ShoeString 62'

Updates

2010-01-18T13:55:00.007-07:00

Ok I have been lax on the updates but here it is. I was able to have my family over on July 4th of 09'. had a BBQ and removed body here are my Dad and Brother and I discussing the best way to do this. I am going to add two pulleys to the roof for lifting the body back on to the frame. WE used a engine lift on the front and man power on the rear and Slid my home made body Cart under the body. I am not entirely happy with the body cart, but I will make changes to the design later. The soft tires are not the right way to go I am going to replace them with a hard tire for rolling the body around.

the frame is now ready for powder coating. I had the car body and frame media blasted and found a few more issues with the body that will need to be addressed. I found additional floor damage on the passenger side and it looks like someone took a post down the entire passenger side of the car so there is a long crease from the door to the rear quarter and the rear quarter had some poor body work done that will need to be fixed at some point.

My shop

2009-05-13T08:15:00.009-06:00

My work bench & view from the rear of the shop

So I was thinking last weekend as I worked on my car that I would like a bigger shop, now I built my garage with a specific shop space to work on my car. It is about 12 feet wide by 35 feet long. Now if I did it all over I would have added at least 3 more feet to the garage to make it 15 feet wide. But as my dad told me hot rods have been built in smaller spaces then this. so here are some pictures of my garage space I tried to capture the space. The good thing about a small garage is that you are forced to be organized. So to all of you out there that are thinking of taking on a project but have a small garage I say go for it and do not let that stop you.

Birds eye of the Shop

Milestone Reached

2009-05-13T07:54:00.005-06:00

Well I made it to a milestone this last weekend. I have everything out of the car (except for the Windshields) and I am am ready to get it blasted and start the restoration and putting parts back on. The plan is to remove the windows this weekend and be ready to go with the car. I also have purchased a welded and am working on a body cart for the car so I can take it off the frame

Spring Progress

2009-03-23T08:10:00.017-06:00

I finally made progress on the car this weekend with a number of smaller projects. I first had to get the garage reorganized if you are going to undertake a restoration then be sure you have the space to store everything. Here is a shot of the garage with all of the boxes of stuff that I have removed. I am down to just the dash and the trim on one side of the car, and the windows. I had my Dad over and he helped me remove the trunk. So I am getting closer to pulling the car off the frame and I am still close on my schedule for my spring projects.

I also have started to pick up some parts for the 409 I purchased these heads for my 409 from a guy in Texas that I meat on the 348-409.com web page. I had to remove the valve springs so that required a purchase of a new tool. I picked up a good spring compressor at Sears for $20. So that was the other weekend project. The heads are going to a machine shop on Monday to get cleaned and checked for cracks.

The process is slow but soon I will have a major update as I get the frame off from under the car. As always my kid came out to help in his special way, but hey at least he is interested in the car, and some day he will get to enjoy it.

Froward movement

2009-02-27T13:12:00.004-07:00

Well it has been awhile and the temperature is warming up where I can work in the garage again. So last night I started working on the Impala again. I am close to finishing the dissemble and then its steamed cleaning, and media blasting, and primer then the work of restoration will begin. My goal is to have the car primed by the end of April.

Here is the info on the transmission it is a Brog Warner T10 4 speed build at the beginning of 1961. it has the cast iron front housing and the Aluminum tail. It has a 10 spline input and a 16 spline out out. It needs a rebuild since it jumps out of second gear often. So I may be rebuilding it or replace it with a 5 speed t5 out of a mid 90 camaro

Decoding

2009-01-28T15:41:00.004-07:00

Since it is cold here in Idaho, and I am working on creating additional storage for all the parts from my car, and I am still just taking seats out and trim off so there are not a lot of great pictures to post, I have been working on decoding my car so here is the information so far

This is gathered form a host of sites but mostly www.348-409.com they have a lot of information on the codes etc.

VIN: 21847S262402 = 1962 Impala V8 2D sport coupe (hardtop) St' Louis, Mo serial#262402

Cowl Tag:
Month code: 5B= May 2nd week
Style: 62-1847 = 1962 Impala 2 door sport coupe 8 cyl engine
Trim: 867 = Fawn. Material type is: Vinyl (Impala SS coupe) Seat type: Bucket
Paint: 920 = Autumn Gold
Body: SL 46243 = Saint Louis Ser# 6245
ACC: 12H 1B =??????

What I have not been able to discover is what the Accessory codes for my car are and without a buildsheet for the car I am not sure where else to look I have spent a lot of time on the internet looking for information. I have discovered that the codes were different from plant to plane so a 12H on one car could be something different on a car from a different plant making it hard to figure out what the options were.

So if there is anyone out there that might be able to shed some light on those codes let me know.

Project Budget

2009-01-13T11:10:00.011-07:00

How to build a project car on a budget that is a hard thing to answer. As most of you know anything to do with car restoration cost money. The tools needed, the parts, farming out the work, the amounts add up quickly. So what is the process? Here is how I have approached my project. First I made the commitment that I was not going to go into debt while building this car, so that will add time to the project, but I would rather the project take me ten years rather than paying for it for ten years. That is something that you will have to decide. I am sure that there are lines of credit, or credit cards that can be used.

First determine what you want the car to be? Is it going to be a daily driver, weekend warrior, Weekend cruiser, show car, or a combination of some sort? My project is a weekend cruiser with possibly some entries into local shows, but mainly a cruiser. With that in mind I created a Excel spread sheet listing projects that I wanted to do. However as mentioned in a different post my project plan changed and took a different direction as to the extent of what I was going to do. I think that anyone working on cars will come across this, and should plan and budget accordingly.

Second make a list of the projects to me completed. On my spread sheet I have all the long term projects listed (suspension, engine, body and paint, interior) and I put in some rough estimates for the cost of the project. I list everything that I would like to do as well as my wish list if money was no object as well. As I get closer to getting ready to work on these projects I fill in the parts with cost from the internet or local dealers and develop a fairly accurate cost estimate of what the project phase will cost. Here is the break down for the cost of my suspension project that is next after I get the car up on the stand offs.

There are other projects with the frame as well, such as painting, break lines, new fuel lines, and any repairs that will need to be considered. Right now I do not have the money to do all the projects under the car so I am going to have to prioritize what happens first as I save for the others.

This method has given me a ability to plan and come up with a process for finishing the car. There is the ever present temptation to purchase all new parts for our cars, but for me my budgeting process has helped me realize that yes some upgrades to the factory parts are needed, but not all parts need to be replaced. I can use the front upper and lower control arms and just replace the worn out rubber. I do not need tubular control arms even though they look really cool!

So where does the money come from? I have four sources of income for the project none of them are large streams of income. Let me state this I created a separate account for the car project so that my wife is not worried that I am spending household income on the car, its a good idea to keep the peace with the wife during this process.

1. My Paycheck I transfer $200 a month to my Impala account so that is $2,400 a year
2. I do house plans on the side, but with the current housing market this source has dried but it was generating about $2,000 to $3,000 per year. Keep in mind that I have really only been working on the car since 2006 so there is not a lot of money in the bank for the car
3. I tried a experiment of investing money at prosper.com I did this in August and since then have made $33 dollars on my initial investment, but this will tie up my money for three years. So I am not sure this is the best method
4. I have been blessed to work for companies that give an annual profit sharing bonus so that money goes into the fund; this is a varying amount every year.

This is my basic process I do have a spread sheet with when I think I will get to a project, but that is a ever changing depending on how much time I have and money.

The Things people do....

2009-01-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I thought I would spend a little time on the car with my DA Sander and see what new discoveries I could find. I concentrated on the little spot on the deck lid at the trunk, I mentioned this area in the evaluation of the car post. After about 1/2 hour of sanding and the removal of 5 layers of paint and one layer of bondo I was able to drill out the pop rivets, and I think that I discovered the original location for the Radio antenna, but the spot was dented down into the trunk and filled with bondo.

Which means that the location of the antenna at the front of the car is not correct and I will have to fill that hole. in the future.
I am not sure what drives the thinking of some of the changes, but I am sure that the same could be said for any of us working on these cars.

Storing the Engine

2009-01-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well I put the short block 409 in to a state of storage until I can get to it later this year. I wanted to be sure that it did not rust, and make more problems when I finally get to it.

The engine has had no machine work done to it. So I was not worried about trying to preserve work all ready done. There are things that I would have done differently if I was. I was trying to just keep it in the condition that it was and to stop rust from developing.

So the process was very simple, I purchased a $20 oil pump priming tool from Mr Gasket. This can be found at any local auto parts store, I got mine from Jegs along with a engine bag.

Step 1: Add oil to the Short Block

Step 2: Prime the oil system

Step 3: Turn the engine over, I did this with a 2 foot long piece of flat steel with a hole in it and two bolts in the Balance.

Step 4: I sprayed the surfaces with WD40. Others recommend a preserving oil from CRC. I could not find this so I went with what others recommend.

Step 5: Bag it and be done

I will turn the motor once a month and reapply the WD40 if needed. I am not a expert and will not guarantee that this is the best method. I did my research and talked to many folks on how best to do this and went from there.

Next... Body off?

Prepairing to lift the body

2008-12-30T15:09:00.000-07:00

I am getting closer to lifting the body so that I can add new body bushings run new stainless steel fuel lines for the 409 and break lines, and add a second control arm for the rear end. I have been going around on how to do all of this and maintain space in my garage. I do not have room to have the frame and body side by side. I have been debating on building a custom body cart s that I can role the body out of the garage and work on the frame, but the longer I worked on this the more I realized that was not a feasible idea. So what is a guy on a budget to do and limited space to do?

Well I think I have stumbled on my solution. I found a web site called accessible systems that has what I need. I have these in my garage and I think that it will allow me the space to work on the car and maintain my garage space. I ordered a part called a frame standoff to separate my body from my frame and when I am done I will install the new body bushings. Second I ordered a set of frame dolly's wheels to mount to the frame so that I can role the body and frame around and in and out of the shop. I think that this system will work for me and my restoration. I will post pictures as I move into this next phase.

62 Impala work

2008-12-23T13:30:00.001-07:00

Well I have gotten some work done over the last few weeks. Not the progress that I would like to see, but any progress is good. Since the shop space that I have is tight, I have to find ways to make sure that I have room to do my projects.

So once I got my 409 on the engine stand I wanted to be able to be able to store it over the frame when not working on the car. To accomplish this I needed to remove the power steering, steering box, control arms. All of these items were going to be removed and replaced at some point, so I have removed them and am able to store the 409 and maintain my shop space.

I continue to remove the trim and am almost done with that. After that I will finish removing the exhaust, transmission, drive line, glass, and rear bumper. with that done I will be ready to remove the car from the frame and start the restoration and customization process. I am hoping to have the frame off at the end of January.

62 Impala Evaluation

2008-12-23T08:35:00.000-07:00

Spent some time with the car and have been finishing removing trim and noting the areas that will need some attention and the extent of repair that need to take place.

The Drivers side will require the most attention as there was some interesting fixes done to the car from the previous owner. I do not have a picture of it but there is the typical rust damage at the front quarter panel that will have to be repaired, but unknown to me the bigger issue presented its self when I removed the rocker panel trim from the drivers side. I discovered a rather large piece of metal house siding stuck in this hole with about 1/2" of bondo holding it all in place I have just started to sand the area to figure out how much rust damage there is. right now I am going to have to do some rocker panel repair from the wheel well to mid point on the drivers door. Just above this hole there is a 8" dent that will need some attention, there is also something on the sail lid that I need to sand the car down and see what is going on I discovered a couple of pop rivets and a funny little piece of metal on the trunk side. I will know more when I get the car sand blasted. I think that there is more rust to be found.

So far on the passengers side there has not been discovery of anything that is not typical rust areas. The front quarter behind the wheel, along the rocker panel behind the trim, and this little blister at the rear wheel well. However I think that there is more as well as I found a odd piece of metal welded to the bottom of the rocker panel with some rust blisters and on the rear wheel well I am seeing some evidence of rust and bondo.

The interior, well I have already talked about the floor repair, this is a picture of the roof there is a moldy headliner foam (form years of leaking seals) and there is a little surface rust which I think will be taken care of with some media blasting. Nothing surprising here.

So with all this in mind I am developing my plan of attack on the body. But that is another post.

Books

2008-12-17T08:18:00.001-07:00

So I have not gotten a lot done in the last few weeks between Kids Christmas programs, shopping and general holiday madness leading up to Christmas. Plus it is been bitter cold the last few weeks and my small shop heater is not keeping the as warm as I would like. I may have to up grade I thought I would list the books that I am using or have read prior to starting this project.

I am not sure that I can stress enough that one should get these books or others before starting any project. Especially the assembly and shop manuals for what ever car you are working on.

book1 - How to Rebuild and Modify your muscle car - By Jason Scott.

This is a great book to get before starting it has check list for evaluating a car prior to purchase so that you have a good idea of what you are getting into. It has ideas for frame off restorations to simple restorations, and the pros and cons of various both. It has a pricing form so that you can do a good estimate on what the various elements of the project will cost so that you can determine what is in the budget and what is not. We would all like to do Frame off restorations, but we do not have the time, talent, or money to do so. This book has helped me keep my project goals realistic, and feasible. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is just thinking about taking on a car project.

http://www.motorbooks.com/Store/ProductDetails_35945.ncm

Book 2 - How to Restore your collector car - Tom Brownell

Here is another book from Motorbooks.com this is in my links section a great source for books.

This one is along the same lines as the last one. A wealth of information on restoring collector cars, and general restoration tips and tricks as well. Highly recommended as well.

http://www.motorbooks.com/Store/ProductDetails_7614.ncm

book 3 - Muscle Car & Hi-Po engines Chevy 348 & 409

What can I say since I own a 409 and it will be going into this car I wanted a book to read on and about these engines. One can never read or educate themselves to much when it comes to doing a good project. I have not read this one yet as I just got the engine and it will be a little while before I get to the engine.

http://www.themotorbookstore.com/chevy-409-manual.html

Book4 - 1962 Shop manual and a 1962 Impala Assembly manual are a must for any car project. They are easy to find and fairly cheep. Sorry no pictures

New Power

2008-12-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

In the consideration and planning stages of this car, it was decided to leave the engine as it was with some mild upgrades to it. The car came with a Chevy 350 with a four speed. I found some simple builds to make a nice performing 355. That was the plan. In the back of my head I thought it would be great to put a Chevy 409 in this car, not a common engine, and a great engine for this car.

The old 350

So I began to watch eBay and various other sites for a engine block, but most were out of my price range at the time. So I waited and continued to evaluate the car its issues and what I was going to do to the car. I spent a lot of time at a web site dedicated to these engines http://www.348-409.com/ which was a great source for information and engine build suggestions. This is where I found my engine, a member in South Dakota was selling a 409 short block from a truck, a perfect engine for my car.

Fine 409

So long story short I switched gears from evaluation to disassembly of the front end of the car and pulling the 350 out of the car. I was able to sell the 350 and offset some of the cost of engine. So on the stand now is the New power plant for the car a Chevy 409, she's so fine.
The 350 out of the car and my little helper

Out with the old

2008-12-11T08:31:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in another post it was the interior that started me on this project of restoration. I was not planning a full scale restoration but just some simple things, like redoing the interior back to original, fixing the dent and doing some minor rust repair. But the best laid plans do not always go as planed.

Thus was the case with the interior. The plan here was to remove the seats that were in there and replace with orginal bucket seats up front and bench seat in the rear, and to clean up the interior, new carpet, remount the tachometer, and gauges, up grade the stearo I spent months looking for orginal seats that were in good condition, I had a lady lined up to do the apoulstery for the seats. A simple enough plan, but as those that restore cars know that is not always the case.

The floor pan damage

Up on the removal of the carpet and seat I found that to get the seats to fit there were some "Modifications" to the floor. The floor brace was cut down to almost nothing and some house siding tin filling in the holes with a few sheet metal screws holding the entire thing together. I also discovered that there was rust along the side rails. Since I do not own a welder I found a guy locally that restores old trucks, Jay's Classic in Kuna, that did the welding for me and replaced the floor pan and cut out the rust along the side rails. This however lead me to start to do a real evulation of the car, and with that the realization that I had a lot more work to do on this car and thus the Shoestring 62' project was born.

The Repaired floor

The Before Pictures

2008-12-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

The car was in good shape overall when I got it. The body was straight, not a lot of rust issues, and only one minor dent. The interior as you will see left a lot to be desired, but that is what the restoration process is all about, sometimes we need to remove what others have done.

The Exterior: There were a few rust spots on the car at the front wheel wells on both sides and a little at the rear wheels. There was also a dent just behind the drivers door that would need attention. but over all the body was straight and sound.

Front view

Rear view

The Interior: Well the interior was another story. Red Valour every were and the original seats had been replaced with something else. This was really the starting point for the restoration. The intent was to redo the interior get the minor body work done and be back on the road in a year. Well all good plans change and as I started this project I discovered that there was a lot more to be done then I first thought.

AHH the Red Valour interior

More Red

The interior in this car was what really started me on this project. I decided that it was time to get rid of the red interior and go back to the original bucket seats and bench seat. After months of looking all over the internet I found a bench seat from a 62' Impala in South Carolina, and bucket seats with the chrome on Ebay and I was ready to embark on the interior restoration. But what happens from there is another post....

About the 62 Impala

2008-12-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

About: This blog will follow the Restoration and customizaion of a 1962 Impala SS. The budget is tight, so I will be learning as I go body work, welding, and general repair and restoration.
This car has a unique history in how it came to be in my hands. A few years back my father entered a contest to win a classic 1962 Impala SS restored. Well long story short he won the car and a few years later gave it to me. We drove it and enjoyed taking it out, but it was in need of some work as I have been discovering.

So come along and follow along as I restore this classic car

The plan: To rebuild this car from the ground up into a mostly-stock car with upgrades to suspension breaks, and some custom touches. The final look of the car has not yet been set in stone but is centered around the idea shown below.

Concept Art for the Car