Roy J
Ordering the car
In 1969 I was 21 years old, in the Army stationed in
Vietnam with October 17 being my day to return home.
While in Vietnam, I was able to save most of my pay. I
always wanted to have an SS Chevelle, so, I arranged to
have a new one waiting for me when I returned home.
The major car manufacturers had sales representatives in
Vietnam that could sell you a car that would be ready to
be picked in the US when you returned. Where I was
stationed, there were salesmen for Ford and Chrysler,
but no GM. I checked on a Dodge Charger and
Plymouth GTX, and used their advertising brochures to
select the options and color choice for my Chevelle.
My brother Ron placed the order for me with a local
dealer, Fering Chevrolet in Sleepy Eye, MN. I was told
that the car needed to be ordered in early July if I
wanted it by Oct. 17. The order was placed on
7/3/1969. The car was ordered based on the 1969
Chevelle option and price lists, since the 1970
information was not yet available.
List of options ordered on this car:
SS 396 which included:
350 HP 396 V8, special suspension, power disc brakes,
special doomed hood, sport wheels, wide oval white
lettered tires, wheel opening moldings, black resilient
rear bumper panel, special SS dash panel and other
performance and identification features.
4 speed transmission, floor mounted lever
Strato-bucket seats
Center console
Radio, AM
Rear speakers
Power steering
Soft-Ray tinted glass
Color: Cortez silver with black interior
Note: This is not a “stripe delete car”. The hood and
trunk lid stripes, along with the hood hold down pins
were an option, not standard with the SS models when
this car was ordered.
The car was built at the Leeds plant in Kansas, the
fourth week of September, 1969, production #64181
Sometime before I left Vietnam, Ron sent me a letter
informing me that the dealer had the car. He included a
brochure for the 1970 Chevelle SS. It had a picture of a
red Chevelle SS396 with black stripes. My first color
choice was silver, but when I saw this brochure, I
wished that I had chosen red instead. Now there are so
many red chevelles, I am glad I chose silver.
Picking up the car
I left Vietnam on Friday, Oct 17, 1969 at about 6AM,
processed through the Army base in Oakland, Calif.,
and arrived home in rural New Ulm that same night
around 11PM. The next day I got up and went with Ron
to pick up my car. Upon arrival at the dealership, the car
was sitting out front. I went inside and informed the
salesman that I was there to pick up the silver chevelle
parked out front. He told me that it was already sold to
a serviceman in Vietnam. I told him that I was that
person. He knew I would be leaving Vietnam on Oct
17, but never thought I’d be there to pick up the car the
very next day. He figured it would take a week for me to
get home. Since it was a Saturday, I couldn’t pay for the
car. He knew I really wanted the car, so he had the car
prepped for me, accepted a $600 payment, put a dealer’
s plate on the car and trusted me to be back on Monday
to pay the rest, register the car and finish the prep work
on the car.
Driving the car
I had a year and a half left in the Army stationed at Fort
Eustis, VA and Fort Mead MD. The Chevelle went with
me. The car made 3 trips back and forth to the east
cost. I got an early discharge from the Army on Dec. 23,
1970 to attend college. The car was my transportation,
being used for school, work and all social activities. The
car was never raced, except for a few street drags.
In November of 1971 it was involved in an accident.
While waiting at a red light, a semi truck rammed the
back end. At that time the car was just about totaled
out, but since the frame wasn’t bent, I was able to get it
fixed. It got a new rear bumper, trunk lid and right
quarter panel. The car was involved in two more fender
benders in the next couple of years.
Helen and I were married on Aug. 30, 1975. The car
wasn’t used for the wedding, instead we used my
brother Ron’s new Pontiac Lemans. The Chevelle was
our honeymoon car for a trip to the Black Hills of SD.
and brought our first born, Scott, home from the hospital
a year later.
Going into retirement
Helen had a 1968 Camero that she had bought in 1970.
In 1977 we bought a new Pontiac Grand Prix. We
couldn’t get what we wanted for trade on either car, so
we decided to sell one of them on our own. The Camero
sold first so the Chevelle stayed. Later that year we
bought a pickup truck, and the Chevelle went into
storage.
At this time the car had about 89000 miles on it, and
was beginning to show wear. There was rust behind the
front wheels and on the rear quarters around the wheel
opening. The engine was running poorly do to the
carburetor float being saturated. The interior was good.
Restoring
In 1992, I decided to get the car back on the road. The
intention was only to get it running and looking good.
The engine would be pulled and overhauled, and some
body work would be done at a local shop to repair the
rust spots. I, along with our 2 sons, Scott and Matt,
worked on the car.
We took the front clip off and pulled the motor and
transmission. The engine was overhauled by a co-
worker, Denny Walser, who does auto repair on the
side. The wear on the motor was minimal, so all original
spec replacement parts were used. All stock size.
Hardened valves and seats were installed.
The carburetor was rebuilt by The Carburetor Shop in
Maplewood, MN. The transmission side cover and tail
shaft seals were replaced. No other work was done to it.
Once we had everything off the front, I decided to pull
the body off the frame. Then everything was taken off
the frame and the frame sand blasted and primed. At this
point, everything kind off sat for years.
At this point Helen and I decided that if we were ever
going to drive the car again, we needed to get someone
to finish the job. After checking out several shops, we
chose John’s Body Shop of rural Nicollet, MN. Owner
John Sieberg came and looked over the car parts and
said he would be willing to do the job. I would assist
since I had pulled everything apart and knew the car
inside and out.
It took another year before the car got into the shop,
and was there for about 9 months. The body was had
everything removed and dipped to remove the rust. New
GM fenders were installed along with new GM
Restoration Parts quarter panels. The trunk floor was
replaced. The bumpers were re-chromed. New
Firestone Wide Oval tires were put on. New carpet and
headliner were installed inside. A new windshield was
installed. Many other NOS and reproduction parts were
installed, keeping it looking as it looked when new.
When it came to painting the car, John suggested putting
the stripes on it. Since they were an option on the car, he
would have no problem with putting them on and thought
would make it look better. I really had intended to
restore it to original. I really didn’t know what to do. So
I put the question on Chevelle Tech Forum on
“Chevelles.Com”. I got several responses. Several
thought the stripes should be put on, and several thought
to leave them off. Reading the responses, I concluded
that having the stripes at the local shows and cruises
would be popular, but leaving the stripes off would be
more attention getting at the bigger shows, since most of
the SS’s have stripes. I decided to leave it original and
the car is solid Cortez Silver. And it does attract
attention being a real SS without stripes.
When we got it back in August of 2002, there was still
work to be done on the engine. I wanted to have it far
enough along to show at the Auto Restorers Club show
on Sept 15 in St. Peter, MN. Installing the exhaust
system was the last thing done. The exhaust system
missed three ship dates, three weeks in a row. It looked
like it would be a show stopper. But the system finally
arrived Sept. 7. The car was started for the first time on
Sept. 9, 2002 and made it to the show and received an
award.
What started out to be a project to get the car back on
the road looking good, ended being a complete frame
off restoration to original. Knowing all that had been
done to the car previously, made it easy to keep
everything original. This is a numbers matching car.
Parts for the restoration came from many sources. Aside
from the parts still available from local auto supply stores
and Chevrolet dealers, parts were purchased from
Ground Up, Original Parts Group, National Parts
Depot, Auto City Classic, Classic Muscle, Year One,
Brake and Equipment Warehouse, plus others. The
brake master cylinder came from Chuck Mueller, a
fellow Northstar Chevelle Club member.
Driving and showing
Now, the car is driven to shows, parades and local
“classic car drive ins”. The car attracts more attention
than I ever figured it would.
A highlight was taking it to the Mid-America Chevelle
show, in an enclosed trailer, in Olathe, KS. on August 1,
2003. We registered for the “participant judged class”.
After seeing the car, several of the sponsoring club
members said they thought the car should be shown in
the points judged class. So we switched to the 1970
Original Restored class and to our surprise, received
third place. We enjoyed the show and plan to attend
more of these.
Some information about 1970 SS’s
Once this restoration was started, I found that GM
changed a few things during the production year.
The first SS’s had:
Polished aluminum trim under the headlight molding.
These were eliminated on later built cars.
The doomed hoods had smaller openings for the hood
insulation. Later hoods had larger openings.
Tail light lenses with smaller reflective area and the
backup lens area has a flat surface. The later ones had
more reflective area and the backup lens area is convex.
The standard battery had the posts on top. The year end
cars had batteries with side posts because the 71 models
would have them. All the heavy duty batteries had side
posts.
Had the battery ground cable attached to the right front
side of the engine block. Most of the cars had the
ground cable attached to the top of the alternator
bracket. This may not have to do with when the car was
built.
In 1969 I was 21 years old, in the Army stationed in
Vietnam with October 17 being my day to return home.
While in Vietnam, I was able to save most of my pay. I
always wanted to have an SS Chevelle, so, I arranged to
have a new one waiting for me when I returned home.
The major car manufacturers had sales representatives in
Vietnam that could sell you a car that would be ready to
be picked in the US when you returned. Where I was
stationed, there were salesmen for Ford and Chrysler,
but no GM. I checked on a Dodge Charger and
Plymouth GTX, and used their advertising brochures to
select the options and color choice for my Chevelle.
My brother Ron placed the order for me with a local
dealer, Fering Chevrolet in Sleepy Eye, MN. I was told
that the car needed to be ordered in early July if I
wanted it by Oct. 17. The order was placed on
7/3/1969. The car was ordered based on the 1969
Chevelle option and price lists, since the 1970
information was not yet available.
List of options ordered on this car:
SS 396 which included:
350 HP 396 V8, special suspension, power disc brakes,
special doomed hood, sport wheels, wide oval white
lettered tires, wheel opening moldings, black resilient
rear bumper panel, special SS dash panel and other
performance and identification features.
4 speed transmission, floor mounted lever
Strato-bucket seats
Center console
Radio, AM
Rear speakers
Power steering
Soft-Ray tinted glass
Color: Cortez silver with black interior
Note: This is not a “stripe delete car”. The hood and
trunk lid stripes, along with the hood hold down pins
were an option, not standard with the SS models when
this car was ordered.
The car was built at the Leeds plant in Kansas, the
fourth week of September, 1969, production #64181
Sometime before I left Vietnam, Ron sent me a letter
informing me that the dealer had the car. He included a
brochure for the 1970 Chevelle SS. It had a picture of a
red Chevelle SS396 with black stripes. My first color
choice was silver, but when I saw this brochure, I
wished that I had chosen red instead. Now there are so
many red chevelles, I am glad I chose silver.
Picking up the car
I left Vietnam on Friday, Oct 17, 1969 at about 6AM,
processed through the Army base in Oakland, Calif.,
and arrived home in rural New Ulm that same night
around 11PM. The next day I got up and went with Ron
to pick up my car. Upon arrival at the dealership, the car
was sitting out front. I went inside and informed the
salesman that I was there to pick up the silver chevelle
parked out front. He told me that it was already sold to
a serviceman in Vietnam. I told him that I was that
person. He knew I would be leaving Vietnam on Oct
17, but never thought I’d be there to pick up the car the
very next day. He figured it would take a week for me to
get home. Since it was a Saturday, I couldn’t pay for the
car. He knew I really wanted the car, so he had the car
prepped for me, accepted a $600 payment, put a dealer’
s plate on the car and trusted me to be back on Monday
to pay the rest, register the car and finish the prep work
on the car.
Driving the car
I had a year and a half left in the Army stationed at Fort
Eustis, VA and Fort Mead MD. The Chevelle went with
me. The car made 3 trips back and forth to the east
cost. I got an early discharge from the Army on Dec. 23,
1970 to attend college. The car was my transportation,
being used for school, work and all social activities. The
car was never raced, except for a few street drags.
In November of 1971 it was involved in an accident.
While waiting at a red light, a semi truck rammed the
back end. At that time the car was just about totaled
out, but since the frame wasn’t bent, I was able to get it
fixed. It got a new rear bumper, trunk lid and right
quarter panel. The car was involved in two more fender
benders in the next couple of years.
Helen and I were married on Aug. 30, 1975. The car
wasn’t used for the wedding, instead we used my
brother Ron’s new Pontiac Lemans. The Chevelle was
our honeymoon car for a trip to the Black Hills of SD.
and brought our first born, Scott, home from the hospital
a year later.
Going into retirement
Helen had a 1968 Camero that she had bought in 1970.
In 1977 we bought a new Pontiac Grand Prix. We
couldn’t get what we wanted for trade on either car, so
we decided to sell one of them on our own. The Camero
sold first so the Chevelle stayed. Later that year we
bought a pickup truck, and the Chevelle went into
storage.
At this time the car had about 89000 miles on it, and
was beginning to show wear. There was rust behind the
front wheels and on the rear quarters around the wheel
opening. The engine was running poorly do to the
carburetor float being saturated. The interior was good.
Restoring
In 1992, I decided to get the car back on the road. The
intention was only to get it running and looking good.
The engine would be pulled and overhauled, and some
body work would be done at a local shop to repair the
rust spots. I, along with our 2 sons, Scott and Matt,
worked on the car.
We took the front clip off and pulled the motor and
transmission. The engine was overhauled by a co-
worker, Denny Walser, who does auto repair on the
side. The wear on the motor was minimal, so all original
spec replacement parts were used. All stock size.
Hardened valves and seats were installed.
The carburetor was rebuilt by The Carburetor Shop in
Maplewood, MN. The transmission side cover and tail
shaft seals were replaced. No other work was done to it.
Once we had everything off the front, I decided to pull
the body off the frame. Then everything was taken off
the frame and the frame sand blasted and primed. At this
point, everything kind off sat for years.
At this point Helen and I decided that if we were ever
going to drive the car again, we needed to get someone
to finish the job. After checking out several shops, we
chose John’s Body Shop of rural Nicollet, MN. Owner
John Sieberg came and looked over the car parts and
said he would be willing to do the job. I would assist
since I had pulled everything apart and knew the car
inside and out.
It took another year before the car got into the shop,
and was there for about 9 months. The body was had
everything removed and dipped to remove the rust. New
GM fenders were installed along with new GM
Restoration Parts quarter panels. The trunk floor was
replaced. The bumpers were re-chromed. New
Firestone Wide Oval tires were put on. New carpet and
headliner were installed inside. A new windshield was
installed. Many other NOS and reproduction parts were
installed, keeping it looking as it looked when new.
When it came to painting the car, John suggested putting
the stripes on it. Since they were an option on the car, he
would have no problem with putting them on and thought
would make it look better. I really had intended to
restore it to original. I really didn’t know what to do. So
I put the question on Chevelle Tech Forum on
“Chevelles.Com”. I got several responses. Several
thought the stripes should be put on, and several thought
to leave them off. Reading the responses, I concluded
that having the stripes at the local shows and cruises
would be popular, but leaving the stripes off would be
more attention getting at the bigger shows, since most of
the SS’s have stripes. I decided to leave it original and
the car is solid Cortez Silver. And it does attract
attention being a real SS without stripes.
When we got it back in August of 2002, there was still
work to be done on the engine. I wanted to have it far
enough along to show at the Auto Restorers Club show
on Sept 15 in St. Peter, MN. Installing the exhaust
system was the last thing done. The exhaust system
missed three ship dates, three weeks in a row. It looked
like it would be a show stopper. But the system finally
arrived Sept. 7. The car was started for the first time on
Sept. 9, 2002 and made it to the show and received an
award.
What started out to be a project to get the car back on
the road looking good, ended being a complete frame
off restoration to original. Knowing all that had been
done to the car previously, made it easy to keep
everything original. This is a numbers matching car.
Parts for the restoration came from many sources. Aside
from the parts still available from local auto supply stores
and Chevrolet dealers, parts were purchased from
Ground Up, Original Parts Group, National Parts
Depot, Auto City Classic, Classic Muscle, Year One,
Brake and Equipment Warehouse, plus others. The
brake master cylinder came from Chuck Mueller, a
fellow Northstar Chevelle Club member.
Driving and showing
Now, the car is driven to shows, parades and local
“classic car drive ins”. The car attracts more attention
than I ever figured it would.
A highlight was taking it to the Mid-America Chevelle
show, in an enclosed trailer, in Olathe, KS. on August 1,
2003. We registered for the “participant judged class”.
After seeing the car, several of the sponsoring club
members said they thought the car should be shown in
the points judged class. So we switched to the 1970
Original Restored class and to our surprise, received
third place. We enjoyed the show and plan to attend
more of these.
Some information about 1970 SS’s
Once this restoration was started, I found that GM
changed a few things during the production year.
The first SS’s had:
Polished aluminum trim under the headlight molding.
These were eliminated on later built cars.
The doomed hoods had smaller openings for the hood
insulation. Later hoods had larger openings.
Tail light lenses with smaller reflective area and the
backup lens area has a flat surface. The later ones had
more reflective area and the backup lens area is convex.
The standard battery had the posts on top. The year end
cars had batteries with side posts because the 71 models
would have them. All the heavy duty batteries had side
posts.
Had the battery ground cable attached to the right front
side of the engine block. Most of the cars had the
ground cable attached to the top of the alternator
bracket. This may not have to do with when the car was
built.
1970 Chevelle SS396
Click on pictures to enlarge
New Car Pictures 1969
Before Restoration in 1992
Restoration!
