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Few shops in the Florida do top-tier muscle car restorations better than Iron Stable Garage in Largo. We found these amazing vehicles in process there.
The shop, long known for its award-winning Superbird and other Mopar restos in the Tampa Bay area, is now famous for its Chevy, Ford and other GM muscle car projects, too.
Iron Stable Garage does not just do Mopars, though it is famous for that. Fords, Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles all get the same thorough treatment here.
The shop will also maintain your classic car or rebuild its engine, or basically any other essential service.
We became aware of a few of its projects recently. Most intriguing to us was the 1970 Chevelle SS396/375. The L78 option was long the top-tier powerplant in the Chevelle, but Chevy stopped taking orders for them in October of 1969 to make room for the mighty LS6 454, with its food-chain topping 450-horsepower.
Only 2,144 L78 Chevelles were built in ’70 before Chevy put the option to bed.
In a letter dated October 30, 1969, Chevrolet Zone Distribution Manager W.C. Kuhn told dealers that "in conjunction with the release of the LS6 450-HP engine, the 375-HP Engine, Option L78 or L78/L89 for use with SS 396 is in process of being cancelled and further orders for these options should not be submitted." That makes this documented L78 SS396 a rare, early build.
The L78 used a solid-lifter cam and rectangular port heads. In most dyno tests, it made around 415 to 425 gross horsepower. But cubic inches were king in 1970, and the mighty 454 Rat was even more powerful.
According to Iron Stable Garage General Manager Don Keefe, this Fathom Blue Chevelle SS will be among the nicest, if not the nicest, Chevelle of its kind when it’s completed later this month.
The L78 now has lowered compression to run on pump unleaded and a different cam than stock. It dyno’d at 415 horsepower.
Iron Stable Garage was tasked with saving this ’65 Mustang from resto-shop hell. The car sat in another establishment for 20 years. It was painted, then stuck on a storage trailer for the better part of two decades, where the paint deteriorated.
This 1965 Mustang ragtop was in resto-shop hell for 20 years before Iron Stable Garage was called upon to save it.
The ’66 Impala (below) is in for an engine swap. Iron Stable pulled the 383 stroker someone installed its its place will be this 396 big-block. Other upgrades include a new bucket seat interior, as well as a console and correct steering column.
This 396 will be right at home in the engine bay of this 1966 Chevrolet Impala.
If you are wondering, the Impala is painted 2019 Ram charcoal grey, and it has a hint of purple in it.
Not every car is getting the full restoration treatment. Case in point the ’65 Olds you see here. It has a 1967 4-4-2 drivetrain in it, but the engine was not running properly. The timing could not be set correctly. Everyone was scratching their heads.
Attention to detail and experience revealed the cam in this '65 Cutlass was not designed for this Olds engine. A correct cam and lifters will allow the Iron Stable technician to properly time the engine and have it running like it's supposed to.
Turns out it had a cam that was intended for another version of the Olds V-8 with a different cylinder block angle. Iron Stable had Rocket Racing and Performance in Wisconsin grind a correct cam for it. Along with new lifters, the engine is going back together the way God and Dr. Oldsmobile intended.
