Seeing the Impala at the Street Rod and Muscle Car Nationals at Wonderboom Airport on Sunday was a gratifying culmination of 18 months' involvement with the car.
Even more gratifying was to have my lovely wife, Benita - she is the lady on the left in the picture - being able to accompany me on this day (Dankie, Nooi, vir al die onderseuning tydens al die lang ure en vakansiedae wat nie gevat kon word nie)
It started in August 2013, when I was asked to see if it was possible to make a right hand drive version of the original dashboard.
I believe that anything is possible, if you know of the right people.
I flew down to Stellenbosh and delivered the original dashboard to Barry Ashmole, with the request to see if he was willing to have a go at creating a mirror image in metal of the original piece.
Not only was he willing; he is more than able.
A few months later I received this from him.
The original dashboard:
As well as a perfect right hand drive version:
He even included the required outlets for the aircon that I had requested.
The task to fit and paint the dashboard was entrusted to my brilliantly skilled friend Piet Fourie.
As is his nature, a few structural and rust issues were identified and this resulted in the car being painted in the brilliant Honda metallic blue.
This was also the condition in which I received the car in May 2014.
At this stage, the Hotchkiss suspension was fitted, the brake callipers were mounted and the GM LQ9 engine was installed. It was far from a running, driving entity.
I then started to connect the rack and pinion steering to the Ididit steering column.
The wiring was done by means of a Painless wiring kit - not painless, as the harness had previously been taken in hand by some interesting people as well as the fact that the harness was for a carburettor engine and I was dealing with fuel injection - not insurmountable, but an interesting challenge, nonetheless.
Fuel supply is by means of an Aeromotive system.
A custom propshaft was manufactured - the center bearing for this had to be specially imported, as no equivalent items were available, locally.
The steering conversion meant that I did not have enough clearance for a conventional brake booster, so I fitted a Hydroboost unit that runs off the power steering pump.
This meant that I no longer had space for the engine mounted coil packs, so I relocated them to the firewall and I had a set of custom plug wires made up by Bougicord.
I installed the air conditioning system with its integrated heating facility.
When all that was done, I could install the Dakota Digital gauge cluster. Barry's work on the dashboard was so accurate, that the cluster screwed onto the back of the dash using the supplied mounting points with no modification at al.
In the interim, I had stripped the seats down to the frames and had rebuilt them, making my own foam pads in the process. The old foam was beyond service due to excessive water damage.
The door cards were also beyond repair and I made a new set out of 3mm supawood.
The seats and panels were all upholstered by AK Leather, using special soft furniture leather, that I supplied, instead of the more robust automotive leather (The chances of any rugrats standing on the seats and dripping molten ice cream all over the interior is definitely very slim to non-existant)
I fitted the new head liner and carpet kit and also a dedicated electric window conversion.
I built a new center console with cup holders and covered iPhone storage as well as the door mounted speaker panels for the Rockford Fosgate Punch sound system.
The custom built rear parcel shelf is leather trimmed in the same material as the seats and house the Rockford Fosgate Punch rear speakers and, what I consider the "piece de résistance"; a bow-tie shaped high level brake light.
The boot is trimmed in the same leather as the interior and house the amplifiers for the sound system (Rockford Fosgate Punch 4-channel and monoblock) as well as the Optima Red Top battery behind hinged panels on the sides and the Rockford Fosgate Punch 10" subwoofer behind the rear panel under the parcel shelf.
I would like to thank Seth for his trust in me and for his tolerance of my "flexible" deadlines, also for his absolute dedication in procuring all the special parts needed from the USA.
Also thanks to my colleague Andre van der Merwe for unravelling the mystery of classic chevy flashy bits and for really coming to the party in fabricating the boot panels, even though I kept changing the scope at the last minute.
