Made some changes

Decided the Impala was overdue for a little attention.

Replaced the intake manifold gaskets, did a little repair work on some disintegrating vacuum lines and a general underhood clean & inspect. Decided to change the valve covers while it was apart.

Pulled the original valve covers:





What a properly maintained 60K mile engine should look like:



Factory cover as it came off (no cleaning):



Corvette covers:



Installed:



No grinding, hammering, or trips to the ER were required to get the alternator re-installed  

Cleaned the throttlebody, removed the coolant tubes and added an airfoil:



Swiss-cheesed the airbox:



More to come...

- J

Looks good....glad you didn't have to go to the ER. Lol    

Bazinga!

Lookin' good, Jay!

Finished & running with a few more upgrades:







Added some exterior enhancements while we were there:









- J

NICE!

Bad. Ass.

SWEET!

i,d love one of those hoods,.

After I completed the set of tinted tails for the Impala, I had a couple more ideas that I wanted to see if they might improve the light output even further. Instead of tinting the lenses, this time I wanted try my hand at smoothing a set as I had seen done in thread over on the ISSF:

http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=243825

I picked up a set of the early tails from David (95BRMW) when we were at the BADASS fall meet. Once I got them home I separated the lenses and scraped out all the old sealer, then removed the trim strip and filled the gaps with body filler. I didn't take any photos of that work but it was the same as can be seen in the linked post.

After much block sanding, starting with 80 grit and ending up with 220 wet, I masked off the support ribs and painted them black as was done here:

http://www.impalassforum.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=305865

Once the black was dry, several coats of clear were applied and they were set aside for a week to allow the clear to fully harden.

I then turned my attention to the buckets for the next modifcations. I first applied white paint to maximize the available light. I had done this on the set of tinted tails and it improves the brightness over the factory silver. This time I went one step further and added an overcoat of DupliColor reflecting paint to see if it might improve the reflectivity over the straight white. The instructions implied that it should, though afterwards it is hard to tell on such a bright surface, but it probably didn't reduce what was there, even if it didn't help much.

Next was to reconfigure the center light socket to permit the outer 2057 bulbs to be installed in all three locations. I made a fixture to hold the bucket in the milling machine and replicated the pattern to accept the new holder:



I had scored some scraps of the commercial quality reflective tape from an ambulance that was being lettered at the municipal garage, so I cut some strips for the areas behind the reflectors:



Using the flash you can see how much more light they reflect even over the white / reflective painted surface:



By now the clear had finished drying, so the the lenses and buckets were reassembled using black RTV and it was time to rub out the clear. First they were wet sanded with 800, and then 1000 grit:



They were polished using scratch remover for the initial cut, and finished with plastic polish:





I still need to apply a coat of black to the bucket edges to complete the project. No pics of them installed for awhile longer as the car is put away until spring, So I'll take advantage of the downtime to hit the lenses with some more polish and some wax to remove the remaining swirl marks.

Enjoy...

- J

they look great

Ooooo Shiny.

Looks good

Looks very nice!  So you can do this with our wagon light too right?  I've thought about smoothing a set like that.....

Well done my friend very nice

Some overdue updates:

The new tailights are now installed:



Replaced all four shocks & the rear springs. The front shocks were surprisingly worn out for 60K relatively easy miles, both were leaking and the bushings were attempting to turn into coal tar. The rears were better off, but still ready for the recycle bin.

Fronts:



Close up of a blown out lower bushing:



Rears:



Another bushing that died during the removal process:



Replacements were freshy fresh Bilstein shocks for the '77-'90 B-Body - commonly known as the "boxy Bilsteins" that I got from Doug in exchange for some pieces he can make better use of on his wagon.

Front 1104's:



Rear 0929's:



Like most Impalas, the rear springs had sagged over time. I had tossed in a set of bags to temporarily help things out, but even with as little as 3 pounds of air in them, the car still rode miserably with nobody in the rear seat.

Out they came to be replaced with a set of used wagon coils:



A good example of how much a small change in wire diameter affects the spring rate - the car sits the same with the new coils as it did with the originals, plus 10 pounds in the bags.

All in all, I'm pleased with the changes. The resulting ride is noticeably different. The new shocks do make it easier to pick out which wheel is impacting the bumps, but the rear harshness has been substantially reduced.  

The taillights look good during the day and spectacular at night (sorry, didn't get a decent pic of them that showed the difference).

Normally in my cars, the TS timers are set to turn the lights off immediately, but lately I've been setting this one to leave the lights a few extra moments so I can check them out before walking away.

Enjoy,

- J

As always,your mods are impressive and I am so jealous!Are the bilsteins NOS?

I want those valve covers! That is FOR SURE a future mod on my car. SHARP!!