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In May of 1970 my parents decided on their first new car, a fathom blue 1970 Chevelle Malibu from Nickey Chevrolet off Irving Park in Chicago. They liked the vinyl interior as I was just a year old. The Malibu served as the family car for many years but us kids jumping around in it, road salt, parking lots, and hit and run drivers took their toll on the Malibu. In 1981 my mother avoided a major collision from a red light runner but not without taking out the headlights on the passenger side. With only liability insurance, the fix was on my parents. My mom loaded my sister and me up and off to Victory Auto Wrecking we went. I was in awe, cars piled everywhere. I watched as the cars got towed in and the workers removed the fluids, wheels and loose change from the back seat, the car was then fork lifted into the yard. Back in those days personal liability wasn’t an issue, my sister and I climbed all over the cars. We counted seven 1970 Malibu’s and all of them in better shape than ours. I recall one looked brand new, no rust, the only dents I saw where from the fork lift, it was dark green. My sister and I came upon a 1970 that had black stripes and inside it had buckets seats and what we thought was the wrong dashboard, looking back it was a Super Sport. After crawling around we found suitable part replacements we could easily get to and broke out our tools to remove the head lights and headlight extension. When we got home and I painted the fender extension blue and replaced the damaged parts. From this point on I was hooked! As a 12 year old I imagined I could remake our Malibu into the nice one I saw at Victory Auto Wrecking. I watched as my grandfather caked bondo into his 1964 Impala’s rust holes, I thought I could do that too! Remember I was 12 and he was in his mid 70’s. I hand sanded our Malibu, removed rust and then globbed on the bondo into all the holes and painted dark blue over it. My mom continued to use the Malibu as her daily driver until one day in 1983 it died. My parents determined a new car was in order. I was too young to drive, so against my wishes a “for sale” ad was posted at the local Jewel/Osco. Within a week it sold and for $50 the new owner dragged it home. I bugged my mom to take me its new home and for months it sat in their driveway and then one day it disappeared. Every time we went somewhere I kept my eye out for our blue Malibu, but it was never seen again. Entering my driving years I was determined to get another Malibu, but my dad discouraged me. I was told that I would spend lots of money on that car and there would be no return on investment, if he only knew?!? I ended up with my grandmothers 1974 Cutlass Supreme. While in college, I always scanned the ads for Chevelles, and while visiting Chicago over summer break, I came across a “California transplant” 1970 Chevelle Malibu for sale in the Trading Times. My mom agreed to take me and in 1989 I became its next owner. It was a 250 6 cylinder three on the tree, plane jane Malibu, but cranberry red with white interior and black vinyl top. It was worn, but after some elbow grease it shined up nicely. I drove it though my remaining years at Montana State University and it faithfully got me back and forth to Chicago. I rebuilt that 6 cylinder at the University auto repair shop, and netted 27-28 miles per gallon at highway speeds. Once I graduated I headed to the Pacific NW. My Malibu was my daily driver until I was able to afford a new car a few years later. I made every effort to keep my Malibu, from apartment car port to car port, to borrowed garages, car covers into my first new home’s one car garage 6 years later. I always attended local car shows and admired the restored Super Sports, but rarely came across a restored Malibu. So in 2000, I decided to restore my Malibu to factory condition, I stripped it down to the bare frame, bagging and tagging everything. I made a rolling jig to hold the body up so I could roll the frame underneath in that one car garage. I sent the body out for repair and repaint as I focused on the rest. Eventually during the 3 year restoration we moved to a larger house with a 3 car garage. I missed having my Malibu to drive, so as always do, scouring the ads of the local paper I decided to check out a one owner 1970 Malibu not far from my work. I scraped up enough money to purchase it, the asking price, 30 years after they purchased it new, was the price they paid for it in 1970, $3,050. It is green mist, green cloth interior and green vinyl top, but I had moved up in engine size to a 307! With a deadline to complete the restoration on my red Malibu before my first son was born in 2003, I completed the frame off restoration with only a hand full of nuts and bolts left. I finally had my fully restored frame off 1970 Malibu. I kept that 6 cylinder and the three on the tree. I did add a few factory options such as power steering and bumper guards, but I kept everything else original. I completed most of the work myself, minus the body and paint work, chrome and transmission rebuild. I was very proud of my Malibu, but was also hesitant about backlash for not cloning it into a Super Sport. Much to my surprise it was well received and I landed a few first place trophies. I still have my red Malibu today!

Always a passion for original unrestored Malibus, I added a 1970 Concours Estate Wagon and eventually a convertible. My 3 car garage was full so I found an empty barn about 50 miles from me with lots of space to rent.  I found more original unrestored versions and picked them up when I could afford them. I eventually expanded to parts cars and project cars, all 1970 Malibus of coarse. I became the recipient of parts no one wanted at the time, those removed to make clones. I became a hoarder of everything 1970 Chevelle Malibu related, and in my quest eventually original unrestored 1970 Chevelle Malibus and Malibu NOS parts became my focus. At one time I had as many as 30 Malibus, of which half were unrestored originals. 

I was fortunate enough to be able to build a new shop next to our house, it would become my Malibu Museum. Once the walls started going up, my wife was in shock that the new shop was bigger than our house. Unfortunately it wasn’t big enough to hold all my possessions, so I slowly began the process of letting some of them go. It was difficult, but I realized in my life time I would never get to all the project cars. And those parts cars, well they were now project cars with all the random parts I had collected. It made my day when a buyer had sent me a photo of a project car he bought from me and it was restored and running.

Since then, I have expanded out and have a few other neat cars, such as a 1964 Impala like my grandfather had but with no bondo,1957 Belair, 1967 Pontiac Bonneville, a recently added 1972 Plymouth Fury Police Pursuit and 1925 Model T Ford my dad had restored in the 80’s. Speaking of my dad, I often wondered if he had let me buy a Malibu back then if I would still be scouring ads thirty three years later for unrestored original 1970 Chevelle Malibus.