In a sea of Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers, sometimes we all need a break from the norm and we need to see something that might not be completely unique, but is different enough to catch your eye. No matter what your favorite brand is, if you’re into muscle cars, hot rods and street rods you have thousands of friends across this great country who share in your love for these awesome machines. They all got your back.

We came across this super clean 65 Malibu on Pro-Touring.com recently, and it’s owner is someone who’s got your back, too, but in a more important way. Car owner Bryan Goff has been proudly serving our country for over 15 years in the United States Coast Guard. Currently stationed in Petaluma, CA, Bryan bought this Malibu in 1994 and between traveling around this great country and keeping us safe, he managed to find time in the last seven years to bring this Chevrolet to it’s current condition.

Goff says he has no formal training in the automotive world other than an engine building class he took a decade and a half ago, but you wouldn’t know it looking at his pride and joy. He says, “Everything else I learned from reading and screwing up”, and that puts him on par with a lot of us who have broken some sweat and bashed some knuckles over our classic cars.

Bryan says he’s had the pleasure of driving this car across the country twice now, and up and down both coasts. So what that translates to is that this car is a driver – not a trailer queen. He’s put some coin into this build, too, with some impressive name-dropping being done along the way.

Powering his Malibu is a 383 small block with a four-bolt main, and the forged rotating mass includes crank, H-beam rods, and pistons from Eagle Performance. An Edelbrock Victor Jr. Manifold is partnered up with a pair of Edelbrock Performer RPM heads, and the valvetrain duties are handled by an Edelbrock roller cam and Comp Cams roller rockers. A 750 cfm Demon carb and Computronix distributor top it off, while Hedman headers and Flowmaster mufflers deliver the sound through a pair of three inch pipes that snake their way up and over the Moser 12-bolt rear end that’s housing a Wav Trac posi.

Dual electric fans keep this 407 HP beast cool for those cross-country trips Bryan makes, and to get it slowed down long enough for us to check it out he has a CPP master cylinder, HydraTech brake assist sytem, and Kore3 disc brakes with 13 inch rotors up front and 12 inch out back. Clamping down on the rotors are C6 and C5 calipers, front and rear, with Russell braided brake lines.

Rocket Racing Booster wheels are 18×8 all around with BFG KDW II rubber making the contact patch with the pavement. Suspension wise, Goff didn’t skimp here, either. CPP Upper and lower A-arms are up front, while Edelbrock trailing arms are in the rear, with VariShock at the corners, coilovers up front and standard shocks in the rear. Steering is handled with ATS spindles and steering arms, with an AGR steering box and Ididit tilt steering column. That shiny box on the front of the engine is a Jones Racing steering pump to ease the steering duties.

Name dropping or not, these parts don’t install themselves and Bryan has shown us all that a little bit of effort, and about a thousand hours of his time, can turn out an incredible finished product, like his frame-off restomod that he calls “65 Bomber”. Thanks for sharing your car, and keeping us safe, Bryan.