Brent Hoerig is a man on a mission. His current project is a ’65 Chevrolet Malibu that his dad purchased in 1972. The person from whom the senior Hoering purchased the car used it as a street racer, and unfortunately, the original 327 had been replaced by an LT1 350 cubic-inch mill.

Every project has a beginning.

Brent’s dad purchased the car with the intent of building upon the street racer platform, and Brent told us, “Dad had the rear wheels stretched and widened in the winter of ’72 to make room for the 28.5×10.5-15 slicks.” When the LT1 blew up, he had a 355 cubic-inch engine built. But when that small-block met an early demise in 1976, the car was relegated to garage duty. Brent continued, “Dad said he would get roughly 100 passes out of the 355ci short-block. The engine had a stock, steel crankshaft and Chevy “Pink” connecting rods. Stock internals don’t last long when shifting at 7,500 rpm and going through the traps at 8,300 rpm.”

Brent’s propellant of choice is this 396ci engine.

Now that Brent is the driving force behind putting the car back together, he plans to address the needed metal repair that needs handled, and then pull the body off the frame to finish the body work. He is planning to have the car see street duty, so it’s is getting four-wheel disc brakes, and a Vintage Air air-conditioning system

He is currently in the process of adding additional room in the rear wheel and tire area, and has added an additional 2 inches so the 30×12-15 Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R tires have ample room. The 12-bolt rearend has been narrowed 1 13/16-inch on each side, and the Posi unit will spin a set of 4.88 gears. Ladder bars and QA1 coilovers keep in all in place.

Brent has no intention of placing another small-block under the hood, and an LS is definitely not part of the plan. To re-motivate the ’65, Brent is dropping a big-block between the fenders. The seasoned 396 block features a .060-inch overbore with 12.0:1 compression pistons squeezing the go juice. Inside is a Comp Cams’ XS274-grind camshaft, and a pair of stock, albeit reworked, closed-chamber cylinder heads and a Weiand X-CELerator intake top it off. A FAST EZ EFI system is going to be the fuel delivery system.

The body looks to be in decent shape.

Keep in mind, this Malibu is a Reader’s Hardcore Project, so it is still under construction, and Brent has plans to include the following in his Malibu: A Rick’s tanks restomod fuel tank, Hedman headers with a 3-inch dual exhaust and Flowmaster 40 series Delta flow mufflers, TCI StreetFighter Turbo350 transmission with a Super StreetFighter torque converter.

The interior will feature stock red components, and the exterior will be a red base with silver metal flake and a clear coat.

Brent might have a long way to go, but with steady work – and we’re certain the occasional cut and scrape, he will eventually have one of the coolest rides in town, and we can’t wait to see the finished classic.

Do you want to read about more Reader’s Hardcore Projects? All you need to do is click here. If you’re working on a project, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the Hardcore Project series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more, as we can never get enough. 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].