Have you ever looked at your classic and wondered the history behind it? That’s what artist Ryan Sardachuck wondered as he spent the last year creating the ultimate art project: A 42 painting narrative about the life of a 1970 Chevelle SS 454. The narrative chronicles the Chevelle from its humble beginnings in the plant to being built as a Street Machine in the ’70s to its life as a used car in the ’80s and its restoration in the 2000s.

Every car has a story to tell and Ryan has told this Chevelle’s story through photo-like detail of America throughout the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. The craziest part? Sardachuck is only 20 years old.

The series begins with the Chevelle being assembled at the plant and shipped to a dealership in 1970. Here it is bought by “Lloyd” who would own the car from 1970 to 1978, according to Sardachuck’s visions. He drove the car as a daily driver, street racing it, heading to the local drive in and meeting his wife in car. He traded in the Chevelle in 1978 for a Caprice wagon and a pick up truck. It was purchased by “Austin”, a white-trash redneck who would build the Chevelle as a late blown ’70s street machine.

On New Years Eve in 1980, Austin – drunk on moonshine – drove the car through a 7/11, totaling it. The Police impounded the derelict Chevy and impounded for a year. Its later purchased in 1981 by a mechanic who wants to rebuild it as a grad present for his son. The car is mechanically restored, though it uses body panels from a Malibu hiding the 454, and thus rendering it a sleeper.

The mechanic hands the keys to his son “Carl” as a grad present in ’83. By 1983 the Chevelle was viewed as just another used car and not an American classic. Carl heads off to Miami for college where he street races it for beer money and picks up hot chicks. Carl eventually had to scrap the car for rent money and the Chevelle was almost crushed until it was saved by one of the yard workers, “Kurt”.

Kurt, a trailer park redneck, keeps it for several years. He paints it rattle-can black, covers it in speed part stickers and transforms it into a “trailer park muscle car.” The car lives a redneck life in a trailer park, endures more humidity and by some miracle survives Hurricane Andrew.

Thought it didn’t survive Andrew unscathed, it received gallons of interior water damage and broken glass. In 1993, Kurt enlisted in the Air Force and was sent to Denver, Colorado. Here the Chevelle had to endure snow and salt which further rusted the car.

By 1995, the Chevelle had endured so much rust that it began to develop holes. It looked like more an old clunker rather than a musclecar. Kurt would have bad luck as he walked into a Circle K that was being Robbed and the robber escaped by stealing his parked Chevelle. Hiding the evidence, the robber ditched the beloved Chevelle into Grand Lake in fall of ’96.

The Chevelle would sleep with the fishes until the summer of ’97 when the US Park Rangers Department found it while on a search for missing kids. It was pulled from the lake and one of the rangers, “Derrick” called the last owner Kurt (who was now stationed in Guam) and asked if he could have the Chevelle. Kurt, who was thousands of miles away and now drove an El Camino, let Derrick keep the car. Derrick took her home and gave her the best treatment she has had since her first owner, Lloyd.

Derrick spent 1998 and 1999 sanding her down, cutting out the rust, repairing the body damage, rebuilding the 454, and painting her in her original coat of cherry red. By the year 2000, the Chevelle SS looked as good as it did at that car lot in 1970. Derrick would spend the next ten years keeping her clean, driving her to car shows and beating ricers at stop lights. The Chevelle even made in appearance in the 2007 crime movie No Country For Old Men. Sadly the Derrick’s son got into a bad drunk driving accident involving a stolen car, and Derrick had no choice but to sell the Chevelle to pay his son’s medical bills and thousands in legal fees.

He put the Chevelle up for sale online, but sadly the great recession of 2008 had hit and no one bit. The Chevelle was clean and had a numbers matching 454, so Derrick gave Barrett Jackson a call and the car was set to be auctioned at the January 2009 auction. At the Auction the cherry red 1970 Chevelle SS sold for $80,000. The winning bidder was the daughter of the original owner Lloyd who bought the car because she recognized it from her dad’s photo albums. Over the years Lloyd had often talked about regretting selling that Chevelle. She surprised her father with the car by giving it to him as a retirement present, reuniting him with his beloved machine after 32 long years. Completing a 40 year cycle of ownership.

Despite being only 20 years old Sardachuck paints as if he has lived through most of the late 20th Century. It’s as if he is nostalgic for an era in time that he has never experienced. His paintings are full of small details, such as era correct gas prices, car mods, land scape, architecture, and background cars that will evoke a feeling of nostalgia in any gearhead.

The story of the Chevelle is fictional but it amazes us that a 20-year-old can imagine and create an entire legendarium for one car. Sardachuck has taken us on a wild thrill ride of the ups & downs that was 40 years in the making. You can view the entire 42 painting series on his Deviant Art page Fast Lane Illustration.

Reunited at last.