Pilot Project

Uncovering the Hidden Secrets of a 1970 Chevelle.

- Steve Temple

It is a saga sure to make a muscle car enthusiast utterly green with envy. What car guy or gal doesn’t dream of acquiring a barn find for a song, which then turns out to be a truly unique collectible, without even knowing beforehand what it was? That’s the engaging story behind the early-model 1970 Chevelle seen here, a tale worthy of an Indiana Jones movie (except without the poison arrows and tumbling boulder).

David Harter is the unsuspecting hero of this story. All he wanted was a decent Chevelle to restore. Nothing really special, just a clean factory original he could bring back to at least good running condition. When he came across this 1970 SS396 automatic in New Hudson, Michigan, with his cousin Tony McAfee, it was a mess, having been parked in a pasture for some time. The roof and hood were rusty, the interior chewed up by rodents, and the bumper and door cavity packed with a live bee’s nest.

“We agreed it was rough,” David recalls. “And as we pulled back a door panel, we thought we found the build sheet.”

Oh, how wrong that initial impression would prove to be, and how significant this paperwork would be in attempts to figure out the mysterious origin of the car.

Not much is known about the Chevelle’s previous owner, one Charles Stimac. A detailed history of the car is lost to the mists of time, as David bought it from a relative of Stimac’s.

“No one apparently knew what the car was,” David relates. “Charles was deceased by the time I bought the car. I was told the car was street raced a lot and driven to local tracks and raced there as well.”