Looking much like a creature long kept in darkness and suddenly exposed to harsh sunlight, this 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 seeks a new owner for the first time ever! Thanks to Patrick S. who spied this dusty back-yard find here on Tampa, Florida craigslist with an asking price of $28,000.
Not only is this former beauty a single-owner true SS, it retains its original numbers-matching 396, left the factory with air-conditioning, and has traversed a mere 57,000 miles! The low-resolution pictures suggest remnants of a (presumably black) vinyl top above the original Forest Green paint, and some bodywork in the left rear.
Once you pulled the trigger on the SS (Super Sport) package, your base engine became this 350 HP Turbo-Jet 396. This one hasn’t run in 15 years, leaving additional question marks for the buyer (thanks to chevellestuff.net for some details). Luckily a claimed one-owner car should come with piles of documentation and ready answers to many questions. What do you think of this big block Chevy?
The ad reads like a flip, there are no first person references. The seller probably paid close to fair market value.
This will be a nice looking car once it’s restored. Better pictures, including casting numbers and VIN stamped in the block would go a long ways towards justifying the asking price.
Steve R
Yeah, maybe. But, with all the work still needed I wouldn’t offer more than $18,000.
It’s a $10,000 Vin plate
This car does not have a vinyl top ,just peeling paint..
no trim at quarter panel/roof line.This seems like a lot
for a car needing so much,but I suppose that somone will
be able to pay big bucks for it….could be sweet though..!
It looks more like a flipper has it to me.
Pushes all the buttons for me. One of my favorite color combos and I’m partial to the 396. Imagine what the original owner felt like sitting in the showroom signing the papers with this thing right outside the window all detailed with the keys in it.
GLWTS. A labor of love but the finished product will be awesome.
Had a girl friend who bought a new one same color as this one but with a 4 speed. Shari wasn’t afraid to rev it up, dump the clutch and light ’em up just like the boys. Sadly 48 years later whenever I see her around town she is driving some sort of 4 door non-descript UJC (Universal Japanese Car), a slushbox to boot no doubt. Glad I married one that kept her sporting blood.
Everybody thinks they have Gold. Too bad its a slush box..
Good luck to the new owner.
Yea most of my stuff is Gold, everyone loves it, try 2 sell it it’s a slush box, then new owner thinks it Gold
I wonder if ” Shari ” still has the vin number so you could do a Papa Johns type of investigation to find where its been hiding at ?
That’s hard to do on a pre-1981 car. You would have to go to the DMV of each state, put in a request, and try to piece together a history. And even then, the information will have limited value because they’ll redact the owners’ names and addresses.
I know of a ‘69 396 3 speed manual super sport red (repaint) matching numbers.
Sunroof, no a/c, seller won’t take less than 10k. Southern Calif, minimal rust. Lmk if want more info.
Factory sunroof? Probably not. 3 spd manual? Deinstall and use the hole in the floor for a 4 spd.
SUNROOF!!! Really?/
28k no F**KING WAY.
8K is pushing it IMO, If one tried to restore it they will be down with the titanic $$ wise
396, 350hp, not worth that kind of money
28 grand seems steep for a project car. It’s going to take a lot more than that to get this car in road worthy condition. And who knows what the engine is like? I wouldn’t pay over 10K . This is a money pit and a gamble
Neglect breeds rust and contempt from true car lovers. No way is this car worth that. If it were a rag top, yeah.
Keeping with Todd’s opening line, can you see the car all restored, and chrome six inch letters on the quarters spelling out GOLLUM?
Believe that 325 hp was stock, with 350 and 375 optional.
That is correct. The 325 HP was the base motor. The 350 HP had Hydraulic lifters bigger cam, more advance. If a 4 speed an M20. The 375 had solid lifters, 6K redline, aluminum intake, Holley, Square ports, deep groove pulleys etc. If a 4 speed an M21, or an M22 was optional. I had a base 69 SS and a base 68 GTO convertible at the same time. The base GTO in stock tune was much much faster than any base 396 Chevy I ever had.
Salt air has done a number on the slam panel and radiator support in the front. Rusty! I had to look twice at the photos to make sure it wasn’t brown paint!
Don’t have a problem with flippers everybody has the right to make money, do have a problem with price gouging. Bought a 69 Nova same color combination new, didn’t keep it too long before trading for a 69 Firebird 400, much nicer car, better gas mileage.
Wow! 5K to 8K Tops. People just think they’re sitting on a pot of gold. There is nothing that particularly special about this car. On the plus side it is low miles one owner and numbers matching , if that’s all true. But it just doesn’t make it worth that kind of money if it were a rag top 4 speed it might be worth 10 to 15K . This car needs an enormous amount of work. And that’s just the visible stuff. I’m sure that there’s a lot more underneath that you can’t see. I think if you were to undertake this project and do a lot of the work yourself you would still be looking at 20K plus to make it nice again. Just my opinion! Good luck to the owner getting What he wants and good luck to the new owner That he doesn’t find a whole lot more trouble than what he bargained for.
Thankful this person is listing the automobile so it may be captured by a recipient able to allocate time to reinvigorating what is among classic examples of power oriented intermediate rear drive big engine couple designs prior to the institution of early seventies mandated safety requirements.
Typical FL flip, the last pictures are from where he bought it from to the new ones at his house. You see this all the time in FL they post an add with the car on a uhaul calming to be the original owner. We get about a dozen people a week that come into the shop trying to buy “old cars” that are in for service. They have watched gas monkey too many times and even use the same sayings they use on the show. So sick of hearing “cash money and interweb”.
The SS396 has lower production numbers than the SS454. Depending on the condition overall, it may be worth it. Especially if they have all the documentation.
Chevy built 53,559 SS 396 Chevelle’s in ’70 compared to only 8,773 SS 454’s. This was the base 396 for that year at 350 horsepower and road test magazine got one just like this to manage a 15.27 et at 92 miles an hour.
I dunno I saw a tan with vinyl roof one in about this condition on the back of a trailer a couple days ago, dunno if it was a 396 but I bet it came a lot cheaper than this one.
On one hand, Its poorly marketed, not even detailed or properly cleaned and aggressively priced and lacking the details to justify the high price such as codes, and verification. Plus it would certainly need a FPI.
On the other hand, low mileage and original drivetrain, numbers matching (If it is really) are few and far between, Especially a big block Chevelle.
This is a money machine when done. Seen cars much worse condition initially and cobbled together from parts cross the auction line at BJ, SS and other high end sales portals so if *IT* truly as advertised its worth it to pay more for a better core for resto. That being said, I Still think its overly optimistic in price but not by much if its legit.
Florida is the king of sleazy car deals and dealers, so thats a big negative plus paperwork from Florida is considered suspect in most other states.
A legit dealer would invest a day or 2 to make this car more presentable but the price would be nearly the same as what this seller is asking so its just a lazy arrogant flipper
Low mileage would matter only if the car was well taken care of.
With a car like this it is just numbers on the dash.
Too much for a base 396. Like the car but not for that kind of dough!! If it has the original owners documentation it might be worth paying extra for the knowledge of the car. It still needs a lot of work and it has peeling paint on top which means it has been baking in the Florida sun. Wonder why it has so much rust under the hood. Dover/Brandon FL is quite a few miles from Tampa Bay so it shouldn’t be that rusty.
I wouldn’t offer more than $18K.
Brandon is just about 15 miles out of Tampa, I know that because I grew up in that area! In fact I think that I might know the person who owned the car! Wouldn’t know for sure unless I see the name! That area Gibsonton, Riverview, and Brandon all were inner twined with each other! Back then they were much smaller communities! Just about everyone knew each other! I wouldn’t live there again if they gave me half the state! That’s what sanctuary states do to their state and stupid people sit back and allow this to happen to what was once a beautiful state! Not only that Tampa cleared out their getto and moved it into Brandon and ClairMell City what a shame! I wouldn’t trust anyone from that area anymore!
I did a lot of research on the 69 Chevelles when I was trying to verify if our ’69 2 door post car was a true SS or not. So I am not totally up on the ’70 SS cars. IN ’69 most SS cars had a bench seat. The bucket seat cars were special order. Can anyone remember if that was the same for 1970? BTW, our 69 was a clone, and knocked about $40,000.00 off the price.
Real world sales on CL, EBay and high end auctioneers are one thing and full of anomalies (+ & -)
But just for reference NADA Blue book posts this car at:
http://www.nadaguides.com/Classic-Cars/1969/Chevrolet/Chevelle-Super-Sport/2-Door-Sport-Coupe-396/Values
Original
MSRP
Low
Retail
Average
Retail
High
Retail
Base Price
$3,038
$24,700
$34,900
$58,800
Options (Change)
396/350 HP V8 Engine
30%
30%
30%
Factory Air Conditioning
5%
5%
5%
Total Price
$3,038
$33,345
$47,115
$79,380
Research another classiccarGo
Note: Vehicles/Vessels in exceptional condition can be worth a significantly higher value than the Average Retail Price shown.
NADA is way too high! Take those numbers and divide by 2 and they are more realistic.
Agree and owning three cars insured with Hagerty, their prices seem a little inflated too.
That might turn out to the advantage of the car owner if Hagarty is willing to pay more than market value on an insurance claim.
A rusty Chevelle with automatic trans. Just happens to have an average 396 under the hood. Blah.
The price…..insane.
ben in fla if any one wants me to go look at it if its still avl iam about a hour away ben 352/586/5104
My dad had a Red 396 Chevelle /Black stripes and Mags ,with a different black roof. It wasn’t vynal.
I think 1973-4 Sydney Australia. A process where the car was charged with a negative and the Fibres charged with a positive. (electrons) ( polly something) attaches with adhesive, stood upright.
Sounds amazing, felt like fur to touch.. true. I was 17 at the time.
I wish I knew where the car is now. (no rego or other info taken)
If I had only …
Nostalgia purchases like that based on warm fuzzy memories drive most of this market.
This could be a decent project, only if you were a body man and could do all of the body work yourself. Otherwise, it is a classic Money Pit which will cost you a lot of money and time to refurbish! You are better off to buy one already restored, pay more…but be able to enjoy it immediately!
That’s fine for the person who has the money to lay out for one in already finished condition, but for the enthusiast with limited funds but some skill then they must buy a project such as this and slowly work out the build as money and time allows. In this hobby there’s room for everyone.
God bless America