1980 Chevy Malibu G-Body "A True Survivor"

1980 Chevy Malibu 355 V8 with 700R-4 transmission PS/PB/A/C. I bought this car 10 years ago from a guy who bought it from an estate with only 53000 actual miles. You could tell that the car was garage kept based on the interior. It is the base model and had the smallest V8, a 267 4.4 liter V8 that smoked. I found it amusing because someone had put petroleum jelly on the rear view mirror so you couldn’t see it smoke when you left a stop light! Inside, the car is nearly perfect. The dash, gauges seats and even the package tray are immaculate. All of the rubber seals, window felts, etc. are like new. I really didn’t have any interest in buying it, but because it was so nice, I didn’t want it to become a drag car or circle track car or even sit out in the sun.

I went ahead and bought it in 2006 and put in in my building over in in the corner for a couple of years. I then decided to put it together and take it on the Hot Rod power tour someday when it came close to where I live. I kept the original motor on an engine stand and put in a 355 V8 with a mild cam and a 700 R-4. For road trip purposes car still has the original gear ratio so coupled with the 700Rit lopes at 70 mphand actually gets very good gas mileage. I do have a smaller ring gear and pinion new in the box that is a 342 that goes with the car. The power tour came close in 2008 but the car wasn’t readybut earlier this year, it was announced that it was coming through Kansas City so I began working on it again. Over the years I put on 18 and 20 inch one-off wheels that have a rough machine finish in soft lip barrels. I put drop spindles up front and lowered springs in the rear, cowl hood, rear sway bar,Cavalier steering wheel in blue, upgraded the exhaust and put on headers, put in a 4 core radiator and high efficiency water pump and got the AC charged. It still has the original AM radio with only one speaker so the rear package tray is uncut. The motor sounds so good that you will have no problem not having tunes in this car! I didn’t repaint the whole car because it didn’t need it, so I only blended some of the panels that needed it. The Crown Jewels of this car is the dash. This is the only G Body that I have ever seen that does not have a cracked dash pad because the car has not seen the sun. I put a dash cover over it to protect it when it is outside. This car is not rusty and to my knowledge, has never had rust repair.Bumpers, moldings, and silver painted trimare in excellent shape.

The car is awesome and a few weeks ago I met thepowertour in Oklahoma City and drove it back to KC. The car really performed and used very little gas the way it was geared. It was nearly 100 degrees all that week and I used AC practically the whole time and it never got hot. I was worried because I did not want to drill a hole in the car to install an under dash temp gauge so I took readings using a hand-held infraredthermometer pointed at the motor. I did have to install a new alternator while on the trip because the light came on which solved the issue. Other than that, the car had no problems the entire trip. The car now has about 56,000 actual miles with about 2000 miles on the motor and tranny. It uses no oil and the only leaky fluid I see anywhere is on top ofthe power steering box.

I achieved my goal of putting it on the Power Tourso I got to check the box on the bucket list. But like many other folks, I have too many cars and this one has to go. It comes with the original motorif you want it. This is a great car to drive and enjoy and is excellent on long trips. If you want to build a drag car or circle track car, this is not the car for you. But if you want to drive a cool rare caranywherethat is unmolested and isgreat for Saturday night cruises, this is definitely it. ***NOTE Due to technical difficulties I accidently omitted pictures of the engine during the first auction and relisted the Malibu with pictures of the engine compartment. Sorry for any inconvenience!