| Chevelle Club members Victor and Lisa Pierson are not that
different from most families in the club. They enjoy their cars
and have deep ties to their family. In fact, you might say this
was a family build. Victor is a quiet guy. When we first me
he, like many others, told me that his car was "not good enough to
be Featured Car". Well humility is certainly a virtue and
when you see what Victor and his family started with you will truly be
amazed.
Reliving the 65's history, Victor told me "My wife’s uncle found and purchased the car for $400.00, however, it need a lot of love. When he found the car there was no motor or transmission, the electrical needed to be repaired and the interior was gone". |
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Lisa's uncle held on to the car for four months and
realized it was more than he wanted to deal with.
"He knew I was
looking for a project and he offered it to me" said Victor and so
Victor jumped at the offer and began a 7 year journey.
"I pretty much stripped and straightened every piece of this car with my own hands. I have read, borrowed, and ask many questions of how do things, which as given me a true sense of who my car is" Victor told us. |
| "I was given a 327 and power-glide from my brother-in-law
to get started. Soon, the
327 was removed and replaced with a 350 (semi-new) motor.
Well I guess I should say it was one of many of my
brother-in-law's motors from his street stock race car.
The motor is pretty much stock: stock bottom end, 2.02 camel hump
heads, and Edelbrock accessories.
The color choice for me was easy.
I thought it would be cool to see nothing but RED in my garage,
and my dreams came true, thanks to my brothers and brother-in-law.
They helped me transform my once ˝ rusty orange and ˝ green
Chevelle into a classic. Now
sitting next to my 99’ (Torch Red) Corvette will be my 65’ Chevelle A BIG thanks must be given to my mother-in-law as well. Whenever I was short with the bill she would always be there to cover the rest. " "My Chevelle was built to be driven" said
Victor. "As a child, my
mom and dad always drove across county to see our family in |
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"Now that my car was painted I began planning a cross-country trip on Route 66. My wife, Lisa, had wanted to fly back to TX to see her family. Flying was how her family went cross-county. I thought let's take two weeks instead of one and drive. As the road trip was getting closer to departure date we were all excited: however, our family thought we were nuts for taking the Chevelle, but they wished a safe trip." "This past April Lisa, our two year old daughter, Vanessa, and I packed up the car and headed out east. At every gas station we stopped, we had so many people stopping to stare and ask questions about the car. The funny thing is everyone gave us the look of 'WHY', why would you drive something so beautiful across county, and my response was 'WHY NOT'. Why build it if you're not going to drive it, and what a better test on Route 66. It was awesome!" They ran into everything Mother Nature could throw at them: wind, rain, snow, salt storms, hail and even an earthquake. "But all in all it was an incredible trip" remembers Victor. |
