Richards 1965 Impala and 1965 Chevrolet C10 Custom Pickup

The restoration of my 1965 impala

Restoration of my 1965 Impala
I bought this car in San Diego in 1993 while I spent half a year there, doing some BMX-Freestyle Pro Contests all over the States. I had some other American cars before, which I always bought while I staid there. But this time I wanted a car to take back to my hometown Gmunden in Austria. I really wanted to buy a nice 64 to make a lowrider out of it. The cars I found weren't in my price-range. I almost wanted to quit the search, when I saw a lovely nice red Impala, which belonged to a friend of one of my buddies. I then bought the car for $4.500.- and shipped it over to Austria. I did most of the restoration work myself. I disassembled everything, cleaned or chromed all the parts and put everything together again. I just didn´t do the repaint myself and the electric stuff and some other things like alignments. The car still has the original 327 engine which runs smoothly and purrs like a kitten. After the original powerglide transmission used to fail permanently I switched to a 350 transmission soon. All other parts in the engine bay were changed as well. I installed an Edelbrock carb and lots of chrome and goldplated parts for the right look. The car is on airride now which serves me very well. I also installed disc brakes on the front axle and improved the brake system. All this work was done in the long cold Austrian winters and it took me 6 years before the car was finished. My plan is to do some more bodywork and some other stuff once my Pickup is finished.
before

The Impala after its arrival in Austria...

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in my old garage...back in 1996

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in my old garage...back in 1996

cleaning

some older pictures from 1996

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some older pictures from 1996

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some older pictures from 1996

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some older pictures from 1996

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some older pictures from 1996

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some older pictures from 1996

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some older pictures from 1996

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sandblasting

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sandblasting

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sandblasting

suspension

some older pictures from 1996

hood

some older pictures from 1996

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some older pictures from 1996

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in my new garage

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in my new garage

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in my new garage

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