Definitely a cool looking Malibu.

When it comes to locating project cars, word of mouth is usually how many enthusiasts find them. Typically, someone that we know has a friend who met a guy that had a grandfather that passed a car to his son who then traded it for a tractor… or some variation of that scenario.

Charles Austin’s story doesn’t involve the aforementioned tractor, but he did find this Chevelle through a friend. “One of my firefighter buddies that I use to work with at my previous station told me about a 1970 Chevelle that his mom bought new to drive to college,” Charles said. “I wanted to get a vehicle that the whole family could fit in and a ride. Dad use to have a Heavy Chevy and many other cool rides, and I was actually going to go look at another vehicle and possibly buy it, but the morning I heard of the 1970 Chevelle, was April 10, 2013, and here we are.”

After a few upgrades, Charles’ Chevelle was road ready.

The car was under a carport and had been setting for two or three years. The last sticker on the license plate showed 1984. There was even an old college parking sticker in the back window from the college his Mom went attended. One of the first things Charles did was change the brake booster and then clean it up. “I’m not the most handy guy, and I really wish my dad would have been a part of the rebuild, even though he is deceased. So, I had one of his good friends who owns a shop go through it and make it safe to drive since it set so long.

It needed a new radiator, and we replaced the two-barrel intake and carburetor with an aluminum intake and new Edelbrock carburetor. Dad had another great friend that owns a parts store, so I made sure all the parts came from him.

When Charles got the car, it had the original hubcaps and 14-inch wheels. He wanted to upgrade yet keep the car looking period correct, so he found a deal on some Rally wheels, cleaned and painted them. “I always loved Rally wheels, so it worked out.” He quipped.  “I’ve tried to keep the car mostly original, and had it painted the original Astro Blue and had the top replaced.”

It’s always cool when original paperwork comes with the deal!

The interior was in pretty good shape. And the body only had a small amount of rust behind both rear tires and on both corners at the bottom of vinyl top. Charles also has all the original paperwork that came with the car, verifying that he is the second owner.

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? 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 series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – 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].