My son worked all summer cutting grass to buy a 1964 Chevrolet Impala 4-door hardtop from his uncle in 1988. He drove it to high school until he graduated and two years after. He decided then that he wanted a new car, so he bought a new Camaro and the 64 was parked beside our house in the woods. Needless to say, he lost interest in it for a while, and it sat on that hill for almost 12 years. At that point he started bugging me to restore it. In 2013 we started building a shop with the plans that once the shop was finished, we would start the ‘64 build.
My son was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, and in January 2016 he passed away. In keeping with his wishes, I pulled the ‘64 out of the woods in April 2016 and the journey began. After getting the ‘64 out of the woods, my heart just sank because it didn’t look like it was worth restoring at the time, but with encouragement from my wife and his circle of friends that knew the history of the car, I committed to the task of restoring his ‘64 Impala.
Upon initial inspection, I found that the floor pans, trunk pan, fenders, hood, and trunk lid had to be replaced. I tore it down to the point that the body was just a bare hull, took it off the frame, and restored the frame. I replaced all bushings, tie rod ends, ball joints, idler arm, and the pitman arm, and built the rear end. I sanded the frame by hand and sprayed it with a rust preventative and then painted it black.
The window chrome, and the lower window frames were rusted beyond repair, so in 2018 I bought a donor car just for the hard-to-find parts. The taillight sockets were rusted out, so I cut them out and welded new ones in. I sanded the body down to bare metal and built a paint booth out of plastic in my shop and primed and painted it myself. It’s the first car I ever painted, and it looks great! It has been a lot of firsts restoring the ‘64. I built the little 283 and the Powerglide transmission. The 283 is on steroids. I am coming to the end, and I should be finished in 6 to 8 months. I’m waiting on carpet and seat covers, and when they are installed, we will be ready to ride and show it off.
That’s what my son wanted and it’s going to happen! It has been a labor of love, and I have enjoyed it so much that I got a 1987 Chevy Squarebody truck that’s going to be next. You will never know how many times that I wished I had not put my son off when he wanted to start the ‘64 build. What I have learned from this is never take for granted what you have because you never know when it may be taken from you. Our son was a wonderful Christian man who loved God, his family and his 64!
