Photos: Pro-Touring.com

It’s the so-called nightmare scenario. A classic sixties muscle car was originally owned by that little old lady, who sold it after almost 40 years. The car, a 1966 Chevelle SS, is in pretty good condition and ends up at a mid-west dealer. You buy this sweet ride and pump $30K into it, including a fresh 396 V8, TH400 automatic and more.

Then comes the phone call. Your mechanic has found a major rust-through in the frame. Nobody saw it because it had been covered up with body filler and finished to match the rest of the area. That’s enough to take the wind out of anybody’s sails.

As they say, though, one man’s bad luck is another man’s good luck, and so it was for a member at Pro-touring.com, who bought the car and replaced the original with a new, powder coated frame.

With some other updating, like hydroboost brakes, the sweet Chevelle was road worthy and put in service as a daily driver until December of 2010. But, there were greater plans for this SS. An LS2 and 4L70 conversion was next up and, like all major projects, involved a lot more than originally anticipated. The conversion is complete at this point and has moved into the tuning stage.

As you can see under the hood, this is one slick piece of work in addition to gaining power, reliability and niceties like air conditioning. As well, the interior – which was already pretty good looking – has been updated to accommodate the 6’4″ driver. Recaro seats were obtained, modified and recovered. along with a center console. That update certainly looks factory fresh.

There’s a lot more details in the build thread over at Pro-Touring.com and we’re expecting to see the tuning results shortly. Slide on over and check it out. The factory never built them this sweet.