As he came of age in the nation of Lebanon in the 1970s, Habib Chababi knew about American muscle cars — the sight, the sound, the smell, the feel. “In my last years there, there were older boys in my neighborhood who had American muscle cars. One had a black Charger — I didn’t know enough then to know whether it was a ’68, ’69, or ’70. Others had GTOs and Chevelles. One guy who had a Buick Skylark would do donuts in the church yard.” Such hoonery made a lasting impression.
First thing first, however. “My mother, five siblings, and I arrived in the States in 1981 as war refugees. My aunt sponsored us, and we came to the States for a better life. At first, we lived near her in upstate New York. I was still in survival mode when I finished high school,” Habib recalls, “and I was more interested in working. The economy was down in New York at the time, and that winter of 1981-’82 … I mean, we got snow in Lebanon, but in New York I didn’t see the town I was living in until the snow melted in April or May.” The terrible irony? Now that Habib was in the land that built the cars he loved, owning one never felt further from his reach.
At the tender age of 19, Habib made a beeline for California, got a construction job, worked his way up over the years, and eventually came to own a land surveying company that afforded him the opportunity to settle in a quiet cul-de-sac in the Santa Clarita Valley. Only then could he buy the ’69 Charger of his dreams.
![Color image of a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu modified parked in front of a mountain, head-on position.]()
But, you rightly say, the car in these pictures is not a Charger. It is very clearly a 1967 Chevrolet Malibu. What gives?
“Honestly, the Malibu fell in my lap,” Habib says, still slightly incredulous after all this time. “I’d take the Charger out for a drive or a wash, and the neighbors would see. One day a couple knocked on my door. I only knew them just to say hi, and they asked, ‘Have you seen what’s in our driveway?’” Lo and behold, this 1967 Chevy Malibu appeared. Factory Emerald Turquoise metallic with matching interior and the original 195-horse 283/Powerglide combo; it was all original down to its California black license plates. “They told me that it was willed to them by an elderly friend who had passed. It came with all of the paperwork from new — he was the original owner. It was so clean! I knew it had no rust or body damage. And it was all original — the seats, carpet, headliner… They had no idea what to do with it.” But Habib did.
The first step, shortly after Habib became the Malibu’s second owner, was to install a ZZ4 crate engine and a TH400 to replace the factory driveline. Over time, “I fell more and more in love with its style — really it was never on my radar beforehand,” Habib says. “It was a drivable car for a while, and I liked taking my wife and kids out in it, but work on it just… stopped. My restorer/helper was killed in a bike wreck, and I lost motivation.”
![Color closeup of the wheel and tire on a modified 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu.]()
Not long after came the local commentariat — the needling, the unhealthy influences. “Some of my motorhead friends in the San Fernando Valley mocked me because of the color, as it wasn’t black; between their comments and reading magazines, I was considering stepping up to LS power and a completely new chassis.”
Research and geography led Habib to meet with Steve Strope at Pure Vision Design. Regular readers of HMM— and those who pay attention to car culture at large — will know Steve and his Simi Valley, California shop. He’s been spitting out arresting, clever, can’t-take-my-eyes-off-them builds for a quarter century now. The shapes are clean but not anodyne; they frequently use Detroit’s sheetmetal to its best advantage by simply leaving it be. The rest is fair game, however, and he’s often happy to pitch his wild build ideas to his customers. A NASCAR-flavored, street-driven ’69 Charger? A what-if-Chevy-made-a-Z/28-flavored-Nova concept? A Euro-themed, right-hand-drive Mopar, cobbled together by an imaginary independent Continental supercar mechanic from leftover race car parts? All his doing. Steve thinks big. So you can imagine our surprise when we asked Mr. Ultra Double Throwdown Showcar Builder about this Malibu’s theme and he told us, “There is no theme.”
Sorry, what?
![Color closeup of the inside of the trunk of a modified 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu.]()
Habib verbally sketched things out. He didn’t want the headache of a carburetor: He’d rather get out there and eat up the miles, or else enjoy his cars-and-coffee mornings, than fiddle around under the hood for half the day. He also thought that the standard chassis might not be enough for whatever power the driveline would dish out. “The chassis talk was short with Steve,” Habib says, laughing. “He said no.” The LS talk didn’t last much longer.
“I didn’t sit and design this car,” Steve says. “Habib wanted a straight-forward Malibu. How do I give him what he wants and still make it a showstopper?” The answer lies around what Steve calls “two-percenting,” which boils down to attention to detail. “It means not going full-bore psycho show car, but just making everything fit and work that little bit better. Just an extra two percent in effort, or time, or material, when dealing with fit-and-finish or follow-through,” Steve explains, citing some examples: “Paint that’s a little nicer than normal — and in the original factory hue. The panel gaps are a little more even. The wiring is tucked in. The brake lines are hand-bent rather than ordered. Things that demand a little more attention to detail, but which aren’t drain-the-bank expensive for the owner. That two percent here and there adds up — suddenly it’s a nicer car, a better result.”
![Color closeup of the engine bay in a modified 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu. 511 big-block Chevy engine, Weber carbs.]()
![Color closeup of the engine bay in a modified 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu. Belt area.]()
![Color closeup of the brake booster in a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu.]()
It also remains, at first glance, eerily stock. All is clean and correct: There is nothing of-the-moment beyond 17-inch wheels and four-wheel-disc brakes, which have been part of the Pro Touring movement over the last 30 years, so… how of-the-moment are they, really? Then you start looking, and you can see that this is more than a mere restoration: picture-perfect panel gaps and flawless mile-deep factory-esque basecoat/clearcoat Emerald Turquoise paint applied by Mick’s Paint in Pomona, which rivals the shine from the full complement of replacement Year One brightwork. Pop that flat steel hood and there’s a big orange bored-and-stroked 454 big-block, now displacing 511 cubic inches, with Billet Specialties’ Tru-Trac pulley system that could fool a neophyte into thinking it’s something newer. And it’s topped with… good grief, are those Weber carburetors?
They are: a quartet of race-friendly, no-choke 48IDA Webers, one throat fully tunable for every cylinder, attached to a Borla intake manifold intended for fuel injection and milled for clearance. An eye-opener, this, for an owner requiring street-drivability. The key to taming the Weber for street use, Steve learned through engine builder Steve Sanett at Penta Motorsports in Moorpark, is that Webers don’t like a lot of camshaft overlap.
“Pump it once and vroom,” Steve tells us. “No chokes, and it runs beautifully. The throttle response is head-snapping and it simply annihilates the tires.” There’s also a near-factory-smooth idle, which leads Steve to call this his “Teddy Roosevelt” engine. “It speaks softly but carries a big stick,” he explains. How big? Its dyno session is scheduled shortly after we go to press, but Steve tells us that his guesstimate is 600 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque.
Along with the bigger wheels, tires, and brakes (all of which seem prudent considering the engine’s power), Steve scheduled a suite of mechanical upgrades that manage to improve drivability and style, with no compromise to speak of. He used a selection of Detroit Speed suspension parts — front A-arms and rear trailing arms, mostly, along with a splined front anti-sway bar. Rather than conventional springs and shocks, Steve chose JRI coilovers all around. The rear wheel tubs have not been altered — the wheel/tire choice fits just fine as is. The steering box is from an ’87 Monte Carlo SS — Steve describes it as “quicker than stock, but not twitchy” — and is a change he swears will be added to every GM A-body build he does from now on.
![Color closeup of the interior, dash, seats, steering wheel, floor and more in a modified 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu.]()
![]()
![]()
![Color closeup of the five-speed shifter in a modified 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu.]()
Look inside: The most modern thing about this Malibu is now its interior, and even half of that is hidden. The Tremec TKO five-speed stick, a conversion kit from American Powertrain, required a hole cut in the floor for the shifter but looks very much like it belongs. The factory gauge cluster is replaced by a Dakota Digital RTX arrangement. The seats are pale cream leather but were given color-matched cloth inserts using fabric intended for a ’64 Dodge Polara; the material was sourced from Relicate and the last bit was used up for this build. The cloth is near enough to the paint color and adds a textured brocade effect.
A Flaming River tilt column allows for adjustability. The cabin has a full Kicker sound system (a 660-watt five-way amp with two speakers in the doors, two in the parcel shelf, and a 10- inch subwoofer hiding in the trunk), Bluetooth connectivity, and Vintage Air A/C for those warm summer SoCal days. Gabe’s Custom Interiors in San Bernardino handled the execution of Steve’s interior concept. “It’s one of my favorite interiors I’ve done — it’s contemporary but doesn’t look slick-modern,” Steve tells us. And Dynamat was used liberally throughout, which is how it ended up in that company’s booth at SEMA in 2022.
Though no awards were forthcoming, as Steve describes it, “There were 1,200-horse twin-turbo cars on 22s all around us and no one cared — because they’ve become blasé.” No flares, no carbon fiber, no electronic overload here. The simplicity of the approach worked, judging by the foot-traffic attention it received. It garnered more accolades at the Grand National Roadster Show this past January in Pomona, where it took home top prize in the 1965-’69 Hardtop category.
It is the definition of the American dream — an international refugee fleeing his war-torn homeland, starting with nothing but ambition and a family’s love, working hard, becoming his own boss, gambling on himself and winning. The results — a loving wife and kids, a home in the ’burbs, and owning the car you always wanted — speak for themselves. Having another one turn up on your doorstep, making it into something uniquely your own, seeing it become a star in the show-car world, and having 600 donut-spinning horsepower at your beck and call? If that’s not the American dream, we don’t know what is.
Specifications–1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu
![Color closeup of the rear quarter panel "Malibu" script, tail lamp as well on a modified 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu.]()
ENGINE
Block type: Chevrolet Mark IV “big-block” OHV V-8, cast-iron
Cylinder heads: Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum OHV, Cometic HLS gaskets
Displacement: 511 cubic inches
Bore x stroke: 4.310 x 4.375 inches
Compression ratio: 10.04:1
Pistons: Autotec flat-top
Connecting rods: SCAT forged steel
Horsepower: 600 (est.)
Torque: 600 (est.)
Camshaft type: Isky hydraulic roller
Duration: 228/238 degrees intake/exhaust (at .050-inch lift)
Lift: .553/.578-inch, intake/exhaust
Valvetrain: 2.19/1.88-inch valves, intake/exhaust, Speedmaster 1.7:1 ratio roller rocker arms
Fuel system: Weber 48IDA twin-throat downdraft carburetors (x4) with height-trimmed velocity stacks; Borla aluminum intake
Lubrication system: Melling high-pressure, high-volume oil pump; Milodon oil pick-up; Milodon stock-look pan
Ignition system: MSD Ready-to-Run distributor, heavy-duty marine coil, and wires
Exhaust system: Thermo-coated Sanderson long-tube headers, H-pipe, Flowmaster 3-inch stainless exhaust kit with Series 50 mufflers, polished stainless tailpipes
Original engine: Chevrolet 283-cu.in. “small-block” V-8
TRANSMISSION
Type: Tremec TKO five-speed manual conversion by American Powertrain; Centerforce clutch. Flywheel and pressure plate supplied with kit. Malwood USA hydraulic clutch pedal
Ratios: 1st/2.87:1 … 2nd/1.90:1 … 3rd/1.34:1 … 4th/1.00:1 … 5th/0.68:1
DIFFERENTIAL
Type: GM 10-bolt with Positraction limited-slip
Ratio: 3.08:1
STEERING
Type: GM power-assisted recirulating ball with ’87 Monte Carlo SS steering box
Ratio: 12.7:1
BRAKES
Type: Wilwood four-wheel disc
Front: Forged Narrow Superlite 6R with 13-in cross-drilled rotors
Rear: Forged Narrow Superlite 4R with 13-in cross-drilled rotors
SUSPENSION
Front: Detroit Speed & Engineering upper and lower A-arms and 1.5-inch splined front anti-sway bar; JRI adjustable coil-over shocks
Rear: Detroit Speed & Engineering upper and lower trailing arms; JRI adjustable coil-over shocks
WHEELS & TIRES
Wheels: ET Wheels Team III polished five-spoke cast aluminum-alloy
Front: 17 x 7 inches
Rear: 17 x 9.5 inches
Tires: Nitto NT555 G2 steel-belted radial
Front: 225/50R17
Rear: 275/50R17
![Color image of a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu modified parked in front of a mountain, rear 3/4 position.]()
