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New to the site! Thanks for having me

1K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  janimpala 
#1 ·
Hi all -

My name is Jan Karl Lorenzen, from Brooklyn, NY. Prior to that, I lived in Englishtown NJ and was a member of the Jersey Late Greats.

My ride is a 64 Impala SS coupe, Daytona blue with the light blue interior, 327/250, 4 speed that I've had since 1983. My dad found it in the local NJ paper, and I ended up with it when I graduated from college. I took it out of regular daily driving service in 85 (replaced by an old lady's 60K mile triple black 64 4dr, 283 3sp, mb, ms, blank in the acc tag space, that I drove in NYC until 1999 when I sold it with 215K). The SS been a rolling restoration ever since, meaning I never took it apart so far that I couldn't get it back together in a few days if I had to. I moved it from garage to garage to outdoor parking lot and back to a garage over the years.

Two years ago, after seeing it sit around and only get driven maybe twice a year because I could never spend the time I wanted to on it, I decided it was time to finish it or get rid of it. I chose finish it.

It had the usual Jersey rust on it, but I had done a lot of all the other work. I had done a budget resto back in 85, and it really needed to be done the right way. Anyway, a lot of lower metal got replaced and I have it back now. Its in the garage with me reassembling everything and finally doing the things I've always wanted to get done to it.

All the trim was original GM stuff either original to the car or from what I had snagged from the local central and south Jersey junkyards in the 80's when you could actually find these cars with good parts still on them, some was gotten from the Englishtown swap meets and some from JLG members. At one time I had a storage space packed with parts. All the new stuff this go round I've gotten is from on line sources. My sister in law lives down the street from Impala Bob's in AZ, so when we head down every year there I make a pilgrimage. All the sheet metal that got replaced came from there ordered over the counter and shipped to the shop.

I'm closing in on finishing the exterior reassembly, cleaning it up, tidying up loose ends on the mechanicals, then on to replacing the interior. The interior was original, but very faded, so new headliner, seat covers, carpet, door panels and kick panels.

My wife supports me, as long as I still do the house handyman stuff. She's actually only ridden in it three times in the 28 years we've been together, and on two of those occasions I scared the crap out of her with it. This SS a big loud wallowing beasty, and I like it.

Jan Impala

PS- "Jan Impala" was a nickname given to me because of the black 4dr, it stuck and I used it as a stage name with my band. The 4dr was a fixture in the NYC music scene for a long time, and it could haul a lot of equipment.
 
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#3 ·
Welcome to the Team Jan!

Sounds like you are taking your time to do it right. Is Uncle Sam paying for any of this? If the vehicle is used to promote, as well as transport your music act it should be as much of a tax write off as is Billy Gibson's '32 Ford Coupe as seen on their Legs video.

Big Dave
 
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