My 66 Chevelle

Member’s Profile

By Gary W. Smith

I was born in Coal City, West Virginia, 1951, a small coal mining town of about 1000 people, my Dad like most others made their living mining coal. At the age of 19 I joined the Air Force only because the Army had sent me a drafted notice and my options had run out. To make a long story short I spent the majority of my Air Force career on the west coast, 5 years in the regular Air Force and 15 in the reserves as an Aircraft mechanic. In 1993 my civil service job as a quality assurance specialist forced a move to Tucson, one that I don’t regret.

I have own my 66 Chevelle for the last 33 years so here’s my story; I was enlisted in Air Force and just returned from Thailand back to Norton AFB, CA. That was in 1974, my supervisor and good friend Tom Lambie owned the car, it was a plain Jane with hub caps, a 283 CI engine with a power glide transmission, AM radio and no power top, never-the-less, he decided he wanted to sell it and I purchased the car for $500 dollars, best deal of my life, I really didn’t care for the car that much at the time but for the first time in my life I had saved up a few hundred dollars while stationed in Thailand and decided it was better than a car payments and I would just drive it until I could get something nicer, I didn’t really care about Chevys, I was a Ford guy at heart.

The longer I had the car the better I liked it, mainly because it was a convertible so I decided to hang on to it. A bit of history: this poor old Chevy has been through a lot, it was a daily driver for many years mid 70s to mid 80s because that’s all I had for transportation.

I was talking automotive classes at Valley College in Colton, Ca. in 1977 and I came out after night class only to discovered it had been stolen, a sad sinking feeling and knowing I only had liability insurance, well the police found it in a orange grove in Redlands, Ca. a few days later, it was sitting on the axles, the chrome cragers/wheels were gone, steering wheel, radio, chrome air cleaner, etc. and to make things worse who ever stole it had shovel dirt inside of it, on top of it, dirt in the engine compartment and yes…down the carburetor, it was brought back to my house on a flat bed trailer and remained in my garage for a long time before I could get it back on the road.

Once back on the road again my formal wife started driving it to her job in Riverside and for two years I rode a motorcycle to my job in Pomona.

Now most of you know a 66 has the single cylinder brake master cylinder and when the brakes go, they all go, my former wife had decided to parked the car under a shade tree at work and was probably only going about 10-15 miles an hours when the brakes failed, she hit the tree dead center, she called me up at work and said it had slight damage, wrong, everything from the windshield forward had to be replaced, fenders, hood, grill, bumper, etc. So back in the garage for a year or so until I could afford to buy the necessary parts.

Over the years it was always hard to find the money to completely restored it, a new top one year, maybe paint a few years after that, interior a few years after that, then it would need paint again, etc. so when I retired in January of 2007 that was actually the first time I had the money and the time to do it all at once so that’s exactly what I did, it’s pretty much complete now, I will most likely convert the drum brakes to disc given the history of the car, when it’s all said and done I will have invested 4-5 thousand dollars in it from January to March of 2007. A far cry from my 500 hundred dollar initial investment but worth every penny.

The car has a very special meaning to me, I get chocked up even thinking about what has transpired in my life over the last 33 years, my kids grew up in that car, I’ve had that car my entire working career and like most old cars, the stories that car could tell.

I feel old cars are truly a piece of art, not just a hunk of medal, maybe to some but not for me, a firm part of our American history. Unfortunately in today’s modern world it’s hard to tell a Chevy from a Toyota; however, when you see a NOMAD, a 57 Chevy, a Chevelle, an old Mustang, you don’t ask what is it, you know what it is. It doesn’t look like every other car on the road. You know that old saying really is true, "it’s not like the good old days"

Proud owner of "OLD BLUE" AKA "66"

Gary W. Smith