Bob Davies
October 18th, 2007
Bob Davies
Watseka, IL
1972 Chevelle
My lifelong love affair with the American automobile started in the summer of 1957 when I was just 14 years old. With my own money, I went out and purchased by first car. (I was a 4_h member and showed cattle, so at that age I had a sizeable bank account) I bought a 1956 Studebaker Golden hawk. i don’t have a drivers license but back then on the farm it didn’t make much difference as long as you didn’t call attention to yourself the law pretty much left you alone.
Approximately six months after I purchased my car the 1957 Chevy came out (wow), and all of a sudden I hated my Golden hawk. One day in the spring of 1958, I got a call from my uncle who was a car salesman for a big dealer in Lafayette. he told me they had just repossessed a 1957 Chevy with 6000 miles on it. A Chevy Bel Aire 2 door hardtop. He said it had the “283″ engine with 4 bbl carb, duals and 3 speed transmission on the column. I grabbed my checkbook went up and bought it. Now I had the fastest and coolest car in the county. i rebuilt the engine and put a Duntov 097 cam and a 2 four bbl intake and welded the pinion and spider gears to make a positraction.. I kept the car until 1964 when I got out of the service. Then I ordered a new 1963 Chevy Impala SS.
Again after getting my 63 SS I didn’t like it, so in 1964 I went to Mann Chevrolet in Flora and ordered a brand new 1964 Impala SS convertible. We sat down and bult the car to my specs. 327 c.i., 300 hp, convertible, positration rear end, 4 speed transmission. The color was fire engine red with a snow white interior (a beautiful car) in 1968 it got stolen up in Chicago during broad daylight the police never found it.
In 1968 I had just gotten married and my wife worked so we needed two cars. We purchased a new 1968 Camaro and another 1957 Chevy. I left them both stock. I blew the engine up in the 1957 Chevy driving to work in the spring of 1972. We went to Oldsmobile and ordered a new 1972 Cutlass 442 (another fine car) we drove this car until it literally fell apart.
In 1989 on a business trip to Iowa I found a white 1970 Chevelle SS with a 396 c.i., 350 hp for sale at the right price. After trip was concluded I called the guy and he said it was still for sale., so I hooked up a trailer and went to pick it up. Also, in 1990 on another trip I found another Chevelle SS a 1972 with a 454 c.i., engine it was a bench seat SS with a 4-speed transmission, a/c and am/8track stereo and the numbers seemed to check out, again I hooked up the trailer and went and got it. The car has underwent a complete restoration everything except a frame off. The color is #56 cream yellow, which is the original color of the car according to the vin tag.