Some 300 Deluxe Items
 

So I had known that the 300 deluxe cars got some stripped down items that can be normally found a regular SS or Malibu. One that had to do some digging to understand was the trim piece at the base of the window. This car did have some very high front end damage in its life, and I noticed it had the hideaway headline trim piece, but had the square non hideaway headline wiper motor. After i pulled off the trim piece it was obvious had the thinner non hideaway piece as can be seen by the line where the paint is faded, and the fact that all the holes where in the cowl for the smaller piece. I also found what I think is a date code on the motor. Im taking a guess here that it means 38th week of 1968 so thinking its original.

First picture is with the trim piece above, the line clearly shows the thinner piece left a fade mark. Second picture shows one I found in my dads stock from a heavy chevy. More to come on this later

Wiper Motor
 

3868 In Yellow Ink

"Now the fun part. When I bought the car my intent was a full restoration back to an original 350 or 325Hp 396. When you really get into this hobby you just seem to acquire certain items over the years. By luck I acquired an original 3 core BO tagged Harrison radiator. At about the same time I also acquired an original mostly complete 396 L78 motor from a 69 Kansas City Chevelle.


I'm gonna keep the original 331 posi, backed with a M20 dated for a 69 I had laying around and top off the full restoration with an original set of L89 Aluminum heads. Looking forward to this one hope everyone enjoys.


Rick "

I love this! I mean if born with is gone and anything else is just close- why the hell not?

This might be a stupid question,but this car was built when I was 1 years old. Now I've seen some low power 396 and also L78 and L89 300 deluxes, I just want to know if this was common thing that anybody could order, or is it more of like a hidden option like the copo Camaro's? Could you just walk into a Chevy dealer and said I want a 375 horsepower 300 deluxe?

Not that old so can't help 1st hand, but the L78 wasn't even listed in the power team combos and the 300 deluxe in either hdtp or sedan was very rare but not unheard of. Very interested also if anyone here remembers what was known in the typical dealer of '69.

1969 is the ONLY year the SS package was offered on a 300 model car, both sedan and hardtop, and yes, any of the 396 engine choices were available.

Looking forwards to following alone. Love the Orange cars.

Cowl Damage
 

So if anyone has a sharp eye you should have seen the very upper part of the cowl on both sides where the front fenders mount had received damage. My best guess is the car was hit at grille level or higher, and the fenders and hood pushed back wrinkling the top of the cowl on each side where the fenders mount. If you study the pictures you can see the rusty areas where the cowl popped the paint from the wrinkling of the metal.

Donor Cowl
 

I was able to source a donor cowl from another 2dr 69. I was happy to find it but not happy that once I removed the dash on the donor that it was pretty rotted underneath. This meant 10-12hrs of fixing the donor cowl before I could even tear into my car

Damage Before on the Side Wrappers
 

Note the rusted areas from the paint being crinkled so bad