My Dad's Chevy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bz-nO6WvOYw - One of the best Chevy ads I've seen.

Thanks for sharing.

It reminds me why my 1980 Malibu Classic Landau coupe is in my garage.

We all have different upbringings, what's exotic to some of us is mundane to others. My dad worked with the Canadian Diplomatic service. Not unlike military bratts my early years involved a lot of travel, living in different countries. In 1979 my dad was transfered from Algiers to Beijing. I just turned 15 going into grade 9. Beijing back in the late 70's was still pretty much under Mao's infulence therefore had no Highschools that the Canadian goverment felt were safe from communist doctrine so I ended in Windsor Ontario with my sister and brother in law. In early september that year after school my sister picked me up and we drove to a Chevy dealer in Essex Ontario where my brother in law met us. They were about to order their first new car. They picked out a Malibu classic Landau coupe. While they picked colours I picked out options on the order form for them. It got tripple black exterior colours and dark claret cloth interior, the only options it did not get were a Radio, power windows, power door locks, and power seats, it was loaded with all the other options. I kept and still have the original sales brochure that I looked at every day while the car was being built in Oshawa Ontario.

I first laid eye on it on December 17th 1979 when it arrived at the dealer from the Oshawa assembly plant. the first time my brother in law let me back it out of his garage I pushed a bit too hard on the gas and peeled out of his garage smoking the tires filled the garage with tire smoke and left two tire marks on his fresh concrete floor, I can still hear him yelling about his new floor and the tire marks that are still there to this day! I got my driver's license in the fall of 1980 in this car. In early 1981 my dad was transfered to United nations In Geneva Switzerland. The campus of the international school I attended was outside of the city. On the first day of school I spotted a sliver 79 malibu classic coupe with a black vinyl top parked in the driveway of a large estate near the school. I lusted over that silver 79 malibu I even talked to it's owner a few times. He hardly ever drove it said it was too expensive to drive all the time. Since it was one of the few 79's with high altitude performance factory 350ci. It also had console floor shifter and buckets in black vinyl, and the rare factory power sunroof, full power optioned too windows door locks seats. The more I got to see and know the car the more I liked it.

When I cam back to Canada I attended college in Toronto, Toronto just isn't a place to have a nice car. So not having space for it the Malibu got sold to a friend of my brother in laws in Windsor. After college I moved to Banff alberta for a year before moving back to southern Ontario. The very first week end back in Ontario I was out with some friends in Windsor and something caught my eye and there it was my sister's former Black 1980 Malibu classic slowly drove by, glissening in the sun, Looking very clean and well maintained waxed and detailed to the nines. My buddy said "Man that should be your car! , Man that a beautiful Malibu!" I looked at my buddy then ran after the car.

Bought it! took a while to get the owner to sell it to me.

by then even if the Factory paint looked new, it had been driven 287,000kms, it's high output 305 was tired, the the sun had faded it's darkclaret carpet to a kinda goldish colour , the dash was good with no cracks. I built up a 350 dropped it in with a turbo 350 trans, the old metric 200 wouldn't take the torq for long. I put in a new carpet and enjoyed the car til 1995 when I had return to university and sold it to a friend who then quickly flipped it, he is now an aquaintance.

Regret set in. Once I was out of school and working I began to track down my malibu.

in 1999 I picked up a decent clean malibu coupe that I thought I could recreate my malibu with, but since it wasn't a landau coupe, I transformed it into the silver malibu I use to lust over back in Switzerland. I even imported all the swiss spec parts to make it as close as possilbe to the car near my school. (I kind of use it as a test mule for mods and parts that I I may want to put on my black Landau.)

In 2000 I found it in the back lot of used car lot. parked under the exhaust vent of a concrete factory! I know I paid more than I should have but I brought her home. I was supprised to discover that it had only travlled a tottal of 5,604kms since I last drove her. those five years away from me where hard on her, the dash had cracked, the driver's seat bottom has some wear spots, someone thought the car would look better if they blacked out the chrome with satin black paint...... the engine was fine still tight and strong. I found a crack free 1980 malibu dash in the right colour at a local junk yard that is also a Stereo dash that's a bonus since the malibu was ordered radio delete it came with the mono dash. at some point the passenger side of the car rubbed the outer edge of the door sport mirror and put a crease in the right rear wheel lip moulding. got some rust bubbles under the vinyl roof, and at some point the floors were poorly patched. the exhaust from the cement factory had deposited tiny clusters of cement and dust on its paint and vinyl landau top. Over two days using a razor blade with the corners tapped up so the blade coudn't dig into the paint I carefully scrapped off all the dried cement from the paint. i then wet sanded and buffed the paint back up, the factory original black laquer once again glissened like it did though now the paint is a lot thinner and shows laquer cracking. I then found that the previous owner had saned the chrome with 600 grit before he painted it all satin black, I lucked out and found some new NOS repalcements at a local GM dealer! Took a bit of time to find a nice set of bumper guards since the originals had bad rust issues, they came out of California. the original head liner must have falled so it was replaced with a marron perforated headliner fabric similar to was GM used in the late 70's F bodies, it just looks wrong, but I've left it for now. I drove it for a while in 2001 and 2002 before parking it on stands in my garage with the intent of putting on headers, got half way through that project in 2003 and never got back to it for some reason. B body wagons came into my life or somehting like that about that time.....

this video might just be the motivation I need to get out there and finish putting on my headers and new exhaust that have been sitting in the garage since 2002. I think summer 2012 will be time to drive it around some more....

In 1982 my niece was born and this is the first car she ever rode in, she calls it her car and every time she visits she makes a point of also visiting the malibu in the garage and hints as to when I'll let her drive it.... One day I will pass it on to her, but I'm not ready yet.

Even if I haven't driven her in a few years I still feel at peace knowing it's out in the garage where I can go sit in it and close my eyes and I'm 16 again...

Great story, great pics, and glad you've got the black one back. Very sharp!

Does the black car still have the stock late-style Rally wheels? Those look sharp on there!

81X11 wrote:

Does the black car still have the stock late-style Rally wheels? Those look sharp on there!

Yes it does have that style of factory rim still on the car today, however I replaced them with some that were near new and in much better condition, since 300000+kms combined with Canadian climate left em a bit pitted and crusty. I did clean and paint the originals from my malibu, but ended up putting them on the Caballero, they were still on the Caballero when it was when written off., this past summer.

buickestate wrote:

81X11 wrote:

Does the black car still have the stock late-style Rally wheels? Those look sharp on there!

Yes it does have that style of factory rim still on the car today, however I replaced them with some that were near new and in much better condition, since 300000+kms combined with Canadian climate left em a bit pitted and crusty. I did clean and paint the originals from my malibu, but ended up putting them on the Caballero, they were still on the Caballero when it was when written off., this past summer.

Glad you kept the stock style on there.

-Mike

Mike, your cutlass reminds me of the Cutlass my dad bought new in 87, his was two tone pale and dark blue metalic wire wheel covers a V6 with every power option, plush dark blue velour interior.

My dad was between postings, going from North Africa to Hong kong, and was spending some down time at my sister's in Windsor. He and my brother in law got a long well and on this particular day my brother in law's chevy pick up needed some service, so the two of them whent to the same dealer where my Malibu came from in Essex. While my brohter in law was talking with the service manager about his truck my dad wandered in to the show room and started looking at the the new oldsmobiles. An eager sales man started to pester my dad seeing my dad was drawn to this particular blue cutlass. After a few minutes of trying to get my dad to buy, Dad tells the guy "I don't live around here and where I do I doubt that they would service any car I would buy from you" to that the salesman responded with "Well sir if I can get you to buy this car today from me I will have this car delivered to your residence and I guarentee the Local GM dealer there will provide you with full service" to that dad asked for that in writting. The dealer immediately wrote it down for dad. My dad then negociated the deal and got the car near cost wrote them the check and once they had the check in hand they asked where were they shipping the new 87 cutlass....

With a big smirk my dad told them the Canadian Commission in Hong Kong. They actually did have the cutlass shipped to hong kong. Where the local Holden dealer did indeed provide full GM service..... I'm sure that salesman must have gotten reamed out by the dealer ship on that deal.

My mom was fit to be tied, Hong kong is one of those cities where you don't need a car, public transports are fast and efficient she was very upset but my dad wanted the car so..

Now Hong Kong drives on the left side of the roads and all cars have to be right hand drive with out exception. Being both a diplomat and a member of the Hong Kong Police commission he had no issues being granted the right to use his new cutlass in Hong Kong. He did have to put decals on the rear of the car that read "LEFT HAND DRIVE", there were some restrictions imposed on the car too, like once he was done with it, it could not be sold in Hong Kong. He was offered ten times what he paid for it but he couldn't sell it there, it had to leave hong kong unless he was using it.

The Cutlass followed my dad to the Canadian embassy in DC in early 1990. By then it only had 2700kms on it's odometer. My dad kept it til he was transfered to Athens when he sold it to my Brother in law, who painted it black and tinted the windows then sold it to a highschool kid who wrapped it around a tree shortly after....

Wonderful stories guys,thanks for sharing!
Jim

buickestate wrote:

Mike, your cutlass reminds me of the Cutlass my dad bought new in 87, his was two tone pale and dark blue metalic wire wheel covers a V6 with every power option, plush dark blue velour interior.

My dad was between postings, going from North Africa to Hong kong, and was spending some down time at my sister's in Windsor. He and my brother in law got a long well and on this particular day my brother in law's chevy pick up needed some service, so the two of them whent to the same dealer where my Malibu came from in Essex. While my brohter in law was talking with the service manager about his truck my dad wandered in to the show room and started looking at the the new oldsmobiles. An eager sales man started to pester my dad seeing my dad was drawn to this particular blue cutlass. After a few minutes of trying to get my dad to buy, Dad tells the guy "I don't live around here and where I do I doubt that they would service any car I would buy from you" to that the salesman responded with "Well sir if I can get you to buy this car today from me I will have this car delivered to your residence and I guarentee the Local GM dealer there will provide you with full service" to that dad asked for that in writting. The dealer immediately wrote it down for dad. My dad then negociated the deal and got the car near cost wrote them the check and once they had the check in hand they asked where were they shipping the new 87 cutlass....

With a big smirk my dad told them the Canadian Commission in Hong Kong. They actually did have the cutlass shipped to hong kong. Where the local Holden dealer did indeed provide full GM service..... I'm sure that salesman must have gotten reamed out by the dealer ship on that deal.

My mom was fit to be tied, Hong kong is one of those cities where you don't need a car, public transports are fast and efficient she was very upset but my dad wanted the car so..

Now Hong Kong drives on the left side of the roads and all cars have to be right hand drive with out exception. Being both a diplomat and a member of the Hong Kong Police commission he had no issues being granted the right to use his new cutlass in Hong Kong. He did have to put decals on the rear of the car that read "LEFT HAND DRIVE", there were some restrictions imposed on the car too, like once he was done with it, it could not be sold in Hong Kong. He was offered ten times what he paid for it but he couldn't sell it there, it had to leave hong kong unless he was using it.

The Cutlass followed my dad to the Canadian embassy in DC in early 1990. By then it only had 2700kms on it's odometer. My dad kept it til he was transfered to Athens when he sold it to my Brother in law, who painted it black and tinted the windows then sold it to a highschool kid who wrapped it around a tree shortly after....

Very cool story! Amazing that the car went all over the world, and I bet it REALLY stood out in Hong Kong!

Since we keep talking about world-travelling cars, that black '79 Corvette we had was ordered new by my Uncle Lloyd when he was stationed in Germany with the Air Force. He actually ordered it through the PX, pretty wild. When he came back to the states he had it shipped to Valdosta Georgia and my Dad bought it from him in 1986 when we were living in Denver. Dad commuted in it daily both in Denver and later in New Jersey. He said it kept him young. It started smoking pretty bad in 1996 and Dad parked it in the garage until I got it in 2000 for my wedding, and later sold it in 2004 to help pay for my new house..

Since my friend Ben's brother owns that Vette now I hope to someday bring it back to my family. I check in on it a lot, but have yet to visit it on my trips back east....scared I'd want to get in and steal it.

When I saw that Chevy ad all I could think of was my Dad and that black Vette. Maybe someday!

-Mike