The story of this 1969 Chevy Chevelle Malibu starts back in 2001. Daniel had taken over his brother’s news paper route at the young age of 10 and stumbled upon the car in a driveway, under a tarp. The car had some damage in the front right corner and only had the body, bumpers, exhaust manifolds and the exhaust system. The car was in primer but did come with a set of SS wheels to roll the car on. Unfortunately, the car had been used as a makeshift kennel and what was left of the interior was chewed up. Daniel’s father made a deal with him and his brother that if they maintained a 3.5gpa or higher in school then they would get a classic car for their sweet 16. Dad was an awesome negotiator and scored the car for just $300, an impossible feat in today’s market, and pulled it home that day.
Daniel’s parents split shortly after and the car wound up at his Grandma’s house until he turned 17 and had saved up some money from working at a boys camp for troubled inner city kids called RM Pyles Boys Camp. He brought the car to his father’s new place and promptly got to work tearing the car apart and sandblasting what he needed to get the frame and suspension off to powder coat.
In 2009, he started reassembling the car during his college summer break and fitted the car with tubular CPP suspension, a full disc brake conversion by Rightstuff Brakes, QA1 shocks, and Hotchkis Springs. Later he was able to get the body mounted back on the frame and sent off to the Hot Rod Ranch in Lompoc California for rust repair, who were old friends from school and were happy to help out on the build.
Finally in 2012 a friend’s father took on the paint and body work but after two years of little progress and updates from the shop, Daniel and his now wife, decided to take a road trip and stopped by the shop to see the car in person. As we hear all too often, the car had been abandoned outside with all the parts he had been sending scattered throughout the shop and yard or completely lost. What was there was covered in overspray or rusting. He and his girlfriend gathered up the car and the parts and hauled it out of there in a U-Haul truck and trailer. It would be hard to trust anyone after that.
After some serious searching, Daniel finally trusted the car to Fernando at Knockout Customz in Ceres California to paint the car as you see it now, GM’s Ashen Grey Metallic. Later in 2018, he got the car running and moving with an Aluminum LS1 that he swapped in himself with the help and knowledge of the crew at Precision Auto in south San Fransisco. He dragged the car to a few shows to show it ‘in progress’ including the Goodguys show in Pleasanton California. Unfortunately, while tuning the car the engine developed a rod knock forcing him to scrap the engine and start over with a junk yard 6.0. Rostro Performance (formerly LS Swaps) built the junk yard engine with forged internals for his future dream of adding boost. The car was ready in December of 2019 and debuted at Donut Derelicts in Huntington Beach. The success of the car allowed his social media to start taking off (@all4speed on Instagram) and brought in some amazing brands and partners to take the build to the next level.
In its current form, the MaliBeast has been outfitted with a Boost District Gen 2 2650 Supercharger, Baer Brakes front and rear, double adjustable Aldan coil overs, and an LSX Concepts 10-rib belt drive to take all the new horse power. The engine is an LQ4 6.0l bored .030 to 370ci with ported and polished 241 heads, and a stage 3 PD BTR cam.
The suspension is UMI tubular control arms, frame braces, and sway bars, paired with Aldan American double adjustable coilovers. Bear Brakes delivered 13” Pro+ front disc brakes and SS4 rear with calipers in their Arizona Copper finish with matching ReMaster. The headlights are Dapper OE style with halos and switchback turn signals and Superbright LED bulbs throughout. The exhaust was done by Steve at Livermore Mufflers with 3” stainless and Blackwidow Exhaust’s polished stainless Race Venom Mufflers and an x-pipe.
The interior of this beast is mostly stock replacement panels but has been entirely switched over to black from the original green. The car has been outfitted with Vintage Air A/C, Dakota Digital gauges, and the Massive Audio complete sound system. The all new American Autowire harness made easy work of installing the modern comforts and features. Daniel is currently exploring options with TMI to do a tastefully modified interior.
There are a couple features that Daniel is particularly proud of. Those being the meticulous engine bay with every wire and hose tucked away and hidden wherever possible to make for a clean compartment, the driveshaft that is painted like an American flag by South Bay Driveline in San Jose California and a radiator support cover with the American flag print that was dipped by Cody @corderoconcepts.
Daniel would like the thank all the sponsors and contributors including Boost District Superchargers, Holly Performance, Baer Brakes, Tanks Inc, PPG Refinish, Knockout Customs, Aldan American, Extreme Powder Coating, Cerakote Socal, LS Swap, Eastwood Co, Black Widow Exhaust, and CJ’s Garage. Daniel also thanks all of this friends and family that have helped throughout the years to make this build possible, he highly values the car community, especially in his area with so many individuals who he can always reach out to for knowledge or help when it comes to anything in the industry.
“For me, this car is very sentimental. All of the friends and people I’ve met and talked about it to since I was 11 and told I would finish it. Some of those friends even helped along the way. And some were non-believers but I never doubted myself. I always think of how cheap I was with everything in college and afterwards to be able to throw extra college funds at it or even extra paycheck funds at it. I missed out on events and outings to be able to have the money to keep it going. Having made it this far with the build now definitely has shown me what I am capable of. I’ve been fortunate to have met so many great people and companies through the process of building this car and still through networking today. I also get really excited about the next generation behind me to keep it going and being able to tell my build story and show it to them is really rewarding but also helps me to show them they can do it too. I really look forward to seeing the next generation and what their vision for building classic cars looks like. Since my father passed away, its also something that’s become even more important to me. He helped me along the way and is the person who showed me cars and he is where all the passion for it came from. I often think of him when I drive it around and know that he’s always riding along with me.” Says Daniel.
Daniel and I were first introduced back in 2021 when I was only doing custom shirt designs and I was working on some designs with him and some other members of Cali Cruisin’. The car, known as MaliBeast, caught my attention immediately as a prime example of a 1969 Chevelle and Daniel Swan caught my attention at as all around cool guy who knew what he was doing.
Daniel also has a 1964 Chevelle build called the “MaliBeater”, a 1971-72 Chevelle he is building to be the “DriftChevelle” and a 1972 K5 4x4 Blazer that is yearning for an LS swap. You can catch Daniel and his cars on his Instagram @all4speed, or at shows like Donut Derelicts, South OC Cars and Coffee, and Qruisin’ PCH.
Words by Brian Holzli & Photos by Tyler Cates (Tyler Cates photos)
