Someday Chevelle – Ray Greene Knew He’d Find the Right Car for the Big Block He Bought Years Ago
You can call it preparing for the future, good luck or simply hoarding parts, but it seems as though hot rodders have a knack for thinking ahead. Take Ray Greene for example. He bought a rebuilt and running 454c.i. big-block Chevy 25 years ago just in case he ever found the right ’70 Chevelle to install it in. The engine sat on a stand in the garage for several more years until he finally scored a suitable Chevelle.
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?
There was a little luck in the equation, as he discovered the car in his local Auto Trader and it was actually not far from his neighborhood. It was still in the care of the original owner and had been sitting under a carport for years. After towing it home, Ray set about cleaning the car and was pleased to see the original factory red primered floor pans revealed simply with a little elbow grease.
With the help of some friends and his son Robert, they set about updating the Chevelle to make it a comfortable and better handling driver. There was no need to lift the body from the chassis, though they installed all new body bushings before updating the front suspension with RideTech control arms, dropped spindles, and coil-overs, along with 13-inch Corvette rotors from CPP. Out back, a 3.42:1-geared 12-bolt was installed with Hotchkis control arms and a sway bar.
As the chassis was coming together, the big block was pulled from storage, inspected, and detailed. The cam had already been updated to let the engine take longer gasps of fuel through an Edelbrock intake and carb. An old HEI distributor was tuned up, Hedman headers installed with a pair of Flowmasters, and a big aluminum radiator was employed to keep the big-inch motor cool. Ray is still a three-pedal kind of guy, so they bolted in a Super T10 four-speed, another piece Ray pulled from his personal inventory of parts.
One thing you can’t have stashed in your garage is the talent for body and paint. Ray, however, had the next best thing with his friends Dave Summers and John Caudell. Dave replaced both quarters after they discovered some hidden damage from a previous accident, and then proceeded to weld up the trim and emblem holes to give the Chevelle a smooth look. His buddy John, who used to teach body and paint at the local tech school, prepped the car for paint and fitted a cowl hood before laying down a GM code 11 white hue from PPG for a modern finish.
To add a bit of contrast, Ray and his son Robert decided to do the interior in bright red upholstery. Robert reworked the foam on the factory bench seats before stitching red vinyl combined with cloth inserts from a ’62 Biscayne, and then applied the same treatment to the custom door and side panels. Behind the scenes there’s a Ron Francis wiring harness as well as a Vintage Air climate control system. Although not a Super Sport, the duo felt the SS dash and its round gauges would look better than the rectangle Malibu version, and its appearance and function was improved further by filling it with Classic Instruments’ direct-fit package.
Ray’s Chevelle is a perfect example of what you can accomplish with the help of family and friends, along with a stash of parts used parts and a few well-chosen new pieces. In short, it pays to be prepared, so go ahead and buy that cool tach, intake manifold, or set of wheels at the next swap meet – even if you don’t have something to bolt them on yet!
Photos by Robert McCarter
