It was not a drag to work on this beauty!
1968 Chevelle….55 years old and looking fine!!!
Recently Tucker had the opportunity to work on a rather spectacular project with our Senior Detailer, Mike.
A little back story:
Sometime in 2002 our client started looking for a 68 Chevelle like he had back in 1971. When this car popped up in Connecticut he knew he had to make the deal happen! With some savvy negotiating and additional money down the dream was realized!
It was originally found by a guy in Vermont who purchased it in (approx.) 1998. The exterior color was changed from the factory green to Black Lacquer. On the inside he installed a 468 cu in big block Chevy 4 speed with a 12 bolt rear axle and a set of Cragar SS wheels.
This car is a truly ALL original GM sheet metal car with just 18,000 ORIGINAL street miles on it! It’s a Chevelle 300 that started life as a 6 cyl, 2 speed automatic with a power steering option.
GM made a 300 and a 300 deluxe with the difference being that the 300 deluxe had rear seat armrests and a few other niceties. That made the 300 base model the lightest and strongest (due to the sedan nature) for drag racing!
When our client acquired the car in 2002 it was not his daily driver, but it was certainly driven and enjoyed for a while until that one night he decided to hit the drag strip and was once again bitten by the drag race bug and bitten hard!
From there it went to an all out drag car with suspension mods, a G-force 101a trans, 35 spline trans axles etc, The motor now is a stroked 498 cu.in big block chevy, naturally aspirated 4 speed car that has a best of 9.86 @ 138.66 In the ¼ mile. It weighs 3450 with drive in it and it’s a blast to drive…or so we are told!
Fun fact: the Sun tach and gauges in the car now are “date coded” 1969 as they have been with our client since his first street hot rod build (so it was almost like he was looking for another car to put them in!!)
When Revive was approached and asked to work our own magic on this vehicle we knew we had to make it happen. Due to it being used for drag racing it is no longer street legal and currently in Winter storage. Sometimes unique cars and unique circumstances call for unique solutions. So was the case for this car. Given the challenges associated with trying to get it to our shop the decision was made to go to the car.
Tucker and Mike brought all the necessary equipment with them to do a multi step paint correction. They were looking for 85% clarity or better to remove old wash marks and light-medium scratches in the paint before applying our Gold Ceramic Coating. This process will help to maintain the look of the vehicle over the years as he often has to do a quick detail of the vehicle at the track and doesn't have access to a full hand wash.
As you can see they achieved what they set out to do!
From our client via Google Reviews:
“Tucker came to my house and did it in my garage. It was a very difficult vehicle to do being straight black lacquer with no clearcoat, however once it was completed, the car has never looked as good as it does today.”
What an absolute pleasure and honor it was to work on this particular project! We are so grateful to have earned the trust and confidence of our client! We are beyond thrilled that he is happy with the results! We can’t wait to see the car in all its racing glory this season!
Special thanks to this client for being so ready and willing to share so many details of this car with us and allowing us to share it with all of you!
DETAILS MATTER