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1966 L79 Restoration

111K views 197 replies 41 participants last post by  vanovafan  
#1 · (Edited)
This SS Car was purchased by the first Owner on November 20, 1965 at Ron Tonkin Chevrolet in Portland Oregon.
The car came from the Factory painted Marina Blue with Black interior. The factory options include 327-350Hp engine, Push Button Radio, Rear speaker, Rear Antenna, Deluxe Seat belts, Transistorized Ignition, Head Rest Bucket Seats, Mag Wheel Covers, Tinted Windshield, F40 suspension, and a 4 speed.

I spoke to the Orginal Owner today again to get the scoop on the car. He told me he went into the Ron Tonkin Chevrolet in November of 1965 to purchase a new 1966 327 Impala. He said a Caprice on the showroom floor caught his eye as well as this car. The more he looked at this car, the more he had to have it. He said the price of this car was the same as a fully Loaded 327 Impala and almost as much as the highly optioned Caprice. But once he saw this Chevy II, he knew this was the car he had to have. He approached a Salesman about buying the car. The salesman told him that the car had been sent to them by GM and that is was first going to go to a GM Auto show downtown and that the car was not for sale at that time. One thing led to another and after getting the General Manager involved, the car was his. He told me he never lost a race in this car. Either on the street or at the track.

Added 11/7/19: The original owner told me of a race he got into at the track with a 55 Chevy, 396, 2-4'S, 4sp, car. The POO(previous original owner) said his Nova was completely stock down to the original tires. The owner of the 55 had asked the POO to race and the only condition the POO had was that the 55 had to cap his headers because the POO said he did not have a tach and could not hear his engine well enough. He said that the 55 beat him out of the hole but by the time he was half way thru second gear he had pulled ahead of the 55 and pulled 4 car lengths ahead in 3rd gear. He said he never shifted in out of 3rd and went thru the trap at what felt like 8,000 rpms and he was going 110 mph. Cool story.

I purchased the car in 2009 from I believe the 9th owner. He provided me with a copy of the titles from all the owners. After speaking with the Second owner, the second owner provided him with a lot original paperwork he had for the car including a copy of the original loan paper work from when he purchased it that listed all the options that the car came with. I even have the envelope from 1992 that the second owner sent all the paperwork in. At some point, I had doubts about whether the car was legit or not. But one day while pressure washing the undercoating off the fire wall, there were grease markings on the firewall that verified the Headrest seats, Tinted Windshield, 4 speed, rear speaker, rear antenna, and Deluxe Seat Belts. It verifies that the car is what it is.

The Original Firewall Cowl tag still on the car indicates that the car was assembled the third week of October, Marina Blue exterior paint, Black Bucket Seats, Tinted Windshield, 4 speed, real speaker, rear antenna, and deluxe seat belts.

The NCRS Shipping data Report that I recently received indicates the name of the delivery dealer was Ron Tonkin Chevrolet. This jives with the info received from the original owner.

The person I bought the car from in 2009 had owned the car since 1985 and he had purchased the car from his brother who had owned it for 3 years or so.

Tom Migut is currently restoring the car to showroom condition. Tom performs all facets of the restorations for all the components of the car except for the body and paint. But even then, the Body and Paint work are performed to Tom's exacting standards. The vast majority of all the parts that aren't original to the car are NOS. Tom even "restored" an large chunk of the NOS parts to showroom condition. A lot "New Old Stock" parts may not have ever been installed on a car, but it doesn't mean they can just be installed on a car out of the box. The word "OLD" in NOS means that a lot of the parts have been sitting on shelves for 40+ years an need attention. As you can see from the Pictures, In my opinion, Tom is the best there is when it comes to the restoration 1966 Chevy II's. I have had a lot of fun working with and learning a lot from Him during this restoration. It's been a great journey and I now consider Tom Migut to be one of my Best Friends.

The car is to be shown at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Chicago Nov. 23-24, 2019




NOS Bumpers, Trunk Plate, Tail Lights

NOS Rocker Mouldings 8pcs, Wheel Lips
 
#2 · (Edited)



NOS fan clutch

Correct 40394 Fuel Pump

GM head Gaskets

GM intake Gasket


”O”Rocker Arms

Notice Decal is not a Sticker. Silver and Black Clear Decal just like we used on model cars.



Copper coated main steering shaft

Correct Throttle return spring bracket

Original oil baffle

Chevy II specific driver’s wire separator
 
#10 ·
Wow is right!! Tom is doing a fantastic job!! Does Tom paint and assemble the

engine as well?

Really well done car and will be perfect as it came off the assembly line!

I see a 1000 point car here!! Nice car Bill...how bad was the car when you got

it?

Dave
 
#11 · (Edited)
Hey Dave, The Short Block was assembled at a machine shop. Tom then assembled and painted the entire Engine.
I will post some additional car and detail pictures tonight. I will throw in some pics of how the car looked when I purchased the car in 2009. Thanks Dave.

Bill
 
#59 · (Edited)
Thanks for the comments Rusty. Not sure what Tom uses to paint the heater box? I'm sure after years of trial and error he figured out exactly what color, sheen, and texture to use and its either as close as possible or exactly as factory. But even then, not every factory heater box is exactly the same.

Bill
 
#14 ·
Beautiful restoration. Pretty much a guidebook of how to restore a L79 vehicle with proper finishes and parts. That's going to be a stunner!

Going through the process of doing that, not just hours of time and $$$, but how all those NOS parts were sourced over the years. Either Tom has squirreled away these parts over decades, hit every swap meet and internet site for the last 25 years, or has some dedicated parts hunters working with him.
 
#15 ·
this nova it going to be better than the day it was made. the picture of the front brakes was perfect to show the colored springs an how they all clipped together, just wondering do you have that same picture of the rear brakes an all springs assembled ?
 
#16 ·
Yep got it. Will post tonight. Something to note is that the coloring of the different components for a metallic brake car differ from the coloring of the components for a non Metallic brake car.

Bill
 
#18 ·
Bill, can you give us the background on this car? I see it has a the '721' block that was only used in the first few months of 1966 L79 production. Do you know the actual production date of the car?

Bob
 
#19 · (Edited)
Will do Bob. I will write up a narrative and add it to the first post. Yes, the car build date was 3rd week of October 65 with a very low Sequence Number on the Cowl Tag, very early car, hence the "721" Block. The story goes as told to me by the original owner that the GM built the car for the 1965 GM Auto Show in Portland Oregon. This might explain why it has a lot of rare options such as L-79, Head Rests, Electronic Ignition, Mag Wheel covers etc... He bought the car and it never made it to the Autoshow. Thanks Bob.

Bill