Here's the deal I have a 63 Impala I am working on. I want this car tobe as close to period correct as I can get it. Where 2" white walls correct at this time. I will be running oem chrome rims with spider caps. the car is white. I would like to run a red interior. any ideas? I was thinking red with white piping. Is a rolled and pleated dash pad out of style at this time. Any help would be great. Maybe someone can do a photoshop with red flaked roof. I need help on this..thanks in advance
the fatter the better i alway's say how about some stock chevy interior thay had a nice red and white pattern.
I can't say for sure what's "period correct", but I think fat white walls on a 60's Impala would make it real tubby looking. I think you're on to something with the "pinner" whites... besides, you should just make the car look how YOU want, not just what Joe Shmoe did in '65 or whatever... obviously my dos-centavos. -ns
Some guys liked them, but narrow whites were the hot set-up. A good T & R job always looks nice...in '63, however, those style interiors were on the way out... Not if you've got a T & R interior... In 1963, most of the Impalas I ever saw were close to bone stock, altho they were lowered...and maybe had a tube grille & '59 Caddy taillights...Lakes Pipes weren't used much in '63 and the factory exhaust was changed to pencil tips straight out the back...at least, that's the way it was around my area of the midwest... R-
I agree on how I like, I am always bitchin at guys about that. Just want the style of 60"s for car, But I don't want to get to far off track with things
how about steering wheels. I will be running pencil tips. How about dump tubes? If t& r interiors whers on way out, what was coming in? sorry for all questions, just trying to learn something
By 1963, you had to live in a very unique place to see more than 1 or 2 customized cars. Most regions had adopted the nose in the air street racer look. Other than wheels, very little was done to change outward appearance. Owners spent their $$ on the running gear. So, in order to be "period correct", you need A/C 9 pass. station wagon front springs, a 4 speed, 4.88 posi, and a 425 horse 409 ... 6 cylinder emblems usually replaced the 409 flags
One thing to remember is that most customizing of 1963 cars was probably done in 1967-69 when they became affordable enough for the car guys who did such stuff to cars. So it is car fads and fashions. GM didn't put those sloping lines down the side of 61 and 62 Chevies because the public demanded it, do you think? It gave the cars the illusion of high noses and lowered tails in style at the time. Numerical calendar decades don't reflect the reality of the coming and going of the eras. The 50s really didn't end until JFK was gone and the Beatles had arrived; the 60s didn't end until the V-N War ended; for some the 70s never ended but formost by 1982 or so and so on.
The last chevy to have wide whites from the factory was 1960. By 1963 it was all about thin whites, Impala or SS emblems, loud solid lifter cams and jacking up the front end to achieve the appearance of the Super Stockers who did it for weight transfer. The only "customizing" I saw was fender skirts, chrome exhaust tips out the back, and if it didnt have the factory three bar SS spinner hubcaps (which are pretty cool to look at) you would see the Dodge Lancer spinners or similar ones.
I think it will be hard to nail down a "60's style" with a sixties car for the reasons mentioned above. I can sure see it with the chrome wheels, spiders and skinny whites... Interior... Get the October 2007 Rod & Custom and check out the interior in the 59 Elky. DAYUM! As for the exhaust, I'd do the pencil tips also. Dump tubes? I guess you mean cutouts up front? When I think dump tubes I think of what I've got on the 41. Exhaust that just dumps down after the mufflers just before the rear. Check your PM's.
DIAMOND TUCK !!!!!!! That was what was up & coming !! 1964 my 'ol man had a '57 Ranchero.. black Diamond Tuck with Buttons, Low in front, chrome reverse wheels.. NO CAPS ! black vynle top & bed cover.. car was Light Blue Chrysler Metallic. Back then most Street cars would have had a Stock interior on such a new car........
DD, I'm all for doing it the way you like it, but if you really want to know what was "IN" back in the day, get yourself some vintage magazines and look them over. Many of the cats and kittens here on the board are like me in that they have a library full of old magazines that they read and enjoy over and over. Nothing can beat seeing how they did things back then than seeing it for yourself in the pages of an old magazine.
Thanks for all the help, I have some mags coming just have not got here yet. Rash, you are right by dump tubes, i ment cut out, the chrome pipes that exit by front tires.would these fit era of car? would bellflower style be better for this car?
I honestly don't know if the cut outs are era correct. I dig em so I will be running them. The long trunk does lend itself to bellflowers.
1963 -1966 was the era evryone wanted a race car pinner 1 in,ww no hub caps dumps coming out the front fender wells black or red rims tach mounted on the dash front jack-up pencel tip exhaust muti carbs and winner decals on side windows from local track and cheater slicks
"Do your own thing" doesn't answer the question of "what was '60's period correct" at all, so I wish people would quit saying it when some one asks this question.. Wide whites, 2" or otherwise were last seen on '61 new cars and virtually NO ONE was into retro then so NO ONE put new WWW's on anything. If you saw a car with WWW's on it it's because they bought the tires before '61! A stereotype '63 Impala would be white, with a silver flake roof. Lowered level with Bellflowers or the pencil tip exhaust under the bumper mentioned above. If done after about '65 it would have Crager SS or Astro Supremes on it with white walls, the only whitewalls you could buy at a tire store, skinny/"pinner" WW's. It would still have it's almost new already tuck'& roll style interior because the car was NEW. Unless it was a SHOW CAR and not a street custom the all the tricks you see on "LOWRIDERS" today might have been employed, including hydraulics.
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