Got a few hours to kill?

[Camino LS6]

WARNING: This will take hours to read and it will blow your mind!

http://www.impalas.net/forums/showthread.php?t=686

[balthazar]

Franken'Pala.

See what one can do when they're not accumulating 6100 posts on a message board ??

I read pages 1, 2, 22, 23 & 24- spent about 5 minutes crusing the pics/captions.

It WAS only a Chevy, you know.

Gimmee the set-up/approach, and where you are today and I'm generally good.

Hope his lil' Hobart is amp'd enough to weld those A-arms spindles; high stress area than needs thorough penetration.... or all that welding/grinding may come undone after a few freeway potholes!

Edited July 10, 2009 by balthazar

[Brougham-Holiday]

Wow once you start you can't walk away from the computer, I just lost 2 hours of my life....but somehow it was worth it. Great find!

[Camino LS6]

Cool huh?

I love the wagon.

[cletus8269]

i love me some impalas, 60-62 are some good lookin years. that said i would have found it horrendously difficult to chop up a 61 buick drop top...

[A Horse With No Name]

Cletus, a very decent 64 buick drop top was in the impound lot behind Loeb Electric on Huntly road here in Columbus a few months back. Was a pretty solid, running driving car with a little rust in the quarters. Think it went to the crusher intact...

...and Camino...you thought I was kidding when I sent you photo's of that GTO that went off of the cliff in Greece a few months ago.

You need to get the Wagon, the Mothertruck, and the El-Camino finished so you can start on that GTO (just kidding!).

Great workmanship...and the guy building it is also a VW nut. Like the Maroon bubletop he picked up as well.

I have a soft spot for bubbletops of the era, but methinks I'd rather have the ragtop.

Admire the guys work...

Chris

[Camino LS6]

I loved the Bubbletop and the wagon - I just enjoyed his work on the vert. Amazing accomplishement so far, but I doubt that the finished product, though amazing, will be my cup of tea.

[XP715]

The guy's initial complaint about not being able to have a nice driver '61 Impala convertible is that they cost about $20-25K. So after spending years of his life and over $100K making a worthless turdbucket worth the $25K he supposedly couldn't afford (see the later pages for every braking and suspension component imaginable, fuel tank, etc. being chrome plated) AND doing the rat wagon as a side project at added expense, why couldn't he have bought a much better starting point and been on the road years earlier for tens of thousands of dollars less?

Don't get me wrong, I definitely admire the guy's handiwork, but talent aside, he's still a retard.

[A Horse With No Name]

I would agree to a point. Or even start with a car halfway in the middle or something...

Will be an amzing car done...but I could never do that. I don't mess with rusty cars.

Chris

[A Horse With No Name]

But your right, Camino...I LOVE that wagon.

Chris

[Camino LS6]

Actually, the guy is only into the thing for much less than the cost of a finished one (so far), and has only been at it for about 2 years.

Now, I'm not saying that he won't be way overbudget on the car but he isn't yet.

Had he paid someone else to do it, it would be another story.

[Intrepidation]

Well I for one, am glad to see someone taking the time to rescue/rebuild what others would have written off as scrap.

[A Horse With No Name]

Thinking back on this, a big part of what he is spending $ on is also stuff he would upgrade on his theoretical 20k driver...

Chris

[cletus8269]

Cletus, a very decent 64 buick drop top was in the impound lot behind Loeb Electric on Huntly road here in Columbus a few months back. Was a pretty solid, running driving car with a little rust in the quarters. Think it went to the crusher intact...

that is the sickest most vile thing i have heard in a while...

makes me want to go on a road trip and visit the irresponsible party.

Well I for one, am glad to see someone taking the time to rescue/rebuild what others would have written off as scrap.

my dad and i were having a discussion the other day about the fact that these cars for $1500-$3500 now are cars that would be simply passed up 10 yrs ago without thought. the fact that people are digging deep into more forlorned vehicles i guess is mainly due to the fact that the OEM and aftermarket is providing the needed metal to bring em back. this was brought up in a column by terry mcgean here http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/2009/0...n_opinion1.html its an interesting read, especially since he cut up a 1970 ss 396 chevelle to restore parts on his 1972 ss 350 chevelle which he whole heartedly regrets.

[toesuf94]

I am jealous of the man's skills. I have been mesmerized by this project and cannot put it down. Oddly enough: I saw that old wagon he bought online for sale a year or so ago. What a cool project that was. Love how it turned out and I want to do the same thing with a car someday!

[A Horse With No Name]

...oh, and Cletus...if you want to use your paintball skills with real ammo...I can take you to the impound lot where that Buick got crushed...

Chris

[Camino LS6]

Stop...

it hurts.

[A Horse With No Name]

...yes...it does...and I am sorry if I offended you.

Just wanting to make the point that we didn't know what we had when we had it...

Chris

[Camino LS6]

No offense taken!

C'mon, I was just kidding - or co-miserating.

I have some such stories as well.

[balthazar]

I dunno- tho of course the values weren't there then... I'm of the same generation as you 66, and in '84 my friends & I valued those cars immensely. Jeez- it was '84- looks at the slop then then-modern car world was offering up.

[A Horse With No Name]

Camino-Deleted my post because I thought I had offended you, glad I haven't...

Just sad to see these old cars go...back to happier times.

Balthazar-There were about thirty Pontiacs from the 1960's vintage between my home and the corner market we used to go to when I was a kid. Only notable car was a maroon 1966 GTO convetible...first time I ever saw a tri power...was about like seeing the girl next door nekkid for the first time...I just KNEW I liked what I saw.

Maybe that's why I have five kids...perhaps if I'd have gotten a Pontiac earlier, I wouldn't have such a large family, eh?

Seriously...this thread has done me a lot of good. I had about given up on owning another old American Car. But then the other night, after I didn't get the B-17 ride my wife wife and I were talking.

She said "make a bucket list" (Things to do before you die, after the movie by that name) She put riding in a B-17 on my list, and asked me what kind of cars I wanted to own.

I've decided that it comes down to...

I want to own a 53-56 Ford Truck or a 49-55, or 61-66 Chevy truck, as a mild street rod or cruiser. If the guy building that Impala can fix THAT...I can pull it together enough to save an old truck.

And if I get a car, I am going to utterly shoot for the moon and get my fav. GM car ever, a 58-62 Corvette. Hey, If he can dream and have a 61 Impala, I can dream and have a 61 Corvette, right?

Thanks again Camino for posting this thread...and please don't ban me if the truck I wind up with in a few years is a 55 F100!

Something about an old truck....

Chris

[Camino LS6]

Even if I still had the power to ban you, I certainly would not!

I like old trucks too.

[cletus8269]

id go for the 49-53(54 1/2) 3100's my dad lovingly restored a 50 over a 7 yr period of time. he wanted to restore the 53 5 window with the 50 3 window for parts but alas the 53 was too far gone for his first try. the 50 wasnt much better but there is nothing for those trucks that you cannot find if you need it.