1968 Chevelle ‘Blue Eyed Devil’, Luxury and Pure Muscle Meet

Sometimes when you least expect it, an opportunity suddenly appears. That was the case in for Phoenix residents Steve Edling and his wife Karlene and their ’68 Chevrolet Chevelle.

It all started innocently enough when Steve’s friend Doug was out cruising his own classic car. At a stoplight, the guy in the next lane motioned to him, and told Doug that his brother had an old car for sale that he should check out. Doug knew that Steve was in the market for a Chevelle, so he followed the guy to have a look. The car wasn’t in the best shape, it’d been sitting in a yard for years, but Steve saw its potential and agreed to pay a paltry $100 for it as long as Steve and Doug would dig the car out of the backyard themselves – it had been in the yard for a really long time.
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Steve planned to mildly restore the Chevelle to its original state, just enough to turn the heap into a cruiser. But the original engine was not in the car so true matching numbers was out of the question. So after a while he decided that rather than restore the car to what it was he would build the car to what he wanted.

The goal was to blend influences from street rods, luxury cars and laid-out customs into one clean package packed to the roof with custom details. The suspension needed some modern upgrades, so up front, a set of tubular control arms from Heidt’s was installed along with a set of Slam Specialties RE7 airbags and Bilstein shocks.
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For the air suspension management, a full set of GC air valves controlled by an AVS switch box was installed, with air supplied by custom air tanks and Viair compressors. The wheels are Budnik Revolvers that are 20″ in the front and 22″ in the rear, wrapped in meaty Falken Azenis tires.

The outside of the car shows a lot of class and a hint of attitude, but pop the hood and you’ll reveal a true monster. A Turn Key Engine Kenne Bell supercharged LS2 was dropped in to provide a massive amount of power and modern reliability. All told, the package puts out more than 740 hp.

With a modern pro-touring suspension, and a pure performance muscle engine, the interior reflects street rod styling and unadulterated luxury. A customformed dashboard was outfitted with Classic Instruments gauges. The dash flows into custom door panels and a floating center console that houses a Mooneyes pushbutton shifter. Everything was wrapped in a total of 13 hides of tan Bentley leather. An ididit steering column with a matching Budnik Revolver steering wheel finishes off the dash.

The car also has some other nice touches including Vintage Air, a Ron Davis radiator, and of course, a Magnaflow exhaust.