1964 Chevrolet Impala

[Guest 49oldsfan]

I looked at an all original '64 Impala 2 door hardtop that has been parked in a storage building for years. To my surprise the car is pristine. They had the 327 engine rebuilt, drove it into storage and left it and now I'm thinking about buying it.

I don't know a lot about the 64 Impala's because most of the cars I have owned are 40's & 50's era.

Here's my question. This car is very heavily optioned for the day. It has PS, PB, PW, P seats, tilt wheel, 327 cid engine, Auto tranny, factory air, & also factory wire wheel covers. Does anyone have any idea if this is a rare bird with all of these options or were these quite common with those type options in that era?

Thanks,

Barron

[rhb1999]

Let me mention from the start that I am not a '64 Chevrolet expert. Tohave this many options with a 327 instead of a 283 in pristine condition as you decribe is rare fine indeed. I have a '65 Chevrolet 1/2 ton truck fleetside Custom Cab,283,automatic,factory air, it has power brakes, but no power steering and has the small rear window. These could have been common options, but to have all these options on one car,I would think this would be very rare. I think as with the 50's not erevybody ordered heavily optioned cars because of cost. As luck would have it, I've seen optioned cars like this found, but in bad shape.

[Guest 49oldsfan]

Yea, that's what I thought too. In the next day or two I'm going to take a hot battery down there and see what happens. The engine bay was detailed just before they parked the car. This car is in an old skateing rink building and he probably has 50 cars in there. I was amazed that all of those cars are parked in that building ( 5 minutes from my house ) and I had no clue.

I had a 64 Chevy truck one time and mine had factory air but just the reverse of yours - - mine had power steering but no power brakes. I love those trucks.

Barron

[impala]

You'll get more info and help that you can imagine in the forums at www.chevytalk.com

impala

[Guest 49oldsfan]

Thanks, I'll try it.

[Guest Bob Call]

49 Olds

This is exactly like the second new car i ever bought. Mine was Rio Red with white interior. The dealer I bought it from had several with the same equipment. The sicker price was a little over $3,300. I don't think they were rare as people that bought the Impala Sport Coupe usually wanted all of the options. Rare would be the 409 engine, 4 speed trans and positraction rear axle. If I remember right my 327 was the 4 barrel 250 HP. It was like a $150 option over the standard 6 cylinder. The auto trans is an aluminum 2 speed Powerglide. The Chevy chassis, including power train options except for the 327 and 409, were the same for 58 through 64. Only the sheet metal was changed.

[rocketraider]

Probably had to do with where the car was delivered. I think you'd have seen more optioned out like this in California, New York, or Florida than elsewhere in the country. My experience is that AT/PS/PB were fairly common on big Chevy's by that time; PW, PS, tilt and in-dash factory air were not. AM-FM radio and remote outside mirror were very uncommon. The vast majority here were low-optioned with a lot of 6-cylinder, 3-speed, radio and heater cars, even in Impalas.

I can think of three fully loaded examples out of the thousands that were here: a solid red Impala Sport Sedan owned by the dean at the local community college, a Silver Blue/white roof Impala wagon owned by a local ENT doctor, and a Satin Silver/white roof SS Sport Coupe that was ordered for the Chevy dealer's wife just before the dealership changed hands. All 327 cars.

The Sport Sedan and the wagon managed to stay in nice original condition most of their lives, but you can imagine what happened to the SS by the mid 70s. It was painted black, silver interior dyed black, suffered a driveline transplant, had side pipes and air shocks added, went thru several owners who all added their stamp, and deteriorated until it was basically a junker in red primer and rusted Cragar mags. Sad end to what was a magnificent car.

[Guest Bob Call]

The last time I bought a new Chevy that had a dealer installed A/C was a 62 Impala Sport Sedan (4 dr hardtop). It looked like the factory Rochester A/C. When I bought my next new Chevy in 64, Impala Sport Coupe, the dealer installed Rochester A/C was no longer available. They either had factory A/C or no A/C. By then new cars without A/C down here in the southwest were pretty rare. However, my brother-in-law bought a new 65 Dodge and it had a dealer installed A/C.