My Car Time Line - My First Chevelle

Here is the actual ad that I circled and cut out of the Want Ad Press for the 1966 Chevelle. The seller wanted $4,500 for the car, but I was able to get it for $3,000 in 1989. It had a 350 with a 4 speed, a 12 bolt posi rear and a big block hood. The shifter was not installed correctly, and the lacquer paint job was flat and fading from the day I bought it...but I loved this car. Even when I found out that the rear body mounts were rotted away under the pop-riveted trunk panel, and the previous owner stuffed an entire can of Bondo into the hole to try to repair it...I still loved it. Cleaning the spark plugs of oil and adjusting the dual point distributor every other weekend...I still loved this car. Blowing through synchros in so many transmissions that I couldn't count didn't make this car loose any luster. This car got me to college for the last few years, and to my first job, right up to my wedding. I raced for the first time at the drag strip with this car.

Then one day while driving to work, I slid off the road and smacked up the passenger fender. During the early 1990's, it was quite a task to try to find a replacement fender, and there was no online community or EBAY, so I hit the swap meet in search of a new/used fender. After a year or two of unsuccessful efforts, I eventually sold the Chevelle to my friend Cary for $850, and bought my first Corvette. A few years later, I wanted to try to get the Chevelle back and set out in search for it. Car had sold it to someone else, who sold it to someone, and it was reported to be "somewhere" in the town of Metuchen, NJ. So I spent my free time driving around, looking up driveways and in garages and backyards for my old car. Years later, I buy my first home, and after a New Years Eve party at the neighbor's house (Chris from Ace Motorsports) I come to find out that he was the owner from Metuchen, and moved the car across the street from my new home. Years of searching, and it was right across the street from my home...unbelievable. Unfortunately, the years had not been so kind to the Chevelle, and Chris sold it. I also didn't have the funds to track it down....just bought the house. I had to wait 15 years to get another 1966 Chevelle.