Junkyard Find: 1969 Chevrolet Impala

by Murilee Martin

November 6th, 2012 11:27 PM

By this time, everyone knows I have a soft spot for the 1965-70 full-sized Chevrolet, and there was a time when every self-service wrecking yard I visited had at least a dozen of these things in stock. Now a year of more can pass between sightings. Here’s a rather weathered but reasonably non-rusty ’69 I spotted in a Denver yard last week.

More than a million full-size Chevrolets were sold for the 1969 model year, and most of them were Impalas (cheapskates got the lower-end Bel Airs and Biscaynes).

Here’s one of the umpteen gjillion small-block Chevy engines built since 1955.

Ah, the good old 327!

No, wait, it’s the good old 350! To complicate matters further, this junkyard— which is one of those operations that has its act together— says this is a 1970 model Impala. It’s possible that it’s a ’70 with ’69 fenders and bumpers, or that it’s a ’69 with swapped-over ’70 VIN plate from another car.

If one is to believe John Delorean in On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors, dealers that dared to install cheaper Motorola radios instead of marked-up factory-issue Delcos were punished severely.

#1960s #1969 #1969ChevroletImpala #Chevrolet #ChevroletImpala #Denver #DownOnTheJunkyard #Impala #Junkyard #JunkyardFind

Comments

Join the conversation

2 of 57 comments

Pduffin on Apr 17, 2013

Can any one tell me the name of the Junkyard in Colorado where the 1969 impala was found, I have a 2 door sedan and could use a few parts from it as it is the same Mustard green as I have here in Massachusetts, I would like to contact them before it goes totally into the scrap heap.

Like Reply
Raymond Segura on Oct 06, 2022

Can you tell me where I can get the rear bumper for 69 impala?

Like Reply

Recent Comments

Tassos What was the last time we had any good news from Ford? (or GM for that matter?)The last one was probably when Alan Mulally was CEO. Were you even born back then?Fields was a total disaster, then they go hire this clown from Toyota's PR department, the current Ford CEO, Fart-ley or something.He claims to be an auto enthusiast too (unlike Mary Barra who is even worse, but of course always forgiven, as she is the proud owner of a set of female genitals.
Tassos I know some would want to own a collectible Mustang. (sure as hell not me. This crappy 'secretary's car' (that was exactly its intended buying demo) was as sophisticated (transl. : CRUDE) as the FLintstone's mobile. Solid Real Axle? Are you effing kidding me?There is a huge number of these around, so they are neither expensive nor valuable.WHen it came out, it was $2,000 or so new. A colleague bought a recent one with the stupid Ecoboost which also promised good fuel economy. He drives a hard bargain and spends time shopping and I remember he paid $37k ( the fool only bought domestic crap, but luckily he is good with his hands and can fix lots of stuff on them).He told me that the alleged fuel economy is obtained only if you drive it like a VERY old lady. WHich defeats the purpose, of course, you might as well buy a used Toyota Yaris (not even a Corolla).
MRF 95 T-Bird Back when the Corolla consisted of a wide range of body styles. This wagon, both four door and two door sedans, a shooting brake like three door hatch as well as a sports coupe hatchback. All of which were on the popular cars on the road where I resided.
Wjtinfwb Jeez... I've got 3 Ford's and have been a defender due to my overall good experiences but this is getting hard to defend. Thinking the product durability testing that used to take months to rack up 100k miles or more is being replaced with computer simulations that just aren't causing these real-world issues to pop up. More time at the proving ground please...
Wjtinfwb Looks like Mazda put more effort into sprucing up a moribund product than Chevy did with the soon to be euthanized '24 Camaro.