From its birth in 1964, the Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe was the most popular model and body style of the mid-size automobile. The 1968-72 editions were best-sellers and have been the subject of many SS clone projects. This 1972 Malibu is a fairly straight car that sports a rebuilt 350 cubic inch V8 (it may not be numbers matching). It’s a project that you could drive while continuing to fix it up. Located in Halltown, Missouri, this Chevelle is available here on craigslist for $16,500.

How popular was the Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe? Well, Chevy built more than 212,000 of them in 1972 alone, which was a down year from a peak of 300,000. Some of them were Super Sports as that car was no longer a series of its own and an option on the Malibu. The seller’s ’72 looks like it began life as a routine Chevelle with a 350 engine (see the fender insignia), TH-350 Turbo-Hydramatic transmission, and power steering and brakes. A 10-inch rear end with a sway bar resides out back. Besides a rebuild of the engine, the motor sports an appropriate amount of bling.

We assume the car was painted red from the factory, but the finish is mostly faded and replaced by primer in many places. Especially the trunk lid. This may have been a vinyl top car when new given the presence of primer where the chrome moldings may have once been. Surviving rust seems to have been held at bay with no significant visible issues to report.

A set of non-matching bucket seats is in the Chevy now, but a bench seat will go with the sale. We assume it will match the back seat, but that doesn’t matter as it all will likely need recovering anyway. You’ll have to replace the windshield, but the rest of the glass is said to be good. It wears Rally wheels, and a new aluminum radiator and carburetor. You could turn this into another SS clone, but since the machine already runs quite well, why do that? Keep it as original as possible.