I don't know if the Impala wheels came painted but they were all silver whereas the others were body color so they had to be painted the appropriate color. ???
I'm 100% sure the car doesn't have it's original motor, just not sure if it has a 623 block or a later model motor. Verne had documented the car somewhere because he had the vin number in his records and I remember him saying that he could not figure the second tag out.
Cecil, the Armstrong car was supposedly a mule car that was used to test the new 409 engine. Story goes that the car had A/C to test the cooling ability of the new motor. The car also had an additional cowl tag that no one has ever decoded. I saw the car at auction a few years ago in Hershey...
I never heard the line, "one of two 61 409's with their born with engines" before. Who has the other one? To my knowledge there is no way to tell, those motors were not stamped from the factory. Do you know Pat?
The remaining members of some of the LGC chapters still meet, the Jersey Late Greats and the Old Dominion still meet in this area. The Jersey Late Greats are still very active.
And, correct the steering wheel, should be two tone blue. Also put the correct shifter in it. These things are easily corrected but they make a big difference