Home-Built Hero: Roland Creamer’s ’72 Chevelle

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If you ask Brad Creamer how his interest in cars began, you would hear him talk about how his entire family is comprised of gear heads. It sounds much like the story of many of us, as we can all relate to a family upbringing surrounded by cars. According to Brad, “My father, Roland Creamer, was influenced as a kid to be a car guy by his older brothers, and he has passed that onto me and my two brothers. Growing up, I was drawn to the numerous ’68 through ’72 Nova’s my father had owned. He would always change the wheels and paint the car to his personal taste. I loved seeing his cars fresh from the paint shop, with some sort of mag wheels and loud exhaust.”

With roughly 400 horsepower, the small-block does everything Roland asks of it.

Brad told us that his father has owned many of Chevrolet’s musclecars over the years, but there was something about each one that just didn’t seem to satisfy all of his needs. That trend recently ended, when the senior Creamer found this 1972 Chevelle tribute SS. IMG_1383According to Brad, “I think this 1972 Chevelle has finally met all of his requirements. When he bought it, it had a mildly-built 327 cubic-inch small-block, four-wheel drum brakes, and a decent Rally Green paint job.” Brad continued, “The things that sold my dad on this car were the 12-bolt rear with Positraction, power steering, power brakes, and the smooth ride of a full-frame car with a coil-sprung rear suspension.”

Brad also told us that this project was always intended to be a nice driver-quality car, built on a strict budget. “My father and I did 80-percent of the work in my one car garage with the help of my brothers – Cory and Darren, and some great friends of the family.”

The first thing that was immediately changed was the front brakes. With the help of parts glommed from a 1980 Camaro, disc brakes now make stopping a safe task. With the brakes upgraded, the Chevelle was now a safe driver, so Roland enjoyed the Chevelle like this for a year while a plan was devised to upgrade the engine. It was during this time the guys noticed some bubbles in the paint, around the upper rear 1/4 panels. What it turned out to be was a bad vinyl-top-trim rust repair, buried in ½-inch of body filler.

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Brad told us, “After digging deeper, we found some very poor brazed-in sheetmetal repairs on both 1/4 panels, and the rear window filler was damaged beyond repair.” This discovery resulted in Brad’s first attempt at a 1/4-panel replacement. Brad started with driver’s side, because it was the worst offender. Brad says, “This side went fairly easy all things considered, and the fit was good for aftermarket panels.” Brad says the other side was not as easy, due to some fitment issues, But thankfully, a good friend spent a day helping Roland and Brad get the install completed.

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While the body was being massaged, the father and son compiled engine parts so that a stout small-block could be built. The balanced bottom end features a Scat 3.75-inch stroker crankshaft and 5.7-inch connecting rods topped with hypereutectic pistons. A Lunati Voodoo flat-tappet camshaft, works the valves in the Edelbrock Performer aluminum heads. Up top is a Performer RPM intake, and a Holley Street Avenger carburetor. Brad tells us that the sound through the Flowmaster exhaust is great. The engine was completed just in time to be placed in the now repaired body. As soon as the Chevelle moved under its own power, it was delivered to another friend’s home shop for paint. The painter, Dean Berry and my father spent the next month sanding the Chevelle for paint. The paint job was completed in a two-car garage.

When Roland purchased the car, the Super Sport interior was in decent shape, and was placed back in service, including the SS gauge cluster with some added mechanical gauges and a console mounted tachometer.

Brad tells us that the car really is a form of family enjoyment, as he told us, “All of Roland’s grandchildren love riding in the big A-body back seat.”  The Chevelle gets driven as much as the Maine weather will allow, and there was one time when Roland even got caught in a snow storm while driving through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, during their yearly fall car cruise.

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Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heros? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the Home-Built Heros series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we are still in need of more. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to [email protected].

About the author

Randy Bolig

Randy Bolig has been working on cars and has been involved in the hobby ever since he bought his first car when he was only 14 years old. His passion for performance got him noticed by many locals, and he began helping them modify their vehicles.
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