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the Photo's When my wife and I were first married we owned a 1959 Chev
Impala 2 door hardtop. It was snow white with a gray
interior, 283 c.i. engine, and 4 barrel
carburetor with a 3 speed on the column. I was in the
Kingsmen Car Club of
Longview, Washington at the time. I kept the car for about three years,
then moved along to a newer car.
I retired in 1995 and my wife and I were out one night at a local watering hole having a couple of drinks and appetizers when I starting talking to a friend who owned a used car lot and collected old and classic cars that he kept in a warehouse. I asked him if he could find a ’59
Impala for me. He said he’d search for one and call me. He called me a couple months later and said he’d found one. This was 7-3-1996. I went to his warehouse and looked at the car. We worked out the details, which included, replacing the front seat cover and
carpets, and wide whitewall tires with 1957 Dodge Lancer hubcaps. The
car was built in Kansas City. Jim found the car in Vancouver, Washington.
The man in Vancouver had bought it from a fellow in Puyallup, Washington who
had purchased the car in Arizona. I found this out when I met him at a car show
in Woodland, Washington in June of 1998. When I started checking out the car I found a mouse nest in the air cleaner. A sure sign the car had sat in a garage for a long time without being driven.
Then the process started. First I had to fix a leak in the air conditioning, power steering and transmission. Then I replaced the shocks, brakes, and exhaust system. The car came with a padded dash which had out-lived
its usefulness. My son took the car, removed the gauges, and had a glass shop
remove the windshield. From there it went to the paint shop and the
dash was painted to compliment the interior. Next came new 15 inch corvette
chrome rally wheels with 8 inch
B.F. Goodrich white letter tires. I then did some research and found that 1959
corvette knock-offs would fit on the rally caps after I drilled new holes in the caps to match the bolt pattern of the knock-offs. I haven't seen any one else do this.
I lowered the car three inches
the way my original '59 had been.
My son owns an after market stereo shop (Audio Express in Longview,
Washington) and he ordered an Edlebrock 4 barrel manifold and
carburetor and MSD electronic ignition for the car, which I had installed. Then I added a chrome air cleaner, generator
arm, had the fan shroud repainted and installed a Flexlite fan and had the valve covers and voltage regulator chromed. My son replaced and recovered the
package tray. Then he ordered some carpeting and the guys at his shop carpeted the
trunk, along with a
vinyl tire cover.
Next came the sound system. I had my son's shop install a Sony am/fm CD player with speakers in front and back and a Sony 150 watt amp and 12 inch subwoofer behind a panel in the trunk and
a power antenna.
Shortly after that the car went in the paint shop to have some surface rust
removed from the top of the trunk rails. They repainted both sides of the
trunk and the wings on top of the back fenders. When I got it back, the new
paint looked great but the rest of the car was a different color due to
aging. Back to the paint shop for a total paint job. The color was
Satin Beige(#938) which was the original factory color. Clear coat was sprayed over this for a mirror shine. When they painted the car they put on
new tail light and headlight bezels.
In May of 1998 I started showing the car at shows in the local area,
adding more refinements as time went by. These included, one piece
bumpers (California style) front and back,
chroming the rear seat speaker
grill, painting the steering wheel and column to match the
dash, reupholstering the wind lace around the doors and the arm
rests, pleated seat inserts
and kick panels, carpeting the bottom of the door panels and replacing arm
rest reflectors. I then had the speedometer and odometer rebuilt so it would work
properly, replacing the after market gauges under the dash on the drivers side with new amp and oil gauges because
one didn't
work, added power brake booster and new master cylinder,
Triangle Engineering aluminum overflow bottle for the
radiator, rebuilt radiator, new windshield wiper motor, headlight and blinker switch,
vanity license plate reading
"SPACCAR", custom floor mats
with the "IMPALA" logo on them, replaced the chrome air cleaner
with a Classic Industries
billet aluminum Impala air cleaner and replaced the power glide transmission with a late model "GM 4 L 60"
4 speed overdrive
transmission, drive line. new starter, and late model Camaro brake
switch to eliminate the need for a computer module in an older
car. In March of 2002. a 350 engine replaced
the 283 engine due to old age. This engine produces 300 horsepower and a
tachometer was installed to monitor the improved performance. The engine compartment
was also painted and detailed to enhance the appearance. |
