by Michael GolubiewskiProduction Editor
Built for fun
I don’t think there’s ever been a Chevrolet Vega featured as the Ride of the Week — until today’s 1975 Chevrolet Vega owned by Chet Kinney of Hunlock Creek.
The Vega was a subcompact car produced by General Motors from 1971 to 1977 (from 1977 through 1980 a renamed Vega was sold as the Chevrolet Monza). It may sound strange now, but the Vega was actually Motor Trend magazine’s car of the year in 1971, and more than three million Vegas were produced, all at the GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio. The Vega as introduced as part of the “Big Three” (GM, Ford, Chrysler) automakers trying to compete with the Volkswagen Beetle and Japanese imports from Honda, Toyota and Datsun (now Honda).
Kinney says that the Vega needed work when he first bought it — it had no engine — but it was easy since he grew up working on all kinds of cars. Kinney says that his father was an auto mechanic, and “I used to go to work with him all summer when there was no school — I loved it.”
Vegas originally had a four cylinder engine, but since Kinney needed to put a new engine in his, he opted for an eight cylinder.
“I was able to start from scratch. I wanted more power than a four, so I went with an eight cylinder engine that was originally in a 1976 Pontiac.”
Kinney gave under the hood a facelift, and painted the inside of the hood black. When he starts driving the car again in the spring, Kinney plans to put in a new alternator (100 amp chrome) and do some upgrades to the interior and the rear of the car.
As for the exterior, Kinney says that it was originally white, so he sanded it down, did some body work to repair a few rust spots, and repainted the car purple.
“It’s a fun car, I wanted a fun color.” Kinney explains. He also replaced its factory rims with new aluminum wheels, and plans to go with some new smaller tires next season.
The one accessory he did keep was the Bicentennial era (1976) red, white and blue USA-1 front license plates that were popular during the 1970s.
“People may laugh at a Vega,” Kinney says. “But they were popular during their time and are pretty easy to modify. I couldn’t be happier.”
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