chevy59.com--Jim & Leah's `59 Impala

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From: James Douglas [jdouglas70@yahoo.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 10:19 PM
To: Clark, Kurt
Subject: RE: 59 chevy pics

Lets start with a little history on Leah's 1959 Chevy Impala which she calls "MARTIAN MOBILE:" It is a red two door Impala sports coupe, 4 speed muncie, Hurst shifter, 336 open diff, after market AC and original 348ci 3x2. It was originally white, 370 posi diff (bad on gas, but nice take off), three on the tree (I have them both in the garage in case we want to go back). The original owner of 41 years, told us his father bought him the car new from Ferrel Chevrolet in Platte City, MO, he was 17yrs old, in October 1959. He took the original air cleaner off, added the three filters, put a '61 Impala steering wheel on and "thinned" the front end (removed the chrome from the front), pin striped the dash and put seat coverings on in the early '60s. In the '70s it was driven approximately once a month and stored most of the time. In the late '80s he decided to add air conditioning and with 62000 miles completely rebuilt the engine to give it more power, new 11.5:1 pistons, mild cam with solid lifters, and a new speedometer head with 0 miles were installed. It now shows 13000 miles on it giving us a total of 75000 original miles. After talking to him, he regrets selling it. He plans on visiting it this summer as he will be heading our way up to Northern MN to visit some family. We went all the way to Grain Valley, MO to purchase the car from the second owner; that person only had it for a few months, and sold it because he needed room for his most recent purchase -- a '98 Vette. First thing he did was paint it 923A Roman Red (as we think it should be), serviced and restored the AC (blows ice cold), put in a new carpet, Muncie 4 speed with Hurst Performance Plus Shifter (very nice), new 11" clutch and pressure plate, 336 open diff (can go a constant 70mph better now), repaired the brakes, new shocks, BF Goodrich TA Radials & Aluminum Wheels (boo-yah), added the fender skirts (looking good), oil filter to spin on (simplicity is great), installed radiator overflow and re-installed the fender ornaments. He wanted to make it into a driver and he did a good job. In the pictures, Notice the '61 steering wheel. Someday I will find the original '59. Nogahide seat covers the original is underneath and according to the original owner he put the covers on when it was new. I bet the original interier looks nice.

That was some history, now for the future and why we bought it:

Currently we would like to get some seat belts in it so the kids can ride safely with us, replace the front & rear coil springs, add power steering, put on the 348 V with flags, and script "Chevrolet. We plan to keep it pretty much original, but I will not go crazy over it as we plan to drive it whenever we can. We purchased the car because my my wife, Leah wanted it. She fell in love with '59 Chevy's at a car show in St. Peters, MN. She used to be very cold not even luke warm when it came to classic cars "they are a waste of time and money". After that show she was bit by the '59 Chevy bug and it bit hard, all she ever talked about was how neat, cool, great "If I were to buy another car it would be a '59 Chevy" and if Marvin the Martian, WB cartoon character, ever had a car it would be a '59 Chevy. "It has wings and is ready for take off" the irony to this is that the original owner is a retired pilot and the car has an old "Aircraft Owners Pilot Association" (AOPA) sticker in the rear window. It is a real classic with the best styling ever. Today "Marvin the Martian" sits proudly in Leah's '59 Chevy hence its name the "Martian Mobile".

Jim & Leah Douglas