What Are You Working On: Four Brothers’ 1973 Chevelle Restoration

1200-11Talk about an awesome car that you never see getting the attention it deserves. This 1973 Chevelle SS is a little newer than what some people consider the “cut off” age for the muscle car era. To be honest, we love this car, and even if you aren’t a fan of these, we think you will too! Take a look at that faux injector scoop sticking up out of the black matte and tell us that this thing is bad-ass.

The swivel seat was an option on this car, but not exactly what you expect to find on a hot rod or musclecar. Though it's still in progress, the Chevelle is getting some nice attention with performance goodies.

This ’73 Chevelle belongs to the McConnell brothers: Kevin, Mike, Richard, and Patrick. The quartet of mechanically savvy McConnells have been working on the car since they bought it in 2008 in Fairbanks, Alaska. “My brother’s and I work on it 100% together,” Kevin told us. “We decide what we are going to do with it, we all pitch in the funds for it, and we all do the work on it ourselves on our days off.” It’s a group effort that is well on its way to being an awesome musclecar project — and so far it’s right on the mark, but it just keeps getting cooler. Now living in Wilbur, Nebraska, the brothers have put a lot of work into this SS Chevelle that originally came with a few more cubic-inches than it has now.

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A Chevelle in front of a corn field. If that doesn’t say “Nebraska,” we don’t know what does.

Originally a big-block car, it had a blown up 350 cubic-inch small-block in it when the brother’s bought it for just $1,000. “We had that motor rebuilt, but it only lasted 100 miles before the camshaft ended up in the oil pan,” Kevin explained. So they saved up and bought themselves a new 350 cubic-incher for it and slapped on a set of RHS pro-torque heads and an aggressive camshaft. It’s also seen a few other improvements since it ended up in the hands of the McConnell brothers.

1200-23They replaced most of the wiring, put in new door glass, and fixed the swivel seats. They also put in a new dash and put its badges back on. It looks awesome now, and surely doesn’t disappoint in the area of performance, but there is always more than can be done, and the McConnell brothers definitely have more planned!

Take a look at these cool headlight accents they added. We love the colored halo look, what do you think?

“We recently picked up a 402 big-block for it that we are building over the winter months,” Kevin detailed, “and a new suspension kit for it.” They have the original Muncie 4-speed that needs a rebuild, but they might decide to go with a turbo-350 and a B&M shift kit. It has a Saginaw 4-speed right now, so we will see if they opt for the beefier manual transmission or the improved automatic. But that’s the fun of working on a project like this together, you can all make the decisions together.

This is the kind of car that looks just as good in the back, as it does in the front.

“We decided to go with this car because we had never seen a Chevelle this year before at any of the car shows we have been too,” Kevin said. “We enjoy taking it to car shows and putting it in the unfinished or work in progress classes and usually get trophies.” We can see why. Take a look at it. The patina, turquoise color of the body, the matte black on the hood, the air cleaner scoop sticking through the hood, wide rear tires, and the big, thick front bumper — what’s not to like?

1200-8This is definitely a build with a lot of potential that we will be keeping our eyes on. It’s hard to pick our favorite aspect of the build, but we think the idea of four brothers taking up a project like this is pretty interesting.

What do you think of the McConnell brothers’ Chevelle project – big-block or small-block? Manual or automatic? Let us know in the comments below, and if you have a project of your own that you’ve been slaving away at, share it with us! Send us an email and yours could be the next project featured in “What Are You Working On?”.

About the author

Kyler Lacey

A 2015 Graduate from Whitworth University, Kyler has always loved cars. He grew up with his dad's '67 Camaro in the garage and started turning wrenches at a young age. At seventeen, he bought his first classic, a '57 Chevy Bel Air four-door, and has since added a '66 Plymouth Valiant and '97 Cadillac Deville to his collection. When he isn't writing for Power Automedia, he's out shooting pictures at car shows, hiking in the forests of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, or working on something in the garage.
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