In a mid-March snow sits this ’66 Chevrolet,
Waiting for summer sun to frolic and play;
What a treat to see an unadulterated Malibu,
Which is why I’m showing it to you.
Isn’t it sad to see one that’s been made an SS,
Of which there seems to be a huge excess?
With it’s steelies and pie-pans,
Some CC readers are certainly fans.
So here’s a toast to summer cruising,
In a Chevrolet – or whatever you find amusing.
How I’d like to take a ride
even with a Powerglide;
A shame the whitewalls are so dirty
Even so, the car sure is purty.
(Burma Shave ?) 🙂
Regarding the dirty whitewalls, are you sure they’re not “gold line” tires? 🙂
http://www.dbtires.com/2012_catalog/hi/18.htm
From seeing it, I think the white walls were yellowed from age. The car was gone quite quickly, yet I suspect it’s been in storage for a while given the dust on the roof and trunk lid.
Yeah, I’d say yellowed with age. Those look like Bias-ply tires! That car is obviously a low-mileage cream puff.
Swooooooooon!!
I like it.
I found SS 396 and SS 350 badges at Hobby Lobby of all places. If you can buy them there, you can buy them anywhere.
I always liked the 1966-67 Chevelles. A six with Powerglide would suit me fine, because I’m going nowhere fast, and I like stuff that’s easy to work on. Just roll down those windows and cruise to the burger joint.
Me too,bench seat as well all that’s great about Detroit iron!Make mine a veggie burger with barbecue sauce
I would be more than happy with the six and ‘glide. Please – whoever this belongs to, don’t molest it and/or sell it to some gorilla who’ll butcher it making a faux SS 396 . . . . PLEASE! P R N D L time!
I’m with Billy on this one,fake big block tyre burners are a pet hate of mine.
Now THAT’S a CAR! Come to papa, baby!
This is my idea of a REAL Curbside Classic. One of the old cars that really mattered.
Funny, but back in the late 60’s, an associate bought a yellow w/black vinyl top 1967 Chevelle SS 396 for hi first car, about 1968 or so. Drove us all crazy, because he NEVER took it on the highway, or drove it over 35 mph. True story. A few of us wanted to wrench the keys from his hot little hand and take a real ride!
Alas, what a waste of such a fine piece of machinery…
This really is what CCs should be
Wow, what a beautiful shot. This angle shows off my favorite styling queues of the ’66 and hides my least favorite (the grille).
I’ve never seen such a nice pure “base model” Malibu before — check out the integrated backup lights, usually found in the bumper — I thought that setup was only on the sub-Malibu models.
The absence of fender flags leads me to believe this fella has the 6… quite rare in today’s tribute/fake-a-zoid/clone/barn-find/rat-rod/”survivor” environment. Kudos to the owner for not installing RALLY WHEELS with chinamade disc brake center caps.
My friend’s Dad was a car guy. He once restored an early X1/9 for his teenage daughter. He also had a maroon car just like this in the late ’80s. Sadly, it was the victim of a murder-suicide performed by a deer.
Had a 67 300 that looked like this except that it had a post vs a hardtop. Back then many of us thought the post was preferable for a lot of reasons. Mine had the 230 (or at least I don’t think it was a 250) and three on the tree. Someone beat me up with dollars and I sold it after having it painted. Regret that and the 68 Nova that was also 2 door post that suffered the same fate. I have resisted the dollar assault pretty much only with the 57 I still have. A weakness I guess. I’m getting better.
I count one of these among the cars I have owned. I loved the looks, although I hated the gremlins that this particular car had. Mine had a 230 6 (that would die at around 90k) w/powerglide and a rapidly rusting-out trunk. It had been repainted a metallic blue and gotten new high-rise buckets. The floor was not carpeted. It got me through college, although the headliner disintegrated, along with the trunk and the floor (you could see the road in spots through the rusted-out hull). My brother dropped a rebuilt engine in it when the original expired, and the car survived a total of seven years of daily driving and abuse. Took it on several cross-country road trips. I had paid about $500 for it and got my money back in trade. Problems and all, it served me pretty well.
It is simple handsome and plain
And has no call\-outs on its fender,
Should this be outside in the snow rain
With it’s six that saves some tender?
This car brings back fond memories.
I got my driver’s licence when I turned 17. The day after I took my dad’s 1966 2-door navy blue Chevelle to the Eastern Townships Autoroute (Quebec) to see how fast it would go. My-oh-my what a ride. No seatbelts & no airbags. Doing a 140 mph with windows open and the radio at full blast. Dang that car was fun to drive!
Can’t say I ever saw a Malibu base in ’66 or ’67 guise as a hardtop with a six . . . . I have seen a number of ’64 and ’65 Malibus including SS’s with the six.
The 66 to 72 GM intermediates were just right, Playing devils advocate here, if I were the owner of this car and had the proper funding and facilities to do the work, this car would be a 396 clone. Marina Blue, thank you!
With a Muncie 4 speed. Buckets. Console. Factory clean and tasteful as the day it may have rolled off the show room lot.
And then I would drive her anywhere and everywhere. Enjoying life in a 396 Chevelle SS. Why in the world would one want to do this dream scenario in a 230 Six?! In my book, they did not make enough Chevelle SS 396’s. Who cares what the purists say about violating the sacred rules set forth by …..? Enjoy the fruits of your labors, just please don’t pass it off as the real McCoy.
I think this car would also be a fine candidate for a period correct 327 HiPo engine. Either way; Crossed Fender Flags…..and I’m in!
That was the car one of the small town rich kids was driving when I was hitchhiking on the edge of town and had to jump to the side to avoid being struck when he swerved at me.
Caught him later and smacked him severely upon face and body. Tore out a BIG patch of hair, also.
3 months later, before departing for boot camp, called up his sister for a date.
When she realized I was the guy that pummeled her brother the phone crashed down with a click.
It WAS a nice car, though. 396 engine if memory is correct.
Put me in the camp of leaving this car as is. I think the difference to me is the condition of the car, and how original it is to begin with. I have no problem converting a plain-Jane, plentiful car into a restomod if you’re going to replace a lot of the original sheet metal or mechanicals anyhow. But if you got an original survivor, I’d leave it that way.
For example, I have a pain-Jane 65 Mustang coupe which I’m going to do the restomod thing with. My rational is that it’s one of probably 500,000 six-cylinder coupes, it’s relatively rust free, but had most of the rear end replaced already. So I am not devaluing the car making it how I want it. Even so, I’m going for the period-correct look with it (i.e. no 18 inch wheels), but it will have upgrades where it counts like brakes and maybe stroking the 289 for more cubes.
Also, and this is my personal opinion here, but if I see one more “Shelby clone” Mustang with racing stripes, I’m going to puke. I also never need to see another 69 Camaro SS clone.
So is this Malibu that rare? Probably not, but if it’s a nice survivor, I’d leave it that way.