Old lady daily driver: '66 Impala sedan

I was at one of my district's buildings today and happened to glance out the window and saw this parked at the public library adjacent to our parking lot. Best I can tell it's a '66 right? It's in real nice shape, must have been repainted. It's got a black vinyl interior just like my Mom's old Nova. I asked my boss if he knew anything about it, he said it's the librarian's daily driver! He said she's in her 60's. So either that lady really likes old style cars, or her husband is a car guy. He doesn't know how long she's had it but it's been here the 6 years my boss has worked here. The doesn't even have a historic plate; just a regular old style passenger plate. Plate sequence indicates it was issued in '85 or '86. It's plain jane I know, but it's a cool looking car!

Yes. 1966.

Definintely cool.

Looks like the old lady keeps it in pretty good shape, oops, I better be careful who I'm referring to as old; especially when I'm in the same vintage. Looks like a 65 or 66 but your probably right at 66. Most likely it is a 283 w/2spd powerglide.

Kind of reminds be of the sleepers that came from Baldwin Chevrolet in New York (not sure exactly where). The would buy 2 door sedans, usually Biscaynes with 6 cylinders w/3. Plain as could be. Then out comes the 6 cyl and in goes the 427 w/4spd. Back in the day! Nick remembers.

Tom C.

No, it doesn't look like a 65 or 66. It looks like a 66. The tail lights are 66.

Doesn't matter if its plain jane, I'd rock it! That thing is pretty sweet!

1965 has Round tails, 1966 has Rectangular.

Sweet ride, I really like how the design of the rear quarter follows onto the rear door.

94Woody wrote:

1965 has Round tails, 1966 has Rectangular.

Th '65 is my fav of this body style; the round lights are space-age cool!

love it! I like the wheels and poverty caps!

66 was a better year than the X frame 65,.
my first car that i drove on the roads with legal plates and insurance was a 1967 galaxie 500 red 2 dr with a white vinyl roof,.the roof was sprayed on rough feel to it
,.i hated it because it had a 289 2bbl and was a slow as poop from a pigs butt,.(typical ford.) but it was as mint as a car could get with 41,000 miles on it,.even the damn clock kept perfect time,. bench seat was good for road head, but not cool were the full size hubcaps that flew off regularly and the single exhaust was way too quiet for a 17yr old

Against my father advice i traded straight across for a 66 impala SS 327 300hp dual exhaust, anson mags, G60's out back with F60's up front, buckets console guages, dual exhaust with big daddy mufflers,
it has 92,000miles when i got it, it was tres cool,.i went from nerd to popular over night the first time i rolled into town and dropped the power slide into low gear at about 40 mph with a nice blip of the throttle and the crackling of the pipes was awesome and turned all the heads at the drive in burger joint,.the car was a slow as a truck out of the hole but that old 327 quadrabog would start moaning then turn into a scream up to nearly 80mph before it went into high gear and would never quit pulling and i out ran lots of way more powerful muscle cars on our nightly runs in to duncan,.i even had an an rcmp order me to open the hood because he did not believe his 440 interceptor could n't catch up for nearly 10 miles (he insisted it had to be a 427)

I drove that car 33,000 miles in one year, slept in it, fooled around in it, worked on it,.
generally loved that car, it got impounded in ontario and i couldn't afford the pound fees in time and it went to the crusher,.i was devastated,.

A car identical to the pictured above was once a daily driver for the lead character in a TV series, and it had a 396 in it,.

Many tears later i helped my friend miles build a strong square port 427 roller motor for his 66 4dr biscayne, it had a slide in it with a 3500 converter and 4:88's out back,.
it was a street killer and completely invisible to cops when parked,.
he rolled it and killed himself the year after,.way too much power for a poorly braked ill handling old car,.

Man i love 66 chevy's the way a girl remembers her first,.

Nick

My 65 has a full frame.

Bewber wrote:

My 65 has a full frame.

your right it,s 64 that still had the centre bearing, oops,. old guy moment,.

Nick

Sweet, she must be a Peter Fonda fan

Very cool that it's still daily driven!

81X11 wrote:

Very cool that it's still daily driven!

Definitely. Reminds me of California. When I lived there in the '90s it was no big deal to see people driving cars from the '50s and '60s as DD's. As a native New Yorker, I was amazed by it. I'm glad I took a lot of pictures of cars out there. I doubt with the price of gas in CA that people still drive 30 year old cars much.

feeding a 30 year old car is still cheaper than a car payment

If geared right, alot of the cars in the 60s got very close to the same mileage as equivalent cars today. If driven sensibly, my 69 GTO/455/THM400 would would give me in the mid 20s MPG and my 69 Firebird OHC6/4 speed consistantly got over 30 on the highway. Even my Mini Cooper with all the go fast stuff on it and the aerodynamics of a shipping box, would lay down in the high 40s or even low 50s if I remembered to keep my foot out of it.

Granted you were killing great swaths of trees on either side of the highway from the exhaust but mileage wasn't a big problem.

Bill

So,. anyone know who had a car like that in a tv series?? guy shot his wife,..

Nick

Would that be Baretta with the bird?

Robert Blake I think?

I'd love to roll a classic as a daily. I had to use my 65 everyday for about 3 weeks during the summer before last, but by the end of that time I was ready for something less obnoxious.

Still though, it was pretty great and it made me know I could do it - and maybe even in that car, just not with it's current powertrain configuration. I'd be ALLLLL about something 60's or early 70's with a straight 6 and an overdrive trans though.

Come to think of it though, my cadavalier that I just exported was a 1992 - so maybe I DO drive a classic as a daily. HA!

The Blue Ghost

Flasheroo wrote:

Would that be Baretta with the bird?

Flasheroo wrote:

Robert Blake I think?

Keep me on your ignore list as you stated you supposedly do, and don't reply to my questions, they don't pertain to you .

94Woody wrote:

The Blue Ghost

exactly,.



they reversed the negative for the head shot,. australian car anyone?




i was watching one of the shows, and he had the hood open , it had a fat block in it,.

I read a few years ago, the production crew said it was the least troublesome car they ever had to use,.



nick

Ugh. I wish you two's arms would get tired from swinging your purses at each other.

Mines not a purse its a mens sachet and its all the rage in Paris

Yea, I know. It's a satchel. Indiana Jones had one.

So does LeBron James

*sigh*... I had a '66 Impala 2-door coupe when I was in high school... wish I never would've gotten rid of her. I loved that car...

Bewber wrote:

I'd love to roll a classic as a daily. I had to use my 65 everyday for about 3 weeks during the summer before last, but by the end of that time I was ready for something less obnoxious.

Still though, it was pretty great and it made me know I could do it - and maybe even in that car, just not with it's current powertrain configuration. I'd be ALLLLL about something 60's or early 70's with a straight 6 and an overdrive trans though.

Come to think of it though, my cadavalier that I just exported was a 1992 - so maybe I DO drive a classic as a daily. HA!

http://austin.craigslist.org/cto/2897906908.html - In my neighborhood if you want a toy. He's had it for sale for a while now.

Went back to the junkyard this past weekend and this '65 Impala sedan was still there. We were looking at it when some guy came over and realized it was his neighbors old car. He said the guy had it for sale (with engine and trans) for a long while at $500 and no one bought it, so the guy sold it to this junkyard. We looked the car over, it was not very rusty for being a CT car. Too bad it wound up here. I guess there's not much demand for sedans. Don't have any better pics for some reason.

I'm still shocked there is a bugeye Sprite in there!

To the majority people, 4 door classics are worthless, cept maybe for parts.

94Woody wrote:

To the majority people, 4 door classics are worthless, cept maybe for parts.

for me its 4 door hardtops that are cool,.all windows down is great for cruising,.

Nick

^^ Gotta second that.

jimbeau wrote:

^^ Gotta second that.

One of my first cars was a pea green over black 68 Buick Skylark Custom 4dr hardtop. It was full of bondo in the 1/4's but had a great running 350 in it. I really liked the pillarless hardtop, neat styling that I wish we had today as well!

The pillar-less cars were awesome. My Aunt had a '73 Impala hardtop sedan, and I used to beg her to put all four windows down on the highway even if it wasn't really warm enough to do that

The only reason that pillared Tempest's, Cutlasses, etc. & station wagons became popular is because they ran out of hardtops.

phantom 309 wrote:

94Woody wrote:

To the majority people, 4 door classics are worthless, cept maybe for parts.

for me its 4 door hardtops that are cool,.all windows down is great for cruising,.

Nick

Agreed.

phantom 309 wrote:

94Woody wrote:

To the majority people, 4 door classics are worthless, cept maybe for parts.

for me its 4 door hardtops that are cool,.all windows down is great for cruising,.

Nick

Word. My 66 Caddy Calais was AWESOME with all 4 windows down.

jimbeau wrote:

^^ Gotta second that.

I was going to third this, but by my count, I'm #7

Hardtops are way cool!

Chevy made some beautiful hardtops between 65 and 70 that looked as good as the 2 doors
with all the windows down.Their values are starting to rise rapidly due to the 2 doors being
rediculous for the average buyer.

All cars look better without the B pillar.

+1 on that and I think GM did the best looking 4 doors of all!