Good for you. A great story.
It was a great car, and my wife went to sedans and station wagons until 1981.
That summer we bought from her brother a 68 Camaro Rend and White Camaro with that same engine in the Malibu.
She drove it to work, and it was her baby and everyday car. I put 3 new tops on it and had it painted 3 times. We had to put a rebuilt engine in it when the lead was removed from the gasoline. The heads just collapsed. We sold it in 1997 and recovered all of the maintenance. It got about 16-18 mpg in town and 20-22 on the road. It still had the original seats, windows, transmission and body parts and transmission. Now, if we had it with the original engine, you could use it for a good down payment on a house in California.
My sons and I did all of the maintenance which was easy. You opened the hood and that great little V8 was right there. My youngest son could even change spark plugs and retime the engine. There was one little metal cylinder coming off the airbreather for the Ca clean air Nazis. It stayed in the glove compartment except when we had to have it smog tested.