Online auto auctions are a crapshoot, since you have to trust that what the seller describes is true. Often, it's not. But Dave Sherer and Anthony Musilli of DNA Restorations (Dave and Anthony, get it?) got lucky when they decided to roll the dice on a '69 Chevelle project car located in Colorado (they're from New York). Because it had no engine, trans, or rearend and lived in a snowy climate, it was a risk, but when the Chevelle was delivered, they happily found it wasn't a wrecked rust bucket. It wasn't exactly nice, either. "It was a pretty shoddy body," Anthony told us. Up-close inspection revealed that every panel from hood to trunk needed some filling, sanding, and straightening-but all in all, it was workable. The shell went directly on the rotisserie, where Dave and Anthony welded up unnecessary holes and massaged the panels while the frame was blasted clean and reinforced for strength.
DNA Restoration projects aren't Dave or Anthony's full-time professions; both spend their days at other jobs, so the fact that they transformed this Chevelle from a shell into a show car in short order is even more impressive. "We started in September, and it took about eight months over winter-at night, after work, on the weekends," Anthony said while showing us the newly finished Chevelle during the '09 Power Tour. Surely a project that came together that quickly starting from nearly scratch had a few teething problems on such a long road trip, right? Anthony just laughed and said, "This Chevelle, it's the finest machine on the road right now."
The 582ci Chevy uses an Eagle crank, Manley rods, and Keith Black pistons with Trick Flow cylinder heads and a Comp 0.700-lift, 244/254-degree cam to make 761 hp and 758 lb-ft. A Tremec five-speed sends that big power to a Currie 9 Plus rearend with 3.70 gears.