 1968 Chevrolet Impala 4dr Hardtop Click here to see the first artist-impression of the car. |
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This is the view I like most, and that made me buying the car... |
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The previous owner kept the car outside for about 2 years, hardly covered up. So this is what the interior looked when I bought it. Luckely a little soap and water worked out fairly well. |
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Because off "some" rust in the frame we had to take the body off. In the process of removing the body, only 4 body mounting bolts broke, and one nut wouldn't come loose but started turning in it's cavity in the body... Just what I needed! |
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After raising the body (lowering the chassis actually) the complete chassis and the underside of the body were
completely cleaned. Now the chassis and body mounts could be repaired. When all welding was over, undercoating was applied to the chassis and body. |
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When the chassis and body finally came back together I was in for something else and turned to the engine. When trying
to drain the oil I unfortunately found out that some morron in the past f#cked the drainplug up, and replaced it with
a metric bolt (and nut as I was to find out just minutes later)... So what started as an easy job, ended up being a nearly complete teardown of the engine compartment, up to and including the engine mounts and oil pickup... |
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| Many trial fittings later, most of the front sheetmetal is on. Just the hood has to be placed now, but that will be done after the oilpan has been fixed and re-mounted. |
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After completion of the car it was time to get some APK (mandatory Annual Technical Inspection). The only major issue there was that the chassisnumber wasn't readable enough, so a reservation was made with the autorities to re-apply the numbers... On the way overthere the only misfortune was an overheated engine, but with the help of a friend we managed to get there in time. Now APK was settled it was time to finish the car, and e.g. install a windshield. During the first few km's the radiator showed a leak, and I had a new heavy duty block (3 rows of narrow spaced tubes) installed in it. While at it, we also installed a new airfilter, can you point out the new element? The old one was also slightly to big, and seemed to be installed with a hammer by a previous owner... Also noticable on the last picture is a mod. we made to get the car started when cold. The car has been run on LPG only, so both the carb and mech. fuel pump are f#cked... By installing an electrical fuel pump (Renault), and directing this directly into the venturi I now can fire her up on petrol (she will run on LPG from there directly, but will not start, no matter what we tried...) Because an inline six with a good muffler is not that inspirating, we then installed some music; In Progress Installed. |
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Now the car is running it is time to further enhance it appearance; make it look like the "artist-impresison" I started with the wheels and tires, and opted for the DIY LB White Walls to see if it would work for me in reality... To make a good foundation for the White Wall Paint to adhere to I grinded the letters of the side walls, and sanded the complete area to be painted. Then the wheels got some primer and red paint. After applying the White Wall Paint the overall effect was quite nice for a quick and dirty DIY LB WW job!. |
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For some extra "motivation" I tracked down this 1965 283ci V8, formerly at home in a Studebaker. Also included where these ramhorn manifolds! Hopefully the engine will produce some more power when the stock two barrel will be replaced by this 4-barrel manifold and Quadra-Jet. |
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