Rebuilding A Classic Impala From Scratch: One Supernatural Fan’s Story, Part One

Thanks to all the connections Joe made while looking for parts for the car, he ended up renting a 15,000 square foot brand new shop with bays and started hiring mechanics.  His new business, Rusty Bucket Restorations, grew fast, and soon they were doing 10-15 engine restorations a week.  “He’s incredibly busy but he’s making money, paying employees, and enjoying the fact that he feels like his life now has purpose again.  Plus, he, his wife, and me are now friends for life.  It’s been an amazing experience and both our lives are much richer for it.” 

Once the work on Max’s Impala began, the decision was made that a complete restoration would be best, a rebuild from the frame up.  Any professional knows that a restoration of that size takes anywhere from 18-24 months, average.  With that, Max’s long, arduous journey into the experience of classic car restoration began. 

The Restoration

The Impala was nicknamed “Black Betty” by Joe, who thought that a car like this should have it’s own theme song.  Having a cool name though didn’t make the process any easier. A lot of important decisions had to be made.  “If someone’s putting in a new or rebuilt engine they need to think about things like ‘Do I want to put gas into a 45 year old tank that’s going to run through my brand new engine?’  – and even more important – ‘Do I really want to trust drum brakes to stop the car?’  It’s not hard to get one of these things going fast – but getting it to stop where you want is something else entirely.”  

Max started the task of finding all the parts needed for his new car, and he knew it would be a very large task.  “Honestly I think I could go through the entire car part by part and 99% of it is either new or refurbished – so it’s a huge project.”

What were some of the tasks that go into an entire rebuild?  “Off the top of my head, new fuel system, new oil system, new brake system, all wires and hoses replaced, new/refurb engine, paint, wheels/tires, interior, gauges, radio (The ’68 came stock with an AM radio – and as cool as I think that is I’d really rather listen to music – no CD player though – just got an AM/FM that looks like the classic radio with a small AUX jack to plug in my Ipod – yes I know I’m “douching it up” a bit), shocks/bushings…”

Max shared a parts list with me and it was huge!  It’s mind boggling the amount of detail that goes into rebuilding a car like this.  Each part really added up in expense too.  Plus, there was the rarity of the four door sedan.  “If you want to restore a car with little difficulty it’s a lot easier to do a 2 door. If “Supernatural” were real Dean was really lucky when he had access to Bobby’s junkyard. Finding parts for a classic 4 door muscle car is a nightmare. Plenty of places still fabricate parts that fit the 2 door versions…but for something like the Impala you have to search around junkyards and ebay auctions for parts. Or if you have the space you can always just find and buy a second impala to use as a parts car.” 

But finding the right parts was just part of the challenge.  Another big difficulty was getting those parts delivered in a timely manner.  Max spent a lot of time helping Joe hunt down the appropriate parts and a lot of times the parts would be on backorder or delayed in shipping.  Then there was a few times the parts that were delivered were for the wrong type of car, aka receiving parts for the coupe as opposed to the sedan.  Waiting for the right parts resulted in all sorts of delays, like in April 2013, when they were trying to get the frame built.  

“We’ve been waiting about 6 weeks for the front disc brake kit (we had reached a point where we were at a virtual standstill without it).  We ordered from Ecklers, who in turn ordered from another supplier – and this other supplier kept assuring them (and us) that the kit was going to ship “in 3 or 4 days”.  Well were fed that line for a month.”

Over the next several months putting together the bare bones of the car was a slow, tedious process:  

The frame and body of the old Impala were separated, sand blasted, sanded some more, then painted the trademark black of Sam and Dean’s 1967 baby. 

Once the frame was ready, the rear disc brakes were installed, then the axles and wheels.

The front disc brakes went on after the body and frame were put together due to the delivery issue.  

Then there was the engine.  The initial plan was the rebuild the original engine, but Joe  found a 383 Stroker in great condition that would give Black Betty more horsepower.  So the decision was made to do a rebuild on that engine instead.  Later though, in May 2013, Joe got his hands on another 327 engine, and then a 396 engine from an SS model, and that was the engine installed in the car.     

Here in late May 2013 the rear bumper was installed along with the Chevy logo and two small front windows.  This is where the big difference is between a 1967 and 1968 Impala, the tail lights. 

Once the new 396 engine went in, the hood and windshield were installed.  He also added new 396 side markers given the new engine.  

The interiors took a while, for carpets had to be fitted and well as interior door panels.  Come the end of August 2013 Max was still waiting for the muffler to be installed and little things like the drivers side rear view mirror to be done.  

Max also had his heart set on finding Cragar wheels.  Joe surprised him by finding the original Cragar wheels, which were the wheels on the Impala that Leviathan Sam and Dean drove (Remember Dean saying in “Slash Fiction,”  “Those are nice wheels.  I’ll tell you what, when this is over, I’m stealing those rims.”).  They do make a real a difference to the look of the car!  

(Getting there, but not quite ready yet).  

Coming up in part two, a few more complications, then finally delivery!  Max learns though that even with the car in his possession, the work is far from over. 

Here’s a videos of the newly rebuilt engine running too.  Such power!