Ten Years In the Life of My Greatest Car: The 1965 Chevy Impala Hell Project!

by Murilee Martin

Updated: August 14th, 2013 Published: June 29th, 2013

ten years in the life of my greatest car the 1965 chevy impala hell project

Since it took me so many months to scan the hundreds of 35mm, 126, 110, and Super 8 negatives and slides that went into the telling of the 1965 Impala Hell Project Story (tip for time-travelers: if you’re going to document a project like this, wait until digital photography becomes cheap and easy), I figure it makes sense to put together a single roundup page with links to all 20 parts in the series. For those of you unfamiliar with this series, it tells the story of a 1965 Chevrolet Impala sedan that I bought in 1990 and spent a decade daily-driving and modifying into, among other things, an art car and a 13-second drag racer. Here’s your portal to each chapter.

Introduction

1. So It Begins.

1990: My high-concept performance/installation art piece takes the form of a full-hooptie, 25-year-old Impala sedan.

2. The Modifications Begin

1990: Fat tires, de-chromification, de-trimization.

3. Lowering Property Values

1990: Where art becomes The Realtor Man’s Nightmare.

4. Saddam Chooses My New Engine

1990: Forced to ditch my plan for a 454-cubic-inch big-block swap by Saddam’s gas-price-jacking invasion of Kuwait, I replace the tired 283 with a 350 small-block.

5. Three Speeds, Two Exhaust Pipes

1990: The Powerglide gets replaced by a TH350, while a homebuilt dual-exhaust system increases the volume.

6. Gauges! Switches! Buttons!

1991: The factory dash gets ripped out and replaced by a handbuilt Space Shuttle-style instrument panel.

7. Disc Brakes In, Couch-Surfing Expedition Enabled

1991: The brakes from a 1970 Impala add stopping power, an HEI distributor enhances reliability, so I take off on a month-long couch-surfing trip up and down the state of California, culminating in a road trip to the first Lollapalooza Festival.

8. Refinements, Meeting Christo’s Umbrellas

A heater and new springs makes the car much more daily-drivable, and so I visit Christo’s pedestrian-killing umbrella art installation in Southern California.

9. Fastening Shoulder Belts, Bailing From Academia

1992: Three-point seat belts added, I drive the Impala to grad school.

10. Fiat Hood Scoops, Endless Ribbon of Asphalt

1992: Fiat X1/9 hood scoops add menace, zero function. North-to-South California road trips continue.

11. Son of Orange County

1993-1994: Generation X ennui, pilgrimage to the birthplace of Richard Nixon upon learning of his demise.

12. Next Stop, Atlanta!

1994-1995: Packing up, moving from San Francisco to Atlanta.

13. Mad Max At the Confederate Mount Rushmore

1995: Writing for Year One, getting a new nickname.

14. First Taste of the Quarter-Mile

1995-1996: Running 16s at the dragstrip.

15. No Replacement For Displacement!

1996-1998: Back to California, building a healthy 406.

16. Another Heart Transplant

The new engine goes in.

17. Crash Diet, Frying Tires At the Dragstrip

1999: New engine installed, interior gutted, one-legger differential becomes limiting factor.

18. Back To the Dragstrip, Website 1999

1999: Locker differential leads to 13.67 run at Sacramento Dragway.

19. The Road Not Taken, Final Photo Session

1999: Thinking I might write about the car someday, I shoot some nice portraits at the ex-Alameda Naval Air Station.

20. The End

2000: Time to let go.

#1960s #1965 #1965Chevrolet #1965ChevroletImpala #1965ImpalaHellProject #Chevrolet #ChevroletImpala #Impala #ImpalaHellProject #MurileeMartin

Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

More by Murilee Martin

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 3 comments

-Nate on Jul 29, 2013

Saved to my Car Stories File. -Nate

Like Reply
Murilee Martin on Jul 30, 2013

I need to get back to scanning some more of my old photos. And, yeah, writing about my current projects. Right now the A100 is up on jack stands in the garage with the transmission out, the '41 Plymouth is a bare frame with Lexus suspension thinking about getting attached, the B18C1 engine is sitting next to the A100 while I get around to readying the Civic for the swap, and the 20R Sprite got sold six months ago.

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Honda1 Unions were needed back in the early days, not needed know. There are plenty of rules and regulations and government agencies that keep companies in line. It's just a money grad and nothing more. Fain is a punk!
1995 SC If the necessary number of employees vote to unionize then yes, they should be unionized. That's how it works.
Sobhuza Trooper That Dave Thomas fella sounds like the kind of twit who is oh-so-quick to tell us how easy and fun the bus is for any and all of your personal transportation needs. The time to get to and from the bus stop is never a concern. The time waiting for the bus is never a concern. The time waiting for a connection (if there is one) is never a concern. The weather is never a concern. Whatever you might be carrying or intend to purchase is never a concern. Nope, Boo Cars! Yeah Buses! Buses rule!Needless to say, these twits don't actual take the damn bus.
MaintenanceCosts Nobody here seems to acknowledge that there are multiple use cases for cars.Some people spend all their time driving all over the country and need every mile and minute of time savings. ICE cars are better for them right now.Some people only drive locally and fly when they travel. For them, there's probably a range number that works, and they don't really need more. For the uses for which we use our EV, that would be around 150 miles. The other thing about a low range requirement is it can make 120V charging viable. If you don't drive more than an average of about 40 miles/day, you can probably get enough electrons through a wall outlet. We spent over two years charging our Bolt only through 120V, while our house was getting rebuilt, and never had an issue.Those are extremes. There are all sorts of use cases in between, which probably represent the majority of drivers. For some users, what's needed is more range. But I think for most users, what's needed is better charging. Retrofit apartment garages like Tim's with 240V outlets at every spot. Install more L3 chargers in supermarket parking lots and alongside gas stations. Make chargers that work like Tesla Superchargers as ubiquitous as gas stations, and EV charging will not be an issue for most users.
MaintenanceCosts I don't have an opinion on whether any one plant unionizing is the right answer, but the employees sure need to have the right to organize. Unions or the credible threat of unionization are the only thing, history has proven, that can keep employers honest. Without it, we've seen over and over, the employers have complete power over the workers and feel free to exploit the workers however they see fit. (And don't tell me "oh, the workers can just leave" - in an oligopolistic industry, working conditions quickly converge, and there's not another employer right around the corner.)