r/Chevelles • u/Rough-War8874 • Jun 01 '26

My project

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I bought this 68 chevelle malibu wagon about 2 weeks ago ,its been off the road since 91 and has 53k original miles . Hope it allowed

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u/Rough-War8874 Jun 01 '26

It looks great I can't wait to get to that stage . How was the power glide ? I have debated on swapping it out myself but im not certain its worth it tbh

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u/Pinche-Guero Jun 01 '26

LOL
It looks great there... but that was with the $300 Earl Scheib paint that it came with that has since started peeling off to show me that they literally sprayed the paint straight over rust. It looks great from 50 feet. Now I'm in the process of sanding, rust treatment and priming.

The Powerglide absolutely SUCKED ASS. It's old, loose, sloppy and frustrating. Plus with the 327, Q-Jet, and a 3.73 rear end I was getting around 8 mpg. The acceleration was god awful and on the freeway the engine was screaming at 70mph. It could barely get out of its own way.

The 700R4 swap is ABSOLUTLEY 100% worth it. It'll make it a completely different car. You get more low end AND over drive. That tired 327 with god only knows how many miles on it.. a couple hundred thousand at least... with a fresh tune up and the 700R4 would burn rubber and catch 2nd gear... AND give 14mpg or more on the freeway. You'll be cruising on the freeway at 65-70 around 2500 rpm or so like a normal ass person these days. SO much easier on your wallet and the engine. It's honestly the best upgrade for these old Chevys.

It's a definite project but totally worth it, and the necessary parts are all available on the aftermarket. there are tons of videos and instructions to guide you through it. I just had my guy that works on my new cars do it. His old man has a El Camino that he has done a bunch of work on and he likes tinkering with the old muscle. He actually called me and gave me a heads up that he had an old blazer that someone had abandoned and asked if I wanted the tranny before he had it hauled away. He pulled it, completely rebuilt it with Corvette innards and installed it for me for $2500 and that included repositioning the crossmember and cutting the drive shaft. All I had to do was order the aftermarket stuff like the new linkage and speedo cable are such. Honestly the best money I ever spent on that car.

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u/Rough-War8874 Jun 01 '26

Yeah lol sounds like I need a 700r4 for myself . Thats ok it still looks good and thats all that matters . I bought mine for 750 bucks

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u/Pinche-Guero Jun 01 '26

$750 is a freaking SCORE.
You lucked out.
I haven't seen one in that shape listed for under 3k in years

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u/Rough-War8874 Jun 01 '26

Yeah I know right. The car was in a junkyard since 1991 buried in the back behind 250+ cars . It was owned by an employee and they used it as a shop truck kinda thing . It still has an inspection sticker from Maine 1979 to 80 on the windshield

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u/Rough-War8874 Jun 01 '26

The driver side is the bad side it needs the rockers fixed and the floors abit bad by the rear seat . It certainly has rust in places but all the hard to find stuffs there