Bondoman's Imp is gorgeous. It probably has a few less miles than mine.
Mine needs a "little" work. I bought mine in 1998. My wife's mother had passed and left my wife some money. We had a new Astro van and my wife asked me what new car I wanted. I wanted a '96 Impala SS. On Thanksgiving weekend I went to Toronto, bought some newspapers and bought a black SS. The owner said that when it had 1000 kms he took it to a shop for Edelbrock headers, Flowmasters and cat back pipes, K&N, Hypertech. It had 67,000 kms, tires were bald and warranty done. It has been my favorite car to drive although it is a bit big.
It got parked in April 1996 when it started to misfire. Since then there were too many other projects on the go. This picture was taken last June in my driveway. Last week the weather finally got warm enough to start working on the Impala SS.
Misfiring usually is caused by moisture in the Optispark or burned plug wires on the headers. It has happened all too often. So I pulled the water pump and Opti. A bearing had gone in the pump leaking coolant into the Opti.
Siting in the yard last year, it starting to bleed powersteering fluid when I started it. I bought a new high pressure line and installed it last week. Once it was back together it still leaked. Sure enough it was the low pressure line. So I bough the other line and it is back together and not leaking. I cleaned the plug wires and painted up everything.
Now I'm cleaning and painting rotors and calipers.
A dealer repainted the hood in '98 after a small crash. Now it's starting to have the patina look. The spoilers must have been painted beyond the factory by a contractor. The spoiler on a friends's car went the same way.
My tall son just asked me what happened to the roof. Bird crap? I never noticed it before. Like acne all over it. Looks like I have some paint work ahead of me this spring.
I was hoping to get back to work on my Malibu this year. It has a similar LT1 injected with a Corvette cam but with a 4 speed Saginaw. It still needs the high pressure fuel system built and a total repaint. Engine is all installed.
This picture was taken in 2003. The last engine in the Malibu was a 400. It ran nice but was hard on gas. The injected Lt1 should make it much nicer.
Pete