Hobbies are like fads, sometimes they come and go. Many times, we even trade one hobby for another. Such was the case with Travis Schmidt and his gorgeous ’72 Chevelle that is the focus of this week’s Home-Built Hero. Travis tells us, “I’ve owned my Chevelle since 1992. I bought it from a high-school friend, and at the time, it was just a yellow Chevrolet Chevelle with mag wheels and a two-barrel-equipped 350 cubic-inch engine. It didn’t even have carpeting, just a rubber mat on the floor.”

It wasn’t long after Travis bought the car, that he and his dad started to rebuild it. While the car was in pieces, Travis decided to do some upgrading to the interior and driveline – which included carpeting, but the body remained what he thought was “stock”. During this rebuild, an NVR Racing 383 cubic-inch engine went under the hood. According to Travis, “I don’t know the brand names of the parts in bottom end, but it has a nodular-iron stroker crankshaft, “pink” connecting rods, and flat-top pistons. I don’t remember the camshaft specs. It’s topped off with a pair of “Double-Hump heads that were milled, decked, and ported. I figure the engine is close to having a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Fuel delivery is via an Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake and a Holley 750 double-pumper carburetor.”

The car was rebuilt and Travis enjoyed it until 1996, when it was relegated to storage. Travis said, “I stopped driving the car for stupid reasons. For one, the passenger’s-side door rusted, and I also built a ‘79 short bed Silverado so I had a 4×4 toy. For the next few years, I was into Super Stock truck pulling. That is, until the engine in the truck grenaded.” After that happened, Travis figured that redoing the car would be cheaper than continuing to enter truck pulls. By the way, the engine that was in the truck and blew up, was the original 350ci small-block that came out of the Chevelle.

It was in late 2009, when Travis and his father started the car’s second frame off rebuild. This time, Travis learned that his Chevelle was actually a Heavy Chevy. Introduced midyear of 1971, The Heavy Chevy was an option that was available on the base-model Chevelle. The buyer could have any V8 engine under the hood save for the Super Sport’s 454ci big-block. The Heavy Chevy (RPO YF3) was basically a dress up option, and offered the Super Sport’s domed hood with hood pins, special Heavy Chevy body stripes, black-accented grille and headlight bezels, 14×6 Rally wheels without trim rings, vinyl floor covering, front bench seat, and no center console.

During the second rebuild, a coating of yellow that was developed to grace the body of a ‘73 Corvette was sprayed on the Chevelle body, and the black, Heavy Chevy stripes were added. Travis says, “I also freshened the engine, rebuilt the four speed, and made a few changes to interior. Most of the interior parts were still in good condition from the first rebuild, so those pieces and some new carpeting were utilized.”

Bringing up the rear is a 10-bolt with 3.31 gears mounted to a Positraction unit, but Travis has plans to upgrade to a 12-bolt rearend with 3.42 gears. He also plans to install a Tremec five-speed transmission, because the car currently runs 3,000 rpm at 55 mph. Travis finished by telling us, “We call this the father and son project that was built in a small, two-car garage, and I’ll never let it sit for years ever again.”

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