COM – 1978 Chevrolet Malibu

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Vintage Car of the Month

Posted On November 1, 2016

Owned by Carey, from Windsor ON.

Funny story about how I obtained my car!

At the time I was an Enforcement Officer with the Ministry of Transportation, while stopped at a red light I heard a sweet thunderous lumpy cammed car pull up beside me. I immediately activated my roof lights and pulled the vehicle over.  The owner was panicked thinking he was about to be ticketed for some reason when I explained to him that I was a car guy and just had to check it out.  I then proceeded to go through the entire car, inside, under the hood and underneath.

I liked what I saw, we discussed if I was for sale, an offer was presented and 20 minutes after that I owned the car, it’s been in my garage for about 22 years now!

During this time I have continued to do extensive work on it making it to what it is today.  It started out as a 355 cubic inch small block nicely done but bigger is always better, I then installed a 454, put about 500 miles on it and decided to build a 496 bbc.  A good friend of mine is an engine builder (Randy Lenius Racing Engines) planted the seed that I should go even bigger, of course I bit, at the end of the day this was what we created.

The car is a 78 Chevy Malibu, 6 point cage, racing buckets, new carpet, Autometer gauges, Grant steering wheel, new seats.  The engine is a brand new top to bottom, inside out.  It is a 582 cubic inch BBC, Dart  Big M block, Dart Pro 1 355 CNC heads (extra port work done), Holley HP Ultra 950 carb, Crower stainless steel rockers on the top, Comp springs, ti retainers, fabricated aluminum valve covers, Dart intake, custom Ross Racing pistons, Manly H beam rods, Isky roller lifters, Trend pushrods, Callies Magnum crank, Comp solid roller cam, Cloyes double roller timing chain and 2 piece Cloyes aluminum cover, ATI Super Damper.

Headers are Super Comp ceramic coated, complete March under driven pulley kit with March braketry, high torque mini starter,  Moroso deep kickout oil pan, all ARP hardware and studded heads.  Full MSD system, Pro Billet distributor, Digital 6 plus box, MSD 160 amp alternator, HVC2 coil , Moroso Ultra 40 Series wires.  Cooling is a custom Griffin aluminum rad, Stewart Stage 2 water pump, Derale 4000 cfm  electric fans.  Fuel system is Mallory 140 electric pump, Mallory regulator, full return system, stock fuel tank with sump installed.

Transmission is a 350 TH, manual valve body installed, Hutch custom stall convertor, BM Pro Ratchet shifter, G Force trans crossmember, Stephs fabricated deep trans pan.  Rearend is  Ford 9 inc, Detroit Locker , 411 gears, converted to full disk brake, Hotchkis upper and lower control arms, Hotchkis rear swaybar, Bears chromoley driveshaft, Spicer U joints, lakewood driveshaft safety loop.  Bumpers rechromed, all new brakes, lines, booster, QA1 shocks, new coils, Energy Suspension mounts.

The entire undercarriage was sandblasted and 2 coats of POR-15 applied, the car is new front to back, top to bottom, cruises on nice days only.

Cheers!

 

1 Comment

  1. Greg

    Nice car!

    Reply

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