Paul Dehnert's Killer 1966 396/375 Chevelle!

[TimG]

I'd post about driving it, but for some reason, Paul won't let me near his cars without supervision.

[Bill Pritchard]

Absolutely incredible car, Paul!

In 1967, I was 16 yrs old. Went to visit my aunt & uncle & cousins one summer day. My cousin Sharon had a boyfriend who had a car identical to this (except it probably wasn't a L78)....he came over and picked her up to go out for a root beer. Guess who got to ride along in the back seat I thought I'd died and gone to heaven

[Paul D]

Hey Bill, thanks for the nice comments. I notice you're from North Aurora....I lived in Aurora from 1966 though 1972, my first job out of school working for IBM.

I have very fond memories of the area in that I bought my first new car, a '66 Impala SS (396 with THM), and in 1970 I walking into Ed Fanning Chevrolet and bought a new Z28 off the showroom floor.

In their indoor showroom Ed Fanning had a about a dozen LS6's, including at least one convertible and 8 or 10 Z28's. Quite a sight, still etched in my memory. Also, down the street the Dodge dealer had a red Hemi Daytona that took about 18 months to sell. That car sat outside right though the winter!

My

[Bill Pritchard]

Your memory is excellent, Paul Yes, I remember those dealerships well. Ed Fanning Chevy had a lot of hi-performance Chevys back in those days. They had a Citrus green 70 Z28 on the showroom floor that I wanted with a passion....payment was gonna be $140/mo. and I was convinced I couldn't swing it. Bought a new Hugger Orange 307 Nova instead, payment was $77/mo. .....and I wound up making double payments on it every month

Both the Dodge dealer down the street and the Chrysler-Plymouth dealer across the street from Ed Fanning had winged cars sitting around for many many months. Couldn't get rid of em to save their souls. I remember the Dodge dealer also had a new 69 Hemi Super Bee still on the lot in the fall of 70 when the new 71's were out It was the ugliest shade of tan you'd ever want to see which I'm sure didn't help its chances of selling.

Congrats again on maintaining that bronze Chevelle in such superb condition

[hvychev]

Check out the attached Ed Fanning dealer memorabilia from my collection.

King size post card

[hvychev]

Well Bill I am sorry but there is more pictures but I can't get them to friggin post here for whatever reason and I even shrank them down. The gallery also does not work either.

[Paul D]

A few weeks ago I tripped over another interesting story on the Chevelle. While attending the Chicago Vettfest a member of this forum who know the car back in the early days gave me a tip on who might have fixed the minor damage on the drivers rocker panel. I've been trying to research this for some time.

Turns out the guy moved his hot rod/body shop business from California to Oregon many years ago. So I call the guy in Oregon and he remembers the car very well, and starts telling me some war stories about the car. Apparently, at a party, the third owner was doing "test runs" up and down the street demonstrating the cars power, and had a slight altercation with the ditch! Well, he fixed the damage right up and said he was very careful not to paint any more than necessary because of the original paint.

You've got to love it when neat history and folklore is uncovered on these great cars!