Owned by a truck driver or a truck enthusiast, that’s for sure. When I walked back to my own diesel-ride, after visiting an excellent big rig show, this classic Chevy crossed my path. It might well be the first non-coupe Chevelle of the 1968-1972 generation I’ve met in the flesh/metal.
This hardtop sport sedan was imported into the Netherlands in 1997, it was registered on the current owner’s name in August last year. Under its hood a V8, displacement unknown (as in not registered). I’m sure the CC-crowd can fill in all the blanks.
Older than 40 years, thus fully road tax free. The engine runs on LPG, which is by far the cheapest fuel per liter available here. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is someone’s daily driver, or at least a very frequent one. I also wouldn’t be surprised if that person is pre-middle-aged.
Now roll those fuzzy dice!
Ah, that 70’s Gold…. although this looks more like the gold on my ‘73 LTD (or a 2013 or so Focus or Mustang) than a ‘70 Chevy. The gold color on the Chevys of that year (at least on the Impala) was a lot less yellow.
I’ll let JPC speak to that, as I’m basing this completely on nearly 50 year old memory of the model year’s colors.
Nice Find! Especially on the other side of the Atlantic!
There was a 1970-only color called Camaro Gold that was available on Chevelles. This could be it, though pictures on the internet seem to vary fairly widely in shade. It was sure not that more subtle gold that every third Chevy was painted that year.
Color differs in pictures too, so we can’t always be sure there, either.
My color memory cells also think that the GM gold was lighter … but this is still a fine specimen. Though I’m not crazy about the wheels nor the white letter tires, that look was so common even on 4 doors when these cars became five to ten years old, with a second or third and younger owner. Except for the license plates, this picture could have been taken in the US 45 years ago. Nice post.
My grandfather bought one of these, cream-gray colored? In a two car purchase deal, with a Nova. In 1970, the same year my father graduated medical school. Opa gave Dad the Nova as a graduation gift. I barely remember the Nova, which had serious rot in early 1978 – Dad put his foot through the floor. The Nova was replaced by a truly horrible ’77 Cutlass Supreme which chewed through multiple engines over two years, and which was itself replaced by the ’70 Chevelle, after Opa died in 1978 and bequeathed the car to Dad.
I remember riding in the front seat with Dad down Main Street, my then two-year-old sister between us, and a panic stop at the corner of Lake Street that threw my sister into the center-dash (stitches). The car had trouble starting in the cold weather, which we had more of in the early eighties, and by the end of ’83 was itself rusting out with more than 120,000 miles.
No air as I recall, and what must-have been a powerglide. No FM radio either. The last car that took regular, after Mom’s ’67 Valiant was replaced with a Caprice wagon in 1980. I remember riding in the back at 2am one January morning on the way from the Catskills to JFK for a flight to Guadalupe and the car was still cold, ninety minutes after it had chugged on. It needed a jump a week later in the long-term lot when we got back.
Dad traded it in for an ’84 Regency from Kirchner, which was the car I wanted but never got as a teenager.
The four-doors were once everywhere. But the two-door on its 4-inch-shorter wheelbase was a home run in such a style-conscious world.
I cringe every time I see the LPG conversion done on the vintage American cars for a good reason.
Lot of times the owners or converters would drill a big hole on the sheetmetal close to the petrol fuel fillers to install the LPG/CNG/Autogas fuel fillers. Over the time, one can see the rust stain seeping down on the paint. That ruined the aesthetics and affected resale value, especially outside the Netherlands where cost saving of LPG isn’t highest priority.
One guy at the tall people meet-up in Munich owned a 2002 Ram truck that he had the LPG conversion done with explicit instruction not to drill anywhere on the sheetmetal. They obliged and made excellent you-can’t-see-it’s-really-a-LPG-vehicle conversion work. He admitted that he had given up looking for vintage American cars, which were plenty in the Netherlands, for that reason.
Perhaps what saved this one is that the factory fillpipe is behind the license plate. But then, we don’t see the right side of the car.
I liked this style Chevelle but the two-door’s proportions looked better.
Essentially it’s a bi-fuel car. It can run on gasoline or LPG.
I was born & raised in Southern California in 1959. When I was in high school, there were a ton of these less-than desirable 4 doors (because only 2 door coupes were really cool, you see). I almost bought a ’72 Chevelle in ’77 and instead got the ’74 Chevy Luv pick-up ( I know. Google it! Lol) Could kick myself now! I used to live in Holland in the ’80’s. Worked out of an office in Heemstede. Somewhere… richting Schiphol Airport (Hoofddorp?) was a warehouse full off old American cars (I think for sale). Any idea if that’s still there? Enfin, bedankt voor uw post!
Graag gedaan! No idea about the warehouse. Historically, there has always been a whole cluster of US car specialists and importers in the Amsterdam region. But I very rarely go there. Way too crowded (in all possible ways) and the folks are way too stressed. Not my cuppa tea, weet je wel?
An LPG conversion could be surreptiously done on at least one American car without too much damage, and that’s an A-body Mopar. Those cars had the fuel filler pipe running through the trunk area (anyone that ever owned one knows how it would interfere with cargo). Someone wanting to do the conversion could remove the pipe, use the OEM filler location for the LPG port, and use the hole in the trunk floor for regular gasoline.
I guess it could be done on any vehicle with a quarter panel fuel-filler, but the A-body was the first one that sprang to mind.
Great find and pictures!
Looking at the third shot, I now see a strong family resemblance between this Malibu and the concurrent B-Body full-sizer. Just something about the rear three-quarter aspect that made me notice this.
Yeah the rear bumper (basically if yesterday’s 69 only had two outboard lights) and bulges around the wheel openings especially, the 4 door rooflines resemble each other too.
Speaking of wheel opening bulges, looks like this one has had some less-than-stellar bondo work done over the rear ones.
Used to see a primered black 71-72 sedan around here several years ago.
Four door hardtops are so much fun to ride around in with all the windows down.I used to open all the windows and sun roof in my Seville to try to recapture that experience.
My youngest sister has a 70 2 door Malibu, her’s is dark green with a white vinyl roof and white interior. With the 307 and Powerglide it is no race car but it does acquit itself well enough among older, non turbo, 4 cylinder powered cars.
Those 4 door hardtops were as attractive as the sedans were unattractive. I would guess that the sedan to hardtop ratio was somewhere from 4:1 to 6:1. I will happily research paint color issues and will leave Chevy body style production figures to someone else.
The previous generation 4 door hardtops even more so. Chrysler missed the boat when they launched the Belvedere and Coronet in 1965 – they already had a 4 door hardtop body. Although it would have been a tough sell on the boxier ’66-’67s…
If it still has the original engine, it would be a 307 C.I. V8. There is no fender engine badging for a 350 or 400 (402) C.I. motor. The tailpipe exits on the passenger side as opposed to the driver’s side so it’s not a six cylinder.
Of course it’s 49 years old, and a 307 is not exactly a longevity engine, so who knows.
Nice looking car. When did they last make General XP2000 tires? Have they been on there since the late 80s? Look good on there in any case. My friend with the 130 mph Cordoba had them.