Our 78 Impala

A couple of pic's of the Impala, former City of Cheyenne WY 100,000 miles only stock options A/C, AM Radio, HD Suspension, 350 4bbl, and 3rd seat. I have sense added the S-10 Dog Dish hub caps and trim rings, Power Split Front Bench Seat, Tilt Column, AM/FM Cassette. And I have Delay Wipers, Power Door Locks, and Guage Package to install.

Looks clean, Jeff. Those dog dishes look good on it.

cool wagon. personally I like the 77-79 chevy wagons better than the 80-90 ones.
got any pics of the interior mods?

We have another boxy beauty wagon joining the group!Welcome to the gang Jeff and I hope you chose the name "cammer"from the big block ford from the 60s with the mile long camchain!

Very cool. I once had a "banana yellow" 1966 Caprice wagon with wood and wire wheel covers.
One of the colors that seems to have fallen out of fashion these days.

Thanks,

I can get some interior pic's later today, like I said I still have to install the Gauges and delay wiper systems. all the options came from a 78 Impala parts car used to repair the damage from a deer hit.

AlmostaBuick wrote:

Very cool. I once had a "banana yellow" 1966 Caprice wagon with wood and wire wheel covers.
One of the colors that seems to have fallen out of fashion these days.

Check the background. My dad's '66 Caprice. This photo was taken maybe in '68. That's my nephew in the stroller. He's around 44 now.

Neat picture Krash!

Kool Pic Krash, you were quite the photographer!!!!

Well here are some quick pic's of the interior mods so far, the Pwr Split bench seat and the Tilt Column came from a 78 Impala Sedan parts car. The seat cover is a combination of the original bench seat and the split benches covering. The Steering wheel is from a 85 Pontiac Trans Am with a Bow Tie emblem swaped in.[img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][/img]

The Cream color is actually the base color for the Wyoming Sherifs Dept, minus the Green Stripes and Stars on the door. I was a city car, not a Police car but maintained by the Police.

My best friend growing up got a '78 Impala sedan as his first car in 1990, and we spent years adding factory GM options to that car. We put Buick seats and Oldsmobile door panels on it, Monte SS steering wheel, lighted visor mirrors, tilt column, mid-80's Caprice upper dash with dual-speaker openings, and on and on. Spent many weekends raiding the salvage yards, and the result looked factory if you didn't know any better. It was the fanciest '78 Impala interior you ever saw!

Want a couple of fast mods that really make the interior look better? Go hit the salvage yard and grab the plastic-chrome trim that goes behind the interior door handles. You can find these on most B-body cars from 1977-1990, and they are mounted with one screw. You can just drill a small hole in your stock arm rests and screw them in that way. Looks factory when installed. Really makes the door panels look better.

Also, look for the square woodgrain dash panel that goes around the radio and climate control to replace the yellow plastic one you have now. This unscrews with two screws there below the center air vents. EASY mod that totally changes the look of the dashboard. Look in 1977-85 Caprices for this piece.

Lastly, nab a dash clock, either a traditional round clock or even more classy the rolling electric clock. These mount between the two center dash vents where you have a black block-off plate now, and can be found in 1977-83 or 84 Caprices. You have to remove the upper dash pad to install these. It's easy, two screws on the sides of the pad and four more where the defrost holes are, and a few under the edge of the pad. Just nab a power in the fuse block for the clock. A tip, look for a clock that says Quartz on it. They are more likely to still work.

Oh and another easy mod is to replace the shift lever, tilt and turn signal levers with later-model ones. Starting in the early 80's GM went to chrome and black-tipped levers, which look a lot classier than the yellow-rubber-tipped Impala parts, and also do not show dirt/grime nearly as badly. The tilt lever unscrews, the turn signal just pulls out with a good yank, and the shift lever is held in with a pin...just knock the pin out with a hammer and screw driver.

Cheap and easy weekend mods!

Oh and if you really want to go crazy, nicer cloth-trimmed door panels are an easy swap, BUT GM changed the shape of the upper doors in 1980, so only 77-79 door panels will fit your car. Harder to find in the yards now, but Caprice, LeSabre, Delta 88, and Bonneville door panels are all direct-fit to your Impala. One thing to remember, you'll have to find a car with manual windows, and if the car you pull panels from has pull/assist straps, be sure to unscrew the metal panels behind those and to mount those on your doors before installing the new panels. The holes are already there to mount those, gm drilled them at the factory, even on cars that did not have assist straps.

Just some ideas!

Oh and that Sunbird wagon is SHARP! Really like the small Snowflake wheels. Is it an "Iron Duke" 4 or does it have the 3.8 V6 in it? Neat toy!

Fun-Fun!

-Mike

I did the gauge cluster mod on my '86 Caprice sedan. Was not hard at all. I cut the plug on the salvage yard car I yanked my cluster from and used it as a model to re-pin my stock plug. The only other mod was installing a temp sending unit for a gauge, not a light, on the left side of the engine. You can still buy those at most chain parts stores.

Before mod:


After mod:



The cool thing is the older gauges from the late 70's look even better. They're round, not squared-off like my 80's-era gauges.

Oh and you can see above I replaced the stock silver radio/climate control panel with a wood one on this car too. It looks lighter in the pics but in person matched the other dash wood perfectly. The wheel on this car came from a Celebrity Eurosport. It's the same wheel GM used on the Monte Carlo SS and Citation X-11.

You can tell this was a Texas car, there is no rear window defogger knob on the climate control. Took me a while to find a wood dash trim without the hole for the defogger knob. Rear defoggers tend to be rare options on older cars down here. My '79 Electra does not have a rear defogger either. Ha!

I do miss my '86 Cappy! Was fun to fix up and great car!

Before:

After:


-Mike

That is a cool wagon. I like the seat mod. I was going to suggest a center console, but I see you have one already.

Upgrading the dash top (and having 2 speakers as opposed to one) will look and sound alot better.

I'd also try to find the dash front from a mid 80s caprice with the woodgrain. It looks alot nicer. (I would just black out the dash center)
As for the radio, if thats a pioneer (I think it is, but not sure), you can put knobs from the GM shaft style radios on with no modifications needed. Makes it look "fancy" (plus they feel more solid- being metal- than the plastic fake woodgrain knobs on the 77-79 caprices)

Thanks for all the words and sugestions!, I do apreceate them but I am not much of a chrome guy I will look for the chrome door handle bezals but I dought I will find any around here. I only have found one 79 2 door Impala at one of the local yards, and it was a strait 6 car with no options what so ever.
I actually have most of the wood grain dash parts from the part car, but I seem to prefer the less plastic wood look of the car as it is now. I do plan on filling in the dash clock space with a analog clock housing, with a mini tach installed in it. As even the dash with the guage package does not have a tach in it. it will be my 1st car with an economy meter in it.
If I find some upgraded door panels I will go for them, along with the carpeted rear cargo are panels. The dogs tend to slide around alot on the non carpeted steel.

As far as drive train goes, I am building a 383 SBC of around 300 hp and have a 700R4 trans, and found a Posi unit for the 8 3/4" rear axle. So at least the car should keep the 19 MPG highway, and at least be quick enough to get out of its own way.

Nice! That combo will make for quite a nice (and fairly quick) car.
If you want the chrome door handle bezels and can't find any locally, drop me a line. We get box caprices in the yards here all the time.

Good luck with the project and keep the pics coming!

Great mods along with Mike's always good ideas.And all on Boxy wagons,who would have thunk it?