1958 Chevrolet Impala

     Monday the wife and I made a trip to Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse to buy MORE lumber for her latest project. We are enlarging the pantry in the kitchen.
   When we got to Lowe's I was surprised to find myself parking right next to a cherry red 1958 Chevrolet Impala. The owner had just walked away from the car leaving the windows down, and an I-phone sitting on the front passenger seat. After 55 years, this is a car you don't see every day, so I broke out my camera and recorded the moment so you would believe me.

   
  This is a car that was introduced in my youth and was the dream of every teenage boy. While Momma was picking out lumber and trims, I still had my mind on the Impala out front. Chevrolet really took a chance on this model as the extremes between 1957 and 1958 were really radical for the time. The '57 Chevrolet was the last of the 'shoebox Chevys.' That was the name applied to the '55, '56' and '57 models since they were all squared off with no thought to aerodynamics. In 1957 there was no Impala in the line-up as the Bel-Air was the premier model for Chevy.

  
  The '57 had those distinctive tail-fins and the two bullets on the hood that everyone referred to as machine guns. My favorite was always the 1955 Chevy since I had one of those, but my brother-in-law had a '57 Chevy Bel-Air hardtop in that teal and white combination that was so popular that year. When my '55 was down for repairs, brother-in-law would sometimes let me borrow his '57 if I had a date that night. The unspoken promise was for me to return it to him unscratched, freshly washed, and topped off with gas.
     The changes from 1957 to 1958 for Chevrolet were not only cosmetic. In '58 General Motors' most popular brand also introduced the 348 cubic engine engine, and also coil-springs in the rear. Both would be rudely received by the hot rod enthusiast. The 348 was originally a truck engine and lacked the ability to gain high RPM's. It met its maker after a four year run as a Chevy power plant. The coil springs were another headache for the racing crowd.
The '57 had leaf springs in the rear and they could be controlled by traction-bars, but the coil springs left you with nothing but wheel hop as you left the starting line. The alternative was a major task to rebuild the rear-end suspension system if you wanted to race the car.

       Still,... that does not take away the excitement of seeing one of these old girls in this shape. The wheels are after-market of course, but other than that, I think it looks pretty much as it did when it rolled off the assembly line in Detroit. That is my red Silverado pick-up in the background and I left plenty of room between the two... I would expect no less if the Impala was mine.