Update 2011

We recently moved from Illinois to Colorado, and I found that I had not updated the blog for quite some time. Here are some photos of the car with the Impala SS wheels mounted. The next item on the agenda is to get some photos of the engine bay with the Corvette fuel rail covers installed. This month I plan on finding a local upholstery shop to take care of the torn rear seat to complete the interior, and to get the car registered in Colorado.

Back on the road again!

The car is back on the road. I still have some small things to take care of, but the most important thing is that the Impala lives! She is quite the different animal now that she is packing twice the horsepower that came stock with the original 305. I have some interior work left, and some work on the suspension to do, so it is still a work in progress. Here are some quick shots, more to come later!

Paint complete

The paint is now completed, and the shop is now putting her back together. It looks great, and needs some minor body panel tweaks and a polish to get right. I hope to have her back next week, so that I can start putting the trim, and other parts back on. Here is a pic of it in the paint booth getting buffed.

Taking their sweet time

I have had the car in the paint shop for three months now, and it is slowly making progress. The shop has replaced the bottoms of the doors, smoothed out the car, fixed many dings and dents, and is now in primer. It has been block sanded, and the panels have been test fit. They are working on the door jambs and inner parts like the underhood area, and fenders. I have also picked a color, which is the original silver metallic. I ordered new door seals, and trim pieces which will be installed after the paint is dry. Here are some of the latest pictures:

Off to the paint shop

I have decided that my skills as a body repair tech are not what I hoped they would be. So, I decided to bring the car to the professionals, and get the car painted the right way. I found somone in town that is doing it in his shop, and I hope to have it back in two months. I am very excited that I will finally get to drive it, and it will all be one color again!

It will be painted the original silver metallic. I don't want to do anything too extreme, and really want to maintain a sleeper look. When I pull up to the stoplight, nobody will know that there is a fire breathing LT1 smallblock under the hood! Here is a photo from the shop where she is getting sanded down:

I will post more pics as the project progresses!

We are still working on the car, slowly but surely. So far we have sanded and primed the front clip and are working our way back. We also bought some used set of wheels from a 94-96 Impala SS. We have removed the bumpers and trim to get ready for paint.

Tonight we took apart the rear bumper, and bead blasted and POR-15 painted the inside of the bumper and it's parts. We will put it back together and work on the front bumper tomorrow. Here are some pics of the car with the new wheels:

All parts are back on the car!

We have reached a milestone. All of the parts are now on the car! We are both very excited, and are amazed that we were able to achieve so much. Now comes the body work, and panel fitting. I am sure that we will have to remove many of the parts again to get them to fit properly, and free from dents and rust. We will have to take the radiator support down a few notches to get the body panels to fit correctly, and lots more sanding and priming! Here are some pictures of our milestone: