454 CID: 1968 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe
The exterior pictures on this 1968 Chevrolet Bel Air are at some odd angles but the focus on this car is the big block V8 engine. Located in sunny Spring Hill, Florida, this two door coupe is listed here on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $8,500. The car is unrestored and the pictures show the vehicle on jack stands. The buyer will receive a number of parts for the engine and a disc brake conversion kit. The seller is open for offers and there is one bid for $2,000 currently.
The interior looks like standard Bel Air with a black folding bench seat and a column shifted automatic transmission. The seller states that he was going to restore it but due to a financial matter, must now let it go. The odometer shows 79,371 and the car has not been started or run in many years. The engine is said to turn over which indicates that it might not be frozen up.
The owner believes that this car was originally a big block Bel Air which means it would have been equipped with a 396 cubic inch V8 engine or a 427 cubic inch V8 engine. The 396 cubic inch motor delivered 350 gross horsepower and the 427 cubic inch motor produced 385 gross horsepower from the factory. The car now has a 454 cubic inch V8 under the hood along with some extra performance goodies.
The exterior paint looks decent but the moon caps and the white wall tires need to go! There is some rust on the roof and around the rear window. The glass looks good and the seller provides pictures of the bottom of the car. The dash appears to have a crack in it but it looks like the interior just needs to be cleaned up. At 214.7 inches long, this car is roomy and is said to be equipped with its original 12 bolt rear end. With the proper work, it should be able to get back on the road.
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Comments
Great bones for head start on one fine coupe
I like the ford decal in the air cleaner. That’s funny.
If it isn’t a factory bb car, I would still fix it mechanically and have some fun!
The owner’s manual front cover shows the hidden headlite version that you rarely if ever see or have seen …
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ndIAAOSw5eBfPn9K/s-l1600.jpg
plus there were not 1 but 2 Chevy tv commercials featuring a caprice with those hideaways! Go figure.
I’ve only seen one in my life …or part of one. There was a junkyard near me that I used to go to in the early 1980s . The yard had saved the pieces of the front clip of one and had it sitting on the back of another car. This was pre internet , so I really didn’t know how hard to find they were.
Could be a really good project at least it’s got good bones!!
Doesn’t get any better sleeper potential than this! Don’t know what would be a decent price for such a low-line Bel Air, but good bones 2door post cars are getting hard to come by simply because very few people cared about them.
Give it the look of your grandmother’s grocery getter; a well-chosen subtle color, steel wheel/ poverty caps rims, nodding doggy on its package tray and 307 fender emblems
Personally I’d lower it a bit (not on air tho), keeping stock rims & band them to just make folks take a second look (and hopefully leave wondering what is “different” about it?)
Something strange is going on with this car. 68 was the first year that had side marker lights. On full size 68 Chevrolet’s the engine cubic inches were an emblem that was part of the front marker lamp bezel. This car is missing the marker lights, and has 66 427 emblems on it. I’m betting this one started life with a 307, and had the big block added at a later date.
Overall it appears to be pretty solid, and looks like it would make a good basis for a big block, 4 speed, clone or “tribute” build.
Good catch gbvette62. The marker lights are also missing in the rear. Is it possible that the very early ’68’s were produced without the marker lights? Or was there a market outside of the US that didn’t require them and Chevy left them off? Alternatively, they have been filled in but that would seem odd given how otherwise stock the body is.
That’s a good observation on the ’68 marker/engine designation. Being such a low-budget version I’ve only rarely seen I could be wrong here, but I may think the engine size marker bezels were exclusive for Impala and Caprice? There are ’68 marker bezels without the engine callouts available.
Being a Chevy it’s impossible to state whether it was born with a BB, however this seller was kind enough( 👍!) to provide us its VIN + a pic of the cowl tag. This car was built in the first week of May(05A) as a V8 Bel Air 2door post (15611) at the Doraville, GA plant (BA). Trim code 832 tells us it had Gold Bel Air style upholstery, paint code TT means it wore Palamino Ivory. I’m abit unsure why paint code was punched twice, but it COULD indicate secondary (top) color?
Sadly ’67 was the last year Chevy would punch factory installed accessory codes on the cowl tag. It could’ve revealed whether it came with the TH400, pointing towards a factory BB car
I wouldn’t be too concerned with the lack of side marker lights as it appears that all other factory emblems also appear to have been shaved. The big block emblems on the front fenders look to me to be placed a little higher than they should be, IIRC.
The Belair was a very hard to find name in the mid-1960s. Finding a very good 2-door sedan with a big block engine… almost impossible. While these tended to be fleet cars with small or medium blocks, a lot of drag racers knew the advantages of having only two doors attached to a strong central pillar: a car able to withstand a lot of pressure on the launch. With a minimal of roll cage, things like these were able to clock astonishing times in a straight line. I suggest to preserve the whitewalls and hubcaps, because they’re part of the “sleeper” aesthetic. With minimal repairs, this one have a potential to take buyers of the classic Impala SS by surprise.
The seats look like they’re from an Impala. Bel Air seats didn’t have the chrome side pieces.
No driver’s door mirror or holes in door for them.
There are no headrests. They were required in 68.
Actually they were req’d starting in build date of Jan 1969. Even some early ’69 camaros built in late ’68 have no headrests, tho they were an option on all ’68-9 GM cars.
Not going to pick it apart. Because, it’s a builder. So no matter what it was born as, chances are better than not it’s never going be restored to factory spec.
So whoever the new owner is had a great platform to build to his or her hearts, and or pockets desire. I only wish it was me. Got too many irons in the fire at this moment. If he’d hold it 30 days, (ha ha) I’d take it and build a keeper.
Good luck to the new owner. Enjoy!
Kind of funny because the 454 came out in 1970. And the 396 was actually a 402. It was still called a 396. Only 396 bored 30 over. So no originality there. The LS6 454 had a monster 450 horsepower with 480 pound of torch. Small numbers compared to today’s engine but still quite respectable.