I always like seeing a basic Chevy two-door sedan with dog-dish hubcaps at a car show; they’re usually clean and well-restored, and they quite often have a big-block under the hood. The majority of them began life powered by a six or small V8, but a few snuck out of the plant with a genuine L72 solid-lifter 427 under the hood (546 of them, to be exact). Allow me to end the suspense—this is not one of them—but it is a nicely done clone (cough, cough…tribute) that will attract the attention of people like me at any car show you decide to enter. Barn Finder Curvette sent it to us from a dealer here on eBay in Denver, Colorado, where the asking price is $33,900.
According to this car’s VIN (155119J103497), it started life at the Janesville, Wisconsin, plant with a 155-horsepower, 250-cubic-inch inline six. Surprisingly, only about 16,000 out of 155,700 total Bel Airs had the six (although that number includes station wagons), but somewhere along the way, somebody installed this Chevy big-block. The selling dealer doesn’t offer many details, but the air cleaner decal says that it’s a 425-horsepower 427, which would have been the vaunted L72 back in 1969. Still, it is apparently date-code correct, so there’s a good chance that it’s the genuine article, but so many performance parts are available for big-blocks that it could be heavily modified inside while still looking stock on the outside. There is a short video of the engine running, however, and it doesn’t sound as if it has a particularly gnarly camshaft.
What we do know for sure is that it is a bare-bones Bel Air with no power steering or power brakes, so you’ll get a workout every time you drive it. That’s OK; in a car like this I’d kind of want the true NHRA Stock-Eliminator experience.
The interior looks completely stock except for the four-speed shifter sticking up through the tunnel, and I’m glad that it’s blue; it looks perfect with what looks like 1969 Chevy Glacier Blue paint. It’s one of my favorite color combinations.
Some people get sneaky and install a five- or six-speed manual when they build a car like this, but it appears that this example has a four-speed as General Motors intended. It should be a Muncie, but which one?
There are a few little defects here and there that might help a potential buyer in their negotiations; the windlace pictured here is almost comically out of place in such a nice car, and according to the dealer’s inspection, the horn and parking brake are “not operational.” These are certainly not deal breakers, but they’re good things to know going in.
This is a type of car that probably has a narrow window of buyers, but it is so cool that someone will snap it up. It has a rumbling 427, almost no amenities, and it looks like a two-door version of a taxi cab. It’s perfect.
I believe this may have been destined to be a police car that never made it, or someone shang-haied it at the dealer. A similar car was written up a while back, I can’t find now,, a 2 door Biscayne possibly, with a 427 and a 4 speed, and was determined it was for a State Patrol car. Someone figured it was best to have a car like this for patrol, to catch those pesky musclecars at the time wreaking havoc on our highways. I think someone dressed up the motor, but these were bare bones cars with a HD drive line. I bet the motor is original.
The VIN says the car started life with a six-cylinder.
Any time I see something like that radiator hose with the NAPA sticker still on it, I have to wonder about the overall workmanship / attention to detail elsewhere, if they were too lazy to remove that sticker …