Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Great update Dan, I really am enjoying the history of racing with Jason and yourself.
:D

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

I just wish I had more pics of his car etc over the past 20+ years. He bought the '68 in 87 or 88, so he's had it forever too.

And thanks for all the comments guys!

[milner351]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Nicely done! It gives me some faith that home paint jobs by less than experts can actually come out ok!

[ksj1]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Got to watch Dan tells you ;).Jason was here for the Div 5 Finals in Sept.He told me to tell Jason his GTO looks like it was painted "with a bucket of shit and a straw broom" ;D ;D(It looks SWEET). Then Dan informed me Jason is 6-3 and 230+ pounds. Im sure my 5-10 150 pounds could take him though ;D I was never able to hook up with him but I did get NMCA_Ron to call him "Jason The Legend Jeffery" over the PA all weekend ;D

[Scott Liggett]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Great, history, story and pictures, Dan. Thanks for sharing.

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Thanks guys!

Moving on to 1991 I believe. After a few months of sanding, filling, and more sanding, it was time to paint. My inspiration was the annual paint and body issue I get from Car Craft, afterall, they said I could do it myself right?

We used Nason brand paint (think it;s actually made by Dupont) in a single stage enamel. The whole paint "kit" set me back around $175. I used a Buffalo paint gun that I picked up at Tool King, and turned the garage into a make shift paint booth. Here are the results:





Oh yea, we added a fiberglass cowl scoop to the steel hood in the process. Along with the new paint, I added a set of Centerlines in the satin finish, we all know these were the bomb back in the 80s.

The bumpers are steel. I scuffed them with 36 grit and hit them with an etching primer before they were painted. Believe it or not, these bumpers still look this good. I gave them to my brother's ex brother in law (him and I are still good friends) several years ago.

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Dan, looks like a great job ... even shiney !
Upon hindsight reflection, what quality of a job do you think it was, a "3-footer" ?

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

To me, it was a 20'er...it looked even better @ 100 mph....everyone else said it looked perfect (majority of which were non car types). Luckily all of the runs and snafu's were well below the belt line....but I knew they were there.

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Interesting ....
.. as usual, the owner / painter is the most critical, but that's how it should be.
;D

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

Dan, I'm diggin' the history of your Chevelle...cool that you've kept it(and still flog it like a rented mule)!

They may not be the leading edge of style these days, but I still say those Center Lines are some of the bst-looking wheels ever made.

Still mulling over the idea of getting a set for the Camaro...will check back here for updates!

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

I really like the satin CL wheels too and maybe I'll switch back.

A few years after I repainted it, (93 or 94) we had upsized/upgraded our house (read more $$$) and the hoopty I'd been driving everyday (86 Olds Cutlass) shot craps. Instead of dumping money into it or replacing it, I threw another set of rallys on the car, w/ 70 series rubber and 3.73s, and drove it year round. It still sucked in the snow with the 10" convertor though. It was truely my daily driver until 1997 when I score a good deal on a Blazer. Somewhere in there a guy I ran into from high school made me an offer on the Center Lines that I could not pass up, remember the new house?....I needed the cash. He still has them on his 55 chevy thats been sitting since about 2000.

Here's how it looked with the rallys:

[SuperBuickGuy]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

I have satin wheels just like that on my Studebaker..... they are certainly period correct

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

So in 2000, I decided to merge my addiction with my career. Here is the end result:





I wired in a Code 3 light bar, grill and deck lights, headlight and tail light flasher and a full blown siren/pa system. Remember my friend Jason? He was now the lead bodyman at Crest Autobody here in Denver. The owner, Ron Schillereff was kind enough to sponsor a new paint job for the car. Over the course of a 3 day weekend it had a new 2 stage paint job on it along with a new fiberglass cowl hood.

All of this was the beginnig of the first ever Denver Police Race-A-Cop program. In this configuration with the 350 that was built back in 1987, and adding 4.56 gears, the car was deadly consistant running 13.40s @ 101. With a 175 shot it had gone a best of 11.67 @ 114.......

[Monster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

The Denver Police Race-A-Cop program sounds very interesting.
Can you tell us more about it ?

I can just imagine a drag racer taking off the line, looking in his mirror and seeing your Malibu cop car with the lights flashing and siren going and instinctively letting off the gas and you whizzing by to take the win !!!

Ha, ha, ha ...
:D

[Bamfster]

Re: Bamfster's Chevelle, the History & Coming Attractions ...

I had been looking at the Beat The Heat program, but their material consisted more of DUI stuff. The Colorado State Patrol had begun sponsoring our weds night test n tune calling it "Take it to the Track". Since Denver had/has a huge problem with the imports staging street races around the city, I decided to jump on the street racing band wagon. To be honest, this was just a way for me to get paid by the city to race my car throughout the summer.

On the weds night events, I would show up with the car, in full uniform. I would just kinda hang out and mingle with everyone and challenge people that looked like street racers to race (can you say racial profiling?). It was a heads up race, and i actually got beat a few times. I had real nice certificates and different DPD swag that I would give out to the racers etc.

The 2nd part of this was the High School series. Nearly every metro area jurisdiction would show up with grant cars, personal cars and regular cruisers. It was more about teaching the HS kids about he dangers of street racing and drinking and driving. There are several of the kids I met during these races that I still keep in touch with now, 1 of them is now a Denver cop, and he credits me for that.

At the high school races, I would always have a grudge race with Aurora PD. They had a small block 68 Nova that ran 12s. We'd go heads up and yes I'd spray it.





This was a wonderful program for the DPD, but as with everything else, politics took it's toll on me, and I pulled the plug on it in 2007. I hear it still exists in some form, but I'm really not interested in the DPD anymore so.....

For the record, I'm still way against street racing and drinking and driving.