Produced on May 4, 1970, at the Baltimore, Maryland, assembly plant and sold new by renowned Midwest performance dealer Berger Chevrolet of Grand Rapids, Michigan, this 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS454 LS6 Convertible remained with the original owner, Charles “Chuck” Cordell, until September 2016, when he sold the car to a collector in Tennessee with just more than 27,000 original miles on the odometer. Cordell had ordered the car in early spring of 1970, and upon its arrival at Berger, decided he disliked the factory-applied white stripes and had Berger remove them. He also had Berger install aluminum heads and remove the smog equipment before he took delivery. Cordell had numerous modifications made to the engine (all documented) by professional engine builders, including the Rod Shop’s Bill McGraw and Jenkins Performance ace Dave Strickler. Aside from the documented engine and driveline modifications, Cordell left the Chevelle untouched and original, including the upholstery, glass, trim and white convertible top, which he stated had been down only “six or seven times in the car’s life and hasn’t been down since the mid-1970s.” In the late 1990s, the car was repainted after a mishap at a speed shop resulted in a scratched fender—the speed shop offered to repaint the entire car, and Cordell accepted. Upon taking possession of the car, the current owner delivered it to Roger Gibson of Roger Gibson Auto Restoration in Scott City, Missouri, who discovered two well-preserved factory build sheets when he first examined it on November 26, 2016. Describing it as “a truly exceptional example” that had never been apart, Gibson found the car “absolutely rust free” with “no wreck damage.” He stripped the outside panels and repainted the car in the original Tuxedo Black, preserving the original paint in the door jams and trunk and adding the factory-style white stripes. The black bench-seat interior remains all original and unrestored, except for the Hurst shifter Cordell installed soon after purchasing the car. The body parts—including the T-3 headlamps, stainless and chrome trim, grille, bumpers and brackets—are original to the car, as are the trunk mat, jack and spare tire, which has never been on the ground. Gibson returned the LS6 engine and driveline to factory specifications with correctly date-coded and numbered parts, including the distributor, carburetor and intake, cylinder heads and smog equipment. The Muncie M22 4-speed transmission and rear-end housing were retained along with the 5.38:1 gear set Cordell had installed early in the car’s career as a street-strip racer. While Gibson described the Chevelle’s undercarriage as “the cleanest … I have ever seen in my shop,” a large portion of the restoration work involved the chassis and suspension. Fearing his beloved Chevelle might be stolen, Cordell had painted every bolt head and suspension piece with brick red paint for identification purposes. This necessitated dismantling, documenting and refinishing virtually every piece of the undercarriage; it also, in Gibson’s opinion, preserved the bare metal parts, which are again in mint condition after cleaning. The completed chassis retains almost all the original suspension and driveline components and the original floor pan paint, includes original bolts, clips and brackets, and features reproductions of the documented factory inspection markings. The very definition of a truly sympathetic restoration, this 1970 LS6 convertible presents as it left the factory in May 1970. It is offered with thorough documentation that includes two factory build sheets, the Protect-O-Plate, owner’s packet with owner’s manual, warranty information, convenience car book and restoration photographs.
