70 Chevy Chevelle SS LT4 350 CID 700R4 Automatic RWD Custom Upholstery

1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS For Sale In Houston, exas 77096

Rice University Mathematics Professor Richard Tapia spotted this 1970 Chevelle Malibu years before he was able to buy it. Richard had caught sight of the car and tried to catch up with it to see if the owner would sell, ut Elizabeth Atkins punched it and got away from him. Ms. Atkins had purchased her Chevy on July 7, 970 from the Jimmy Green Chevrolet showroom floor in Houston, exas. She drove it until she died in 1993, t the age of 80. By sheer coincidence, he Tapias' friend Billy Kelley bought the Malibu from a friend who had purchased the car at the Atkins estate sale. When Kelley heard Richard's story, e bowed to destiny and sold the car to the Tapias. As you all know, the little old lady" has owned many cars, ut this one too? It didn't seem likely since the Chevelle had a 300hp 350cid engine, omplete SS instrumentation, S bucket seats, 12-bolt rear end, nd ran quite hard. It was very clean, ith only 78,237 miles, nd forest green paint with a green vinyl top. It sure looked like it could belong to a little old lady. Additional support for this belief came from the fact that all four corners of the car had serious parking dents, ut the car had no other serious dents. The conjecture is that since 1970 was a very active year for menu shopping when ordering a car, omebody configured the car in this manner and it ended up on the showroom floor. Our "little old lady" saw the car, hought that it was "cute", nd purchased it, otally unaware of the fact that it was part "hot rod".

Richard drove the car until the timing gear disintegrated. Richard, ean, nd their children, ichard Jr. and Becky, ecided to build a show-driver, car that could be shown, ut also driven on the weekends.

Work began on the car in 1996. The entire family was involved, aking key decisions about concept, olor, nd design. The Tapia Chevelle has always been a family project and a source of family fun and pride.

The family chose a Corvette LT-4 small block (Mouse) engine instead of the more traditional big block (Rat) engine, o it was only natural that the car should be named Mighty Mouse.

The car was first shown at Houston AutoRama in 1998 and did very well in Texas car shows always taking first place. However, n January of 1999, t the New Orleans AutoRama, ighty Mouse took second to a '77 Oldsmobile, local favorite and arguably a questionable call. This really upset Jean, ho does not like to lose. She argued that the entire Superdome was enchanted with Mighty Mouse and no one was looking at the Oldsmobile. In order to put this loss behind them, hey quickly decided to show in Dallas the next month.Mighty Mouse was vindicated, nd did extremely well at the Dallas show. That is until the fateful evening of February 15, 999.

During move-out for the Dallas AutoRama, he Chevelle, he trailer, nd the tow vehicle were stolen from the show parking lot. The Tapias had to rent a car to get home, nd Jean cried all the way back to Houston. The Dallas police said not to expect to see the car again, hat most likely it had been staked out and was now on its way to Mexico or Japan. But luckily, he Dallas police did recover the Chevelle several months later after receiving an anonymous phone tip.

The car had been driven and was so damaged that it was clear it would have to be totally refinished and repainted. Perhaps the biggest challenge we had with the stolen Chevelle was reclaiming Mighty Mouse from the Dallas Police Impound Yard. They did all they could to make it a terrible experience. It took more than two weeks to get the car out.

Although the situation was bad, he Tapias decided they would rebuild the car making it better than ever using the knowledge they had gained showing the Chevelle for a year. With the participation of top-of-the-line craftsmen and innovative custom work, Heavy Metal" was born, amed in tribute to the exciting muscle car era and its music. Both the first rebuild and the extravagant second were capably handled by Randy Borcherding of The Painthouse in Houston. Jean communicated to Randy, n a very firm manner, hat Heavy Metal must be built with such quality and perfection that it would never again lose to a '77 Oldsmobile, r for that matter to any other car.

Prior to the theft, he Chevelle's interior consisted of all stock components and upholstery for "Heavy Metal," however, ichard flew to California to interview several of the nation's top interior craftsmen before he found the man for the job — Ron "The Stitcher" Mangus of Custom Auto Interiors in Rialto, alifornia. The first thing that Ron said was that an interior highlighted in red was fine for a '57 Chevy or a '32 Ford, ut not for a '70 Chevelle. "If you change the graphics color from red to orange, hen I can do great things."With the exception of Richard Jr., he Tapia family had no problem with that, nd Randy was instructed to go ahead with orange graphics.

In April of 2005 as Ron was putting the final touches on the interior he called Richard to say that since the car was already in California, nd since he had a strong feeling that the car would show well, he Tapias ought to debut "Heavy Metal" at the highly competitive Pomona Super Chevy show at the end of the month. It seemed like a long shot, ut the Chevelle not only won the prestigious Gold Class Trophy, ut won the coveted Best in Show trophy competing against hundreds of California's finest. Ron's hunch was right on.

Writing about Heavy Metal's engine in the March 2006 issue of Chevy Rumble, ill Smith noted, The Corvette LT4 is one of the best and most interesting of Chevy's recent offerings. A modified LT1 design, he LT4 came in only one year and model, he '96 Corvette Grand Sport, here it offered 330 hp compared to only 275 for the standard LT1." The LT4 was chosen for dependability, eliability, nd efficiency. We estimate that the car will run around 105mph in the quarter mile with an elapsed time in the low 13 seconds. And yet it will get 28 miles per gallon on the road. After Street & Performance of Mena, rkansas equipped the engine with its headers and engine programming, he power level was closer to 370. S&P also supplied most of the engine dress-up items such as the chrome valve covers, racketry and numerous other polished components. What wasn't polished or painted already was then painted in PPG Candy Tangerine engine and transmission included. Mattson Radiator supplied the aluminum radiator and the electric fans, nd Cool-Flex hoses add further sparkle. The Toy Shop of Pomona, alifornia prepared the 700R4 overdrive automatic transmission. An overdrive transmission and EFI engine always make a good combination.

Refinements to the suspension include the installation of an Air Ride Technologies StrongArm system with tubular front control arms and Shock Waves.Lee Engineering's Tommy Lee modified the stock Chevelle Steering box, hich now connects to the column using Borgeson U-joints.The front brakes are Baer Super Street 12-inch discs with two-piston calipers. The brakes are highly visible between the five spokes of the 18x8 inch Billet Specialties SLC18 wheels.The front wheels roll on 225/40ZR18 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S rubber for maximum traction and low-profile looks.Hotchkis control arms and a sway bar remain in place in the car's rear suspension, ut another set of ShockWaves replaces the Chevelle's standard coil springs and shocks. These Shock Waves support a 12-bolt rear-end with 3.42 gears.The rear Baer discs measure 11 inches across, hich is still plenty big enough to provide great stopping power and look cool inside the big 20x9.5-inch SLC18 wheels. It takes a huge tire to cover such a big wheel, o the aft pair of Michelins measures 275/35ZR20.Stainless Works custom built the two-and-a-half inch exhaust system. All components are ceramic coated except for the stainless polished mufflers and stainless polished exhaust tips. Rock Valley provided a stainless-steel smooth tank with integrated fuel injection pump and sending unit.The Candy Tangerine flame pattern on the hood has been carried over to the fuel tank and the underside of the front cross-member. The underside of the car has the same quality black paint as the exterior of the car. As with the body, ll components have been assembled with polished stainless steel fasteners. The brake calipers have been painted candy and the supports have been chrome plated.Sean Angele of Modern Stainless in Houston constructed a circular stainless-steel two-rail display frame, tainless-steel canister stanchions, nd stainless-steel top-rail supports for "Heavy Metal." All stainless steel is beautifully polished. The display features five high-definition computer monitors, ith four smaller monitors spread uniformly around the perimeter of the circular rails and attached to four of the canisters. Both the 15"and the 23" high-definition monitors sitting just inside the display rails show the video Heavy Metal Fusion.

Four speakers are embedded in the four canisters not carrying monitors. They amplify the music which sets the atmosphere for the Heavy Metal theme. Three DVD players feed the monitors and the speakers.

The body paint is PPG concept base/clear system black, eticulously color sanded and polished, omplemented by PPG Candy Tangerine graphics. The engine compartment, oor jambs, ndercarriage, heel wells, ngine compartment, nderside of hood and deck lid are painted to the same standard as the exterior paint.On the hood the graphics begin as a typical set of Chevelle SS stripes that evolve into a burst of flames. Similar flame patterns have been carried over to the underside of the front cross-member, o the underside of the smooth stainless-steel fuel tank and to the side graphics. Billet aluminum panels painted Candy Tangerine are inserted in the interior of the car at strategic points to break up the dominance of the black leather. The car has been completely assembled with polished stainless steel fasteners.In the first rebuild, he candy graphics were painted over the black paint. As a consequence, n abnormal amount of clear was required to hide the transition ridge between the candy and the black. In doing the current paint job, e discovered a little known technique of painting the entire area that encases the graphic design candy, orming the graphic pattern with masking tape, nd then painting the general area black, aking the transition ridge virtually nonexistent.This "Mighty Mouse" has won numerous awards!