Congrats on such a great find Rick....the car couldn't be in more capable hands! I hope you take us all along during the the restoration like you did when you restored Mark's Z28. I am looking very forward to watching the progression of this one until finished, and when finished knowing the true craftsman that you are, it will probably be the nicest 69 Yenko Chevelle in the country!!!

Congratulations on a great find, Rick. I'll certainly be looking forward to more pictures and progress reports on your '69 Yenko.

I just sent you an email to update the registry.

Awesome find for an awesome guy glad your secured it and the wolves didn't get it Rick! sean

Congrats Rick and Annie! It could not go into more deserving hands!

Coolest thing ever!

Thanks for the registration Rick. I know that you're busy. Sorry if I appeared impatient. :-)

This is friggin amazing

Congrats. What a great car and cant wait to see the finished product!

Originally Posted by bergy View Post
Just trying to keep the registry as accurate as possible folks - the only unknown V V Cooke 69 Yenko Chevelle that we have in red is 9B357868. I'm assuming that this is the car?

Well, was this the missing car or not. I'm sure we would all like to know since it was brought up. On another note: Congrats Rick and Annie with an awesome find! Looking forward to seeing pics of it done.

Congratulations ! What a great find !

Yes, this is that car. Not trying to be secretive just cautious. I have gotten some VERY interesting calls and emails from people. Some have been really enlightening with some of the history of the car while others tried to tell my I should not have the car and they should have it instead.

That old car found a good home. Congrats Rick & Annie.

What a great car and a great find Rick! Congrats to you and Annie.

Can't wait to see this one as the restoration process begins!

Best,
Dave

Congratulations on the awesome find Rick & Annie. The car has found a great home!

Wow nice find..................can't wait to see it restored.Bob

("Yes, this is that car. Not trying to be secretive just cautious. I have gotten some VERY interesting calls and emails from people. Some have been really enlightening with some of the history of the car while others tried to tell my I should not have the car and they should have it instead.")

Thanks for registering it Rick. That is a very important car - no rust body, original engine, original rear, 4 speed, great color, etc. I wanted to get it recorded in the registry before the next update. IMO the right people got the car!

My friend Johnny had tried to buy this COPO Yenko Chevelle for years.... he is checking if he has old pictures or letters from the original owner. He says it was hit in the cowl area/front clip in 1970 and the owner didn’t have insurance to cover it...?

Whatever he finds I will send to you Rick :-)

Ryan

This build is “trending”

Wow!! Some rude bone-heads out there!! :no: :thumbsdown:
With attitude like that, they for sure should NOT have the car! I'm so glad to see you guys got it!

Thanks Ryan, I appreciate that! I have been amazed with the number of people that have come forward with photos and stories (that collaborated what I already knew). I was under the impression the car had not been seen in 40 years but that turns out to not be true.

The only damage to the firewall was at the base where it angles down. No damage anywhere else and the was from the clutch Z-bar hitting the firewall.

The only firewall damage as seen here.

Original engine block undamaged other than being weathered. The engine block was found next to the garage door opening along with one head. The other head was mounted on the 396 engine seen directly behind the car along with a single 291 head. At first I passed over the original block thinking it was an early block due to the distributor boss being the early tall version. It was not until I had looked at every other block in the garage and thinking I was not going to get an original block so I was MUCH relieved when I finally looked at that one. Another reason to panic was the garage was 3" deep in standing water!

Wow! What a find! Congrats Rick and Annie!
I can't help but think what goes around comes around and this find is rewards for all that you guys do for our hobby. Looking forward to following your progress.

Very Cool Rick! Sure would look good in Day 2 trim!


Tommy

It is truly funny Damien. My resto tech is a lot like me and we were discussing this very subject just a couple of months ago. He has known me for about 10 years and during the discussion I reacted to his "what goes around comes around" comment stating that though I agree, it would sure be nice if my ship would come in some day. 2 days later I received the call for this car.........

However and in thinking more deeply about that subject days later I realized my ship had already come in almost 2 years ago and maybe I should be much more thankful for that instead of a car. The car is just a bonus but we are sure looking forward to restoring it together. :beers:

P.S. my 54 Bel Air will be going up for sale now as soon as I swap in the 388 stroker motor to help finance this restoration........... ;)

Such a great find that wasn’t as secret as you thought. Johnny and I have talked about this car a few times, even a few months ago.

Your car will clean up and come back to life easily!! I don’t even think that dent can be called “damage”.

I do not understand how the car was not rusty? Dirt floor garage/barn? Standing water at least recently....... I don’t get it? By the condition one would assume it was stored somewhere else.... But others have shared pictures of it in the same place from decades ago.... incredible!

Ryan

The standing water was due to a torrential down pour days before we arrived. Because the garage was down hill and covered in leaves, they all washed into the garage thru the garage door (if you could call it that) and into the garage plugging the drain. We had to go purchase barn boots to work on getting the car out. Once that was done the floor drain was cleaned out and drained itself. Based on the condition of the parts that had been below the water we could tell they had not been like that for very long. Notice the water in this photo and the condition of the garage.

Those pics are amazing. Did you get the original wheels with it?? I noticed they were not on it in the other pics.

Unfortunately, No!! We looked everywhere but could not come up with them. I have a feeling they were put on his 70 Chevelle which was at another location and much of the bolt on parts of that car were stolen including the transmission to the Yenko. I WILL find it one of these days and am already tracking down some leads. I have mixed feelings about the wheels as I really do not like the Rally wheels on this car and would much rather have Atlas style wheels on it. I have a year plus to decide.

By the looks of that garage, anything could have been there and you would have never known!! Good luck tracking stuff down, hopefully it will all come together for you.

We pulled every scrap out of the garage one piece at a time to make sure we missed nothing. Found some neat stuff not pertaining to the car and much to Charley's delight I found several thousands of dollars worth of NOS motorcycle parts as well as other antiques that the seller had put into a junk pile and was going to throw away. Likely $10-15,000 worth of stuff of which he is currently now selling. Even found an NOS kerosene fired clothes iron STILL in its original box from the early 1900's. Pretty cool.

Is that a poison ivy vine?

Very cool, Rick & Annie, a big congrats to you both. Couldn't happen to nicer folks.....karma, indeed. FWIW, my survivor 69 SS396 convert never had the white plastic vent on the 2 gas tank vent hoses either.

The plastic vent was a late change, sometime around May but varies per plant. The earlier version was just as Rick posted, two vent tubes retained by a single metal strap and #8 screw.

Amazing find!!!! Congrats!

Simply amazing find Rick! I wanted to make this congrats more public than our emails. Couldn't have happened to better people.

And don't listen to the haters - they're largely jealous.

Dan

WOW I cannot believe people would have the nerve to say those things. I mean does that give them the right to own one as well? Pretty sad for people to say that stuff. I cannot wait till it is done!

Awesome find! Can't wait to see the progress on this one.

Congratulations, awesome purchase. It sounds like the owners had a pretty good idea as to the desirability of the car so a fair deal was made. Great to hear there are still some out there that are relatively unknown, which is pretty cool.

Thank you. We by no means stole the car and paid fair market value. I almost had to turn it down because it was getting too expensive so the family was well compensated both with the sale of the car, the misc Chevrolet parts and the thousands I saved him when pointing out the value of the motorcycle parts. There was likely over $5000 worth of parts we found in the trunk. Next thing I knew they had thrown them into the junk pile which I quickly educated them on.

Gongrats, I’m not a hater but I sure am jealous! I will be watching this build very closely