The 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle LS-6 454 was the first car that I understood as a “muscle car”. The look was perfect…take the typical two-door hardtop form of the bread and butter mid-size car, give it enough attitude to stand on it’s own, enough cubic inches to make safety advocates wet themselves at the first start-up, and give it a color palette that lay between “boring” and “over the top” and you had a winner. I just knew that I wanted one in Forest Green with black stripes, and to this day it’s still the ultimate vehicle choice for my wife, who wants hers in Fathom Blue with white stripes, white interior and Magnum 500s. They aren’t as cartoonish as the Chrysler products were, they weren’t caught up in the Ford mentality, and for 1970 they were fully off of the leash, GM’s policy of engine size restriction having finally been trashed.
But Chip Foose has a change he’d like to make to a 1970 Chevelle. And to be quite fair…the dude has a point that I never gave thought to until now. Why didn’t Chevrolet use the rear bumper and taillight assembly that wound up on the 1971-72 Chevelle on the 1970 instead? It would make sense…the nose of the ’70 features quad headlights, and out back you would have Chevrolet’s traditional quad-round taillight scheme that had been a staple for a minute and was quickly becoming a company-wide trait. It’s a small change, but check out Foose’s sketch and see if you agree with what is playing in his mind.
Chip Goose is a master at his Craft!!!
…but, except for the long rectangular rr black bumper pad on SS’s, that works with the long rectangular black SS front grille openings (std. was silver). There wouldn’t be room for that to work well with quad taillights (with the license plate taking room out of the middle), which would have needed to be slightly squared off anyway like the headlight rings. Add long rectangular paint stripes and the SS just looked like a whole different animal from the regular Chevelle, with the bumper pad being vital. This from a guy who grew up w/ a ’72 in the family, but an IMO prettier ’70 SS bumper hangs in the man cave.
I do agree that GM designs from the era were the best, although yeah it did look sometimes like the front of the car came from a different shop than the rear did.
All just my opinion, and always a pleasure to see Chip swoosh those pens around.
Can you buy copies of the drawing ? Im a 70 Chevelle guy and would like to have one
Other than changing the bumpers, even Chip Foose thinks the ’70 Chevelle body lines is a masterpiece that doesn’t need altering.
’70 Chevelle has always been my favorite 3rd gen because of the one year front end with the four “round” headlights. But always loved the front end of the ’70 El Camino even more as it has the “round” parking lights that go better with the round head lights. Never understood why the Chevelle had square parking lights?
Just put a ’70 El camino bumper on the ’70 Chevelle, add ’71 rear bumper and you have the same Foose idea…even better.