Saw this back in may 8, just alittle over a month ago http://www.layitlow.com/forums/showthread.php/266845-1959-impala-in-az 8 thousand dollars and a week later pushed it to my buddies house, 67impalaSS where him and his brother are going to put in the work on the motor and tranny and get it on the road Thank you God, I owe you one
Here are the first before pics, before i touched anything on it. for some reason had a shitload of bondo, im talking about almost a half inch of it inside of door bottom of door. usually this is one of the first to go bondo just caked on the wings under wings is straight around the rear window and pillar solid not rotted rockers and under wheel well firewall motor getting ready to be rebuilt
the floors like i said a shitload of bondo, but look at the quarters from the inside spare wheel tub license plate and gas tank tube housing, all the 59s i seen before this one had this rotted away
had good weatherstrip gutter, other 59s i seen had this gone too almost a half inch of bondo has allll the trim has back window, was in trunk
NOW time for me to get started and get my hands on it and start the restoration at the truck and car shop, getting all the small things for it like door locks and the assembly manual back from pomona, along with the guys i bought the motor im putting in it. they build derby cars, and when it comes to engines crazy white guys that build from home are best and cant be beat. theyre cars might not be that pretty, but run like a champ and kick ass now at my buddies house where theyre going to dress it up really nice. got the first accessory for it, skirts and this friday met up with phil, guy in apple valley thats going to do the paint and body on my 59. so i finally got my hands on it, step 1, get that bondo off before it heads up to his house for the paint and body remember i said almost half an inch of bondo, left a little patch so you can see wasnt too worried because of condition of inside of quarters from trunk but was still worried about what was under all that bondo not a damn thing, no rot so im very happy. look how the thing was down to bare metal, and the bottom of the quarters and rocker. and wings just had very few dings thats what was done today, other side has less bondo than this side so im not worried. this was today step 1 day 1. ill post as i move along with it. as we speak the motor is getting done and on thurs goes out to paint and body and i get it back in 30 days. going with chevy blue body and white top and roof. ill keep posting till its completely done
Right now as we speak..., leaves tomorrow on a Flatbed to get the body started then painted in 2 weeks
] Got a set of shoes last night, depending on where I'm going ill swap between whitewalls and caps to wire wheels
been putting in work, what we got so far. tail end is solid, check the pics on my way to hit it again, going to grind the floors and shoot zero rust on it since theres a delay in pick up time to body shop. thanks jose 67impalaSS, your help is very appreciated buddy, ill have your seats done asap ill take them to east LA and do them since i havent fixed my machine yet but ill take care of you too, appreciate it
thanks guys for now focus on the interior and chrome/trims. did my first piece a couple of mins ago, radio cleaned up very nice
ok figured out what rims i can use thatll work with my disc brake conversion kit and still mount 59 hubcaps. early 80s camaro. also 78 to 84 el camino but i found these steelies on a 80 Camaro
from the doors back its already straightened and primered, so just need roof, firewall and doorjambs and its all primered and paint starts. was down there thursday to drill out the paint divider holes. just have 2 more holes to drill out, but need to find out exact measurements. need to drill out the rear antenna holes on both of the wings. anyone know where i can get the measurements or template for that? good come up for me today, thanks to the homeboy in OC. some of you might know i do interiors, heres some of my work and i can be pretty creative with my work so when i saw the kits selling for around $800 plus shipping, then saw the ones in my homies 59 in person and didnt like how they were, the pattern fabric was right but felt too thin, didnt like the feel. and he didnt have his for that long and was already looking worn, vinyl and pattern fabric. i thought i was screwed, either to buy those for that much, or make some with fabric that was similar since id never find the fabric but know it would be spotted a mile away that its not og. something about that checkered pattern, it says 59 as much as the wings and cat eye taillights do, og 59. what were the odds id find this, NOS, stamped from factory and in the exact color i wanted AND enough for me to do the whole car plus get creative and do some extras now the fun can begin, i get started tomorrow once again thanks to the homeboy from OC, also for the quick lesson on some 59 stuff, im still learning so thanks
Got this in the mail today, it was around 25 bucks on ebay. Saved myself the headache and just got it
Quick tip for some of you guys restoring ur rides, here is what my seats look like before I took them out, just cages And for me, this isn't an option fuck that. 295 bucks shipped for just the front seat so for front and back its 590 bucks. Fuck that Chevy Bench Seat Foam Set, Front, Impala 2-Door, 1959-1968 - Eckler's Late Great Chevy Parts So what u do is u go to pick a part and go to the older car section and u find any 60s Gm wide body big car or 70s big ass car like Cadillac or pontiac or Chevy and you rip the seat material off the top. Slide ur hand in on the ends and pull it off, its going to be tucked in tight. Get it off a front and back seat, and take an extra one just to fill in gaps and dips. Look for cotton seat filling, those you can work on the best cause u can fill and mold. If u find decent foam padding take some but u might need to trim but that's easy. Here's the trick, when u get to the entrance, tell the security you needed foam to line your truck because you're buying 2 engine blocks and u don't have bed liner in it. If they ask, say you found some of it in the trunk of a car, and some you just pulled off ripped seats that were sitting in the aisle or else they might try to get u to pay for complete seats u ripped up and its 35 bucks for a front or back seat. Get in your truck and drive the fuck out of there. I just got back with mine, now I can start my interior and saved me about 600 bucks
how it feels and how close it is to original, i dont know i never seen it in person but they sell it by the yard. almost impossible to find original roll thats why i scored. this is the closest i think youll ever get in reproduction. it looks the same, but never seen it in person, but seen some bad (not good) reproductions where the design is printed on vinyl and isnt set right and another where the fabric feels like a t shirt. i didnt want to take my chance so i jumped on og fabric. that and its a personal thing with me about having as much og stuff on it as i can get for it even if the reproductions are exact. http://www.carsincimpala.com/chevy-...s/41/Cloth/1241/Cloth-Red-59-Impala/pid-5087/ this is how mine is going to look like done this is the sample of the vinyls and fabric from the og 59 dealer book, thanks MR.59 so i got the og insert fabric, and went down to J and J in rialto and ordered my fabric 10 yards of the baby blue, 3 yards of the dark blue. what do you guys think? i like how these blues go together even tho its alittle darker than in the stock picture. looks good? it comes in wed, so thursday morning i start, should have it all done by saturday. ill post whole process, also the process of the other seat i already tore apart that im doing thats going to look like a 59 front seat exact with the vinyl, piping and cloth inserts, except its a house loveseat
Was here earlier My blue vinyls came in Have all I need now, foam from junkyard, seat cages, foam for making the seats and foam for the panels, og fabric, blue vinyls Nd Chrome piping. Just missing baby blue thread and marine blue thread they didn't have so on my way to east la to get it What it all came out to at time of checkout That's not for the og fabric, but counting that in, I'm in only 525 bucks, plus 140 for carpet and 140 for headliner. So my interior total is going to be 805 bucks. That's just what the door panel kit would have costed me alone. I get the thread today so I start this week. I'll post pics step by step
if you have good foam on your seats and they're just ripped then ur already way ahead. Just with a razor blade and pliers take the fabric or vinyl off ONLY, not the foam or cotton padding. Will be like peeling a banana or an Orange, only the skin. With the pliers or wire cutters cut the hog clips to make it come right off. At this point ur at step 3. My 59 came with cages, so this is step 1. Pull off all the scrap fabric and foam. Use pliers and wire cutters for the hog clips then hose it down really good and get the dirt and loose rust off. Right now going to grind alittle then spray with rust sealed, will post pics when I'm done
Rust treated cages I scored with the yellow paddings, the bottoms went on like a glove so no molding and shaping cotton. The tops I had to cut and mold pieces and used sheets to just hold it all down and together with the hog clips so I can start laying the vinyls down on it to measure them and start sewing. Here they are now, still need the upholstery done over it but no more cages. Sat down on my 59 seats for the first time this weekend I'll post pics of 59 when I go to the shop Thursday I have to pick up the skirt hockey sticks
sorry been busy trying to find a new sewing machine so i dont have to wait to use someone elses and get all the stuff i need to do out of the way. earlier this week finally found one, this consew 255b so im back in business set up and ready to go broke it in today finally with this i know its only a small part, but still some progress. needed to test the machine before i tried any seats. i just have to do my homies 67 seats then ill get on my seats. i havent gone to see the 59 so i havent got the cutout for the door panel yet but i go there thursday and ill have it and will be able to do the door panels finally. then my seats come after. my girl has my camera when i get it back ill post the pics of the 59 in the shop
This came in today finally. Either deal with this... Or this, was 360 bucks on eBay Bumper to bumper complete bolt kit for the whole car stainless steel. Even has interior screws. All bolts individually packaged and labeled where they go Saved me the headache of playing guess where this bolt goes, and I broke about half of the original ones anyways getting the bumpers off
this was today, this is all i had to work with made the cardboards grinded the metal panel rail and added foam and now i have rear side panels tomorrow morning, the doors and rear deck
i know its been a while already. see where i fucked up was when i took the 59 to get body and paint i didnt notice some things. the guy does it for a living on his own. i didnt realize when i had him take it that he had 3 other cars there so since then hes been jumping from one car to another to another. so finally hes wrapping up the last of the bodywork and this week coming up hell have it primered for me to check before he sprays finally. so then ill post pics finally in a week, FINALLY i came up on craigslist on brand new gold cross flags impala side emblems, all the impala side letters, parking light lenses, sliding ash trays, rear trunk emblem, some dash gauge lenses, dome light lenses, whole interior screw kit, knuckle guards, pedal pads, and the transmisson gear indicator (P N D L 1 gauge lens) for only 200 bucks. the flags and letters alone are 200 at truck and car shop so it was a good deal, all brand new in packaging started the doors but waiting to get the car back to see exactly where the center design goes sewn on so ill post pics of that as soon as im done with it. right now lookin around for a good trim repair and polishing spot if any of you guys know someone. also a good chrome guy for my bumpers. did this today, small but one step closer. I only used the chrome end caps as a mock up of what theyll look like complete, i know they look busted up. ordered brand new chrome ends so ill swap them out for the ones it has one when i get them
I want to post pics but want to bust out with it all put together painted and interior done and engine put in at this point its all straight and colorful, but here are some pics I got off his camera. He's been taking pics of his whole process for his portfolio and to show his work for other customers. Here it is a few weeks ago when it arrived and sat in its own little hangar Some of the first work he did on it That's enough for now, its taking a while but let's just say I'm happy so far Here's where in the back he did his sandblasting in his back yard on the whole car and fenders and hood He completely sandblasted, metal repaired, painted and restored this he just got done with it his customer was on his way to pick it up Sunday nite ill post pics of what I have done for the inside I got more of it done, ill keep u guys posted but this build is steady moving forward
The Jalopy Journal
