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UPDATE October 10th 2008 : We just spent 15  months getting our 1948 Dodge,  "OBEASTY" , back on the road. Now it's time to get back to work on BUTRNUT.

""BUTRNUT""   It was an article in the July 1982 issue of Hot Rod Magazine that planted the seed of what you see here. After reading it I figured that sooner or later some day down the road I'd find myself the right little Chevette and have some real fun with it...and now..."BUTRNUT"... is my 1979 Chevette 2dr. One day she is going to go on a Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour ...but for now...she's a "WORK IN PROGESS" that's been getting a "Bumper to Bumper Makeover" a little bit at a time over the last couple of years. It may take another couple of years before she's completely finished, but when she is she'll have new Butternut Yellow paint, a Factory Stock Tilt Wheel, a Black Interior with 69 Camaro Black Houndstooth Bucket Seats and back seat done to match, Autometer Pro-Comp 5" Speedo & Tach, Autometer Pro-Comp 2 5/8" WT OP V FL Gauges, an 84 S-10 3.73 Limited Slip Possi Rear Axle and a "Parallel Leaf Spring Rear Suspension", a 15 Gallon Jeep Scrambler Gas Tank, a Multi Port Fuel Injected 175HP GM 2.8 V6 & 700R4, a 2" Duel Exhaust System, with an X-Pipe and Spintech Pro Street Mufflers, Four Wheel Power Disk Brakes, 14x6 Chevy Ralley Sport Wheels with 205/60/14 BF Goodrich Traction TAs, and an asortment of NOS parts that I've collected over the last three years. These next five pictures were taken in September of 2003 shortly after I pulled the stock engine out and started work. All the pictures of "BUTRNUT" on the grass wearing her new Ralley Wheels and BFG Traction TAs were taken May 14th 2006. She's still along way from being done...but I just had to roll her outside for the first time to see how she looks with the new wheels. Go to Page 2 to see pics of BUTRNUTs' "Parallel Leaf Spring Rear Suspension" that is very much "Under Construction". Like I said...it'll be quite a while longer before she's all done and drivable...but I'm working on her..a little bit at a time...slow but sure.

I first saw "BUTRNUT" sitting on a car lot along Highway 99 in South Everett Washington in the summer of 1999. It was...I'll have to admitt..."love at first sight". I had wanted a Chevette for a long time, especially a 76-79 Model with the neat retangular tail lights. I've also got a thing for "Yellow" cars...so finding a very decent "Yellow Chevette" in pretty good shape over all... really made my day. But at the time, for a variety of reasons that I won't bore you with except to say...there are usually some very good reasons why they're called..."ex-wife"... I just couldn't afford the $850 asking price.

I drove by that car lot many times for the next few months. Stopped and looked at the car several times. In fact the dealer even dropped the price to $650...but as much as I wanted it at the time I still just couldn't afford it. What really impressed me about the car was that everything worked...Lights...Turn Signals...Horn...Radio ( AM Mono )...Rear Window Defroster...and accept for the usual rusty drivers side floor...the over all car was pretty straight with no bad dents or rust out any where else on the body...so whats' not to love???

"SOME THINGS ARE JUST MENT TOBE"...One day in January of 2000... I was driving by the car lot again...when I looked over and saw...in white shoepolish on the windshield..."$98"... I turned right around and drove back to the lot and checked with the dealer about why he now only wanted $98 for the car. It turned out that the car now had a blown head gasket...so he just wanted to unload it...well there was no way I was gonna pass up this deal...I damn near ripped the pocket off my pants reaching for my money...and ended up driving home a little later that day...with a trail of steam comming out of the tailpipe...the very happy new owner of a neat little Yellow Chevette that I call..."BUTRNUT".

I figured at the time that fixing a blown head gasket souldn't be that big of a deal. My Youngest Son Ben was a Junior in High School and I thought we could get the car fixed relatively cheap so that he could have some wheels. This plan turned my "$98" Chevette back into a "$700" Chevette, that I still couldn't really afford, over the next few weeks. It turned out that not only did it have a blown head gasket it also had a cracked head which led to more exspence than I needed or planned on at the time. What I learned from all this was that we could have probably put a good running 2.8 V6 in it, and that would have more than likely been cheaper than trying to save the stock engine. Ben did drive it to school for the next few months. But one night a few months later the motor finally blew. When I bought it I figured we'd fix it and let Ben use it and then eventually seriously fix it up with some kind of engine swap, so when the stock engine finally passed away I put "BUTRNUT" in storage, like I probably should have done in the first place, and started buying parts and making plans. And now...here we are...and the rest as they say is history.

"BUTRNUT" dosen't live here any more...she has now moved upward and onward to much bigger and better digs.

This is what "BUTRNUT" looked like when she was new. My goal is to make her look this nice again, but with some major upgrades that will turn her into a late 60s-early 70s style "Mini Muscle Car". What makes her unique now... is not only her rather rare body color and interior package of Brite Yellow with Black Interior... but also the combination of her rectangular tail lights and egg crate grill...1979 was last year for the rectangular tail lights and the first year for the egg crate grill... making 1979 the only year that Chevette bodies were built with these features together. Also what Chevrolet called Brite Yellow on a Chevette in 1979 was the same color they called Butternut Yellow on Corvettes, Chevelles, Camaros, and Novas of the late 60s and early 70s. That's why she's called ..."BUTRNUT"

 Chevrolet Dealer Showroom Sign ...24" x 12"

CAUTION+++CONSTRUCTION ZONE AHEAD ON PAGE 2

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"OBEASTY"