Features impalas lets see em

hello,
in 1958 my brother purchased his first real driver/racer car. it was a black 58 chevy 348/280 hp 3 carbs, 3 speed, 4:11positraction directly from the local dealer. he immediately popped the hubcaps and started racing at lions dragstrip. he won a lot of trophies in the a/stock class. it was also his daily driver to school and work. he put in a floor shifter for the 3 speed, but it got in the way, so back to the column it went.
over the years, there were bigger and faster 348 engine impalas on the scene in 59 and 60. that is when he sold the car to me and bought a vw van for surf trips. but, we used the impala as a tow vehicle for our 40 willys coupe we started in 1960.
it worked as fast daily driver on the streets and did not lose any races except when the vacuum tube to the secondary carbs came off and the motor only ran on the center two barrel.
thanks,
jnaki

 

information: that black 57 ford had a mccullough supercharger directly from the dealer and was fast in the stock classes. but, our 58 impala usually won the one on one races.
jnaki

 

hello,
our 58 impala had sure-fit plastic seat covers installed in late 58. a friend's dad owned a seat cover company in long beach. that set of seat covers kept the stock red seats in pristine condition. when i sold the car to a friend in 1965, he was totally amazed at what condition the seats were for a 7 year old car. the impala had seen its day as a cruiser(spills and chills), a surf wagon cruiser(backseat out for surfboards), at the drags as a competitor, and as a tow car for our 40 willys. the wheels had gone back to black after someone stole my 56 buick skylark wire wheels. we had the hubs and axles re drilled for a buick bolt pattern and these wheels made the car look absolutely fabulous. what more could someone ask for a $125 investment for 5 wheels?
thanks,
jnaki

 

hello,
update: back then, we found the car around 2 am in a dark spot near an empty playground. it was sitting on 4 wooden milk crates and the buick skylark wheels were gone. but, the thieves overlooked the 5th skylark wheel in the trunk. they also took my favorite black tachometer from inside. the car was ok, otherwise. luckily, they did not have time to take out the new c&o hydro transmission. sorry stock impala fanatics......the trans was put in for two reasons: one was to allow my mom to use the car once a week for shopping (HA !) and the other to make towing the 40 willys coupe to the drags easier than with the 3 speed stick. since she paid for the conversion, the car actually got faster than stock. you should have seen her drive this car around town... that is another story...
thanks,
jnaki

 

This is my old Gimpala. Looked like shit but ran like hell! Won me a number of races, my favorites being against a fully restored '68 Camaro Convertible and a brand new 3 series BMW. Many regrets selling this one, but life happens.

 

My '61. Has 80,000 miles.
Original 348 engine never been out of the car or apart.
Turboglide trans, but I might convert to a 4 speed.
Picked it up a year ago from a 20+ year storage in a pole barn.
Same owner for 35+ years. I'm the 3rd.

The day I hauled it home.


A few days ago.

 

I vote 4 speed.

 

That's a beauty, love it, you had me............right up to the wheels.
I think I'd probably like them on other cars but I guess that's the 60's guy in me.
Anyway, it's a nice car.

 

I thought I'd share some pictures of my 64 Bel Air that I have owned since 2002. It is one of the best cars I have ever owned as you turn the key and go. Always reliable and has been on many trips on the west coast and east coast. It came from the factory as an ac car with a 283, Powerglide, white on aqua interior and 3.36 gears. It doesn't sit much as I drive it often. I have put about 130k miles on it since buying it. Her nickname is Bella. I have a 350 in it at the moment with 305 heads, 208/216 roller camshaft, afb and headers with 2.5 inch dual exhaust. Some tuning has been done to the carb and recurve on the distributor which has netted consistent 18.3 to 18.6mpg running around town. The best I got was a hair under 21mpg on a trip to a car show a couple hundred miles from home. I'm in NC now but the car originally came from Phoenix and spent 40 years of its life in the dry desert. It hadn't been registered since 1978 when I bought it and had 4 bias ply tires on it when I bought it. Two of the tires had tubes in them. That was a scary test drive once I got it running.

I have gone through it completely mechanically as I'm about go over show first. It has energy suspension eurathane bushings throughout, kyb shocks, stock rear coil springs and 67 to 69 Camaro coil springs in front for a lower stance. I added superior spindles with disc brakes in the front about 10 years ago and that was the best upgrade along with the 700R4 trans. I had to replace the ring and pinion this last winter after the pinion gear decided to shoot a tooth out of the third member case while cruising along on the highway. It had a crack in the tooth and finally decided it was time to make an exit. The gears were changed out to 3.73s and the car is night and day different. I already had an Eaton style posi in the third member from when I replaced the worn out bearings shortly after I bought the car. I also did full floor pan replacement last fall after discovering what a leaking back window gasket does to floors when you live in NC with all of the humidity and rain. My fault for not changing the gasket sooner. Eventually I hope to get the body work done and paint. Just waiting for my money tree to grow more in the backyard. It's bare at the moment.



The last picture is of the car when I bought it in south Phoenix. The windows had been rolled down and under the bench seat was a bird's nest. The old 283 had seen better days and had lots of blowby. I still have the original engine and Powerglide from the car. I don't plan on doing any major modifications to the car that can't be put back to original. I have added a pair of full power 2000 Mercedes E320 bucket seats with custom brackets and will say they are some comfy seats. I'm still undecided on paint and interior colors but red paint and maybe a warm gray interior might be a color combo that would look good. Love the car and would part ways with most anything else except for it. Always getting offers to buy it. Wish I could clone them cause I could sell them as fast as they were reproduced. I'll add a post about the work I have done on the car later.

 

You know that's a nice car but its not a Impala

 

Might as well be just two less brake lights

 

Hello,

After racing the stock 348 impala in the A/Stock class and going as far as we could, some changes were made during 1960. It was hard competing against the newer, more horsepower cars in the same class. So, we had a C&O stick hydro installed, added 4:56 gears for most of the weeks driving, installed a Racer Brown Cam and solids for more power. Finally, a cool set of 56 Buick Skylark Wires for that unsual racer/cruiser look. Now, it was competitive, but we were no longer in the stock class. We were in the top street racing class against all comers in So Cal. Our ideas for the car went from a stock car racer to local cruiser to tow car for our newly built 40 Willys gasser. I sold it in 65 to buy a new El Camino to use for our dirt motocross bikes.
Jnaki
I wonder where it is today? Did it beat the car crusher in 51 years?

 

Dayum, that '60 ^^^^ is as smooooooooth as it gets. Good one Mark.

 

Here is my nephew's 1961 Bel Air that we finished a couple of years ago.

 

Hello,

Talk about a ring side seat for all of the festivities. Our 58 black Chevy Impala (arrow) )ready to do battle in the A/Stock class at Lions, after the silver bodied dragster (owned by Ed Losinski, and driven by Jack Chrisman) makes his run first. I know it was not for everyone, but it just seemed like Saturdays in So Cal were for the drags. Thursday nights, changing the 4:11’s out for the 4:56 gears, gapping the spark plugs, making sure the tri-carb throttle was working correctly. (sometimes, the vacuum hose would pop off on full throttle runs and then only the center carb worked…not good) Then on Friday nights, a few full throttle runs at the Cherry Avenue Drags in the cold night air. Finally, making sure there was enough gas on Saturday to make it through the day/night and money for those great hot dogs/Cokes at the funky pit row hot dog stand.

Jnaki

 

I have owned this one for about a year now. It's like driving a couch.

 

Ala Impala.

 

This is my third 62 I have owned over the years. My first car was the same color scheme as this one. I spent years trying to find another like it and bought this one off Ebay a few years ago. I still have some mechanical work to do but drive it when the roads are dry; which means around the NW it doesn't get driven much.