Bob's 1959 Chevy Impala

A '59 Impala is a rare enough sight on roads these days, but this particular one is even more unusual. Owner Bob explains "For one thing it was factory built Right Hand Drive, one of a handful built by General Motors South African assembly plant in Port Elizabeth. Their specifications were somewhat different to "normal" Impalas - it came off the line with a more luxurious leather interior for example, something not offered on US cars.

RHD 59 Chevys originated from GM Canada and were mostly exported in CKD Kit form to S Africa and Australia who built up their own localised versions -  a few were also exported to the UK

Purchased in 1985, this car was, (apart from the chocolate brown paint job) completely original - even the interior panels and seats still had the original factory plastic protective covering - something that preserved the unique interior trim from being destroyed by the fierce African sun!

Shipped to the UK,  a full bare metal-up restoration was started in 1987 - traces of the original yellow colour scheme were found under the layers of Chocolate Brown - samples were taken to a paint specialist and colour matched to re-create the original colour.  Working at weekends and on holidays, the restoration took three years - all the sheet metal was stripped back to bare metal with many of the panels being sandblasted to remove any traces of rust & corrosion.

Despite being from a relatively dry environment, the previous owner had evidently never opened the back doors which had rusted out.  Bob welded in new sections and re-skinned the rear doors: "Being a 4-door hardtop no restoration parts were available and I had to hand make all the sheet metal parts myself. Fortunately most of the rest of the sheetmetal was in sound condition, although some panelbeating had to be done to repair old accident damage.

The tail end of the car proved to be too big to fit into Bob's garage, so a local bodyshop was entrusted to spray the tail-fins! All the other panels were sprayed individually off the car by Bob. Restoration was assisted with information from Bob's Uncles Fred Rudman and  Andre Jonkers who had actually worked at the GM factory as apprentices when this car rolled off the production line - they even remembered the sequence of paint that would be found as the doors were stripped down!

After three years working at weekends all the body panels were ready to reassemble and the car gradually began to look complete again!

The original door panels needed to be replaced, so the  unique GM South African vinyl coverings, with their heat-moulded Impala emblems were carefully removed and Bob  made up new hardboard panels to match the originals. New moulded carpets were imported from the USA, specially made to order for Right Hand Drive, along with new door and window weatherstripping.

The interior needed some work, as, despite the protective plastic covering,  the leather seat facings had dried out beyond repair in the South African sun. So the seats were duly shipped off to Connolly's of Wimbledon for a professional refurbishment by their restoration department. They did an excellent job and even matched the grain and colour of the original leather perfectly, right down to the piping which was colour matched to  the exterior colour, exactly as original. 

Back to its former glory, the Impala is resplendent in its original yellow and white colours! This is how the car originally came off the production line back in August 1959

All Images & Content Copyright The American Auto Barn Ltd 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007
Email: Webmaster@americanautobarn.com. Original design by Kew Business Services Ltd using valid CSS and XHTML
Disclaimer: This company is not related in any way to any other organisations using "Autobarn" as a trading name, including Autobarn.com in the USA, Auto Barn Australia or Autobarn Ltd. If you have queries relating to these companies, please contact them directly.