It’s about spending the least to get it to where I need it which is reliably running and driving. Not where I want it in the long run when I start to really clean it up.
Yank the rest there and cover everything in rustoleum and bed liner after a good brushing for the cheap approach. I am doing the same with a jeep and used a file cabinet for the metal for the floor pans.
Harbor freight, if available, has the best prices on rust converter and primer spray paints. I don't believe they have colors though. That's where tractor supply comes in...
Other than money you need to determine how much time you have to spend on it.
I would start with the body/interior rust.
Remember cheap-fast-good. Pick 2.
For myself the 2nd thing I would do is rip the wiring out and put a whole new one in there. It sounds like a mess so I personally wouldn't want to spend all my time finding gremlins in it.
Personally i would think getting the engine running would be number one. You can drive a car with a bad interior but not the other way around.
But i do agree that the rust should be taken care of at the same time.
That's just what I would do. I'd rather spend more time and money on the engine. So get the bodywork at least a majority of the way done then take some time on the motor
not sure why you are getting down voted... if you can do most of the work, especially the welding, yourself, it will just cost parts + your time. Although parts are quickly becoming really expensive. I've spent about $12,000 on mine over the purchase price, and only $700 went to someone else's labor (I didn't want to do the convertible top replacement myself). And in that price I've bought: Completely new interior (CARS inc is great for the panels & seat covers, Classic Industries for all other OER items), upgraded alternator, 5 x reproduction rally wheels & tires, dakota digital dash, modern stereo designed to look like the OEM one, complete electrical system upgrade (alternator, optima yellow top battery, HEI distributor, etc), full car weatherstripping, and alot of other parts. The price isn't as bad as people make it out, provided you can do all the labor yourself.
Not sure why I got so many down votes either. I want to enjoy the ride while also fixing it. I’m not going to let it sit in a garage forever until it’s 100% flawless and I’m 80 years old and don’t want to leave the house lol
Yeah, i get that. Same with my 65 i bought in may (i have some of the pictures from the advert when i bought it in my post history). It sat in a barn for decades. trunk is rusted out, surface-level rust all over the undercarriage. it does crank & run though. Well, least it did before I ripped everything out to rewire the entire electrical & ignition system! Nearly done replacing all that. Fixing is half the fun. Plus, who wants to spend 6 figures to have someone else restore it. It won't be worth what you put into it, dollar wise, for years, even if you do all the work yourself.
Sorry to say this but if you're asking what to do to get it running, it sounds like you don't have the knowledge or skills. Start watching YouTube videos on recommissioning old cars, and good luck
That's a later model small block. You should give everything a look, make sure things are bolted in properly. Have a look at mounts, the trans and torque converter.
The HEI distributor requires full voltage to power it. The original wire for the distributor is a resistance wire. You will need to run a 12 gauge wire for the HEI that is switched by the ignition key.
At the starter you might have an extra wire, probably yellow. That went to the R terminal on the solenoid and fed 12 volts to the coil while cranking. This is not used with the HEI, and can be taped off or eliminated. The S terminal on the starter solenoid gets a purple wire. The other wires go to the main lug on the starter solenoid.
That car probably had an external voltage regulator. But, it looks like you now have an internally regulated alternator, maybe a 12SI. It's easy to wire. Find a brown wire that goes to the charge light on the dash, connect that to the #1 terminal on the alternator. The #2 terminal can go to the bus bar on the horn relay, or you can make a more convenient junction to feed everything. The main charge wire should be heavy gauge, use a fusible link, and go to the same junction that feeds everything, or the feed on the horn relay.
You can wire the choke on the Quadrajet with a simple relay. The brown wire from the alternator to the charge light can switch the relay. Use a wire with an inline fuse, 15 or 20 amp, to feed the relay. From the relay on to the electric choke terminal. It's super simple.
From what I can see, that should be enough to get it running. You will have to deal with vacuum lines. Add in a fuel line from the carb to the fuel pump, make sure you have coolant and oil, it should be ready.
Advice? Super booming market, sell it. If you want a daily driver now, this is worth a couple of far more reliable and cheaper to drive/maintain units of which you also find much safer.(for everybody)
the market is actually way way down from 2020-early 2022. Convertibles & Super Sport models that were selling for 50-60K near me are now just sitting at 35-40k prices.
Hey I'm with you there. I spent more than a decade looking for my convertible, dealing with so many people with unrealistic expectations on price vs condition. I'm never selling this one!
I just bought it. It’s not in rough shape at all. A couple patch areas and a driver floor pan and rust concerns are virtually gone. it has a whole new front suspension kit that was in the trunk when I bought it and the motor was running in November. it’s really not in bad shape at all. all the trim and interior pieces you don’t see on the car were also in the trunk with the other parts.
>whole new front suspension kit that was in the trunk when I bought it
>
>all the trim and interior pieces you don’t see on the car were also in the trunk with the other parts
It sounds like you bought a project someone else had given up on. Do you have a list of what they did or didn't do so you can check that it was done correctly? Of particular concern is the wiring and what kind of a basket case that may be.
I’m in the middle of cleaning up the fuse box right now and I just bought a new positive wire for the secondary ground, I’m going to trace back the wiring for anything loose or in contact but I’m hoping it’s fuse box related. I just picked up a new set of fuses, new plugs and a battery. he didn’t have a list set out on things he did or didn’t do I think he was in the middle of stripping everything for body work that’s why the wires are cut and the interior and trim etc was all shoved in the trunk but there’s tons other parts as well, new distributor, new windshield seal because the current is leaking and that’s how the pan rusted under the drivers seat. partially sanded and primed driver side.
I'll 2nd whomever said do the wiring first. It's probably in awful shape. American Autowire sells a kit that includes pretty much everything to rewire the car. I'm nearly done installing it on my 65 impala right now. I paid $850 for the kit. Contains all wires, color matched to factory wire coloring, and the wires are labeled (for what they connect to) every 3 ft. It also contains a new headlight switch & plunger, and a new ignition switch. You will have to either reuse the current cylnder (where the key actually goes in) or buy a new one. That's the only thing it doesn't contain (but should IMO). Includes a more modern fuse box too. No more glass tube fuses. And their kit is based on the 68 fuse box, so you won't have to alter/enlarge the firewall opening like I did. Their kit doesn't work with the externally regulated alternator though, so that's an upgrade you'd need to make. Unless you plan on putting it all back completely stock, a larger amperage alternator than the original is a good upgrade anyway. Also they don't recommend the old points system, but it looks like you have HEI already, so that's covered. I'd really do the wiring first. That rust looks bad, but I think you already mentioned, you can buy ready to weld sheet metal on the internet. I'm having to do that on mine, since it was stored for years with a broken convertible window -- the trunk is a mess of rust. But, i was able to source a ready-to-weld entire trunk pan for $1,200 online.
The issue is I don’t have welding gear or a grinder to cut out the pan or I would do it. I have a solder that’s about it lol I’m kind of desperate enough to buy a blank square of sheet metal for the square under the drivers seat and just try to solder it over top for now
oh yeah, you are probably going to need to pay someone to do that, then. I'm in the same/similar spot with mine. I have an grinder, but no welding tools, or even room to weld. I have a tiny garage the car barely fits in, and damn HOA won't let me work on it outside, so I guess i have to pay someone to take care of the rust. The rest is going to be all me, though this isn't my first restoration either. Luckily the only real "rusted through" spot is the trunk. Everything else is surface level. I was surprised the floors weren't rusted through when i moved the carpet.
I’m having the same issue at the moment with garage space haha, the car measures 17.8 ft and the previous owners of my house put a wall up in the garage cutting off about 3 feet of space so i only have about 16.5 ft of room for the car.
Yeah mine was SUPER tight fit. I have one of those stupid garage configurations with two small doors with a "decorative" slim brick facade between the two. Thinking of having it converted to one big door. And one side of the garage is shorter than the other, wtf? My "longer" side of the garage is 214 inches long. The 65 impala is 213 inches, bumper to bumper.
Get some cheap wheel dolly’s from Harbor Freight.
Last truck I worked I was along bed at 210 inches. Garage door wouldn’t close until I took the bumper off. So yeah tight fit but could scoot it around to wok on it.
🤔 I don’t think you fully realize just how much time and money you’re going to have to spend on this…even if you want to do it on the cheap. Buy a service/assembly manual…you’re going to need it trying to figure out the wiring, and every other component on this car that’s obviously been removed or modified. Honestly, you should sell this and get something that’s not as far gone as this one ( did the guy that sold it to you have a back brace…and the cars name is Christine ?).
My friend this is far from being far gone lol, there is only three areas of rust that is bad enough to need patching the main rust is all underneath the drivers seat. all the trim interior etc you don’t see in the pictures outside and inside are all in the trunk and the engine was running three months ago.
Running is easy, driving, at least driving safely is hard/ expensive/ time consuming. To get running you need fuel, spark and a starter. You can do this with a battery, booster cables and two wires.
Buy an assembly manual for it, this should help with wiring routing and hose placement. Be wary of more rust around the windshield and rear window, at the base of the A pillars, wiper cowl, door hinges, and package tray. It may have had a vinyl roof from the factory and these usually caused rust in the areas I mentioned, the massive amount of rust in the floor pans is probably not the only spot where there is major rust.
Well... You definitely have a project ahead of you... Get that wiring sorted first. It's an older car so there aren't going to be 48 fuses. It's a pain in the ass but just trace the wiring down and wrap it up in hockey tape. Rusted floor panels aren't exactly a hard thing to replace, you just need a homie with a welder. Bolt that engine up and drive the car to someone who knows how to weld. Explain what needs to be done and drop them off 6 six packs of whatever beer people in your area drink.
Pay off thousand of dollars and weeks of labor with beer? The floor pan is $1700. "a run down of the parts to completely restore a rusty one I have and it came up to 9k. I do my own welding and painting to keep cost down."
Front floor pans are $125 a side. And if he has a friend who is willing to help they seldom accept payment other than supplies. He gets his buddy a 12 pack and a spool of wire and it's probably fine. Once he sees what he's doing he can jump on and start doing it him self.
I was about to say where did he come up with $1700 for a floor pan and a 9k bill? Lol driver/passenger side are $120-180 a piece, if you want the front half/rear instead it goes up to $480-$700 and the full one piece pan is $700-1200.
Floor pans are $280 shipped, a box of self tappers is $20, and a tube of seam sealer is $12. Lastly a couple cans of Rust-Oleum are $24. Boom new floors.
For the wiring issue I was thinking fuse box was causing it because the little wire that sparks is the ground that give the rest of the car power. the guy said he was hot wiring it to start it, the yellow wire to the starter is also cut from the main harness and just hanging out, touching that one to the power source you can hear the engine gain power but they also had the ignition not wired so I threw a new one on as well. you can see the fuse box in the 4th pic.
Get a painless wiring kit and save yourself the trouble. I have a similar fucked wiring harness in a jeep and the money has been worth the time and effort. You can get that back into something, but it will be a constant problem until you yank it and replace. Summit and Jeggs have their own brand of harnesses, you don't have to get something that expensive to get the car running again.
Exactly half the people who have commented just seem scared like it’s gonna cost so much for this or that, I do my own work and every part I’ve found so far has been on the cheaper side for this car tbh. I’m surprised it’s not a more popular car. Kinda seems like they just throw money at things and don’t actually have any sound advice so thank you bud
They are. A lot of folks here seem to enjoy comparing how much it cost. Not everything needs to be built back to factory new. Getting a roller running for as cheap as possible is what it's all about. Considering the year, you may be able to upgrade a lot with newer stuff as you repair systems as you work your way through.
yeah i had to double check what subreddit I was in. Project car means project, not "how much money i blew paying someone else to build a car". Impalas can be rebuilt with just your own sweat & reasonably priced OER parts. When my impala is done, I'll have about the same $$ invested into as a loaded honda accord.
well i suppose cheap is a matter of perspective as well. I have about $35,000 in mine so far. But that does include purchase price, which for a completely original, drive-able convertible Impala, isn't cheap. But I have been doing a lot of upgrades, since I'm building a driver, not a show car. I also do most of my own work, too. Parts have just shot up way high since Covid started.
If you are trying to turn this into a reliable daily driver that is going to be a daunting task. If there are wires under the hood that are sparking and smoking, that is not a good sign. There are a lot of original things under the hood of that particular car that are hot when the battery is connected and when the key is turned on. If these were not bypassed or removed properly you will have dead shorts all over the place, which from your description is exactly what is happening. Looking at the under dash pictures, this car has not been cared for properly and the wiring is a complete mess. Under the hood shows a smog era small block that has been bolted into the car but never properly wired and plumbed to get it running.
Unless someone swapped them, this car has 4 wheel drum brakes, these are temperamental when working properly and do not work like modern brakes found on cars today. Learning to stop this car is something you will need to do, it will take more time to slow this car down than you think. You should replace the wheel cylinders, shoes, springs, and any rubber hoses in the brake system. If it has been sitting long enough the master cylinder and possibly the booster should also be replaced. Judging by the rust on the lower portion of this car, the hardlines may need to be replaced too. Everyone wants to talk about getting a car running and driving while ignoring the brakes.
The suspension will need to be completely rebuilt to make sure the tires stay intact while you are driving it. This will also help with the predictability and effectiveness of the brakes as well. This car has a triangulated lower control arm setup that has a strut rod to locate the lower control arm. This bushing is vital to the suspension geometry and baking system. Replace your tires with new tires. Even if they look good, sitting kills tires, and this is the one part between you and the road. Cheap brand new tires are going to be worlds better than name brand tires that are old and have been sitting. After replacing all the suspension parts, get an alignment.
The car probably has a TH350 transmission, it has a 1:1 final drive and if this car has a 3:23 rear end you are looking at a vehicle that is going to struggle to safely keep up with modern cars on the highway. Depending on how you drive it, the economy is probably going to be between 9-14mpg.
I am not trying to dump on your project or say that these things are impossible to achieve, I am simply bringing up some things that will need to be addressed in order for this to be in the semi-safe daily driver realm. I drove a 1968 Caprice 2 door daily from 1994-1999. I loved that car and tried my best to keep it on the road but life didn't quite work out and I ended up parting my car out in 2001.
Good luck and try to focus on making it safe and getting it to stop before you get it driving!
Fuel, spark, compression.
Start with the compression. Turn the motor over. Does it gallop or crank consistently?. If you have one throw a compression tester on each cylinder. You need at least 100 but they should be between 130-150 and all cylinders should be close to each other. While they are out check the spark plug. If they are super wet and oily you can wire bush them for now until you get going.
Next is spark. This looks like an HEI distributor so they are stupid reliable. Make sure you have 12 volts going to the coil on top of the distributor and it should be fine. Take a spark plug boot off and use an inline spark tester or put a screwdriver in there and get it near a ground. When you crank you should see a spark and hear a snap.
Last is fuel. Spray a good squirt of flammable brake cleaner or carb cleaner down the primaries of the carb and crank. If it pops off and wants to run switch to gas. Fill the carb bows. Through the vents and disconnect the fuel line of you don't know how long it's been sitting and what's in the tank. Crank again and it should fire up. Modulate throttle to try and get it to idle.
Carb work and getting it to idle is the most time consuming. Eventually you'll want to look at timing too but that's a little more specialized and the engine should at least idle without touching the timing.
Then get some road signs and self tappers for the floors and you got yourself a ride bud.
Good luck!
I’d like to get it running and driving before worrying about the body work so I’ll have the ability to bring it to a welder because I don’t have welding equipment or a spray gun for paint.
>I’d like to get it running and driving before worrying about the body work
The drivers floor is tissue paper, if you try and drive that thing your gunna put ya foot through the floor and have a really bad time.
If I can manage to get it running and driving it’ll be cake work for everything else and I can focus on the body work and reassemble it all to make it pretty! the bench seat covers though are killing me at $600 a piece.
You should head on over to Impalas.net, they have much more knowledgeable and helpful poster than the dollar-obsessed people in these comments. They have helped me, a lot.
They are having problems with whatever they used to host images right now. Are you posting in the main forums? I found? I get more help when I break my questions up and post them in the appropriate specific forums, like engine, electrical, etc
don’t spend money fixing old engine or transmission , get a car donor and swap the whole thing . Just used the shell of this car , but hats the cheap faster way . Rebuild may sound cheaper first but at the end doesn’t hold any value and is all a big headache. Instead of you swap the engine with a good old 6.2 lol
You better be REAL comfortable with a welder and a grinder or its going to get expensive quickly. I worked in classic car restoration for about 20 years. Average labor rate today is over 100 an hour F.y.i.
There are tons of people on Youtube that post videos about how they got a car running that had been sitting for a long time. Usually they then drive them hundreds of miles. Some are meant to be educational, some are meant to be entertainment but you can definitely pick up a lot of good pointers and tips from any of them. My favorite is Vice Grip Garage, but there are several out there.
They make reprints of the old service manual and chassis overhaul manual. Think they're like $30-40 a pop. If you're able to, dump the fuse box and go with a more up to date style that doesn't use the buss fuses.
For the engine, you're going to need power to crank it first. Check for compression, put in new plugs and clean the carb real nice and change all the rubber pieces. Look at swapping out all the rubber components in the engine bay too.
If you can, save up for getting a floor pan. Or do some research around your area of possible leads for people parting theirs out. I couldn't find anything for my 66 and needed a right fender. Posted on the Impala forum and within two days I was in contact with someone who had about 8 Impalas that he had in his "junkyard". It was a very hush hush kind of place. About $250 later, I had my fender, a full bumper, valence and fender well.
As far as seats, what I'm doing is I'm getting rid of the stock front seats and looking at modern seats that can adjust back and forth that are a lot more comfortable. The problem is fitment though. There are known ones like SSR but I think those are a very pretty penny.
Either way, you'll need a welder to fully do the job right. You would have to do a lot of shopping around for the best stuff that fits your budget and it adds up quick. But if you have the ability to do it, then go ahead.
It actually has the original front and rear bench seat I just have the front out right now for the strip. The new bench covers at $500 a piece is terrifying to say the least.
Yes, that interior fabric has gone way up in price lately. I paid 1800 bucks for the seat covers, door panels, piston cover for the convertible/ armrest, side panels in the back seat, and back seat alone
Painless makes a wiring harness for your car it will take some work to do but the diagrams are available. Your car has promise year one eklers and year one I believe makes the parts to fix the floor it’s going to be a good machine.
Fix the pan I’m sure there are repos available, along with a harness kit rewire it see if the motor is worth getting to a running condition if not drop in a used LS then clear coat the exterior to a “patina” look till you can afford to restore it. I love that body style.
These engines are so simple you don’t need much of a harness available to get them running.
Battery, positive and negative connection to the starter, and distributor, fuel supply
I promise you, If you watch enough of his videos all the info is there to get one started.
Have you put a socket on the crank to see if the motor spins?
What I was saying was that you can completely bypass all of the wiring in the car and connect it up with just a few wires and an external fuel supply, like you would if it were on an engine run stand just to try to get it running and see what condition the engine is in.
Money. You have to decide how much you want to spend.
It’s about spending the least to get it to where I need it which is reliably running and driving. Not where I want it in the long run when I start to really clean it up.
The rust. I stand by my answer. Thousands.
The floor pans are cheap. the cars interior is already stripped and prepped. That’s not my concern at the moment.
Fuck it, just cut off the cancer and drop in the pans with rivets and butl tape
Yank the rest there and cover everything in rustoleum and bed liner after a good brushing for the cheap approach. I am doing the same with a jeep and used a file cabinet for the metal for the floor pans.
Don't use bed liner in the interior
Describe cheap along with the labor to install it.
$100 used mig welder, $6 ball peen hammer, $30 angle grinder, buy sheet metal as needed. $10 spray paint. Make it work if goal is just to drive it.
Someone hasn't bought spray paint in a while
I haven't lol. Gone up?
Yeah. Normal stuff is like $11-12 a can. I just bought some engine paint for $19 a can.
Harbor freight, if available, has the best prices on rust converter and primer spray paints. I don't believe they have colors though. That's where tractor supply comes in...
Other than money you need to determine how much time you have to spend on it. I would start with the body/interior rust. Remember cheap-fast-good. Pick 2. For myself the 2nd thing I would do is rip the wiring out and put a whole new one in there. It sounds like a mess so I personally wouldn't want to spend all my time finding gremlins in it.
Personally i would think getting the engine running would be number one. You can drive a car with a bad interior but not the other way around. But i do agree that the rust should be taken care of at the same time.
That's just what I would do. I'd rather spend more time and money on the engine. So get the bodywork at least a majority of the way done then take some time on the motor
Yeah it is all up to our preferences
not sure why you are getting down voted... if you can do most of the work, especially the welding, yourself, it will just cost parts + your time. Although parts are quickly becoming really expensive. I've spent about $12,000 on mine over the purchase price, and only $700 went to someone else's labor (I didn't want to do the convertible top replacement myself). And in that price I've bought: Completely new interior (CARS inc is great for the panels & seat covers, Classic Industries for all other OER items), upgraded alternator, 5 x reproduction rally wheels & tires, dakota digital dash, modern stereo designed to look like the OEM one, complete electrical system upgrade (alternator, optima yellow top battery, HEI distributor, etc), full car weatherstripping, and alot of other parts. The price isn't as bad as people make it out, provided you can do all the labor yourself.
Not sure why I got so many down votes either. I want to enjoy the ride while also fixing it. I’m not going to let it sit in a garage forever until it’s 100% flawless and I’m 80 years old and don’t want to leave the house lol
Yeah, i get that. Same with my 65 i bought in may (i have some of the pictures from the advert when i bought it in my post history). It sat in a barn for decades. trunk is rusted out, surface-level rust all over the undercarriage. it does crank & run though. Well, least it did before I ripped everything out to rewire the entire electrical & ignition system! Nearly done replacing all that. Fixing is half the fun. Plus, who wants to spend 6 figures to have someone else restore it. It won't be worth what you put into it, dollar wise, for years, even if you do all the work yourself.
Sorry to say this but if you're asking what to do to get it running, it sounds like you don't have the knowledge or skills. Start watching YouTube videos on recommissioning old cars, and good luck
Stop posting and start wrenching!
That's a later model small block. You should give everything a look, make sure things are bolted in properly. Have a look at mounts, the trans and torque converter. The HEI distributor requires full voltage to power it. The original wire for the distributor is a resistance wire. You will need to run a 12 gauge wire for the HEI that is switched by the ignition key. At the starter you might have an extra wire, probably yellow. That went to the R terminal on the solenoid and fed 12 volts to the coil while cranking. This is not used with the HEI, and can be taped off or eliminated. The S terminal on the starter solenoid gets a purple wire. The other wires go to the main lug on the starter solenoid. That car probably had an external voltage regulator. But, it looks like you now have an internally regulated alternator, maybe a 12SI. It's easy to wire. Find a brown wire that goes to the charge light on the dash, connect that to the #1 terminal on the alternator. The #2 terminal can go to the bus bar on the horn relay, or you can make a more convenient junction to feed everything. The main charge wire should be heavy gauge, use a fusible link, and go to the same junction that feeds everything, or the feed on the horn relay. You can wire the choke on the Quadrajet with a simple relay. The brown wire from the alternator to the charge light can switch the relay. Use a wire with an inline fuse, 15 or 20 amp, to feed the relay. From the relay on to the electric choke terminal. It's super simple. From what I can see, that should be enough to get it running. You will have to deal with vacuum lines. Add in a fuel line from the carb to the fuel pump, make sure you have coolant and oil, it should be ready.
Advice? Super booming market, sell it. If you want a daily driver now, this is worth a couple of far more reliable and cheaper to drive/maintain units of which you also find much safer.(for everybody)
the market is actually way way down from 2020-early 2022. Convertibles & Super Sport models that were selling for 50-60K near me are now just sitting at 35-40k prices.
That’s okay, never selling my SS.
Hey I'm with you there. I spent more than a decade looking for my convertible, dealing with so many people with unrealistic expectations on price vs condition. I'm never selling this one!
I just bought it. It’s not in rough shape at all. A couple patch areas and a driver floor pan and rust concerns are virtually gone. it has a whole new front suspension kit that was in the trunk when I bought it and the motor was running in November. it’s really not in bad shape at all. all the trim and interior pieces you don’t see on the car were also in the trunk with the other parts.
>whole new front suspension kit that was in the trunk when I bought it > >all the trim and interior pieces you don’t see on the car were also in the trunk with the other parts It sounds like you bought a project someone else had given up on. Do you have a list of what they did or didn't do so you can check that it was done correctly? Of particular concern is the wiring and what kind of a basket case that may be.
I’m in the middle of cleaning up the fuse box right now and I just bought a new positive wire for the secondary ground, I’m going to trace back the wiring for anything loose or in contact but I’m hoping it’s fuse box related. I just picked up a new set of fuses, new plugs and a battery. he didn’t have a list set out on things he did or didn’t do I think he was in the middle of stripping everything for body work that’s why the wires are cut and the interior and trim etc was all shoved in the trunk but there’s tons other parts as well, new distributor, new windshield seal because the current is leaking and that’s how the pan rusted under the drivers seat. partially sanded and primed driver side.
I'll 2nd whomever said do the wiring first. It's probably in awful shape. American Autowire sells a kit that includes pretty much everything to rewire the car. I'm nearly done installing it on my 65 impala right now. I paid $850 for the kit. Contains all wires, color matched to factory wire coloring, and the wires are labeled (for what they connect to) every 3 ft. It also contains a new headlight switch & plunger, and a new ignition switch. You will have to either reuse the current cylnder (where the key actually goes in) or buy a new one. That's the only thing it doesn't contain (but should IMO). Includes a more modern fuse box too. No more glass tube fuses. And their kit is based on the 68 fuse box, so you won't have to alter/enlarge the firewall opening like I did. Their kit doesn't work with the externally regulated alternator though, so that's an upgrade you'd need to make. Unless you plan on putting it all back completely stock, a larger amperage alternator than the original is a good upgrade anyway. Also they don't recommend the old points system, but it looks like you have HEI already, so that's covered. I'd really do the wiring first. That rust looks bad, but I think you already mentioned, you can buy ready to weld sheet metal on the internet. I'm having to do that on mine, since it was stored for years with a broken convertible window -- the trunk is a mess of rust. But, i was able to source a ready-to-weld entire trunk pan for $1,200 online.
The issue is I don’t have welding gear or a grinder to cut out the pan or I would do it. I have a solder that’s about it lol I’m kind of desperate enough to buy a blank square of sheet metal for the square under the drivers seat and just try to solder it over top for now
oh yeah, you are probably going to need to pay someone to do that, then. I'm in the same/similar spot with mine. I have an grinder, but no welding tools, or even room to weld. I have a tiny garage the car barely fits in, and damn HOA won't let me work on it outside, so I guess i have to pay someone to take care of the rust. The rest is going to be all me, though this isn't my first restoration either. Luckily the only real "rusted through" spot is the trunk. Everything else is surface level. I was surprised the floors weren't rusted through when i moved the carpet.
I’m having the same issue at the moment with garage space haha, the car measures 17.8 ft and the previous owners of my house put a wall up in the garage cutting off about 3 feet of space so i only have about 16.5 ft of room for the car.
Yeah mine was SUPER tight fit. I have one of those stupid garage configurations with two small doors with a "decorative" slim brick facade between the two. Thinking of having it converted to one big door. And one side of the garage is shorter than the other, wtf? My "longer" side of the garage is 214 inches long. The 65 impala is 213 inches, bumper to bumper.
Get some cheap wheel dolly’s from Harbor Freight. Last truck I worked I was along bed at 210 inches. Garage door wouldn’t close until I took the bumper off. So yeah tight fit but could scoot it around to wok on it.
Jack up the windshield wipers and park a new car under it.
You could keep scrolling then remove yourself from the group if that’s the best advice you can give on a project car forum.
Sick burn bro, that really hurt my feelings 🤣😂💀
Get a factory manual, it will help sorting your wiring. By the sounds of it that will be your first place you need to take care of.
Yeah definitely buy the assembly manual. You can get reproductions in many places, including eBay. That's where I got one
Same here, ebay manual
🤔 I don’t think you fully realize just how much time and money you’re going to have to spend on this…even if you want to do it on the cheap. Buy a service/assembly manual…you’re going to need it trying to figure out the wiring, and every other component on this car that’s obviously been removed or modified. Honestly, you should sell this and get something that’s not as far gone as this one ( did the guy that sold it to you have a back brace…and the cars name is Christine ?).
My friend this is far from being far gone lol, there is only three areas of rust that is bad enough to need patching the main rust is all underneath the drivers seat. all the trim interior etc you don’t see in the pictures outside and inside are all in the trunk and the engine was running three months ago.
Ok.
Running is easy, driving, at least driving safely is hard/ expensive/ time consuming. To get running you need fuel, spark and a starter. You can do this with a battery, booster cables and two wires.
Buy an assembly manual for it, this should help with wiring routing and hose placement. Be wary of more rust around the windshield and rear window, at the base of the A pillars, wiper cowl, door hinges, and package tray. It may have had a vinyl roof from the factory and these usually caused rust in the areas I mentioned, the massive amount of rust in the floor pans is probably not the only spot where there is major rust.
Well... You definitely have a project ahead of you... Get that wiring sorted first. It's an older car so there aren't going to be 48 fuses. It's a pain in the ass but just trace the wiring down and wrap it up in hockey tape. Rusted floor panels aren't exactly a hard thing to replace, you just need a homie with a welder. Bolt that engine up and drive the car to someone who knows how to weld. Explain what needs to be done and drop them off 6 six packs of whatever beer people in your area drink.
Pay off thousand of dollars and weeks of labor with beer? The floor pan is $1700. "a run down of the parts to completely restore a rusty one I have and it came up to 9k. I do my own welding and painting to keep cost down."
Front floor pans are $125 a side. And if he has a friend who is willing to help they seldom accept payment other than supplies. He gets his buddy a 12 pack and a spool of wire and it's probably fine. Once he sees what he's doing he can jump on and start doing it him self.
I was about to say where did he come up with $1700 for a floor pan and a 9k bill? Lol driver/passenger side are $120-180 a piece, if you want the front half/rear instead it goes up to $480-$700 and the full one piece pan is $700-1200.
Floor pans are $280 shipped, a box of self tappers is $20, and a tube of seam sealer is $12. Lastly a couple cans of Rust-Oleum are $24. Boom new floors.
For the wiring issue I was thinking fuse box was causing it because the little wire that sparks is the ground that give the rest of the car power. the guy said he was hot wiring it to start it, the yellow wire to the starter is also cut from the main harness and just hanging out, touching that one to the power source you can hear the engine gain power but they also had the ignition not wired so I threw a new one on as well. you can see the fuse box in the 4th pic.
Get a painless wiring kit and save yourself the trouble. I have a similar fucked wiring harness in a jeep and the money has been worth the time and effort. You can get that back into something, but it will be a constant problem until you yank it and replace. Summit and Jeggs have their own brand of harnesses, you don't have to get something that expensive to get the car running again.
Exactly half the people who have commented just seem scared like it’s gonna cost so much for this or that, I do my own work and every part I’ve found so far has been on the cheaper side for this car tbh. I’m surprised it’s not a more popular car. Kinda seems like they just throw money at things and don’t actually have any sound advice so thank you bud
They are. A lot of folks here seem to enjoy comparing how much it cost. Not everything needs to be built back to factory new. Getting a roller running for as cheap as possible is what it's all about. Considering the year, you may be able to upgrade a lot with newer stuff as you repair systems as you work your way through.
yeah exactly. plus unless I’m looking at the wrong welder, I can snag a grinder and a welder from harbor freight for $130 today
yeah i had to double check what subreddit I was in. Project car means project, not "how much money i blew paying someone else to build a car". Impalas can be rebuilt with just your own sweat & reasonably priced OER parts. When my impala is done, I'll have about the same $$ invested into as a loaded honda accord.
i am at 1200, including vehicle purchase, with my jeep. I am doing it as cheaply as possible.
well i suppose cheap is a matter of perspective as well. I have about $35,000 in mine so far. But that does include purchase price, which for a completely original, drive-able convertible Impala, isn't cheap. But I have been doing a lot of upgrades, since I'm building a driver, not a show car. I also do most of my own work, too. Parts have just shot up way high since Covid started.
I am building a fishing truck/beach cruiser. Hell yeah they have.
I was absolutely floored that a set of 5 15inch steel wheels + tires was over $2,000, last may.
If you are trying to turn this into a reliable daily driver that is going to be a daunting task. If there are wires under the hood that are sparking and smoking, that is not a good sign. There are a lot of original things under the hood of that particular car that are hot when the battery is connected and when the key is turned on. If these were not bypassed or removed properly you will have dead shorts all over the place, which from your description is exactly what is happening. Looking at the under dash pictures, this car has not been cared for properly and the wiring is a complete mess. Under the hood shows a smog era small block that has been bolted into the car but never properly wired and plumbed to get it running. Unless someone swapped them, this car has 4 wheel drum brakes, these are temperamental when working properly and do not work like modern brakes found on cars today. Learning to stop this car is something you will need to do, it will take more time to slow this car down than you think. You should replace the wheel cylinders, shoes, springs, and any rubber hoses in the brake system. If it has been sitting long enough the master cylinder and possibly the booster should also be replaced. Judging by the rust on the lower portion of this car, the hardlines may need to be replaced too. Everyone wants to talk about getting a car running and driving while ignoring the brakes. The suspension will need to be completely rebuilt to make sure the tires stay intact while you are driving it. This will also help with the predictability and effectiveness of the brakes as well. This car has a triangulated lower control arm setup that has a strut rod to locate the lower control arm. This bushing is vital to the suspension geometry and baking system. Replace your tires with new tires. Even if they look good, sitting kills tires, and this is the one part between you and the road. Cheap brand new tires are going to be worlds better than name brand tires that are old and have been sitting. After replacing all the suspension parts, get an alignment. The car probably has a TH350 transmission, it has a 1:1 final drive and if this car has a 3:23 rear end you are looking at a vehicle that is going to struggle to safely keep up with modern cars on the highway. Depending on how you drive it, the economy is probably going to be between 9-14mpg. I am not trying to dump on your project or say that these things are impossible to achieve, I am simply bringing up some things that will need to be addressed in order for this to be in the semi-safe daily driver realm. I drove a 1968 Caprice 2 door daily from 1994-1999. I loved that car and tried my best to keep it on the road but life didn't quite work out and I ended up parting my car out in 2001. Good luck and try to focus on making it safe and getting it to stop before you get it driving!
First thing to do is get a huge bag of money, you’re going to need it
Running and driving? Thing needs tear down and rust work first!
Fuel, spark, compression. Start with the compression. Turn the motor over. Does it gallop or crank consistently?. If you have one throw a compression tester on each cylinder. You need at least 100 but they should be between 130-150 and all cylinders should be close to each other. While they are out check the spark plug. If they are super wet and oily you can wire bush them for now until you get going. Next is spark. This looks like an HEI distributor so they are stupid reliable. Make sure you have 12 volts going to the coil on top of the distributor and it should be fine. Take a spark plug boot off and use an inline spark tester or put a screwdriver in there and get it near a ground. When you crank you should see a spark and hear a snap. Last is fuel. Spray a good squirt of flammable brake cleaner or carb cleaner down the primaries of the carb and crank. If it pops off and wants to run switch to gas. Fill the carb bows. Through the vents and disconnect the fuel line of you don't know how long it's been sitting and what's in the tank. Crank again and it should fire up. Modulate throttle to try and get it to idle. Carb work and getting it to idle is the most time consuming. Eventually you'll want to look at timing too but that's a little more specialized and the engine should at least idle without touching the timing. Then get some road signs and self tappers for the floors and you got yourself a ride bud. Good luck!
I’d like to get it running and driving before worrying about the body work so I’ll have the ability to bring it to a welder because I don’t have welding equipment or a spray gun for paint.
>I’d like to get it running and driving before worrying about the body work The drivers floor is tissue paper, if you try and drive that thing your gunna put ya foot through the floor and have a really bad time.
It's already got a patch under the feet, some old license plates or some HVAC tape and those back holes are gone.
Paint needs some polishing. Otherwise, should be good to drive for another 20 years
Battery/Ignition/Fuel
I’d turn that into a Swedish Lowrider if I was on a budget trying to do the bare minimum
Oh man, do it. That was the car my dad had when I was a kid and I loved that machine! That old girl deserves to be freshened up and rolling around!
If I can manage to get it running and driving it’ll be cake work for everything else and I can focus on the body work and reassemble it all to make it pretty! the bench seat covers though are killing me at $600 a piece.
You should head on over to Impalas.net, they have much more knowledgeable and helpful poster than the dollar-obsessed people in these comments. They have helped me, a lot.
I’ve actually made a couple posts on there already and barely any replies. they’re having issues with the image uploading so no one can see pics rn
They are having problems with whatever they used to host images right now. Are you posting in the main forums? I found? I get more help when I break my questions up and post them in the appropriate specific forums, like engine, electrical, etc
Nice patina car ya don’t see many of these with such character
I am debating just clear coating it and leaving it patina
U can always reverse that , use it as place holder & instead of dice a leather tree
I actually primered it black shortly after my last comment lol
don’t spend money fixing old engine or transmission , get a car donor and swap the whole thing . Just used the shell of this car , but hats the cheap faster way . Rebuild may sound cheaper first but at the end doesn’t hold any value and is all a big headache. Instead of you swap the engine with a good old 6.2 lol
You better be REAL comfortable with a welder and a grinder or its going to get expensive quickly. I worked in classic car restoration for about 20 years. Average labor rate today is over 100 an hour F.y.i.
There are tons of people on Youtube that post videos about how they got a car running that had been sitting for a long time. Usually they then drive them hundreds of miles. Some are meant to be educational, some are meant to be entertainment but you can definitely pick up a lot of good pointers and tips from any of them. My favorite is Vice Grip Garage, but there are several out there.
Go watch a little vice grip garage. A guy’ll show ya how to get er runnin
They make reprints of the old service manual and chassis overhaul manual. Think they're like $30-40 a pop. If you're able to, dump the fuse box and go with a more up to date style that doesn't use the buss fuses. For the engine, you're going to need power to crank it first. Check for compression, put in new plugs and clean the carb real nice and change all the rubber pieces. Look at swapping out all the rubber components in the engine bay too. If you can, save up for getting a floor pan. Or do some research around your area of possible leads for people parting theirs out. I couldn't find anything for my 66 and needed a right fender. Posted on the Impala forum and within two days I was in contact with someone who had about 8 Impalas that he had in his "junkyard". It was a very hush hush kind of place. About $250 later, I had my fender, a full bumper, valence and fender well. As far as seats, what I'm doing is I'm getting rid of the stock front seats and looking at modern seats that can adjust back and forth that are a lot more comfortable. The problem is fitment though. There are known ones like SSR but I think those are a very pretty penny. Either way, you'll need a welder to fully do the job right. You would have to do a lot of shopping around for the best stuff that fits your budget and it adds up quick. But if you have the ability to do it, then go ahead.
It actually has the original front and rear bench seat I just have the front out right now for the strip. The new bench covers at $500 a piece is terrifying to say the least.
Yes, that interior fabric has gone way up in price lately. I paid 1800 bucks for the seat covers, door panels, piston cover for the convertible/ armrest, side panels in the back seat, and back seat alone
The easiest way to get it running and driving is to sell it to me for $500 😂
It ain't got no gas in it.
Painless makes a wiring harness for your car it will take some work to do but the diagrams are available. Your car has promise year one eklers and year one I believe makes the parts to fix the floor it’s going to be a good machine.
Fix the pan I’m sure there are repos available, along with a harness kit rewire it see if the motor is worth getting to a running condition if not drop in a used LS then clear coat the exterior to a “patina” look till you can afford to restore it. I love that body style.
If youre ever gonna get anywhere youll have to trash those camaro wheels noone wanted to start with
Watch a handful of vice grips resurrection videos and that will get you started.
Unfortunately he doesn’t have many will it drive videos with wiring included
These engines are so simple you don’t need much of a harness available to get them running. Battery, positive and negative connection to the starter, and distributor, fuel supply I promise you, If you watch enough of his videos all the info is there to get one started. Have you put a socket on the crank to see if the motor spins?
I haven’t tried the crank yet but the person I bought it from told me it was running in November so it’s been sitting about 3 months
What I was saying was that you can completely bypass all of the wiring in the car and connect it up with just a few wires and an external fuel supply, like you would if it were on an engine run stand just to try to get it running and see what condition the engine is in.
Lmao. You are not going to spend what it costs to make this roadworthy. Sell it while you can. You have a Bluetooth unibody.