Before repainting During repainting After repainting
Front View   Front View   Front View 
 Drivers Side   Drivers Side   Drivers Side 
 Passenger Side   Passenger Side   Passenger Side 
 Rear View 
 Rear View 
 Rear View 
 

Here's a picture of the Interior with the Recaro seats.

Information on my car. It's a 1971 Chevelle that I bought back in 1992 for the bargain price of 300 bucks. It had no motor and a powerglide transmission. It currently has a 400 small block bored 30 over with a regular transmission in it. It's midly built with a decent cam, edelbrock mid-rise intake and a carter 600 carb. My brother and me rebuilt the motor last year so it wasn't that expensive. I think the transmission may need to be rebuilt right now though as it sat for a couple years while other things took precedence over getting it fixed up how I wanted it. I had to replace the entire interior just about except for a couple of pieces. Those that didn't need to be replaced I repainted with vinyl/plastic paint to black instead of the blue it had been. I bought all the interior stuff from National Parts depot because of the few places I've dealt with they seemed to have the best customer support so far. Most of the restoration places have basically the same prices on 90% of their items, a few may be cheaper, but if you order some from one place, some from another, you end up paying the same basically after you pay all of the shipping charges for 3 or 4 diffent shipments. With NPD if you order over $250 the shipping is free. I hope to add some links at some point when I find them again for NPD and other Chevelle sites that might be helpful to people who are needing some parts for their cars. Also, another nice place to check is local salvage yards. I wanted to get new seats for my car but really didn't want to spend what people were wanting for original seats, one place wanted 175 a piece for bucket seats that needed to have new foam and covers put on, 500 bucks for a set of seats is to me way to much. So I happened to be at a local yard with a friend and picked up a set of Recaro buckets out of a VW Jetta for $35. They are really sweet too, black leather looking vinyl on the edges with grey cloth inserts in the middle, with Recaro on the back part. I've also done this too, I hated the wide speedometer that came in this car, so I found a 1971 Monte Carlo in the same yard with the round gauges, I bought the dash out of it, rewired mine to fit that one, so now I have basically a SS style dash (Not exactly the same but oh well) and it looks a lot better in the car than the stock one. The interiors are almost identical it just took a few hours to redo the wiring.

Update on the Chevelle.
    February 8, 2000. I've got the chrome Moldings ordered for the window drip rails, I got the rocker panel chrome strips in last week. All I need to do now is get that stuff in, put the front end rebuild kit in and it's ready to drive. We're still not sure on the transmission needing to rebuilt as I haven't been able to drive it regularly yet. I'm hoping it doesn't need to be rebuilt but if it does you can get one rebuilt around here pretty dang cheap.


 February 29,2000. Well I got the drip moldings in and put them on, took the Chevelle over to this guys house so he can put the front end kit in it for me. I've had the dang kit for almost 2 years now and haven't had the time to do it, nor the desire I guess. So I'm going to let him do it for me. The transmission is going to be a definite rebuild I'm guessing now. When I get the car back from the front end work and get it lined up, I'm going to change the filter and see if that helps at all. Then I guess I'll just pull the trans and rebuild her. It never stops :P


March 19,2000. Well, I just got the Chevelle back from the shop, I had the front end kit put in that I ordered from PST almost 2 years ago. www.p-s-t.com is their web address. I HIGHLY recommend not waiting that long as the guy that put it in said my car must've been built on a Cutlass frame because the tie rods and lower control arm bushings were not the same. They send round bushings, mine were oval, and the tie rods were the wrong diameter. I'm going to see if they'll fit my brothers car and if they don't I'm going to see if they'll send me different ones or my money back. It drives like a new freaking car now, it's just unreal. I had everything but the pitman arm replaced. Balljoints, shocks, tie rods, bushings etc. The transmission is still slipping but the brakes are working better now also, I guess sitting for a couple years didn't do them any good. I'm going to replace them probably sometime next month after I pay this months house payment. Hopefully new pics of it will be up then also, I'm sort of slow getting them taken.

August 25,2000. Well, I've been meaning to get new pics of the car on here but my scanner is on the fritz so I can't get it to scan color imagines worth a crap. It'll do black/white photos fine just not colors. I'm just gonna get a new one. Basically what's been going on Chevelle wise lately is I've just gotten a reproduction bumper for around $200 from the dude in Georgia(see JohnClassicCars below). It's a really nice made piece. Seeing as how it's over $300 to have my original re-chromed I decided to just get a repro and sometime later I can get the originals redone. I haven't been driving it much lately cause of the hot weather and working too much, I still haven't gotten the transmission rebuilt either. I been trying to pay off some student loans first before doing "fun" things with my money.

May 14, 2001.. Wow, long time since I updated this. I actually am almost done. Added pics of the car with the new bumpers and all. Still need the chrome piece above the windshield and the transmission rebuild. *sigh* Works really slow now so I'm not sure I can spare the money to fix it. Might need to pay a mortgage payment with it :P.

Here are some links to some places where you can get parts for your Chevelle.

Check out some National Parts Depot. I've used these guys for all my interior needs and rocker panel moldings. Excellent quality and friendly customer service.

Another person I've met up with since I've been using Ebay lately is johnsclassiccars@mindspring.com John is out of Georgia and is nothing but helpful. Takes the time to respond to emails and stuff. I saved some money buying my chrome wheel well moldings from him because his come with the mounting screws where as the ones from NPD don't and they are 6 bucks a wheel. He's also the one I got my window drip moldings from and that saved me close to 60 bucks I think. All in all a great guy. Check out his auctions on Ebay, or email him direct. His user id on ebay is johnsclassiccars. In addition to what he sells on Ebay he is also a full line dealer, which means he carries interiors, carpets, emblems, trim pieces, weatherstriping etc. Basically anything you need and he is very competitive in pricing. Like I said, he's a great guy and I wish I'd met up with him sooner as I'd probably have bought most everything I have gotten from him. He also now carries front and rear reproduction bumpers. I've bought one of each from him and I'm quite impressed with them. Around 200 a piece but considering it was around 300 each to get them rechromed I just opted to get the repros.

Check out 1Aautomotive.

The place I bought my front end kit from was Performance Suspension Technologies.


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