Enthusiast’s taste in vehicle style is varied. Wayne Worcester’s ’80 Malibu proves the boxy style can make a cool hot rod.

Finding a suitable base from which to begin a project is getting harder. The easily rebuilt cars have all been snatched up, and what’s left is in need of more than just a little work. That is, unless you’re willing to look outside what is considered the norm. Enthusiasts like Wayne Worcester are reaping the rewards of giving what was once an overlooked body style, a second look.

“I was looking for something different, something other than a Camaro, Chevelle, Nova, or Corvette. I just like to be a little different and wanted to have a car that you don’t see every day,” he said. Opinions definitely vary when it comes to feelings about cars built after 1972, but that’s what makes the car hobby great – not everyone likes the same thing.

The original V6 has nothing on this 406ci small-block.

Living in Maine, Wayne was having a hard time finding the right car to begin his project. Let’s face it, the weather up there can be brutal. That is, until he happened to be in the right place at the right time by being in a different place than normal while driving home from work. “I was driving home from work on the back roads and just happened to see this ’80 Malibu sitting on the front lawn of a house. It immediately caught my eye,” he stated.

“Although it only had a $600.00 price tag on the windshield, I was not sure if this was the car I wanted, so I thought about it for the night. For the next two days, I drove by the car, and on the third day, I stopped and took another look.” Wayne continued, “An older gentleman explained that it was his mother’s car, only had 39,000 original miles on it, and was always stored inside.”

Wayne and the gentleman spent some time discussing the car and Wayne offered him $500. “He said that someone else had stopped earlier and was very interested in it. He was supposed to come back later that night with the money to pick it up,” Wayne explained.

Hearing that, Wayne told him he would pay full price right then, but the gentleman said I would have to stop back the next day to see if the sale went through with the other person. Wayne quipped, “I didn’t sleep very good that night. I guess when you want something and can’t have it, you want it even more.”  Wayne returned to check on the car the following day, and to his surprise, it was sitting in the same place. He gave the gentleman $600.00, and the car was sitting in Wayne’s driveway that very same day.

Once back at the Worcester compound, the work began. “The next weekend, I found myself removing the V6 engine. I then sand blasted the frame with a small 5-gallon portable sand blaster. The frame was then painted,” he said. The original brown paint was stripped from the shell, and the body was sanded, primed, and then painted with a Pontiac color – Sunburst Metallic Orange.

The original bench seat was removed, and reclining bucket seats from a 1995 Chevy were installed. The head liner was also replaced with a factory original. In preparation for an upcoming change, a provision for a Hurst V-Gate four-speed shifter was made to the floor, and the automatic shift lever on the column was removed.

While this was happening, he was having Seacoast Auto & Dyno in Saco, Maine, build a 406ci. small-block that would run on pump gas and handle a 300hp shot of nitrous. The heads are Edelbrock Performer RPMs, and a Victor JR. intake manifold supports a Holley 750cfm carburetor. Inside is a SCAT rotating assembly and a solid-roller camshaft. “After a few dyno pulls, the engine was producing 510hp without the nitrous,” according to Wayne.

He also made a change in the transmission department, as he added a Muncie four-speed to give it that true muscle car feel. When the drivetrain was completed and installed, he modified a set of ladder bars that he custom-made when he was in high school. “I installed the ladder bars and thought the Malibu was ready for its maiden voyage. Boy, was I wrong! First gear set me back in the seat, and when I grabbed Second, I heard a loud pop! To my surprise, the car dropped down in the rear and when I looked over my right shoulder, all I could see was my rear tire and about a foot of the axle bouncing across my neighbor’s lawn,” he said.

Wayne painted the backside of the grill black, and left the chrome front edges exposed.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and this incident is proof, as Wayne threw his floor creeper and a jack in his truck, so he could drag the car the short distance home. That prompted a call to Drive Train Specialists (DTS) for a 12-bolt rear with a posi and 4:10 gears to replace the broken 10-bolt.

“After the engine was broken in, I decided to take the car to our local drag strip to see how it would do in the 1/8-mile. The ‘Bu ran a 6.75-second e.t. without the nitrous. It’s been a great dependable street car and I hope my grandkids will enjoy it as much as I have when I am gone,” Wayne said.

Wayne removed the stick-on body moldings to give it a clean look. He also added the “Malibu SS.” emblems on the rear.

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].