Although it is hard to initially see at the time, sometimes, a tragedy can result in something better coming along. Although the tragedy that befell Travis Lenk was a serious threat to his life, he is back and stronger than ever. He told us, “It was on November 15, 2014 when I crashed my 1972 Yenko Nova clone when I ran off of the road and into a field. What I learned was that there was a creek running through the field, and when the car hit the edge, it rolled four times.”

What took him 15 years to build, was gone in an instant. It was later learned that the throttle had stuck, and the crash resulted in Travis breaking his neck, spine, and shoulder blade. Travis underwent untold amounts of surgery to repair the damage inflicted, but all the while, he never gave up on his love of cars. Travis continued, “I always knew that if something ever happened to the Nova, my next project was going be a ‘79 Malibu. Although a square-body Malibu is a huge change from a ’72 Nova. Travis adapted well.

An aftermarket shifter now resides in the factory shifter’s location.

“A month after I was out of the hospital, I found the Malibu,” says Travis. When he bought the car, it was an empty roller, but he saw the potential the car possessed, and had the time to rebuild it. With help from his cousin Jeff, and other car buddies, Travis was able to turn the Malibu into the almost-finished cruiser you see here.

Before the project began, Travis made sure the car was in the right condition for him to build his dream car, and once it was confirmed that there was no rust in the body, things started to get underway. The original black paint is still on the car, and the interior is just as it came from the factory, bucket seats, console-mounted floor shifter and all.

Under the hood, Travis and the guys installed a Pro-Series 427 cubic-inch small-block from BluePrint engines. Right out of the box, the engine delivered 550 horsepower, and 550 lb-ft of torque. Behind that is a Gary Wood’s Racing-built Turbo 350 transmission, fitted with a manual-shift valve body, and a BTE Racing heavy-duty drum, along with their 4L60E self-aligning low-roller sprag.

When it comes to a project car, knowing what can and cannot survive the pounding you’re going to deliver to the car, can be the difference between breaking a lot of parts, or having fun actually driving the car. Travis understands this, so the GM-Corporate rearend was removed in favor of a Quick Performance 9-inch rearend filled with goodies like 35-spline axles, and a Detroit Locker.

Finally, if you want your car to make a statement, the stance it possesses is a large part of the equation. So, in order to get the Malibu’s stance perfect, Travis contacted UMI Performance, and installed a set of their adjustable control arms and 2-inch lowering springs out back, and he then dropped the nose a total of 4 inches with the help of more UMI springs and their lowering spindles.

Although a tragedy almost caused Travis to stop enjoying the automotive hobby, with the help of family and friends, he now has a ride that will not only keep him steeped in performance, but do so with the cool meter pegged. We can already smell the tire smoke.

Do you own a Home-Built Hero? We want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the Home-Built Heros series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still need more. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].