Zedder's Garage

Eddie Hopper Chevrolet '70 Chevelle SS454 LS6

In November of 2004, I received a message on one of the collector car forums that I frequent asking me if I would be interested in purchasing a 1970 Chevelle LS6.  I responded asking for a phone number so we could talk about the car a little.  I called and spoke to the owner and he filled me in on what he had and the reasons why he was considering selling the car.  I was interested in the car based on his description and asked him to forward a few pictures of the car to me and to think about what price he needed for it.  After 4 or 5 weeks of email messages and telephone calls we came to an agreement on the sale of the car and I began to think about what I would do with the car once I had possession.

The reality was that despite the fact that my first car was a '70 Chevelle and I have owned 11 others since that time, I really didn't know all that much about LS6 cars or Chevelles in general for that matter.  I have always wanted to do a complete restoration on a car myself, but felt that I should reserve that experience for a car that I was more familiar with like a '67 Z-28.  So, I began contacting restorers that I knew had good reputations, however the quotes I received were in excess of  US$50,000!  That quickly helped me decide to do as much of the resto as possible myself.  My friend Mike in Minnesota offered to store the car for me while I decided which route to take with it and I owe him a debt of gratitude for that.  Thanks Mike!  Special thanks also to Rick Nelson for his help in answering my many pre purchase questions.  Thanks again guys!

History

So far, I know very little about the history of the car.  The build sheet shows that the car was delivered to Eddie Hopper Chevrolet in Garden Grove, California in March of 1970 - making it one of a very few California delivered "smogger" LS6's.  It spent about 2 years in Washington State at some point and was brought back to California by a collector who had planned to do a frame-off restoration on the car.  Unfortunately, a number of the collector's cars were damaged in the Northridge earthquake in 1994 and the car was sold to free up the funds to repair some of his damaged cars.  Luckily, the LS6 only received a few dings where some garage items fell against it during the earthquake.  The car was purchased by a friend of the fellow that I bought the car from and driven as a daily driver until about 2000 when he took possession.  The car then went back into storage for the next 4 years until I purchased it.

Options

Fortunately, the car came with a very legible build sheet which was found on the gas tank by a previous owner.  The options listed include: SS454, LS6, M22, 4.10 posi rear axle, power steering, power brakes, am radio, cowl induction hood, custom seat belts, tinted glass, clock and glove box light.  In addition to this, the car is a rare ZP3 special order paint car in Daytona Yellow with the D88 stripes deleted (only one located so far).  The car also sports the optional Black River cloth bench seat interior which is also very rare for an LS6.  A bench seat, 4-speed, ZP3 car - how cool is that!

Current Condition

The car currently has about 111,000 miles on it and has one repaint (when they added the stripes).  The car is completely original with the exception of the distributor, smog pump, steering wheel and consumables like belts and tires.  Here are a few pics of the car in before it left CA:

As you can see, the body is in excellent shape with very little rust!  Gotta love them southern California cars :)  The paint must have been done many years ago as the stripes show a great deal of lacquer cracking.  The car also still retains its original wheels.

All major drive train numbers and dates appear to be correct and you can see that much of the smog system is still in place except for the pump itself.  The trunk is rust free and the original mat is still there.  The final pic is a shot of the trim tag showing the Dupont paint code for Daytona Yellow.  This same information is written on the build sheet.

The interior is also all original except for the Grant steering wheel and under dash oil pressure gauge.  Notice the original Daytona Yellow paint on the inside of the door shell.  The final pic shows how the interior will look once it is restored.  I love the Black River cloth bench seat!

Here are a few pics of the car being loaded for the trip to MN.

The final pic above is a photoshop image that a friend did for me removing the black stripes on an image of another Daytona Yellow car that I found on the Internet.  That is how the car should look once it is restored back to original condition :)

Click here to see the car as it arrived in MN.

If anyone visiting this web site has any information or recollection of this car from the past, please contact me.  Stay tuned...more to come!

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