1964 RHD Impala Wagon - Australian Delivered

And more from your wagon as well Dave

two of the best threads here.

 

David - thanks for the kind words. I have enjoyed all 73 pages of your thread. Your project is amazing - I look forward to more updates and pictures.

I still am a fan of POR15 but used strictly as it is intended - that is over light rust, preferably in places you cant see like floors, under headliners, inside doors and hoods etc. I estimate I lost about 3 weeks undoing everything I painted with it - live and learn they say.

So on with the show..

I signed off yesterday by mentioning work on the engine but I forgot that I painted a few panels and the firewall before I started on the engine.

After the high fill primer on the front sheet metal, I gave the bumper filler panel and the fender jambs some guide coat (some spluttery old flat red was all I had) and the grille ends had a few waves in them after being beaten back into shape. These parts on a 64 Impala are argent silver (same colour as rally wheels).



Out into that trusty solar spray booth (I used a base coat/clear coat system, the same as what the whole car will be getting):



Onto jambing the front guards. More spluttery red guide coat…



..and then wet sand with 400. I should have done them with 600 but didn’t have any…and it was Easter Friday…and I wanted it done….and it’s only the engine bay…



The saga over "what colour is my car" was surprisingly drawn out.

The cowl tag says the paint code is SP4813. The build sheet that I got from GM Canada listed it as "Special Order" A search of every paint database came up with nothing and I even went back to GM Canada to see if they had records - but that too came up empty.

After countless phone calls and discussions with some local Chevy guys, most agreed that it was probably a factory colour but in an unusual combination. After checking out a GM Canada paint chart we guessed Ermine White for the roof, and either Almond Fawn or Saddle Tan for the main body colour.

This is where it got infuriating.

The painter I have lined up to do the exterior only paints in PPG so I went to see the sole distributor in my city. Unlike all of the other paint shops, the PPG guy is part of a major car dealership (in other words, they make their living selling cars, not paint)

To cut a long story short, I provided them with the GM code, the Ditzler code, the Sherwin Williams code, the Dupont code and the Acme Rogers code for both colours.....and not only were they rude and disinterested, but because it wasn't on their database they couldn't help me. I was even referred to as a "nightmare customer" as one of them shuffled off to find an equally useless colleague.

I went down the road to the BASF paint supplier who looked it up on their database and I walked out 20 minutes later with sample pots of both colours.

After some dabs on the firewall, I confirmed it was Saddle Tan Metallic:



Another call to the PPG guys to say, "Hey I've got the colour - can I bring it in and you can match it...?", was met with a "No".

With the project stalled, I dropped in on a few body shops and was advised that it would be fine to use BASF base under PPG clear, particularly on the jambs and engine bay. They also said that when they had time they would spray out the BASF on a test panel and stick it under a spectrum analyser and give me a PPG code.

In the meantime I got cracking with the colour...




…and this is my favourite clear (Autothane HS):



Came up nice – lots of curves and ridges so pretty forgiving when it comes to gun technique – got a small sag in the clear on one fender which came out with some 1500 on a small block.



Then onto the firewall and cowl. First of all gave it a scrub with thinners and fine steel wool…



…which as expected revealed all of the factory markings on the firewall.

As these markings are visible under the paint from the factory, I wanted to make sure I preserved them so I went over them again with a chinagraph pencil. The SP4813 is that paint code I mentioned. I have no idea what the others are:



Then the laborious task of masking up the engine. I dropped the steering column and pulled the valve covers to give me more room. Lots of sheets, newspaper, and a freezer bag for the dizzy. A rolled up cloth nappy stuffed down between the tunnel and the tranny. There are some very obvious seams and folds down low so it was easy to determine where to mask to.



Basecoat was sprayed over the markings



Base done…



And then the clear (firewall markings are still visible at the right angle as per factory). Very happy with it although it is much more metallic and a much deeper gloss compared to original paint.



Engine tomorrow

 

First job on the motor was to tidy up the exhaust manifolds which were pitted and rusty. My favourite method is electrolysis using a battery charger and some washing soda

This is before…


This is during..



This is after with all of the rust magically transferred from the manifolds to the scrap iron anodes…



I decided to paint them with KBS High Temp cast iron grey as that seemed to be closest to factory colour – 250ml tin but 50mls gets you 2 coats. Nice flat dark grey colour – hopefully it hangs on!






You wont be surprised that in order to get the wagon back to factory correct condition, I spent a bit of time trawling throught the reproduction catalogues from the many US suppliers.

It’s amazing how easily $1600 fits into 2 relatively small boxes:



And here’s the goodies – all period correct repros….hoses with GM codes on them, correct water pump, correct colour plug leads and cap, correct coil, clips, clamps, bolts, stickers,etc etc..and an assembly manual!



As well as the Asian repro stuff, I did score some NOS valve covers. As unassuming as these look, they were very tough to find. These are specific to Canadian Cars and have no script, and no breather holes. I nearly dislocated my finger on the “buy-it-now” button when I spotted them - $130 landed.



…but they were in fact a pair of left side covers (wiring loom clips on both of them). That’s not factory original so we can’t have that can we!



I prepped the motor with thinners and steel wool and gave the new raw water pump some “Metal Ready” which leaves a zinc phosphate coating.



Engine paint of choice is KBS Motorcoater in Chevy Orange – brush on and contains some sort of self-levelling agent.



It's seriously orange!



It flows really nice and covers pretty well although it needed 2 coats. Used about 400 of the 500 mls.




It was a bit of a contortionist act getting in under the sump and in behind the engine mounts – There is no way you could do this on a unibody car or with the front sheetmetal attached. The largest brush I used was 1 inch while for the smallest I had to raid the kids craft box for a 2mm brush.

Here’s before:



Here’s after:



Despite the tin saying that it brushes on, I wasn't happy with the finish on the smooth valve covers - I decided to spray the second coat after wet sanding them with 800 (photo below is after the first coat):



I also painted the chassis and a few bolt ons. More sliding in and around, up and over the front end with a series of small brushes.






I used the same 2k satin black as before but kept thinning it down until the brushmarks blended. Hard work and never as good as taking the body off altogether but it all came up well.

Tomorrow everything goes back together and it starts!

 

Are you redoing the white markings on the firewall after paint as well?

 

Nice job!

 

GN300 - I'm leaving the firewall markings under the paint as that's how they were originally. I have seen photos of them over the paint but not in my case.

The next step on the engine was the air cleaner.

These are specific to Canadian domestic and Canadian export cars. This one is original to the car and still had the all-important paint stamp with the aircleaner service instructions - the rest of it was pretty ratty and rusty after sitting around in a box for 20 years ( I used it for the first few years but accidently killed the original carby)

So....because these paint stamps aren't repro'ed in sticker form (or any other form) I masked them up...



Some gentle wire brush action on the base and snorkel, 240 grit on the sides and took the lid back to bare metal



Etch primer, sand and then some black basecoat. I then removed the tape and shot the whole thing with clear. I give it a 6 out of 10 as I was too hasty getting the clear on and didn't notice the masking tape residue left behind.





From there it was onto the valve covers with some glittery 195 horsepower stickers - I'm sure that was a lot of power 50 years ago!



Before bolting all of the new bits on I thought it would be interesting to line up what came off, and what original/repro bits went on in their place.

So starting from the top...original aircleaner and 2 barrel Rochester replace a 350 Holley and chrome cleaner.



I put the Holley on after a very unfortunate accident with the original carby. I went to rebuild it one evening and went searching for my fathers "carby cleaner". It was kept in a plain black container. He also kept hydrochloric acid in a plain black container. I'll let you guess the rest.

The search for a replacement this year ended well - despite the fact that they made a gazillion of these and any eBay search will find about 50 of them, I needed one with correct casting number, correct date code, with correct ID tag attached. It took a while but thankfully this one appeared, fully reco-ed with tag for $150 landed. M3 is December 1963 so 3 months before my car came off the assembly line.



You've already seen the valve covers but I had to laugh when I pulled off the old finned ones. Thinking for many years they were old skool, US made, ultra rare and extra cool, they actually had "Japan" stamped on the inside.


The plugs and leads are purely a colour thing - black cap, and black leads with orange right angled ends are correct. Since I took this shot however I realised that the old coil which had remnants of black paint on it was stamped "Canada" and is original to the car. It's now re-painted black and is back on.



The old water pump was an aftermarket one with the dead giveaway of the extra outlet on top and a dodgy hot water tap mechanism. The original brake master cylinder needed a rebuild ( possibly even a re-sleeve). Why would you bother when a repro one is $60. As for the dipstick and thermostat housing - CHROME IS NOT FACTORY CORRECT...AAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!



When I got the car it was partially disassembled and had no fan. I bolted on a replacement 6 blade chrome fan and went on my merry way. I was however oblivious to the fact that without a spacer it sat well outside the shroud, probably working to 30 per cent of it's efficiency. Yes, the engine would get hot occasionally but thankfully lots of highway miles and our cool climate didn't make it a huge issue. So..sourced a correct 4 blade fan and spacer.

I have also downgraded the headlights from retina burning aftermarket globes with unsightly relay wiring to the original low spec units. A repro hard fuel line went on and I put a filter in before the pump.



I mounted up the old fuel pump but my eagle-eyed friend Gil from Canada spotted that it's aftermarket. Correct 1964 "screwed together" fuel pumps are surprisingly plentiful and cheap so one arrived after these photos were taken. In the meantime I attempted to source some fuel pump gaskets but no luck - so I made my own from ACL 0.8mm Gasket Paper.



So then it was a matter of bolting everything on giving me a reason to use my favourite tool - my Warren and Brown deflecting beam torque wrench. I'm not sure it's particularly expensive or special but I just love telling my young boys who are obsessed with superheroes that it has a "deflecting beam". (insert ninja moves here)



Here's a couple from the "I can't believe you bothered" files.

GM installed spark plug wire clips on the oil pan to route the wires away from the exhaust. They repro them in black and even though you cant see them, THEY SHOULD BE ORANGE!! ....and secondly, hands up if you were ever unhappy with the scratches and dings on your alternator bracket......so ended up skimming it with body filler..? ...anyone...?





And finally here's my favourite thing in the engine bay.

The firewall appears to have been stamped at the factory to accept aircon hoses. As mine didn't come with aircon, they would have been blanked off with black rubber plugs. They were just holes when I got the car so being a lazy musician, I just duck taped them up.

After deciding to fix it properly and not being able to find any 35mm blanking plugs I started thinking laterally and came across these. Ladies and gentlemen, these are......wait for it.......earrings! Yep, 35mm silicone plug earrings that those scary looking people use to stretch the holes in their earlobes. They fit perfectly and after a little scuff with some 400, they look factory correct and have the added bonus of being medical grade and hygenicaly safe!





So here it is - what I believe to be the way my engine bay looked when it rolled out of the factory and on to the boat in 1964.

Before...



And after...



Click the picture below to hear it run (excuse the hotwiring - one of the ignition wires was broken)

 

That was the color of an old chevy from the family past !

nice engine bay restore but you put the master cyl on the wrong side!

Like i'm the first to say that!

 

Actually the original master cylinder didn't have a bleeder screw on the casting. If you don't tell, I won't..

 

Many thanks Junk - this is the reason why I'm restoring it on a public forum to try and pick up these pearls of wisdom. Sounds like a rebuild of the old one is in order.

To be honest, as much as I would like it to be 100% factory correct, common sense will need to prevail. I will be happy with 90 per cent for starters and then chip away at the other 10 per cent once it's driving.

 

Great job! Just as an aside, that lovely Chevy orange on the engine is also the colour of a rather well known 1969 Dodge Charger. When they were figuring out the car for the show, they were looking around for a colour that would be in a back country garage like Cooter's. Chevy orange engine enamel fit the bill, and that is how the General Lee ended up orange. That it is also a very photogenic colour is a bonus.

I love how you are keeping the old girl factory correct. However, if you are going to use her regularly, especially on the highway, I would rethink those brakes. 4 wheel drums will work well, provided you are not going up and down mountains regularly. A single system, though, is something I would never want. My Grandfather had a 61 Pontiac Laurentian (another of those Canadian funny models, built on the Chev platform). When the car was a month old, one of the flex lines broke. Good thing there was no cross traffic. When he learned about the dual system coming out for 69, he planned on a new car to replace the 61. He had never fully trusted that car, but figured if the next car had a single system as well, why bother to change cars.

 

Mike - it's a good point. As I mentioned we did plenty of miles back in the day towing tons of equipment and in some instances up and down to the ski fields and up and down the mountain passes to the sea. As with everything else on the car the single system was super reliable. I can only recall one brake system "moment" when we sheared the brake shoes off the right rear after a particularly steep descent.

Now however it will be an occasional second family car spending 90 per cent of its time on the quiet suburban streets. I'm now thinking at the very least I will replace the hoses and wheel cylinders.

On with the work which today is some fiddly jobs.

I had the suspension upgraded many years ago which included bright orange sway bars, yellow springs and Koni red shocks. All very non-original so for starters I removed the orange powdercoat from the bar and hit it with some black.




While I was in the engine bay, I did a long overdue repair.

The worst accident I ever had with the car was when it careered out of control down a hill, across a busy 2 lane road, mounting a gutter, and coming to rest in the front garden bed of a house. Interestingly no-one was actually in the wagon at the time.

40 years of column shifting had "rounded" the gear selector gate to the point where "Park" blended with "Reverse" and without a proper handbrake, it one day took off down a hill. I was inside my mate's place at the time and came out and it was gone. To this day I still cant believe it didn't hit anything or anyone.

Here's the rounded bit...



So out with the air die grinder and some Dremel cut off wheels (yes, Dremel bits fit into a $20 die grinder) and ground it back square (ish).





Correct fuel pump arrived - here's a piccie of it just for the record (it's the one on the right). New old stock by Airtex and rebuilldable - hence the fact that it's screw-together construction.



I cleaned up the engine wiring looms using some wax and grease remover and checked for continuity before re-wrapped them in correct repro black tape. I also got my hands on some correct "asphalt coated cloth sleeve" for the temp sender wire and re-used the cloth sleeve to the starter motor.

I also learnt that the temp sender and heater return are flipped on a RHD impala, compared to their US counterparts - most likely to save on all that extra heater hose being draped over the intake and looping around to get to the other side.





Before assembling the grille I colour sanded and polished the clear coat on the bumper filler panel. The finish off the gun was pretty good so a wet sand with some 2000 on a block and then a medium foam pad on the DA with some Juice Q-Cut.





From there it was pretty straight forward putting everything back in place.







So with the front end looking like a car again, here is the final "final" stock engine bay from both sides. These pictures were sent to my friend and Canadian Impala Guru, Gil, who said "Good job....but here's 29 things that that are incorrect" Apparently the top radiator hose tower clip needs to be 45 degrees towards the battery.....the aircleaner wingnut should be stamped (not cast).....and the 8 control arm nuts need a copper finish.





So with the "GO" bit sorted, I focussed on the "STOP" bit. A quick bleed of the master cylinder before hooking it up, some brake cleaner on the shoes and springs, and a coat of cast silver on the drums.





The obvious next step when a car runs and stops is.....DRIVE IT!! So around the block it was, minus bonnet, doors, glass, seats and interior..... and with my 4 and 5 year old boys unrestrained and sliding around in the back. Plenty of squeals of delight but I think my nomination for parent of the year has been revoked.

Back into the bodywork tomorrow

 

Doors were next on the list.

Thankfully all were rust free so no stuffing around with patch panels and the paint in the jambs will be good enough to scuff and paint over.

I started with the left rear which was the worst of the 4 - it got tagged in the "big accident" before I owned it. Lots of stretched metal along 4 big creases but fortunately the top and bottom trim lines were in tact giving me something to go off.



I made a template off the other rear door to get the edge profile right and then ran the steel ruler over it to work out where to start hitting it (and what size hammer I needed)



So in behind with a block of wood trimmed to the right angle and a BFH to rough it out



Then some "poor mans dent puller tabs" spot welded along the creases and then pull with the slide hammer.






Getting closer........ some more caressing with the slapper, pushing hard from underneath to lift the lows and then shrinking back down with the disc and compressed air. Body file to check on progress got it close enough for a transparent skim of filler.







The left front door had a crease running lengthways and a couple of dings lower down - a piece of cake compared to the first door









The other two didn't need any belting so were shined up with the rapid strip disk followed by the trusty deoxidine and steel wool and black etch primer










DOORS DONE!!! Very happy with how the bad door turned out thanks to my new favourite tools - Dura Blocks!

Here's the finished bad one:



Here's all of them:



And here's the blocks and adhesive paper:



Left rear quarter tomorrow (60 hours on just the metal work!)

 

From there it was onto the achilles heel of this car - the left rear quarter.

Just to remind you, an Audi Fox ran a red light and smacked it pretty hard, taking out some of the rear door and the rear dog leg in the process.
After this the car was parked, put up for sale and bought by me for $900 back in 1990. Unfortunately with no donor cars nor repro panels back then (or now) it was a case of working with what was there.

Our first go at it back then involved drilling it off, roughing it out, slicing down the trim lines and applying literally hundreds of heatshrinks with an oxy. At all times the car was driven daily so the panel was attached with screws and removed once a week over a 6 month period while attending night time "Basic Vehicle Restoration" - a hobby type course run by TAFE. While it was off we also oxyed in some rust patch panels around the petrol filler and behind the wheel arch.

Here's where we got it to back in 1991:



Although it looked "close" the downside of doing such massive repairs with the panel off the car was that the nice straight lines and uniform profile when it sat on the bench, turned into waves and bows when the panel went back on. This was made even worse by the fact that there is no way to get in behind the panel when it's on the car. Eventually my patience ran out so it got a coat of primer, some dodgy gold paint and it remained screwed on for 15 years looking bloody awful....so after 23 years it was time to finish it properly.

First job was to get the quarter sitting straight and attached properly - so rear door on for reference and quarter stitched flush with the door line.





Next was the top trim line which still had too much metal in it. I considered the shrinking disk but there was just too much there. So some tape lines and a thin cutting blade and it was opened up....again... before being stitched flush.







Next was the bottom trim line. While it was relatively flush with the doors, the tape line confirmed it had an upwards arc in it (note the metal above the tape line in the photo below). Because these trim lines run the full length of the car there is no room for error - the lines are either straight and parallel or they are wrong and stand out. So yes.....another slice job, along the tape line.



In this instance I didn't want to lose any metal so a tidy up with the hammer and dolly and stitched carefully across a small gap - straight this time!





I like to check my welds for pinholes using light in behind them. It was a bit of a challenge on the quarter as I cant get in behind it so a $3 led keyring poked through the trim holes worked a treat.



Next job was where the quarter meets the rear pillar - it was hastily butchered by us in order to get the panel off all those years ago, leaving a gaping hole.



So an odd little patch carefully migged in to replace the missing metal





Next was the dogleg - it was pushed in a couple of cm from the accident so the original dogleg on the quarter was toast so I trimmed it back and made and patched in a new piece.

 

Next was the door gap at the rear quarter. Not surprisingly with all smashing, bashing, slicing and shrinking over the years it left a 6mm door gap... so I reduced this by 3mm with a length of wire carefully migged in at the edge.





And finally, it was also no surprise that the original trim holes were all over the place. More tape, more migging, a rat tail file and lots of trial fitting of the repro moldings until everything was nice and straight. Etch and skims of filler next.





Tailgate tomorrow

 

Still: Good job! :2_thumbs_up_-_anima