It is said that a rising tide lifts all boats. That metaphor can certainly be applied to certain old cars too. While the value of Chevrolet’s 1960s vintage SS396 Chevelle has gone through the proverbial roof, those that don’t breathe the rarified air, like this 1969 Chevelle Malibu, move in an upward trajectory too. Once considered nothing more than a commodity car, a mainstream Malibu now commands a pretty respectable price. How much? How about $20,500 for a 53-year-old, fairly clean, Wadsworth, Ohio domiciled two-door hardtop. It’s available, here on craigslist and we have Gunter K to thank for the discovery.

Claimed as a mostly lifelong California car, this coupe was built at Chevrolet’s Kansas City plant as opposed to their Fremont, CA operation, and it once wore a Butternut Yellow finish and topped with a black vinyl roof covering. It’s now white over white and the seller adds, “The body’s in good shape with a little rust at the deck and a couple of scuffs here and there. The underside is very clean“. There is some chipping at the top edge of the trunk lid, and maybe more concerning, some bubbling going on under that replacement white vinyl top. Besides those noted items, this hardtop cleans up well, the finish is still deep and the trim looks like it’s all in place. The underside image is encouraging as this vintage of GM’s A-Body is particularly rust-prone. Typically found are Chevrolet rally wheels holding up all four corners, they were, in fact, a Chevelle option in ’69.

The original 200 HP, 307 CI V8 engine has been deep-sixed and replaced with a 350 CI crate engine. Curiously, the previous owner elected to use the 307’s intake manifold and dual-jet carburetor instead of going for something more robust. The seller states, “The car runs super smooth, sounds amazing, and cruises down the highway straight and true, no wave action“.  One little issue is a locked-up front driver’s side brake so that matter will need to be resolved.

The interior looks like a pretty standard and original Malibu environment. A small upholstery tear is mentioned but the seller adds that he has original fabric to effect a repair. Beyond that, the bench seat setting looks useable as is and appears to need no attention.

The seller concludes with, “I had big plans for this car but I’m going in a different direction now and the car deserves to be what it once was (or better – rest-o-mod sleeper, o yeah!!!!!)” There’s a lot of originality here and attempting to clone it into a Super Sport model just seems wrong. As for a rest-o-mod sleeper, and that actually sounds like two different approaches moushed into one, that attempt could go a lot of different ways. The price of entry seems high for what this Chevy is, but accepting that, I think I’d fix the rust spots and go for a bit more juice under the hood, and that’s about it. Which way would you go?