Safe At Home

The Impala arrived early on Monday, March 5th - waterlogged and covered in 4 inches of wet, heavy snow. After drying out all week I returned Saturday to clean out all the leaves and crud, then spent a couple of hours Sunday unloading and sorting though all the trim so that I could see what was there and what I would be re-using. Overall, she's in really good shape with one bad area in the front passenger floorboard from the leaking windshield with some rot down in the cowl and upper windshield frame but nothing that can't be fixed.

Man, these Chevy's sure do rust in some strange places.

Looks like the 327 has been worked on before. The coil is an old chrome covered Accel Supercoil

Meet Blu

1966 Chevy Impala wagon. 327, 4bbl, Powerflite. A fairly nice solid body for a 45 year old car. Gonna need floors, and the interior is gutted. But it's all there, including the rear side windows and trim.

More details soon.

And yeah, I did name the car after this guy, it just sort of happened. LOL!

Meanwhile, down in the Batcave...

Took advantage of the warmer weather and pulled the daily driver into the shop this afternoon to do a front brake job. Had a front rotor out of round so I was glad to get rid of that annoyance too. Ran short of time (it's the Missus birthday today and I want to take her to dinner) so I'll do the rears next weekend.

And here's a shot of the rat's nest lounge I've set up in the back corner of the shop. That's a fresh bottle of Jack on top of the minifridge. ;-)

Rare Bird

Found on eBay - a 1964 Chrysler Newport hardtop wagon with a factory floor mounted 3 speed manual shift option!

Very cool!

A Draggin' Wagon

Spied this little beauty on that auction site, and I'm still drooling. Damn nice job on this 63 Belvedere wagon. Yeah - I approve! The listing said that the seller wasn't the builder and that it was never raced. With five days left in the auction I was prepared to settle in to see what it would bring when the owner ended the auction early. I'm thinking someone with deep pockets jumped the gun and talked the guy into selling it offline. Lucky bastard. I just hope that whoever got it, appreciates it.

The only flaw that I can see in the car is that it's not mine!

End Of The Line

Even though it's 1963 you can still see traces of the old Forward Look era in these cars. The wrap in the front glass and the shape of the doors and vent windows are the most telling. Exner's career at Chrysler ended in 1961, but by then he'd already designed the '63 models and thankfully those designs were kept in place.

63 Newport - A Kool Missouri Moredoor

These 63 Chryslers aren't exactly the kind of car you'll see very often at the local car show or cruise-in, for a variety of reasons that I won't bother to get into here. All I will say is that I like mine and I think the car has a lot of potential as a custom. With that said, when I see one done as nicely as this one, I've got to stand up and take notice!

This particular Newport was from Missouri and for sale back in '09...

Looking Back

The Shell Factory, early 1960's

Fort Myers, Florida

(postcard from author's personal collection)

Looking Back

Fort Myers, Florida, 1957

(postcard from author's personal collection)

Looking Back

Old PEMCO gas station, late 50s post card...

Looking Back

Royal Palm Motel, Ft. Myers Florida, early 1960s.

Looking Back

... and not one damned SUV in sight!

Looking Back

Lorain Road and Denison in Cleveland, Ohio sometime in the early 1950s - and not very far from where my Great Grandparents, John and Sophia had their furrier shop.