When you’ve got a good thing you hold on to it, or at least that seems to be the philosophy of Radford, VA’s James Sullivan when it comes to his 1967 Chevelle.  Sullivan managed to talk his brother, Tommy, into handing over the keys 20 years ago while he was still in high school and he hasn’t let go since.

Tommy and his father retrieved in the car 1984 for just $400 from a Wytheville, VA, salvage yard that also operated an auto repair shop. It had some front-end sheet metal damage, but otherwise was a clean, base-model Malibu. After a new hood, front fender and restraightened, rechromed bumper were bolted in place, Tommy tried to sell the car for $700, but that’s when James stepped in and convinced his older brother that it would make a great first ride.

“I restored it maybe two-thirds of the way, just patched it up and got it on the road,” Sullivan recalls. “Drove it to high school and graduated with it. It had a 283 with a Powerglide back then, bare bones, all stock.”

Straight out of school, Sullivan updated the tired interior but otherwise retained the car’s all-stock appearance until 1994 when he decided a frame-off renovation and restoration was in order. With an upgrade in power on his mind, too, Sullivan went big-block shopping.

“I found a 402 at first and I was getting ready to build it, but then I found the 454 and that’s what we ended up going with,” he says. “I’ve refreshed it probably three or four times over the years and it’s gotten a little more in it each time. I’ve still got the 402 and I’m looking to put it in something else. I also have the 283 and all of the running gear in storage, so everything can go back to original if we ever wanted it to.”

Sullivan and his brother performed almost all of the restoration and race-prep, farming out some of the more intricate body work such as replacing the rear quarter panels and repairing the windshield and the rear window frames. The brothers even sprayed the deep, Maple Red Metallic in their own garage. “It’s never been waxed,” Sullivan proudly points out. “I just use a 3M glaze and it still looks pretty good, I think.”