Back in 1967, when all young men were looking for their special car, Charles Griffin found his at Reliable Chevrolet in Meridian, MS with a sticker Price of $3200.00, It was a new Chevelle SS 396, black vinyl over gold, a four speed stick shift and a split bench front seat. A few days later Charles could be found cruising the streets of downtown Meridian in it, especially at lunchtime, where he knew a group of girls spent their free time shopping. One of those girls, Diane Goldman, caught and held his attention and in 1970 they were married. Like most married men, Charles soon found that there were a few things yet to be learned about his new bride. One of those discoveries was that Diane wasn’t comfortable driving a stick shift and the Chevelle was soon traded for a 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix with an automatic transmission. The Chevelle was purchased by a man from Philadelphia, MS and although it was out of sight, it never was out of Charles’ mind. A search for it later failed to turn up anyone who knew what had happened to the original car and Charles has never seen it again.

In 2005, Charles decided it was time to restore a car exactly like the one he had in ’67. He found and bought a “project car” from Ronnie Rawson and brought it home. Actually there were two cars, one that seemed to be restorable and another for parts. Both were taken to the newly established Twin States Customs & Truck Accessories located on B Street in Meridian where Charles and Diane’s two sons, Justin & Eli, were getting set up to customize, modify, paint and otherwise change any vehicle that was brought to the door. However getting the boys and Diane to see his vision of the “67 was not an easy task and the project car remained just that – a project!

During the first week of June, Charles got wind of a car in Clarke County that supposedly did not need much work. Since he was working out of town all week, he asked Eli and Justin to check out this new find. With Ronnie Goldman’s help they found the car out in the woods behind Clea Berry’s house. It was not exactly in good condition, having been upside down at some time or another and sported crumpled fenders along with a caved in top. A deal was made and the third piece of a ’67 Chevelle wound up at Twin States Customs. In the meantime, unknown to Charles, a conspiracy was developing between Diane and the boys. They had decided to tackle the car restoration and get it finished before Dad’s birthday on August 19th. The boys would do the work and Mom would help finance the project. They knew this deal would be difficult, especially keeping everything secret and accomplishing a complete restoration in only eight weeks.

First of all they had to tell Dad that the Clarke County car had already been sold. And now figure out what to order, where to get it and how to leave Dad’s project car seemingly untouched as he visited the shop every weekend to see what was going on. Now it’s time to get busy! Working every available minute, sanding, painting, straightening, getting new parts, fixing old parts, calling on friends to help with labor, parts and whatever they could get including advice. In addition they had to load up the car every Friday night and hide it for the weekend while Dad was home and then bring it back on Sunday night to prepare for the following week. During this time it was extremely difficult for Charles to get any work done around the house and he complained several times that ”I just can’t get you boys to do anything for me”. In spite of all the handicaps the project car came together and by the end of the eighth week it was ready. In every detail, it was just like the original, right down to the “Red Line” tires. All the family, friends and anyone who had helped on the project, were invited to a surprise Birthday Party on the afternoon of August 19th. The “Birthday Boy” did not have a clue about what was in store for him. A birthday cake had been prepared with a picture of the ‘67 Chevelle on top, Charles thought it was a picture of the original one. Then, after some cake and ice cream, he was blindfolded and led cautiously out to the driveway. When the blindfold was removed Charles was literally speechless and when the boys handed him the keys, he had to physically touch the car to see if it was real. The look on his face was priceless! He had made a bet with Eli that his car would not be ready for Cruisn’ the Coast, appropriately a tag on the car had the letters, “UD LUUZ” (you would lose). Of course none of us knew that Hurricane Katrina would cancel Cruisn’ the Coast for 2005 but the car was ready. The car now sports a tag that reads “IO BOYS”.

If you have any experience in restoring automobiles, you would know that restoring this ’67 Chevelle in eight weeks is almost an impossible task, even if you have a pristine car to start with. To really get an idea about what was accomplished, stop by Twin States Customs on B Street in Meridian and look at the scrap book that was made. The “Before & After” pictures are worth the stop. In addition the ’67 might just be there. I know Justin and Eli would enjoy telling you some of the “exciting moments” that this story hasn’t. Every time that I have seen Charles driving this car a million dollar smile has been on his face.

If you have a computer on-line visit the Twin States Customs web site at www.twinstatescustoms.com and look at the completed and present projects.

The Meridian Star printed this story on Father’s Day (June 18th 2006) and you can find it along with a nice picture of Dad, the boys and the car, in the archives. Go to www.meridianstar.com and look under “A family project for dad”.
Happy Motoring!