Jake Dykstra's 1962 409/409 Impala!

[Tenney]

Originally Posted by RPOLS3

Not much to update on things while I wait on the carbs to come back. When Dave was up for Jefferson he helped me yank the front seat out and we dropped it off at the upholstery shop. I had the (hopefully) correct seat backs cleaned up and dropped off last week so he can work the swap into his schedule in the coming weeks and that will be done. I decided to take off the steering wheel to touch up the paint - scope creep yet again.........

In other news.........Bob Gagliano tagged me on a an old photo posted on FB that he thought might be our car racing at the International Amphitheater in Chicago back in the day (bottom of first pic). Mom was able to dig up some old photos (some of which I have shared here previously) that included one of the car in the staging lanes there and she did recall that Eddie raced the car there - so who knows. The car in the FB post appears to have bucket seats so that would eliminate our car if so - hard to tell from the pics if there are SS emblems on the rear quarters, and the RF fender appears to have some damage which I don't ever recall in the history that I am aware of on our car.....but the setup on the car is pretty close to the actual pictures we have from back on the day just below the FB pic......

Also sharing some cool photos from when Dad did the quickie restoration back in the 1980 timeframe. That is Stretch sanding the hood when prepping to paint the car in our driveway in the last photo.

Cool classic shots, Jake - that 'hive on Josephine Pesci in the 2nd Amphitheater pic is ultimate indoor aero! Outdoors, a crosswind could send her control module spiraling into a negative-g roll, though ...?

[RPOLS3]

Made enough progress in the past couple of weeks to share an update......

Distributor was put on a machine and gone through, new points installed and dwell set, made sure advance curve was working, and then everything lubed up. I installed a new Brillman brass contact cap and rotor and cleaned up and painted the cast iron housing. Got the distributor re-installed and put on a new set of dated reproduction wires while I was at it.

I tested some NAPA aluminum brightener on the intake to try and clean that up a bit with the carbs off. I think someone cleared it and the clear is yellowing now - so that will take a little elbow grease to deal with.

I thought a reproduction Brigance rear plate frame would be neat (not sure they ever made them) so I got one of those and installed it.

I was able to talk Tim out of the Ammon R. Smith plate he bought here last week and he was kind enough to let it go. Even though the car is from Brigance I thought it would be a neat period touch to have a real one on the front of the car.

My original chassis and body hardware finally showed up yesterday so I spent some time last night with an air ratchet and started buzzing off the incorrect stuff and installing the correct stuff. Still need to swap out the front and rear bumper bolts, trans mount bolts, and front body bolts. Part of the fastener purchase was a good original idler arm and the correct fasteners for that.

Next weekend I have a meeting set up to get an original idler pulley assembly, original fan clutch, original radiator tanks and straps and maybe even an original voltage regulator.

Hoping to have the bench seat back next week sometime and get that re-installed for the last time.

While the seat was out I wanted to clean up the steering wheel, thinking I could dust some of the silver color paint on it as it was worn. After further inspection once it was off, there is some minor cracking at the hub, so that is at the painters getting repaired and re-painted.

The journey continues.........

[napa68]

A random photo from Jefferson weekend. The Dykstra boys must have been trying to figure out a way to pull the chassis and get it back together by MCACN.

Of course, their other hidden talent is finding a "good" shit hole bar

[RPOLS3]

Originally Posted by napa68

Of course, their other hidden talent is finding a "good" shit hole bar

An acquired skill that has taken years to perfect and needs to be practiced somewhat regularly to maintain proficiency

[olredalert]

Originally Posted by RPOLS3

An acquired skill that has taken years to perfect and needs to be practiced somewhat regularly to maintain proficiency

----Something I'm well known for discovering!....Bill S

[RPOLS3]

OK - back to the regularly scheduled programming.......

Picked up the bench seat with the side trim installed last week and set it in the car so it is out of the way. I am waiting on some correct seat mounting hardware to replace the hardware store stuff prior to bolting everything down for the final time - should be here early next week along with a replacement steering column mounting bracket. Mine has 2 of the 3 studs broken off that mount it to the firewall - noticed that last week when I was replacing the incorrect nuts on the engine compartment side. Have to remove the steering column and clutch rod to replace - not looking forward to that one........

This morning I was able to connect with a guy that I've been communicating with via phone for the last several months who lives in Chicago and has some really hard to get and very cool pieces that he was willing to sell me (some off of his car which has a similar build date as ours). Detail kind of stuff for those that know what to look for (as I am learning).

I was able to get a correct fan clutch, correct NOS idler arm (spare), an original idler pulley setup as removed from his car, correct upper and lower radiator tanks, an appropriate radiator strap (radiator shop can build the core around these parts) , and an impossible to find assembly line voltage regulator dated correctly for our car as removed from his car. Fan clutch and voltage regulator will be sent out for restoration.

He also put the fine tooth comb on our car while he was at my place and discovered a few things that he is going to source from his stash to correct (fuel pump, oil fill cap, hood latch).

[67since67]

This just keeps getting better and better, loving the attention to details!!

[dykstra]

Originally Posted by 67since67

This just keeps getting better and better, loving the attention to details!!

and spendy and spendy……..

[olredalert]

----Some great scores there, Jake! Keep up the momentum, pal. You're closing in on it....Bill S

[BJCHEV396]

Great stuff....keep 'er up!!