January 2013 ~ Mark Witczak’s 65′ Malibu SS
“It’s a Crazy 65′ Love Affair”
It’s hard to believe that it has been six summers since I finished my 65′ Malibu SS, but it has. A lot has gone on and I thought after all these years I would share it with you.
I bought the car in 1992 at Schaumburg Dodge. Who knew that I would go out for lunch one day and never make it back to work that afternoon because I found the car I always wanted. Borrowed money from everyone I knew to get the car, while keeping it from mom and dad. I always wanted a 65′ and this one had the options I thought I wanted on it, even though most of them did not work. Should have been a reason to run then, but I was hooked.
I later learned that the car was not a true SS in its first life, but it did have everything that makes a 65′ SS an SS. From what we can tell it is the original motor and trans for the car. Date codes and markings are correct to have made the car a 65′ Malibu coupe with a 250hp 327, factory four speed, PS, PB and factory air.
When I bought the car it looked great. Fresh white paint and new chrome wheels. For 3 years I drove the car from May 1st to October 31st. At that point I decided restore the car. Plan was a 12-18 month restoration that I had saved up for the better part of 3 years. I had all the parts I thought I would need from fenders to quarter skins, to new interior. Little did I realize all the things you go through when you restore a car, especially one that was not complete to start with. Well, 11 years later it looks like it does today.
This car is a long sad story of” hurry up and wait” before it was finished. The car had a minimum of 5 repaints in its life before I started which hid all kinds of things. The only body parts that are mine after the restoration are the driver’s door and the roof. The car had been smashed badly at one point in its life, and lots of things I never thought of had to be fixed.
I had the frame off completed and the body ready to paint in 9 months, but then I bought a house and money was really tight. A few years later I had money again and it was time to get it painted. After 4 years at a local body shop I actually had to threaten them with a law suit to get my car back. They just never worked on it unless I was there. In the mean time I bought a boat and got married. All those things and the economy after 9/11 left the car unfinished until August 2006, when it finally hit the road again.
Thanks to everyone that helped me as I worked on this frame off restoration with things like storage, work space, tools, trailers, and their expertise. Without your help I could not have done such a nice job on this owner executed restoration.
The first two summers I babied the car. It rarely saw water and never saw rain if I could help it. I towed it to major shows. The car is a 2 times ACES winner, an ACES regional winner, scored a 990+ at 3 different Vettefest’s and has won dozens of awards at local shows and cruise nights. Now it is meant for driving. I drove it to Nashville to the ACES convention in 2011. It gets 16 mpg at 70+ mhp, even with the AC running. In 2011, I put 4100 miles on during the summer and I loved every minute I spent in the car. 2012 was almost the same number of miles but no long trips.
After 11 years of restoration, the last 7 summers of driving and showing this car have been a blast. I can’t wait until the first cruise this spring.