1965 Chevelle Malibu Convertible

1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Description:

I was checking out the local CL and noticed this car because I once restored a 65 convertible and it was so easy to do and such a fun car that I looked at the pictures even though the 22k asking price was out of my budget. A couple of days later they had dropped the price to 20k and a few days after that it was listed for 16k. I called and the owner told me that they were moving out of state and were very motivated to sell it. To make a long story short, late in the evening of last night I bought it and trailered it home and left it in the parking lot of Jon's EZ Lube here in Denton because the brakes were gone and I could see that both front wheels were wet. Jon replaced both front wheel cylinders and pads and bled the brakes. Anyone looking at this car is wanting to estimate what it would cost to have it fully restored and so here is where it is at.
The floors and trunk are very solid, as you can see by the pictures. The peeling that you see is paint and not metal nor undercoating. The only rust through that I have seen is on the driver's side front fender and it can be patched. The driver's door leading edge got bent back somehow and when they bent it forward the metal gave and it needs to be welded back on. The bottoms of both doors show no rust. The body is very straight and all of the reveals are excellent. Fix the two mentioned spots and this is a scuff and shoot paint job.
The previous owner told me that the engine was new. I washed off the exterior of the car but cleaned nothing else and one can see from the pictures underneath that there is no oil build up on the engine. The car had been in storage and not driven for a couple of years but it started right up and though it could probably use a tune up or the carb cleaned (gas was old as well), it ran with plenty of spunk and shifted smoothly through the gears. The transmission is a 700R4 and it appears to have some kind of a shift kit. It has headers and a full dual exhaust all the way to the rear bumper and it appears to be very new. I was given a large stack of receipts that I will pass on to the new owner.
The convertible power top is new and it goes up and down by the push of a button and was clearly done by professionals. In addition to getting the top on well, without wrinkles, they also restored the top frame (pictures). The rear window is clear and undamaged.
The interior would need new carpet as the present carpet is faded and stained. The front bench seat would also need to be recovered but the seat foam feels pretty firm. The front dash pad has come off and could either be reattached or replaced.
I drove the car about two miles and it has working after market gauges and idiot lights that come on when you turn the key (suggesting that they work if the alternator ever failed or the car over heats). All of the lights work with the exception of one headlight because the bulb is burned out. The dash lights work, the turn signals work, the horn works, the brake lights work, the speedometer works, the fuel gauge works, the windshield wipers work, the fan motor works and the defrost lever changes the direction of the air flow. The brakes work good and the emergency brake works and is properly adjusted. The radio is original and did not power up. Could be a fuse or disconnected or toast. All of locks work, doors, trunk, ignition. I just put a brand new battery in the car last night on the way home.
The car has near new Michelin tires. The car tracks down the road perfectly. The power steering works. It is clear from the way it handles that all of the suspension components were gone through recently and there are no rattles or slop in the steering. Drives very nicely.
All of the glass is in excellent condition. The windshield has no rock chips nor windshield wiper tracks and the door glass is excellent as well. All of the trim on the car is in very good shape also. Both bumpers look nice as well with no corrosion. They were obviouslyreplated or replaced recently.
It has anon-posi rear end with tall, probably stock, rear end gears. This is a far nicer car than the one I restored and I did it for 6k. If you're able to paint, weld, and do minor interior work one could have it looking like new for under a thousand dollars. Look up TCP Global for paint. We bought a restoration color kit for my other one delivered to my door for $400.00 that included a gallon of base, a gallon of high build primer, a gallon of clear and all of the reducer and hardener needed for the job. It came out beautiful and I sold that car for 30k right here on Ebay.
I have excellent feedback and that is important to me. If you want any additional photos or want questions answered call me at 817 403-7723. I will make the car available for your inspection. All shipping and handling is the sole responsibility of the buyer but I can recommend someone who has been very reasonable. No one can guarantee with absolute certainty how a 52 year old car will handle a long drive but I believe that someone could safely drive this car home. I once drove a sputtering 1960 Oldsmobile that I just purchased close to 400 miles and by the time I got it home it ran like new. It just needed to run some old gas out of it and get the accelerator pump to stop sticking (which it did).
Have sold perhaps ten cars here on Ebay over the past 12 (?) years and all but three sold because someone called. My blood sweat and tears are not in this car and I bought it purely to make a few dollars. My price is very reasonable. Thanks for your interest.

On Oct-31-17 at 10:16:56 PDT, seller added the following information:

Someone asked about the trim tag and I selected the option to post my answer but I don't see it posted so here are the trim tag numbers:
03C 204ST 65 13667 BAL 2966TR 728 E1
I can send a text photo to anyone who calls.

On Oct-31-17 at 15:51:32 PDT, seller added the following information:

Having only had the car in my possession for less than two days I haven't really looked the car over but I noticed that the car seems to sit a little lower than my other 65 and just 30 minutes back I googled the shocks that you can see in the photos and they are adjustable and quite expensive. There is $700.00 worth of shocks under the car and almost new, no wear, Michelin tires. The previous owner spent some money on this car. I also noticed that all of the rubber steering bushings, etc., look to be very new which explains why the car drives/steers so well.