69 YENKO Chevelle

[BARN FIND]

I have been reading this forum for a few months and remember a Forest Green 69 Yenko Chevelle that was at all the "Cruise Nights" at North Hills Village in PA in the middle 1980's (85,86,87). It belonged to a Auto Body Repair specialist that worked at McAfee Automotive on route 19 in Wexford, PA. Does anyone here own that car? It was a automatic car I believe. It did not have stripes on it then.

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

As you can see from our vin lists, there were at least 3 fathom green, a/t, Yenko Chevelles sold from Yenko - which I'm assuming is where this one was from. I have spoken to one of these 3 car's original owner. He told me that he did not want those God aweful stripes on his car, but Yenko refused to take them off. However, he wanted 427 cross flags installed on the fenders, which Yenko promptly installed. When he got the car home in the North Strabane, PA area, he took out the hair dryer and immediately removed the white stripes. So, could be the same car?

[BARN FIND]

It could be the same car, however the guy I met in 85 probably was not old enough to have bought it new in 1969.
I think it was built on a Malibu? I remember the interior was black.










malibu

[firstgenaddict]

Would not have been built on a Malibu trimed car.
If it had the lower trim (around the bottom of the car about 5" up on the door) and had Malibu emblems then some investigating needs to be done to see if the trim and emblems were added at a later date.

[BARN FIND]

I am not sure about the Malibu part. The owner worked for a friend of my dad. I will call him and see if I can get more information. Maybe it was not a real Yenko, but in 1985 he said it was "BEFORE" the prices went berserk. It may be a car known to this forum but if it is real I will try to find out where it is.

[Chevy454]

I may be getting my LS6's and my COPOs mixed up here, but haven't there been some COPO Chevelles found with Malibu interior pieces? Like the wheel, door panels, and over the glove box door? While not the Malibu exterior package, it still could/would have said Malibu on the interior I *think*...

[firstgenaddict]

Not sure myself about the interior parts but the exterior trim I am pretty sure did not come on the COPO's

[hvychev]

Maybe with the limited knowledge of Yenkos/Copos back then the owner had a COPO Chevelle and since it was a 427 he just assumed that it was a destriped Yenko?

[Supercar_Kid]

Being that Wexford is so very near Canonsburg and Yenko Chevrolet, I'm betting it was/is a Yenko Chevelle if the guy was claiming it was back in '85. Any COPO Chevelle's that I've seen have had Malibu interior emblems, at least on the door panels and on the dash spear. If it wasn't getting SS396 logos, Malibu markings were the only other choice in the '69 Chevelle parts bin. Exterior trim is much like that of an SS, no body side mouldings, blacked out grille and tail panel, wheel well mouldings, SS domed hood etc. Be it a real Yenko/COPO car, or just a Malibu with a 427 dumped in it, in either case it wouldn't make sense to affix the "Yenko" name to it if it never had any connection to Yenko, especially that long ago and when it sounds like he wasn't bragging or trying to cash in on anything, just explaining the car's history to friends at the time. I doubt there were too many non-Yenko COPO Chevelles running around the Pittsburgh area back in '85 or even in '69 for that matter. Yenko was the Western PA performance dealer for sure. If the car is a real FG factory 427 car, I'm betting it's from Yenko.

[GaryH]

[ QUOTE ]
"Cruise Nights" at North Hills Village

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, you went to these too? I feel this cruise is what really got things rolling around the Burgh. To bad an accident ended that particular one. After that, it took a while for more to surface around here. No problem any more though. Sometimes it's hard to decide which one to go to Getting back on the subject, I don't remember that particular Chevelle. If it didn't have the decals,I probably would't have thought much about it back then.