This Chevelle project is said to a numbers matching SS 396 manual transmission car! And it comes with one heck of a story. Apparently, the seller found the car parked in the previous owner’s garage and at that time it was missing its engine. He bought it anyway, thinking he might be able to find a replacement 396 for it. After searching online, he found a 396 with a manual transmission just a mile from where he found the car. So he called and it turned out the seller had been holding onto it hoping that the owner of the car would come looking for it one day. He had owned the car over 30 years ago and had pulled the engine out for a rebuild. It never happened, so he sold the car. For whatever reason, the current owner has decided to sell this project and has listed it here on eBay in Miles City, Montana with an opening bid of $10k and a BIN of $12k.
The seller didn’t provide any photos of the engine, but they state that it’s at the machine shop and that they can get photos of it upon requestion. We do get a view of the 4-speed transmission and it looks to have already been cleaned up. This one is really going to be a big project and I’d love to see some documentation to back up the story. If it’s a real deal SS 396 it seems like it should be worth close to the $10k starting price, but without any bids it makes you wonder!
This is a reunited ❤️ story of car gets its kick a@@ heart back . If I had room I would buy this one but garage is full plus one outside garage (jay Leno theory of plus one ) right now.
(67 mustang convertible,64chevelle vert all restored
With 54 3100 step bed restoration in process )
This would be a great candidate to drop ten more into with paint and interior with your own sweat equity included!
Not sure on engine at shop means a rebuild in process etc. ..
I do hope the new metal is a installed as
I saw tig welding going on at places .
Sounds more like a couple of “sellers” co-operating to turn a $1500 car into a $15,000+ payday in a “Its a MIRACLE I have the “matching numbers” engine/trans for that “CHEAP” SS396 Chevelle!!!
It would also look nice if it has the hood with the fake hood louvers! And maybe a set of ralley wheels when done!
Those aren’t “fake louvers”. Louvers are punched into metal parts and are “slots”. I know what you’re talking about, I don’t know what they’re called but they’re not “louvers”. And I’ve never seen them on a Chevelle. Just a ’67 Camaro “350”. This what you’re talking about? Never seen them on a Chevelle. The only “special” Chevelle hoods are Cowl Induction hoods. Don’t ever assume some aftermarket tacky “custom” hood is a “factory option”.
Actually the non-louvres are non-functional, so they can’t be called louvres. They are an upgraded version of the ones that came on 67 camaros that look like the top of a finned valvecover (also used on Nova SS 68-72). The one he pictures were on hoods that were made special to hold the fake louvres but they didn’t come out until 1968 on the camaro and they were used on the 68 & 69 camaro SS. The 66 Chevelle needs the SS hood that is specific to the 66 Chevelle SS. It is an actual Hood with inserts, but non-functional for air intake as well.
That is not an AC firewall. I’d want to see the VIN on the engine pad.
Steve R
Before the machine shop decks the block? Me too!
1966 Marina Blue SS396 4-speed. I was 16, and it was the most desirable muscle car I could think of. Hope it gets a well-considered restoration at any cost.
Hey, it’s not my money…
There’s piles of them out there already “restored” at a fraction of what “restoring” that thing would cost. And the “I’ve got the original engine but its at the “machine shop” where I took it hoping the buyer of the “matching numbers” Chevelle I took it out of before I sold it 30 years ago.” story stinks to high heaven.
There was a similar situation a few years ago local to me. In this case a ‘68 Z/28.. even moreso a needle in the proverbial hay stay.
Car was a shop owners back when it wasn’t thought of as valuable, 302 put under a workbench and it was set up with a BBC to race.. Car moves on but stays relatively local. Shop owner dies, they clean up the mess of a shop (we’ve surely all seen one), huh.. wonder what this SBC under the workbench is….
Car and motor reconnect. Estate didn’t even fleece him on it understanding the uniqueness of the situation.
Gotta love Canada, eh? Wonder if they tracked down the original snow tires too!
I guess if it has happened twice, it can happen again, that’s very good news!
Except for the parts where purchasers of NON-matching numbers cars aren’t actively looking for the “original” engine/trans etc years or decades later unless they’re “speculators” and more often than not “speculators” that “flip” makes/models of cars where there is no such thing as “matching numbers” like Ford and “Shelby” Mustangs and nobody “cleaning up” a sold-out/probate/family business “machine shop” looks at one of a BILLION “SBC” blocks and assumes he/she is looking at some “valuable” piece of “automotive history”.
Similar story: a guy in town had a 66-ish Corvette. He swapped the engine back when it was fashionable and sold the matching numbers engine. Then 25-30 years later, when it was unfashionable, he found it – but it was a lot farther away than a mile and a half down the road.
It looks much better in blue instead of the yellow with black vinyl top it was originally. Looks like all of the hard work is done but i’d respray it and buy new Cragers and drive the wheels off it.
I had a Yellow 67 396/350hp, 4 spd, with the black vinyl top, and it could run just as fast as the others. Long story, but I swapped the engine into my 55 Cameo in 1971, where it stayed until replaced it with a 454. I still have the engine with all the original parts.
In those days, nobody was thinking about things like rarity or value. High performance cars were readily available and quite inexpensive.
I hope this finds a good home and gets restored. My big worry, would be that the block is in the machine shop. I would want all the engine costs ironed out before I pulled the lever on this one.
Bob
I also had a 1967 Chevelle 396/350 hp 4speed almost traded 396 which was losing power ,no smoke, for a 365 horse power 327 but I wanted to keep the original engine. Sad part of this story had put on headers had an Edelbrock intake and a cam for 454,before I got the chance to fix it up got hit by a drunk driver.
I know AC might make a 66 chevelle 396 4 speed more valuable/ rare but really …never saw the need .drive it 80mph with the windows down you will look cool even if your sweating
the ebay link is to a different car with a 350 in it?
It looks like shortly after we featured it, it sold! eBay updated how they handle links to expired and sold listings, but you can still view the old ad here
No We can’t. Redirects to same place. Hmmm…
You have to click the link located just above the new ad.
It looks like this. Just click the word “listing” and you will see the original ad.
This auction ended with 0 bids.
Thank you for posting that piece of information. I have been getting that THE LISTING YOU’RE LOOKING FOR IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE message for a while now and did not know how to find the original listing. I appreciate you sharing this with us. Thanks again.
The chevelle you have listed is not the one you show on ebay. That car is in california and shows a 350 eng. and automatic. WHOOPS!!
Great photo of the trans and stick. Thanks.
JOSH, that’s not this chevelle. I did have ,for a short time in the late 70s a blue 66 ss 4spd,bought with no engine. it 396 was it a shop done ,but had the pay for it. only had the $500 for the car. got it and found a 350 to put in instead.
That’s how it was then,lots of cool stuff,and cheap by todays standards. at least i had it for a bit.
I love these “matching number found themselves” stories. There are other industries where the matching number thing happens too. Case in point is the Military Aviation Museum’s Goodyear FG-1D (F4U-1D) Corsair, which ~75 years later still has it’s original P&W R2800 engine. (Dec 2010 picture, but still flying today)
Maybe someone made a deal, maybe not. Montana at one points #1 export was vintage car projects I was told by a local vintage car shop.
But Miles city is middle of nowheresville. We have relatives from there and long drive to nowhere. It is deceptive on the maps but it takes a very long time to drive from the Idaho/Montana border to Eastern Montana where this is, Same from any other direction. Not a lot of freight traffic either.
So typically most deals in remote areas dont sell nearly as well as say, LA Calif, or other major cities with lots of infrastructure.
I currently have a 71 Cheyenne Super that is a factory BB 402. The guy that had it also had a 66 SS 396 that he was restoring. A man came along and wanted the car. It was all done, but not totally assembled yet. The numbers matching motor 360hp was done and sitting on the motor stand waiting to go in. The guy wanted the car but wanted to put a 502 in it. He bought the car without the motor and so the owner of the pickup decided to put it in the pickup since the 402 needed a rebuild to be perfect. I now have a pickup with a newly rebuilt 66 396 360hp motor and somewhere there is the car that to me would be worth a lot more money with it in it. Things happened like this all the time and so this story only confirms some of the crazy ways that motors leave their original engine bay and if lucky find their way back.
One of my Army buddies bought an original 396 high-horsepower Chevelle with 4speed, apparently that color(or close to it) in the Summer of ’67. Yep, it was a ’66. Perhaps the first owner could no longer afford the insurance or got married or “whatever”. Many of our officer candidate school classmates got similar vehicles, as we all thought we were going to die in Viet Nam. My regret was buying a brand new Fairlane GTA rather than the white Mustang fastback with the same 390 and 4speed. Had I known what the Autobahn was truly like……