more info
Guys,
You really know how to roll out the welcome wagon!
Here's the story on the car. Back in 2004, the company I was with finished up it's best year ever and the boss told me I'd be getting a nice bonus. Like any other responsible, mature man I immediately started searching for a '61 bubbletop. My first car was a '61 Impala 4-door hardtop hand me down from my dad with a 283/power glide combo that I took to high school auto shop class to rebuild and drop a 3 speed stick into. I knew about the bubbletop because my uncle Al (the one guy in our large family that did not subscribe to the economical car theory) bought one brand new in 1961. I originally started tracking the car on Ebay. The reserve hadn't been met and I planned on contacting the seller if it ran out to see if I could cut a deal. In the meantime, I had one of our guys who lived in California keeping an eye out for me and he let me know that there was a green bubbletop being advertised in Hemmings out of Denver, same location as the car on Ebay. As I'm in Chicago, this worked out great for me because my son-in-law's parents live in the Denver area. I contacted them and asked if Tom would mind going to check on this car for me. He was a little reluctant, as he is not a car guy and was worried that he wouldn't be able to judge the car properly, but I told him to check it out as if it were a 2 or 3 year old car and get a read on the man selling it to see if he seemed like a stand up guy. He did this and gave me the green light. I called the guy up and made the deal. Next up was getting the car to Chicago. I visited a local classic car outfit because I wanted to arrange an appraisal for insurance purposes and he told me he had a trucker coming in from Seattle who may have an extra space on his rig. This guy was stopping in Denver because he lived there. I cut a deal with him and he picked up the car while laying over. He called me to let me know he got it and also that he knew the owner, who had a rep for doing things the right way. This made me feel pretty good about the purchase. The car got to Chicago 2 days later and I couldn't have been happier about it.
The green body, officially called Arbor Green, is the original color. However, the white top and side accents were originally Sea Foam Green (two tone paint code 955). When stripping the trim during my current resto, I uncovered some of it under the drip molding chrome. Not a pretty color. Curiously, Uncle Al's car was the exact green/white combo that my car is now. In doing my paint research, green/white was not an available choice so he must have special ordered to avoid the sea foam. When Uncle Al passed away in 2007, I happened to mention to my cousins that I had the car, and they asked me to drive it in the funeral. Naturally, I was happy to do so.
The engine/trans is a '69 396 mated to a '69 Turbo 400. This is the first automatic I've had in the last 25 years.
Finally, here's a few pictures from the Ebay listing, along with one of me pulling up to the line at Route 66 in Joliet IL on test and tune day. I ran low 15's at around 95 mph.
Sorry to be so long winded, but once I started down memory lane I couldn't stop.
Mark
bang 61 is also one of my favorite and I have never owned one. Some how I think I need to correct that
Along with the pictures Dave has requested you can tell us somthing about the power plant. 396, 427, 454, 502
Ken
Where, they coming from?
Good luck, with your car.
More pics are always welcome.....
