1962 409 police cars

quik9r

quik9r

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Supporting Member 3
I base my answer on 30 years of 62 Chevrolet exposure and 409s What 409 car in 62 had a return fuel line? none, What 409 car in 62 had a cast intake? none, What was the carb, it wasn't an AFB. Post the numbers of the intake, engine stamp, carb and it will all point to 63 340 hp with a glide. Police fleet doubt it, what does the data plate show. Verne Franz can validate.

Quik9r
 
real61ss

real61ss

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Supporting Member 8
Here in Virginia the state police cars all had manual transmissions. in 62 Va. State troopers had mostly Ford and Plymouth cars. I don't recall seeing any 62 Chevrolet police cars, in 61 Va. had a few Chevys, they were Biscayne models with 305 horse and 3 speed manual transmissions.
Some of the local towns and cities may have had 62 Chevrolets but I have never seen a 62 with a 340 horse / auto.
 
david montanbeau

david montanbeau

Well Known Member
quik9r said:
I base my answer on 30 years of 62 Chevrolet exposure and 409s What 409 car in 62 had a return fuel line? none, What 409 car in 62 had a cast intake? none, What was the carb, it wasn't an AFB. Post the numbers of the intake, engine stamp, carb and it will all point to 63 340 hp with a glide. Police fleet doubt it, what does the data plate show. Verne Franz can validate.

Quik9r
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I also have been in the Ws since the 50s with my dad being an engineer at the Tech Center in Warren MI with the Ws. This was in 1980 when numbers did not mean a thing. SO, no to all your questions. I had bought about 20, 348 and 409 cars in my area in the 70s and 80s. I was restoring and cloning 09 cars back then. Look at the picture that I posted. I can tell if an engine was transplanted or not. Dealers back then were not careful on transplants. It also had the build sheet and it all checked out. I had called my dad and Mike Zubal that also was a 09 expert to tell him about the car. They came over and he could not believe it either. Unfortunately, they are both gone. The only reason that I looked into it more closely was that GM did not offer a 09 with a glide in 62. My dad and Mike theorized that this was a pilot car that somehow slipped through the cracks. But for sale new on the lot at the dealer? We will never know. The engine is sitting on the floor of the garage in front of the 62 in the red picture.
 
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quik9r

quik9r

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Yes I did read the post..Would love to see a copy of the build sheet. A pilot car at the end of production?
 
rstreet

rstreet

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Maryland used in 1962 409/380 cars with 3 speeds. I believe there were also some 327/300 3 speed cars used. In 1963 Maryland used 1963 Fords with 3 speeds and the "famous" 390 Intercepter.
In 1964 went with Dodge with automatics and 383 engines. Not sure of the version though.
Robert
 
david montanbeau

david montanbeau

Well Known Member
Yes, Pilot car for the 63 production year. Like I said like someone took the 62 body and stuffed it on a 63 chassis. When I 1st started to strip it, I said to myself, why would they stuff a 63 into a 62 with all the correct parts including a return fuel line? When I pulled the body off the frame, the fuel lines were all factory routed. It had the correct clips and all the other hardware that goes with it. This was 35 years ago and why would I still have a build sheet for a 62 4 dr 409 car? Ask how many still have a build sheet for their car 35 years ago? This was a one owner car that I bought with 100k miles on it and the engine was never broken open. I think it even had the power glide cooling lines to the radiator. I think 62 glides was air cooled and 63 was the 1st year for cooling lines?
 
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david montanbeau

david montanbeau

Well Known Member
61 was the last year for the Cast Glide. 62 was the 1st year for the aluminum glide. Aired cooled for the Chev 11 and Corvair. Liquid cooled for the large car.
 
Dick MacKenzie

Dick MacKenzie

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Supporting Member 9
david montanbeau said:
Yes, I pilot car for the 63 production year. Like I said like someone took the 62 body and stuffed it on a 63 chassis. When I 1st started to strip it, I said to myself, why would they stuff a 63 into a 62 with all the correct parts including a return fuel line? When I pulled the body off the frame, the fuel lines were all factory routed. It had the correct clips and all the other hardware that goes with it. This was 35 years ago and why would I still have a build sheet for a 62 4 dr 409 car? Ask how many still have a build sheet for their car 35 years ago? This was a one owner car that I bought with 100k miles on it and the engine was never broken open. I think it even had the power glide cooling lines to the radiator. I think 62 glides was air cooled and 63 was the 1st year for cooling lines?
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David,
When you had the body off the frame did you verify the VIN on the frame to see if it matched the VIN on the door pillar?
 
david montanbeau

david montanbeau

Well Known Member
No, I did not. I was not that smart back then. LOL If it were today, I would have done all those things to verify. People did not care much back then if numbers match or not. The build sheet from memory had it as a 409 with an automatic. I did not check dates on any parts. If you were heavy into the 409s in the 70s or 80s, did numbers really matter? No way I can prove the history of this car. Show me another clear picture of a car and the engine compartment that would be this clear taken in the early 80s. Why would someone do that? I did not know that these pictures existed until a short while ago and why they were taken. This was not a Z11 motor car or an aluminum front end car. Then it would have been a different story I think.
 
409newby

409newby

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Supporting Member 11
I always thought that 63 was the first year for aluminum glide? I had a 62 Impala 283 with cast iron glide,, Never to old to learn I guess???:scratch
 
62impala409

62impala409

 
Supporting Member 1
In the 1962 big cars, 327 engines got the aluminum glides for the first time. In '63, all engine combos got aluminum PG
 
real61ss

real61ss

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Supporting Member 8
david montanbeau said:
Did GM offer the Power Glide for 409-380-409 HP cars in 1962 for the police fleet?
http://www.allpar.com/history/inside/plymouth-9.html
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Let's go back to the original question, "did GM offer the power glide transmission with the 409-380-409 HP cars in 1962"? The original answer by quick9r was NO and that is correct.
Now, the question has changed to 409-340. There may have some special car built, how knows, not me but the original question was answered correctly. it almost seemed as thought this was a trick question to start an argument. if I'm wrong I applolize .
 
david montanbeau

david montanbeau

Well Known Member
No, not a trick question. And how do we know that they did not offer it? Because it's not in the spec books? Fleets did some strange stuff back then. If my dad was still around, he would know the answere. This is what raised my question from this article (http://www.allpar.com/history/inside/plymouth-9.html) and this is from the people that worked in that sector, (Chevrolet had sent a 380 horse 409 Biscayne model. It was much quicker to 60 (6.6 seconds), but it lost out in the quarter mile due to the two speed Powerglide transmission, taking 15.7 seconds at 89 miles an hour.Top speed was 124 miles an hour)
I only brought the question up because of an article that was sent to me. We are into Mopar from the teens to the 60s. I have never seen this article till recently.When I read the article, it was about cop cars for the 62 409 cars and the article said that the 409 with an automatic was slow so the Mopar got the contract. Then when the OP said that there was no automatic in the 62 09 cars, and the OP said with a big NO with no explanation till later with the answer.
Maybe I should have posted about the automatic that a had bought later on in the post. Then I said this was 35 years ago and nothing was saved and people still come back and ask if I have documentation.
Why would someone post that they worked in the sector on specking out cop cars and they said a 62 409-380HP with the automatic?
I thought maybe a 327 but the highest HP in a big car was 300. Long ways from 380HP. I just can not see a big city Police dept buying stick shift cars when the big engine cars were offered the automatics from other makes. Would make since if you're out in the country back roads.
Would be cool to find a cop from back then that knew cars that had driven one of these cars.
And you would be surprised on people that would challenge me that in 1965 Impala SS convertible that you could not get a 409 400 4 speed. They would say only a 340 HP was offered.
They had the auto in 61 behind the 348, why not the 409 in 62? Just saying but it is interesting.
The lady that I bought the 62 from said that her dad bought the car new from a local Chev dealer in Detroit. Like we are saying, we will never know. I tried to find who I bought the car from with no results. The hunt continues.
Have a good day
Dave
 
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D

Don Jacks

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 3
The aluminum Powerglide was introduced in 1962.It was behind the 327's[235 six cylinder and 283 v8's had the old iron unit] in the full size cars,and behind the Chevy II's.They became THE powerglide made in all car in cars and light trucks in 63.The link is incorrect about the car lines it was installed in US production in the 62-63 time frame.All GM car lines at that did their own thing.Yes the Canadian cars largly used Chevrolet drive trains,but they're weird anyway.
 
david montanbeau

david montanbeau

Well Known Member
Don Jacks said:
The aluminum Powerglide was introduced in 1962.It was behind the 327's[235 six cylinders and 283 v8's had the old iron unit] in the full-size cars, largely and behind the Chevy II's.They became THE Powerglide made in all car in cars and light trucks in 63.The link is incorrect about the car lines it was installed in US production in the 62-63 time frame.All GM car lines at that did their own thing.Yes, the Canadianlargelyused Chevrolet drives trains,but they're weird anyway.
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Good info. Any documitation on that? All the research that Im finding say the 61 was the last year for the cast iron.
 
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