77 body removed

This week we removed the body from the 77. My wife finished painting the chassis black coating over the POR-15. That stuff is great! It paints right over the rust, just as advertised, and looks very good. We have the firewall forward yet to paint on the chassis, and will tackle that as soon as we get the bumper support bent back into shape. The frame was slightly bent in the front of the car, and we have been hammering it back into place.The body mount bushings were shot on both cars, so we had to order some new ones. I have read all of the posts regarding body mounts and mods, but we decided to go the the energy suspension bushings. I know that they will be slightly stiff, but that is ok. The Roadmaster has the soft ride suspension, so I hope the body mounts will even out the suspension and make it hande better.


We still have a long way to go with this project. The electrical system is going to be alot of fun to piece together! We have determined what items we plan on keeping and which ones need to go. We are keeping the buick steering wheel, with the VATS security key, as well as cruise control, and other things. We also have alot of work to do on the heating/ AC system. The next step is to get the new bushings, and mount the 77 body to the 94 frame. Have a great holiday! We will post again next year!

Grinding, Painting, and Wiring

This weekend we were able to spend some time working on the frame prep, car wiring, and Impala body removal. My wife finished the grinding, and started painting the frame with POR-15. She managed to get the stuff on her hands, face, and eventually into her hair! This is some nasty stuff, and believe me it doesn't come off easily. I wasn't even painting and managed to get some on my fingers. The frame is looking good, and is ready for another coat of paint. My wife did this while I managed to get through some of the wiring harness, and took the Impala apart, preparing for the body removal. Here are some pictures of our progress. Notice the big pile of wires that was trimmed from the wiring harness! No need for the power locks, windows, mirrors, or seats! Less weight = Faster!

Selling parts not needed

I have been selling many parts from the project cars that I will not be using with the swap. I have already sold close to $550 worth of parts via E-Bay and other online forums. Thank you for all that have purchased from me! I am continuing the process, and hope to have the rest of the doors and interior sold by the end of next week. I haven't had much time to work on the project over the holiday week, nor this week. It seems that everything is happening at once and our days are all booked! I hope to have some time this week and perhaps this weekend to tackle some dismantling of the 77. It is our goal to have the frame spruced up and the 77 body installed within the next month. Then is the tricky part of converting some of the newer car parts and integrating them into the 77. Just look at the wiring harness that came from the Roadmaster!

"RoadSmasher" Body Removal

The smashed up Roadmaster has now been stripped down to the bare frame. We removed the bubbly body from the chassis last night... oh what fun! I managed to pick up the body without removing the driveshaft crossmember, and almost made a costly mistake! That would have broken off the yoke or possibly the rear of the transmission, but luckily I caught it before any damage happened. After removing the crossmember, my trusty 1962 Clark Forklift didn't break a sweat lifting the bulky body off of the chassis that it was set on 13 years ago.

I think that we have really come a long way since the start of this project, and i think that now is the point of no return... My wife and I are going to being the cleaning up the frame and drivetrain, and get some of that ugly rust off of our chassis. I wish we could just bring the whole setup to a media blaster and have at it! We have done some work to the Impala, blasting parts and repainting them such as the battery tray, inner fenders, and other items that fit in our small blasting cabinet.

I have been selling alot of parts on E-Bay, so if you happen to need something, let me know! We hope to sell parts from the car in order to fund our project. So far we have made $360 from parts, and we have many left to sell. The car was $1600, so only $1240 left to go!

Below are the pictures of both cars, and the body coming off. We also included some "Flintstone style" pictures of us goofing around!

Roadmaster Dismantled

We have been working hard with the wrenching, busily taking apart our donor car, the Roadmaster. It has taken a few weeks worth of evenings and weekend hours to carefully take the car apart, and saving everything that we plan to reuse in the project. The electrical system is going to be the most challenging part of the process, now that we have it totally out of the car it is going to be alot of fun tying it all back together. I guess that is what the shop manuals are there for! Lots of reading, planning, and trial and error ahead! Our next step is to take the shell of the Buick off of the frame to begin work on the drivetrain and suspension systems. I hope to sand and repaint most of the chassis, and sandblast most of the a-arms and other parts that will fit into my blasting cabinet. I have some items that I have listed on E-bay if anyone is interested in some Buick Roadmaster parts. Here are pictures of the progress as of today:

Wrenches, Rust, & Sweat

The teardown process has started, spending much time and effort to get all the pieces off and set the fasteners into each piece so they don't get lost. My wife and I have been having fun taking both cars apart, and prepping each part that will be reused on this frankenstien project. I almost feel bad taking the old engine and drivetrain out of the old Impala, as everything works beautifully (for sale if anyone is interested 305 with a 350 turbo trans 120k on engine, 20k on transmission)!

Most of the front end is off of the Impala now, as you can see it still runs. I had to put a 2x4 in the engine bay to hold up the radiator, but she still runs and pulls herself into the garage! I think that this will be one of the last times it will be self propelled until we hook up the new drivetrain. I have a permanent location for the swap, and should be in it by the end of next week.

I guess I haven't posted any pictures of the actual body that we will be using for the project! Here are a couple of the car as it sits currently:

Roadmaster Aquired!

Well, we did it... I was able to bring the big Buick home last Saturday. It was a 320 mile journey each way to central Ohio, and it only took 12 hours to complete! Gotta love the backroads! (not fun) Anyway, the car is here, and we have been quick to start the disassembly of the smashed land yacht. The chassis looks to be very nicely intact, and the interior is very nice. Looks to have been driven by an elderly person, as I found evidence of it in the interior. The engine runs very strong, and was able to break the tires loose on the test run....just a little smoke ;). Here are pictures of the current status of both vehicles. My wife and I will be working on it more this week, and should have another post next week! Thanks for reading!

Donor Car Aquired!

Last Saturday I was able to obtain the Buick Roadmaster. It has a

Donor Car Found!

I have had this idea to purchase a 1994-1996 Chevrolet Impala SS that had some body damage, and take the chassis and drivetrain and swap it into the Impala. I have always dreamed about putting an LT1 V8 into the car. Now I am attempting to make this dream a reality... I found a 1994 Buick Roadmaster that was involved in a slight fender bender, and am off to pick it up tomorrow. I guess we will have to call the car the Chevrolet Impala Roadmaster (Roadmonster)! I will post updates as the project progresses. Here is a picture of the Buick..

More History

I drove my car to and from school and work daily for about 4 years. When I went away to college, I managed to destroy the rear axle in the old girl (among other things that I was able to repair along the way). It was one of the spider gears in the rear axle that went, causing the car to make all kinds of noise when turning. The odometer showed 120,000 miles at this point, so I decided that it was time to get a more reliable vehicle, and with the help of my parents, I purchased a 1994 Dodge Dakota pickup. The car then was hidden away, with the hopes of restoring it in the future. While driving other cars, I still wondererd how I would be able to bring the Impala back to life. Dduring the years that I let her sit, I was able to repair the rear axle, and fix some of the rusty spots that plagued all vehicles that live in Northern Illinois. As of right now it has been ten years since the car was first put into storage, and it is time to begin "Project Impala".

Some History

I was a Sophomore in High School, and it was late fall. I was approaching my 16th birthday, and I was busily looking for a set of wheels that would transport me into a new realm of freedom. I asked a good family friend that is in the car mechanic and towing business if he knew of any relatively inexpensive vehicles that I would be able to afford for my first car. He told me that his mother had a car that she seldomly drove, that would be perfect for me as a first time driver. It was a silver 1977 Chevrolet Impala. It was a beautifully kept silver sedan, that still had the plastic carpet cover on the floorboards! After parting with $700 of hard earned (under minimum wage) money, on November 27th 1994 I had a new set of wheels. Needless to say, this was my home away from home for the next few years, as for the first time in my life I had something to call my own!

Welcome to the Impala Blog...

The day I turned the magical age of 16, I was able to buy my own car. This day marked a tranformation in which the world was all of a sudden a little bit smaller due to my new found freedom...driving. I had many memories both good and bad while driving my first car, and so did many of my close friends. This blog is about my first car, a 1977 Chevrolet Impala.