Scarlett

To tell you the truth...I never gave the 1965 Impala a second look up until almost four years ago. It wasn't until I saw Gas Monkey Garage trick one out when I realized I had to have one. So after a few months of looking on eBay, classic car sites, a failed deal in Florida and Texas; I finally found one locally. Of course I didn't know much at all about 1965 Impalas up to this point...but what I managed to find was a rust free 327 SS that was built in St. Louis and originally sold by a dealership in Arkansas. It was somewhat restored around 1991 and a ZZ4 crate motor and 700R4 transmission installed sometime after 1996.

After almost a year of ownership I had made a few modifications. I changed out the carpet, added a custom steering wheel, aluminum radiator, Wilwood 4-wheel disc brakes & master cylinder, Ridler wheels, lowered the front, customized the trunk and added a Retrosound radio just to mention a few. I won best interior at a local car show, and top 25 in two others.

In August 2016...our neighborhood flooded. Although I had her on jack stands, she still took on water right over the center console. After draining all of the fluids and refilling them...after a little sputtering and spitting out the water from the exhaust...she fired right up. I'm pretty sure the Impala was the only car that survived in my entire neighborhood. I did however have to rip all the interior out to include the new custom trunk. I replaced the transmission with a 700R4 from Monster Transmission and added QA1 coil overs to the front and QA1 shocks in the back. 

I originally wanted a black car with red interior, so I decided that this was the best time to take care of that. I stripped the entire car of all trim, bumpers, etc. to get it ready for paint and started the restoration process.