65 409 Impala on overhaulin'

[agtw31]

i saw this episode last night,and about flipped when i saw the Impala was an original 409 car.

i thought this was the last year for the 409,and werent these cars extremely rare??

[370454s]

You could still get a 409 in 65, left over 64 Motors I think. I think they were all 340 HP motors. Almost bought one 30 years ago.
Mike

[Bill Pritchard]

I seldom watch that show as I think it's mostly a crock of BS. I sure wouldn't want to have one of the cars they whip out in (*allegedly*) one week http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/no.gif

Yes, 65 was indeed the last year for the 409. The 396 was introduced mid-year and replaced the 409 as top engine option in the full size cars.

[Verne_Frantz]

The '64 motors were a 422 casting. The '65s used the 656 casting. They were available in the 340hp and 400hp versions until Jan.
2,086 340hp & 742 400hp were built.
The 396 entered production in Feb. There was about a month when you could not order any big block.

Verne

[Stefano]

Verne,
Do you have production figures for 409/425s?

[Verne_Frantz]

425hp for '63: there were 4,383 domestic and 11 export. For '64: there were 1,986 domestic and 11 export. Odd that the export numbers are the same for both years.
Unfortunately, Chevrolet did not collate option information by RPO# in '62, so there is no record of 380hp vs 409hp production that year. Only the total of 8,909 409s is known. There has been another '62 production number floating around in various publications of 15,019. That number is the total Tonawanda production for the year.

Verne

[PeteLeathersac]

Verne....where/how does Canadian production and delivered vehicles fit into those production figures? .
http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif
~ Pete

[Verne_Frantz]

Pete,
The numbers I quoted are totals for US plants. I have no option totals for Canada. The only Canadian production figures I have are for totals of each general line. For example, 22,273 '63 6cyl Chevy IIs, or 28,546 Regular Passenger V8. There are no production numbers for specific models on my reports. Perhaps GM of Canada might have more specific totals, since they seem to be able to provide documentation for each car by VIN.

Verne

[PeteLeathersac]

Thanks Verne....I thought you meant for US plants but just wanted to clarify. .

I expect the '62 Tonawanda numbers you noted would include engines destined for Canadian plants too?

Next time we're talking w/ Geo. Z. of GM Canada Vintage Services, we'll have to ask if there's any possibility of Canadian RPO totals from any years?

Although not correct and sometimes way off, I've always used the approx. Canadian 10% population of US as a guide when figures are known from either side of our border.

I think export numbers from Canada would be a much higher percentage than US plants too as we exported a lot of Total or Partial Knock-down vehicles as well as complete units.

Back to the original topic of the thread, there's always been a '65 Biscayne 409 car on my want list. .
And as far as Overhaulin goes, aside from the broads and the obvious love of anything cars, I'm no fan of these 'car killer' type of shows.
http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beers.gif
~ Pete

[mssl72]

To add in to the mix of info, the L35 396/325, M40 Turbo 400 and the Z18 Caprice option all entered production in February, 1965. In 1965 there were 2 409's available, the L33 340hp and the L31 400hp. In 1965 there were 2,086 L33's factory installed and 742 L31's. I don't have any export info for '65's unfortunately.

[will]

I didn't see the show ,but I hope they didn;t ruin it to bad,
Iam sure they cut and narrowed the bumbers they always do that http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif