Slowerthanu
New Member
New here, The story of my 409 Impala starts about 5 years ago. My friends Uncle lived in Portland and had a collection of old Impalas. He also had an extensive collection of early small and large port intake manifolds, carbs and heads (I have no clue what happened to them but I am trying to get into touch).
After beating cancer, the uncle died from a massive blood clot. The favorite of his cars, a white 1962 Impala SS with a dual quad 409, was left to his son. His son was not a car guy but wanted the vehicle to stay in the family so he sold it to my best friend. This is where I come into the picture.
You know what happens when you own a truck and a car hauler. My buddy wanted me to take a road trip with him to pick the Impala up. A few days later, we were drinking beer in Portland an going over the car.
Once we got it home, My buddy tuned it up, put about 100 miles on it and parked it in his parking garage at his condo with a cover over it for over 4 years.
My buddy does not like to tinker, weld, fabricate or maintain cars, he likes to get in and drive. He didn't drive the car so he posted it on ebay where it sold for $25,000 during the economic slump even after I told him not too.
The buyer gave a $2000 deposit, showed up with a trailer and backed out after he didn't like the manual drum brakes (which work great) or the moody dual quads (that needed some adjustment). Back into the garage it went.
At the time, I had a 2009.5 Pontiac G8 GXP 6 speed with long tubes and the regular LS upgrades. One night, drinking beer, he said "We should trade cars, you take the Impala and I take the G8", I laughed because at this point, the G8 was worth less than the book value of the Impala and I thought he was drunk.
Fast forward a few months and he continues to throw out the trade idea, drunk or sober, he is dead serious.
My connection to Impalas started at a young age (I'm still young at 36) with my Uncle Fritz working at a Chevrolet dealership in Madison and Beloit Wisconsin for over 50 years and me growing up surrounded by high ball glasses, scale models and brochures and building Impala's Camaros and Chevelles as a young man.
I went a different direction and got into rock crawling for a number of years, collecting several Toyota LandCruisers and shying away from the muscle car movement as prices skyrocketed before the crash. My job as a police officer and a supportive well paid wife still didn't fund everything I wanted.
When we agreed on the trade, I understood that I was giving up a fast, easy to drive, heated seat sedan for a vehicle that would require, love, frustration and complete attention. It was worth it.
I'll continue with photos later.
Dan
After beating cancer, the uncle died from a massive blood clot. The favorite of his cars, a white 1962 Impala SS with a dual quad 409, was left to his son. His son was not a car guy but wanted the vehicle to stay in the family so he sold it to my best friend. This is where I come into the picture.
You know what happens when you own a truck and a car hauler. My buddy wanted me to take a road trip with him to pick the Impala up. A few days later, we were drinking beer in Portland an going over the car.
Once we got it home, My buddy tuned it up, put about 100 miles on it and parked it in his parking garage at his condo with a cover over it for over 4 years.
My buddy does not like to tinker, weld, fabricate or maintain cars, he likes to get in and drive. He didn't drive the car so he posted it on ebay where it sold for $25,000 during the economic slump even after I told him not too.
The buyer gave a $2000 deposit, showed up with a trailer and backed out after he didn't like the manual drum brakes (which work great) or the moody dual quads (that needed some adjustment). Back into the garage it went.
At the time, I had a 2009.5 Pontiac G8 GXP 6 speed with long tubes and the regular LS upgrades. One night, drinking beer, he said "We should trade cars, you take the Impala and I take the G8", I laughed because at this point, the G8 was worth less than the book value of the Impala and I thought he was drunk.
Fast forward a few months and he continues to throw out the trade idea, drunk or sober, he is dead serious.
My connection to Impalas started at a young age (I'm still young at 36) with my Uncle Fritz working at a Chevrolet dealership in Madison and Beloit Wisconsin for over 50 years and me growing up surrounded by high ball glasses, scale models and brochures and building Impala's Camaros and Chevelles as a young man.
I went a different direction and got into rock crawling for a number of years, collecting several Toyota LandCruisers and shying away from the muscle car movement as prices skyrocketed before the crash. My job as a police officer and a supportive well paid wife still didn't fund everything I wanted.
When we agreed on the trade, I understood that I was giving up a fast, easy to drive, heated seat sedan for a vehicle that would require, love, frustration and complete attention. It was worth it.
I'll continue with photos later.
Dan
Sounds like, a Great car.
