General Motors introduced a range of mid-size cars across divisions except for Cadillac in 1964. The Chevelle was Chevrolet’s entry into the field and the most popular model would become the Malibu Sport Coupe. This 1970 edition is in survivor condition except that replacement of the front fenders required the whole clip to be repainted. Located in Ash Grove, Missouri, as a tip from Gunter Kramer, this Chevy is available here on craigslist for $32,000.
Chevrolet built more than 300,000 Malibu Sport Coupes in 1970 and 95% of them came with a V8 engine. Except for the Super Sport versions, either the 307 or the 350 had to be the most often ordered powerplant. The seller’s car has the latter, which would have been rated at 200 hp with a 2-barrel carburetor. It has an automatic transmission, which may be the Powerglide 2-speed that dominated Chevy products in the 1960s.
An unfortunate run-in with a cable in 1980 resulted in a set of new fenders and redone paint from the windshield forward. While it looks good, you can clearly see that the paint does not match. So, score one for the cable. The insurance company must have settled nicely as NOS GM fenders were used in the repairs. There are a few dings here and there along with a crease in the passenger side quarter panel. But is it all worth going through an entire repaint of the automobile that looks good in general?
The vinyl top seems to be in order as is what we can see of the interior. Other than the SS-like wheels, this Malibu looks like the one we drove at Driver’s Ed in the Summer of 1970. The indicated mileage is 76,000, which would work out to less than 1,500 miles per year on average. We’re told the car runs and drives correctly and we hope that the car stays original instead of finding itself as an SS clone one day.
As Michelle said in a previous write up, when is a car really original? If a cable took out the front fenders wouldn’t it stand to reason that the front grill too was replaced?
Am I nitpicking? Perhaps. But when someone is asking $32 large for a stock 2 bbl 350 w/ Powerglide perhaps it should be held to a higher scrutiny.
And yes, Russ, we already have too many faux SS Chevelles. For $32k you can buy one already built and most folks will never know the difference.
I’ve never been there, but I wonder what was so great about Malibu that they would name a car after it..
I highly recommend visiting and then see what you think.
Air cleaner says 307, which would be the “former” in your write up.
Also, just leave the replacement sheet metal in primer if that’s the best paint match you can do.
Bill is correct on the 307. The 307 2 barrel had 200 horsepower. I believe that is a 3 speed turbohydramatic. I had a 70 Chevelle Concours station wagon with the 307. 32 large for this is quite a stretch!
At 32k you can find a car that’s all one color.
Let’s hope it eventually finds a good home and is appreciated for what it is, instead of being turned into yet another unoriginal ridiculous hotrod.
Not a powerglide. Not 32 grand either.
$20,000.00 to much!
I noticed right away from the pic that the front fenders were missing the chrome strip just below the uppermost feature line, but the writeup confirmed my suspicion.