Doug Mackenzie began his email about his ’67 Chevelle by letting us know it took him approximately three years to build this restomod. He began the rebuild by removing every nut and bolt, and then had the frame media blasted. Doug told us, “When I received the frame back from blasting, I painted it with POR-15, rebuilt the front suspension, and installed Wilwood four piston brakes all the way around. When I was building the car, I was not sure what size wheels and tires I was going to use, so I utilized 11-inch rotors.”

The project car before the project got started.

The engine started life as a 454 cubic-inch big-block, and it now displaces 496 cubes. Inside is a hydraulic-roller camshaft with .600-inch lift, H-beam connecting rods, and a steel crankshaft. A pair of Airflow Research heads support the Edelbrock intake and FiTech electronic fuel injection. Finishing the drivetrain is a rebuilt 4L60 automatic transmission, and a Strange Engineering 9-inch rearend with 3.73 gears.

496 cubic-inches of tire-frying power.

Doug told us, “This car has as many modern upgrades as ny budget would allow, and I installed them myself. It has Vintage Air A/C, power windows, power door locks, cruise control, a third brake light, and five-position wipers with intermittent function. I also installed a rearview mirror that has reading lamps, tells direction of travel, and displays the outside temperature. Finally, I built the interior console from scratch, and it houses a fuel pressure gauge and the hand controller for the FiTech fuel injection.” Doug also upgraded the interior just a little more, by replacing the factory gauge cluster with a unit from Dakota Digital. The power-assited high-back bucket seats came out of a Mercedes Benz.

If you like the custom-blended purple that includes a smattering of silver pearl, Doug was quick to point out that a he was only responsible for finding a competent shop to apply the shiny stuff.

Doug says that he learned a lot while building this car, and when it was completed, the rear tires spun the dyno to the tune of 540 horsepower. According to Doug, “It is not a real powerhouse, but it has just enough power to be fun to drive and not continuously tear up the car. I hope it lasts many years to come.”

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heros? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the Home-Built Hero series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more, as we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].