Strength. Speed. Stealth. Nature’s deadliest creatures are typically positioned high on the food chain because they possess the characteristics of a cold-blooded killer. A mere glance is often all it takes to send shivers of fear straight through the spine of another hapless victim.
That’s a pretty fair comparison for Jack Stone’s killer 1969 Chevelle. Between its flawless paint, perfect stance, and painstaking detail over every square inch, it certainly has the look of a show-stopping world-class machine. And with an incredible highcube nitrous-injected Rat motor, it has the hypertrophied heart of a killer dragstrip machine, too.
However, it wasn’t always such a beast.
“In high school, a friend’s dad actually bought the car, and that’s when I first saw it,” the proprietor of First Choice Auto Body recalled. “It was a factory 396 SS car— black with a black vinyl top—and I fell in love with it right away,” he added.
Stone managed to work on the car for the owner several times over the years, doing spot repairs while always silently thinking he’d like to own the car himself someday. That chance finally came in 1997.
“My friend’s dad brought the car in for some more work. It had been upgraded with a 454, but he was thinking he might want to change the color or do something dramatic; however, he mentioned that he might even be willing to sell it,” Stone said. “I made an offer and bought it that day,” he continued.
The car was solid and a fun driver at the time. He regularly cruised in his hometown of Mishawaka, Ind. for several years. The likeable Hoosier recalls picking up his girlfriend and eventual wife Kimber on date nights and generally enjoying piloting the classic muscle car. However, the urge to improve the dark Chevy eventually became too great and a repaint and rebuild were soon planned.
“Around 2000, I had decided I wanted to build the car into a 10-inch tire/class race car of sorts. However, I had just bought the shop for my business and between the backlog of paying customers, the Chevelle got back-burnered,” he said……Read more by viewing the digital feature below this introduction
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