(Words and Photos by Scott Liggett) The Impala was one of the first vehicles to hit the forum’s Project Vehicle pages way back in 2007 when this website was known as CarJunkieTV. Before that, I was a forum whore at Car Craft and Hot Rod’s forums before they became ad heavy and everyone bailed. On the first post here I was in mid process of changing out the front clip for the second time after the car got hit for the 3rd time. The car has shown up in many road trip articles here on Bangshift over the last ten years as well.
Rebeldryver’s ’65 Impala SS Black Betty – The BangShift.com Forums
Back in the summer of 1996 while living in Sacramento, I owned a ’73 Impala Custom couple that was subject to biannual emissions testing in California, which I getting less and less enthused about. I had also just bent the snot out of the differential when I hit the center island with the left rear wheel. Both of these paltry excuses were enough for me to go looking for another vehicle. I wanted something different and color anyway. So, I went off looking all around the Sacramento area for a new ride that was 1965, or older.
Here is the 383 I built in 1994 just before I pulled it out of the car
I didn’t have much of a budget after scraping together $2000.00. Even back then, $2 grand wouldn’t buy much in the way of a classic muscle car. Camaros and Chevelles were out of the question, budget wise. And, I had no interest in owning either anyways. As usual with this kind of search, you come across ones that looked promising and turned out to be a disaster. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I came this particular Impala. It belonged to a young man trying to manage too many projects. He also had a 64 Impala SS getting the whole lowrider treatment and it was going way beyond what he thought for cost. After a short test drive, I paid the $1500 for it and took it home.
Like every used car, they come with problems that the previous owner never fixed. I discovered three problems with the car on the way home. The first two showed up when I stopped at the gas station to fill up to see if the gas gauge actually functioned. I got a few gallons in when gas started pouring out of the tank where the filler neck went into the tank. I pulled the pump nozzle out of the tank, which pulled the filler neck right out of the tank dumping even more gas all over the ground and my new Nike high tops. After ripping the filler neck off the gas nozzle and shoving it back in the tank, I decided I should leave before anyone noticed the lake of gas on the ground, which I caused. That is when I found out the battery was dead. At this point, I suddenly remembered seeing the battery charger right inside the garage of the previous owner. Since the friend that gave me a ride to pick up the car had to get home fast, I went around the gas station looking for a jump start. That took about a half hour. By the time, the gas station manager saw the mess I created and was berating me in a foreign language.
The last problem was discovered after I left the gas station. November in Northern California can be pretty chilly after dark, I tried to see if the heater worked. While the fan was blowing full blast, the heater core was pissing antifreeze across the interior onto the carpetless floor. Needless to say, I had rolled into Autozone right before it closed to spend the last of my cash on a new battery, heater core, and some JB Weld to fix the gas tank.
But, I now owned a 1965 Impala SS.
The 350/TH350 engine/trans combo that came with the car were both from the junkyard. They both had been marked “69 Nova 350” in yellow paint. It ran and drove like worn out junkyard stuff, but it got me around for about 4 months. The car originally came with a 275 hp 327 and Powerglide. The junkyard 350 engine still had all the 327’s bolt on’s, intake, carb, distributor, valve covers, etc. Even after a full tune up and carb rebuild, the engine was tough to get started when cold. The TH350 trans was temperamental when it came to going into reverse. It would always go into reverse if the trans was warmed from driving, but park it for longer than 5 minutes, it was a 50/50 gamble whether it would no matter much I revved the snot of out it and fiddled with the shifter. Twenty two years later and two other transmission changes, I still back into parking spaces nearly every time.
The rest of the build included rusty no name headers, with equally rusty 2 inch exhaust that ended with turn downs and some no-name turbo mufflers. There was a B&M Z gate that was installed in the original Super Sport console by butchering most of the plastic bottom half of it. The differential was a 8.2 inch 10 bolt with 2.56 gears and no posi. I don’t think it was original to the car as all the trailing arm brackets were painted perfectly red. Too nice to have been done on the car. In keeping with the previous owners plans for the lowrider, it had 20 year old JC Penney 175/75/14 white wall tires on the original steel wheels. Sadly, the original tri bar SS hubcaps were gone with just plain old Chevy wheel covers in their place.
I don’t have a single picture of the car at that time. The first pictures I took came later when I got my dad’s 1960’s Nikon F. Yes,film pictures. Remember 35mm cameras? These were taken about 18 months later after I transferred the 383 and built TH350 from my ’73 Impala to the ’65. I also had spent my tax returns on a the Cragar Street Stars and radial T/A’s. I also had rediculous rear springs made for that stink bug hot rod stance.
More about the 383 I built two years before. I bought it as a long block from a friend of a friend who had just gone through it. It had a Comp Cams 268H flat tappet and old casting fuelie heads. The rotating assembly consisted of a stock 400 crank turned down, stock 5.7 rods and cast TRW dished pistons. The 350 block is a 1969 Corvette 350 hp version with factory 4 bolt mains. It was only bored .010 over, so it really isn’t a 383, The previous owner added a windage tray. It was a great engine for the $1200.00 I paid for it.
I needed heads that had accessory bolt holes to fit all my ’73 Impala’s accessory drive. I sold those fuelie heads off for $400 right away, then bought a set of disassembled ‘186’ castings for $250 and had them rebuilt with the old Z-28 springs deal. The ‘186’ castings were the later fuelie type heads with accessory bolt holes that were used on DZ 302’s, LT1 350’s and far more commonly 300 hp 350’s with 1.94 valves.
Since I had to smog my ’73 Impala at that time, I changed the cam down to Comp’s 260H flat tappet that carried a CARB EO. number to make it legal in California. The rest of the build consisted of Edelbrock’s EGR Performer intake, a stock Q Jet carb, Hooker header’s with the smog trees to run the A.I.R pump. I had an HEI I snagged from the junkyard with the typical upgrades of Accel Super coil, plug wires and upgraded module. Even with 9.8:1 compression, this combo passed emissions fairly easily.
Because the ’65 Impala was exempt from emissions testing I was slowly losing the emissions legal stuff for better performance. I soon got a part time job at Performance Auto Swap rebuilding carbs they got used, and some customer carbs, to pay for it all.
I changed the intake to a used Edelbrock RPM, the camshaft to Comp’s then new line of Xtreme Energy hydraulic flat tappet, .490/.490 lift, 230/236 duration 110* lobe separation. The Hooker smog legal headers got replaced by Hedman headers, which fit the car so much better. One of the carbs I was handed to rebuild was never given back, a Holley 650 double pumper. I then was able to get the 10 bolt rear differential rebuilt with used GM posi and 3.36 gears. .
I was a regular at Sacramento Raceway during 1997-1998, hitting up their Wednesday Night Fun Drags, New Years Day Hung Over races, and the occasional points meet on the weekends. The car would run pretty consistent 14.10’s at just under 100 mph with this setup.
In April 1999, I moved to LA after I had a roommate who went completely nuts. I didn’t like Sacramento anymore and when Scott lost his shit and was taken away in a straight jacket and the police shot up my apartment, I had enough. I packed up my stuff and hauled my Impala down to LA to start over.
These pictures were taken right after I moved to LA up on Mulholland Pkwy. The car still had the “White Boy Hot Rod” look. as my friend of color called it. While it was satisfying my “Stuck in The ’80’s” side, it drove like crap, and handled worse.
Working in my apartment parking space, I pulled the coil springs and took my 4 inch grinder with the death wheel to get cutting. The result looked so much better, which was pure luck.
By 2001, I was on the internet and car related forums, like Car Craft and Hot Rod magazines. I wanted to get better at my automotive picture taking and my car was easiest subject to use. I guess I had dreams of writing for the mags when I wasn’t auditioning for acting gigs. I was taking pictures of the car anywhere I thought was cool. Below are a few of my favorite shots. You can also see the results of accident number 1 since moving to LA. A lady in a Range Rover, on the phone, decided to back up on Melrose Ave without realizing there might be a car behind her.
My next upgrade was to a disc brake kit from CPP for better stopping power in LA traffic. I had been running the original drums for years with the booster disconnected after it had failed and was nothing more than a vacuum leak.
A year later, I took the dive and converted the car to a four speed. I had this transmission for some time. I bought the trans, bellhousing, clutch and a shifter as a combo from him for $300.00. It wasn’t the Muncie I was hoping for, but a New Process A833OD for GM trucks of the 1980’s. These have the gear ratios of 3.06/1.82/1.0/0.74. Very nearly identical to the 700R4, but in a manual shift form. I had earlier found a clutch pedal and linkage set up from a junkyard ’66 Impala.
I didn’t use the original Hurst shifter for trucks, but instead got a Hurst Indy stick, then reworked the original linkage to make it work, then got a big Hurst shifter boot. I made a lot of mistakes and had to pull it all apart four times to get it right. Below shows the bucket seats I got from an junkyard ’89 Cavalier convertible. The original buckets were just killing my back.
Those disc brakes didn’t help when an idiot driver decided to make a left turn from the right lane, right across the front of the car. This was accident number two since moving to LA.
After finding a header panel/radiator support combo and fenders from friends and the Long Beach Swap Meet, I replaced the whole front clip except for the front bumper and hood.
Now, the car just looked stupid with a black front clip. So, out came the sander. A week and 27 rattle cans later, the whole car was black.
This is how the car looked in 2007 when I took on Car Craft’s Anti-Tour to Las Vegas. This picture was taken at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This trip is where I met our own Chad Reynolds.
On July 4th, 2008 John McGann of Car Craft Magazine, were hanging out at the Car Craft shop. He was painting Doug Gladd’s Rambler American. We were just goofing off afterward taking a couple pics of the recently found Project Heavy Metal’s show sign. One thing lead to another and we were painting my Impala with a dusty can of Eastwood’s Rat Rod Black we had found in the shop.
This picture, taken the next morning, has become shared all over the internet. It was also the one Chevy Hi Performance printed in their Reader’s Rides section later in the year.
I drove the car without a console for a while. Since the original console was for an automatic car, I could not use it with the four speed. I then went searching on Ebay for one. I must’ve bid on more than a dozen ’65 SS consoles that all went into stratosphere prices before getting this one for $150.00.
I made a new shifter boot for it to help keep the engine heat out of the car and installed the new console. As you can see from the pictures, the driver’s seat was showing wear at this point. The car was getting driven.
Coming into the spring of 2009, I wanted to up the power of the 383, so I bought a set of Victor Jr heads and Comp Cam’s Xtreme Energy hydraulic roller camshaft. I got the heads new, but they were display models from a defunct speed shop. I paid $800 for the set. The Comp Cam was their XE288HR model with .520/.540 lift, 236/242 duration @.050, and 110* LSA. I ended up with their Pro Magnum push rods, roller rockers and roller lifters as well. I worked myself pretty hard to make the Car Craft Anti-Tour that year and had to cut the tour short because I made myself sick. But, I did run the autocross at the Goodguys show a dozen times before I had to head home to rest.
I wanted to race the car again. Since I suck at heel/toe power braking, I added a Hurst line lock. But, I also like keeping my feet attached to my legs, and doing burnouts with a clutch can be scary, I also added a used Lakewood scattershield I picked up at the Pomona Swap Meet.
I later convinced myself that I was losing power by using the smaller Hedman headers. I needed bigger ones. Since no one made anything bigger than 1 5/8″ primary tube headers off the shelf. I decided to make my own.
I bought a set of unknown headers at the swap meet that measured out to 1 3/4″. I later discovered that I had bought headers for a Mopar, not a small block as you can see from the second picture that shows a Chevy small block header gasket lying on the Mopar headers. This is where I lost it completely and bought header flanges and a few U bends from Speedway and got to cutting. With the help from friends, it ended up working out.
You can read about this adventure here on Bangshift.
BangShift Tech: Making Big Block Mopar Headers Fit a Small Block Chevy Powered 1965 Impala SS!
By this time the Cavalier buckets were really showing their wear. I was looking at different options when I came across these Scat ProCars at the swap meet. I got the pair for $250 with brackets.
The original 3 core radiator finally quit keeping the engine cool. A friend sold me this great custom Mattson dual pass radiator that he had sitting on a shelf in his shop. He also helped me make brackets to mount it.
The CPP brake booster failed one day. Even though their great customer service offered to rebuild or replace it, I wanted to upgrade to a hydroboost for more stopping power. Instead of buying new, I got one from an Astro van at the junkyard and spent a bundle at Earl’s on hoses and fittings. I also wrote an article on this surprisingly easy swap. You can read it below.
Tech: How to Swap a Junkyard Hyrdoboost on Your Classic GM Muscle Car or Truck
Because I became an autocross junkie, I wanted better handling out my big Impala. I went back to CPP for new tubular A arms. I also got Helwig style sway bars, and Koni Adjustable shocks.
As much as I liked my BFG’s and Cragars, I wanted something different after 15 years. I got a set of 18 inch wheels and Nitto’s for the car. It totally changed the look of the car. Almost immediately after getting the new wheels and tires, I got a job back in Nebraska and drove the Impala 1800 miles there.
Since then, I have since run the Impala a few times on the autocross. Once I even convinced Indy Car Champion Al Unser Jr to ride with me. It was great. Of course, the announcer was mispronouncing my name the whole time.
1965 Impala SS Running the autocross with Al Unser Jr riding shotgun.
Over the last 22 years, I have driven this car nearly 100,000 miles. It was my daily driver forever, my only car for 5 years, and my favorite road tripping car. I have drag raced it, autocrossed, beat the snot out of it and drove it everywhere. It has been in magazines several times and now seems to be getting printed on T shirts. I absolutely love this car and it will be the last one of my collection that I would ever sell.
Sadly, the 383 finally expired last April. It was getting really tired and the oil pressure was down to 10 psi at idle. I also wanted something new and more powerful.
Several years ago, I started collecting parts for a turbo and EFI conversion. The 383 would have never survived this kind of upgrade. Earlier this year, I bought a BluePrint Engines small block 400 that is designed for power adders.
In the future, you will be reading about all the upgrades I am planning to do to the car…. If I can ever get this damned Galaxie out of my garage.
- If you are wondering why I am calling a black car Evil Orchid, it is because that is the original color of the car, and it will be again soon. Hence, the project name.
Scott Liggett
Glad to see this car, again.
when you paint it, don’t make it too, perfect. or you’ll never drive it in anger. part of it’s charm is the, sleeper/beater vibe.
Have a Merry Christmas and happy n.year. Scott
it will never be nice enough to be a show car. But, I am at a point now that the body can no longer be ignored.
Love this car. Glad you decided to use my idea of calling the car Evil Orchid. I think it fits the car well.
Thanks for the name idea.
Cool story to a cool car, I’ve always liked the ’65 – ’66 Impalas since I helped my friend build his in high school. Glad that you were able to leave LA with the Impala in one piece.
Look at the lead in picture. It shows the dent in the header panel that was from the 5th time that the car had been hit.
Takes dedication to own a car that long. Owned my 66 SS396 Chevelle for 11 yrs but sold it to buy a house 22 yrs ago. Converting it to a 4 speed to a smart move! Plan on updating to a 6 speed in the future?
Love what you did to the car. I had the non-SS, 283/195/PG version of this, also black. Since you ‘cross the car, did you change out the cruise ship steering box?
The steering box got replaced over the years, along with every other mechanical part on the car. I never went looking for a quick ratio box, but the replacement does the job, about 3 1/2 turns lock to lock. As you can see from the article, I didn’t go crazy with race suspension parts. I want to drive the car. A ridiculously stiff suspension would make it no fun to drive the 99% of time.
Now, the power steering boxes were a quicker ratio than the non power versions simply because the easy of turning the wheel.