Smitty’s Totally original 66 Super Sport
For the last five years David, "just call me Smitty", Schmidt of Morgan Hill has been a member of NorCal ChevelleCaminos. It's been one of the best kept secrets in the Club. While Smitty is a Master Mechanic, with his own Shop, Country Automotive in Morgan Hill, he has been "real busy and hasn't had time to come to events" so the Byington Picnic was the first time many of us had a chance to meet him.
Smitty has had Chevelles all of his life, his first being a '68. But he has always had a fondness for the '66 and '67 model years. He found this beauty at the Pleasanton GoodGuys show 14 years ago. As the story goes, the original owner had the car in his garage and owner number two, a couple of painters working on the original owner's house, spotted the Chevelle. After much wrangling they purchased the car and kept it for a while, but did nothing to the car except paint it. After a while they got bored and put it up for sale in the Car Coral at the Goodguys show.
Well, Smitty's eyes just about popped out of his head when he saw it in the Car Coral. A two owner car with 122,000 original miles, much less milage when he bought it fourteen years ago. It boasts power windows, original air conditioning, and it was a G.M. Fremont car with the original L-34 engine and all accessories. That's Fremont, California, right up the road, which means NO RUST. Check out the "Knee Knocker" tach and the Muncie shifter, It even has the original AM/FM radio from the factory, a remote mirror, and a factory gauge dash cluster.
Even the original smog pump was there. The car was totally unmolested. The "painter" brothers said they had the original build sheet and this other plastic thing called a protecto plate. They would give them to Smitty if he wanted them.
We'll Smitty couldn't get his money out of his pocket fast enough. Fourteen years later he has replace the carpets due to wear but, not much else has changed except for routine maintenance. Check out the original Frigidaire compressor for the factory air conditioning. It even has a Delco battery.
So here we are today. At the Byington Picnic Club President, Willie Allen, asked the new folks to introduce themselves. When it's Smitty's turn to say "hi" to the crowd and introduce himself, he stepped forward and announced that he is just now coming out of the woodwork.... after five years in the club.
Well, a belated welcome to the club, Smitty. We had a great time with you and your wife at the picnic and we look forward to seeing you two sooner than 2011.