60 CHEVY HIGH PERFORMANCE II OCTOBER 2019
The Good Part
transmission. It did have a 396/325
engine, no numbers-matching
anything. At the time, I rebuilt the
engine and the M21 four-speed.”
The Chevelle had been living
rough, though, and needed a
complete restoration. At this point
you blindly commit or you broom
the mess and search out something
a lot less needy. John committed,
but later on admitted that if he ever
found himself in the land of slow car
death again, without question he’d
purchase a heap already restored.
The Chevelle cried for solid
floors in the trunk and new rear
quarters, and John discovered the
most challenging part of the deal
was making the panels line up true,
making the gaps square and even.
In Bloomfield, John saw painter
Anthony Tronio at Advanced
Auto Craft. Advanced treated the
sheetmetal and Tronio mapped it
with rich and provocative PPG
Vintage Burgundy.
Gestation was longer than you’d
like, about six years from the timethe car went on the spit, but he says
he did most of the work and that
his most memorable time with the
A-body was pinning it with all the
trim, the bumpers, handles, emblems,
grille, and lights. Ausley’s Chevelle
Parts in Graham, North Carolina,
plated or polished all the bright stuff.
There are the powerful way-
back clues, insignia if you will,
of old times. It’s probably been 40
years since we saw those freaky
(but now very nostalgic) NMW
ladders beneath an ox cart or a hot