Good afternoon all! I’m a member of the GM Clamshell Facebook group, where I’ve posted a bit about our story (so you may have seen it if you’re on the group). But, I wanted to introduce myself here! My dad is now the proud owner of a '73 Impala Wagon; the third GM clamshell he has owned. My dad's first car was a '73 Caprice; after he was rear ended in college, my grandfather found another '73. My dad restored the car (a lot of body work), painted it, built a serious stereo, and hot rodded the SBC 400. From what I understand, it was a bad mo-fo that would blow the doors off a lot of what guys drove in the 80's. As my parents had children and moved to a new town, and because of some cumulative mechanical issues, he wound up getting rid of the car. This has been one of his biggest regrets, especially now that he has raised 3 sons who inadvertently grew up to be gear heads. He has been looking for one here and there, and I have been actively looking for a few years now. Our good fortune came from a Facebook Marketplace listing for a gold '72 Buick for sale in upstate New York. I got to talking with the seller, as he said he has a handful of clamshells he may be looking to offload. After a lot of back and forth, he agreed to sell us this Impala. We have a little bit of history on the car; this gentleman purchased it from a guy in Tennessee who shipped it from California. As you can see, it came with one red door; it was an accident while loading up to ship from Tennessee to New York, but we have the original door to the car which we will be straightening out and re-installing. The car is exactly what we were looking for. It had been repainted (so there is no guilt in stripping and repainting it, it never would have been a "survivor"). It is complete with all trim and the drive train seems untouched (and runs great, we could probably take this on a road trip now, Vice Grip Garage-style), but the interior is totally trashed, which isn't a big deal because my dad has talked about doing something custom. But it's a solid California car, with very few minor areas of rot. It's very highly optioned; it's a 400/400, factory AC, factory cruise control, third row, power tailgate, and passenger mirror. There's no power windows or power door locks though. I don't want to say anything disparaging about the derby guys; there's value in parting some cars out for trim and glass components. It's not my cup of tea, but to each man, their own. But the fact is this car may have been derby bound, but now my dad, brothers, and I are going to give it a second life. It'll be a "resto-mod" if you want to use the term, and it's going to be something special for my dad. This has been a rough year, he's had a slow recovery from spinal cord surgery, and he really needed a win. This is a man who has never asked for anything, and nor has he ever done anything for himself. But I'll be damned if he hasn't gotten choked up over this; it was the win that him and the rest of my family has needed.
