Over the 30-some years at Strange Motion, Tim has fabricated, performed body- and paintwork, assembled, and tuned any number of hot rods. But something he always wanted to do was build a hot rod with his dad. Sounds easy enough but being somewhat geographically undesirable to one another (nine-hour drive apart) made it a tough row to hoe. However, with the death of his mom, Tim and his dad would have something positive to talk about and work on. All projects begin with a steady diet of pics passed back and forth swapping ideas—the usual stuff around what color, wheels and tires, motor, suspension, and so on. But they both agreed it needed to be in a ’60s-style hot rod with a timeless look and stance. Something that 20 years down the road would still be appealing.

The ’65 Chevelle here was his friend’s car at one time. Matt Lindbom provided the ride that Tim and the rest of their high school buddies tooled around in. As life does, it got in the way and the Chevelle was languishing in a barn when a tornado struck. Once the storm moved on the Chevelle was damaged with some sheetmetal missing. Over the course of time Tim was able to talk Lindbom out of the ’65 Chevelle and the rest, as is often said, “is history.”

Back home in Tennessee the build began with Tim and Dan joining their ideas. Tim has his “day job” at Strange Motion and on the weekends he would often find himself handling all sorts of announcing chores at various car shows. (The staff at Modern Rodding and our sister publications found ourselves being interviewed by Tim at the recent Triple Crown of Rodding event.) The project began to drag on and took some five years to get rolling. During this time frame Tim would have Dan come down for a week or so at a time and get in father/son build time.

The A-platform Chevelle came out in 1964, with the ’65 being nearly an identical car that was sold from 1964 to 1978 in three generations. It was one of Chevrolet’s entries into the burgeoning muscle car market, receiving all of Chevy’s potent V-8s—small- and big-block alike. Tim’s ’65 Chevelle uses its stock frame with a handful of worthwhile changes. It should be noted that the body is channeled 1-1/4 inches over the frame to achieve the final stance and appearance.

Once on the chassis table Tim and his dad agreed on the stance they were looking for, so Tim rounded up the American Rebel wheels, 15×7 and 16×10, wrapped in BFGoodrich rubber, measuring 205/70R15 and 265/70R16. The wheels set the stance and the frame rake. From here the cutting torch made its appearance. Tim opted for a 2-inch narrowed Fatman Fabrications IFS crossmember that was fitted with Fatman tubular A-arms, drop spindles, sway bar, and Ridetech coilover shocks with Wilwood disc brakes. The drilled-and-slotted rotors combined with the polished Dynalite four-piston calipers are fed by Earl’s Performance Plumbing through a Wilwood master cylinder and pressed into service by a stock pedal configuration with a reworked brake arm. Steering chores fall to the T-bird rack-and-pinion with an ididit-painted steel tilt column.

The frame itself is boxed while the rear portion of the framerails were narrowed 5 inches, combined with a 5-inch kick. In front the frame was also Z’d upward 5 inches, eventually yielding the low stance that Tim was seeking. All this frame massaging yielded a wheelbase that is stretched 1-1/4 inches and now measures 116-1/4 inches. In the back there is a polished aluminum Currie 9-inch rearend centersection that’s fitted with a Yukon Posi gear set. From here it is held in position by a polished Ridetech triangulated four-link along with Ridetech coilovers. The final frame was smoothed with all the necessary metalwork performed by Tim.

Now, a hot rod isn’t a “hot” rod until we look under the hood and see what brings the Chevelle to life. In this case it is a 500-plus horsepower big-block Chevy. The block came about as Dan traded out some work for digging fence post holes for the block. (Now that’s good old farmer trading at its best.) In Tim’s case he opted for a 454 Chevy big-block that was then reworked by Shacklett Automotive and screwed together by Pat Topolinski. The result is a 505-inch V-8 that packs 10 to 1 compression with a Clay Smith grind. The block was ground smooth to enhance its appearance. To this potent short-block is a vintage ’60s Weiand aluminum intake as well as a pair of iron heads, all smoothed and painted to match the block. A complete set of ARP hardware is used to screw this big-block together. On top is a Holley 750 double-pumper four-barrel carb fed by a Holley electric fuel pump and dressed up with a finned aluminum ’60s-era air cleaner and valve covers. Firing the delivered gas and air mix is an MSD Pro Billet distributor with a 6A electronic ignition backed by an MSD coil incorporated with Taylor plug wires. The “juice” originates from a pair of trunk-mounted Optima YellowTop batteries. Exiting the now-spent gases are a combination of Sanderson headers matched to Tim’s own fabricated custom exhaust system utilizing U-Fit Flowmaster 2-1/2-inch mandrel bend kit that is now Cerakoted and enclosed with DEI wrap. The custom exhaust flows through a pair of Flowmaster 80-series mufflers and is held in position with several of the Welder Series exhaust hangers. A custom aluminum radiator is paired with a Cooling Components dual electric fan to handle the cooling chores. Several other useful engine accessories include the Eddie Motorsports five-drive serpentine belt system, a Powermaster starter, and a B&M oil cooler. Bolted to the really big big-block is a Bowler Transmissions 4L80E equipped with a B&M converter, a Hurst shifter with a Speed Dawg shift knob, and a combination of Lokar cables and dipsticks.