1965 Chevelle 300, 396/425 M22 COPO

[Too Many Projects]

"The original axle was replaced as part of the Olds drivetrain swap back when the car was still fairly new, but an accurate appearing clone axle is in it now."
This is also a very interesting mystery to me. WHY would the original owner swap in an Olds driveline early on ???? Is the 396 engine blown up and not usable ?? I really can't picture any stock Olds drivetrain from that time period coming close to even matching what this car was built with...

[jeffschevelle]

Originally Posted by Too Many Projects

"The original axle was replaced as part of the Olds drivetrain swap back when the car was still fairly new, but an accurate appearing clone axle is in it now."
This is also a very interesting mystery to me. WHY would the original owner swap in an Olds driveline early on ???? Is the 396 engine blown up and not usable ?? I really can't picture any stock Olds drivetrain from that time period coming close to even matching what this car was built with...

I would normally let the owner speak to that question if he was on the site, but I don't think he's much online, so I will give it a shot.

My understanding from him was that Fast Eddie (who spec'd it and bought it new) had moved on to another car by then and had no further interest in racing the COPO Chevelle anymore. A racing friend had the Olds and wanted to continue racing his same Olds, but wanted the COPO drivetrain. Fast Eddie liked the fancier red and white Olds interior, so the drivetrains and interiors were swapped. (I would hope there was some cash boot in there as well, but who knows.)

On another note, the COPO still had the red and white Olds interior in it up until the restoration. I found a fairly nice 300 post car about 10 years ago with a mint set of red 300 door panels, the rubber mat, and nice seats, and hooked the COPO owner up with that car so he would have that interior for the COPO restoration. The seats had a tiny bit of wear so they actually got NOS seat cloth from SMS and used that to recover the donor seats so they would be nicer. The rubber mat unfortunately was not used, as the car has carpet in it now. They said it had a couple minor cracks around the seat feet so they went with carpet instead.

[Too Many Projects]

Thanks Jeff.
Yeah, the crazy things people did with these cars when they were done playing with them years ago is rather mind boggling to us now.
So you, and others, have known about this car for quite some time, it just wasn't well known in public until recently ?
Still brings up the question of who has the original rear axle and trans and why they haven't been pursued to reunited with the car.

[Pro Stock John]

Mitch, I would guess the car owner and the other guy know each other but maybe can't agree on price?

[chevelleheart]

Great GREAT story and history , thx for posting ..wow….

[Bill Pritchard]

Originally Posted by jeffschevelle

The rubber mat unfortunately was not used, as the car has carpet in it now. They said it had a couple minor cracks around the seat feet so they went with carpet instead.

To each their own, but there's no way I would have put repro carpeting in that car if I had a near-mint OEM rubber mat

[flyingn]

a little late to the thread but I was floored when I say it roll out of the trailer Thursday. I posted those pics seen in the early post. MCACN was off the charts this year

[Too Many Projects]

Originally Posted by Pro Stock John

Mitch, I would guess the car owner and the other guy know each other but maybe can't agree on price?

Very possible, I was party to that situation with my LS5 about 16 years ago. I tracked down the current owner of the body I had owned from 1973-1979 and was offered to buy it as a roller to reunite the engine with it. It had been "restored" horribly and he wanted 10k just for the roller. I turned it down and to this day wonder if I made the right choice, but it would have taken a complete strip to the inner structure to put that body back together correctly. No idea where it went when he sold it, or is now.
I have another '70 SS waiting for a frame off that the engine will, eventually, go in. For now, it resides as a 492 in day 2 appearance in my '66 SS.

[Pusher_Man]

Such a cool thread. Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge on this. For guys like me that have had a rough day with work today, reading these cool threads at night is a great way to end a day. Thank you and to the others. Y’all never know how entertaining stuff like this is to some of us.

[scuncio]

Couldn't have said it any better.

Originally Posted by Pusher_Man

Such a cool thread. Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge on this. For guys like me that have had a rough day with work today, reading these cool threads at night is a great way to end a day. Thank you and to the others. Y’all never know how entertaining stuff like this is to some of us.