As Derall Aipperspach can attest. Finding a decent project car can be as simple as knowing the right people. Although finding a “good” car from which to start a project is getting harder than ever, many times you luck out. Such is the case with this ’66 Chevelle Malibu.

“I purchased my Chevelle from a friend in 2017,” he states. “It was a basket case when my friend purchased it, and he put it together to make it a nice driver. I’ve done a number of upgrades to it since buying from him.”

Derall went on to say that he has always liked this body style of Chevelle, so when his friend decided it was time to sell, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The exterior is painted Marina Blue and although it is an older paint job Derall says it cleaned up nicely with a cut and buff. In his words, it presents well for a driver car. Although the car is a Malibu, astute readers will recognize it has Super Sport badging on the rear quarters and the twin-bulge SS hood.

Although Derall purchased the car from a friend, he did take the time to make a few changes for the sake of performance. “I installed a Blueprint Engines 383 crate engine,” he says. “On top of the Edelbrock Tarantula intake is a Holley Sniper EFI matched with a Holley Dual Sync Distributor. I think the long tube headers with Flowmaster 2 ½-inch exhaust sounds great. Keeping the engine cool is a Griffin aluminum radiator.”

Everyone knows that wheels can make or break the look of a hot rod, and Derall nailed it. With the American Racing Torque Thrust IIs. The wheels measure 15×7 on the front and 15×8 on the rear and are wrapped with Cooper Cobra tires. Behind the front wheels is a disc-brake conversion with Global West suspension parts. The rear suspension is stock.

The interior is black with bucket seats and a console, and the main attraction is the four-speed shifter poking through the console. At the bottom of that Hurst Competition Plus stick is an M20 Muncie four-speed. “I also installed a Dakota Digital analog dash and Retrosound radio with Bluetooth,” he states.

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. I want to see those reader’s rides. If you would like to share yours, I want to hear about it. Since I started this series, I have received more than a few candidates, but I still want to see more — I can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and I’ll make you internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].