The motor is an LS7 that represents an all-aluminum 427ci or 7.0L V8. We mentioned that the bubbletop while looking true to its heritage does have a few tricks hidden underhood. Read More: This 1958 Chevy Impala Blends the Lines Between Cruiser and Performer If you look closely you will see Wilwood 14-inch drilled-and-slotted rotors with 6-piston calipers in front and 4-piston calipers in back. The fronts are P Zero 225/45R18s in front and P Zero 345/45R20s in back. The one-off custom wheels come from Mike Curtis who built the 7×18 fronts (4.5 backspace) and the 12×20 rears (5-inch backspace) all wrapped in Pirelli thin redline rubber. The front Independent Front Suspension is more Art Morrison parts, utilizing their control arms, dropped spindles, Detroit Speed rack-and-pinion, Strange Engineering coilover shocks, and Wilwood disc brakes. A 1-inch Hotchkis front sway bar is used while Joe and Thrash made the rear sway bar work in this application. The Art Morrison chassis utilizes its own four-bar and a Ford 9-inch rear end (53-3/4-inch housing width) fitted with a Strange Engineering pumpkin filled with 3.73 gears, 31-spline axles, and coilover shocks. It should be noted that the body sits over the Art Morrison Enterprises chassis (2x4x4 muscle car ’rails) with its 119-inch wheelbase providing for its low stance with a front ride height of 5-1/2 inches and in the rear 6 inches yielding its low stance. From here they made the firewall and flooring as well as the rear wheel tubs and front inner fenders where each was raised and widened 3 inches. The fan shroud and the air cleaner (Z06-style) are more amazing sheet metal work by Joe and Thrash. More on the hidden and not-so hidden sheet metal changes. As for finishing off of the brightwork it was John Wright’s Custom Chrome Plating on the chrome and Stainless Rehab that masterfully massaged all of the original stainless trim that was retained. Joe also had the body scanned at Atomic Machine and from here what was once trim is now made from billet, such as the taillights, fender pieces, and the one-piece quarter-panel side trim. The hood is stock but the emblem area was shaved. While you can’t readily see it there’s a belly pan while the front fenders were reworked (hiding the lower mounting bolts), and the external door latches were eliminated. For instance, there’s a front spoiler (housed here are the turn signals and parking lamps) and a rear spoiler that encloses the dual outlet exhaust tip. The ’61 Chevy Impala bubble top is based on factory sheetmetal while there are a few subtle changes. Additional paint guidance and helpful tips came from none other than Charley Hutton, master of all things that come out of a spray gun! Joe also gives credit to Jason Kilmer for a clinic called Gloss University that helped with painting techniques. While the PPG paint was applied by Joe Thrash handled the red airbrush work inside the signature side chrome trim. On bodywork it was a combination of Joe and Rich Melton. (The bubble top is painted in PPG Cyber Gray but may “lean” toward the blue hue because of the reflection from the blue in the sky.) Let’s stay on the subject of body- and paintwork. We hope you like the car in metal finish, as it gives you a feel for the work that was done but then hidden under the final body- and paintwork. Read More: Impala with an LS3 from Pace Performance (In 1962 the “convertible top” look was brought in.) Now, there was a ’61 Chevy Impala SS bubbletop, but in order to get one of these there were a handful of mandatory options, but the most desirable of these was the 305hp W-motor sporting the iconic 409 engine. A few words on the ’61 Chevy Impala, affectionately known as the “bubbletop.” It was manufactured from 1959 through 1961 and features the thin arching A-pillar with no B-pillar closed off with another arching C-pillar.
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