door two days after it left the paint booth, rear ended it at a stop sign, or the runaway shopping cart from Hell that brutalized it... I don't have enough fucks left to give to keep me from spending a few nights in the pokey for choking a motherfucker out.

I don't know if it's murphy's law or what, but I know I'm not the only one that can drive a daily vanilla family truckster for five years without suffering a scratch, but the minute I take the nice car out for a spin, every parking lot and intersection turns to a Michael Bay action sequence with yours truly front and center.

Fuck that.
 
I could see it turning in a nice 10 footer without laying out a ton of money. It won't be a show stopper, but it can still be nice looking and fun to cruise on a budget of less than $10k.
 
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He already has a motor to go in it. He decided to use a 454 he already had.
Plus, he's a machinist and welder. 90% of the work will be done in his garage.
I bet he spends more on paint than anything else.
 
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