gaasc
Desperately looking for a title
In 1979 a crack commando unit of the United States General Service Administration was sent to purchase a vehicle for the United States Embassy in Honduras. These men promptly purchased a beige 1979 Impala with the 350 Cubic Inch engine, Cassette player, and Air Conditioning which was built in Jamesville, WI. Today, long since discarded by the government, it survived forlorn in a garage in the middle of a nondescript town. If you are insane, if no other car will do, and if you can find it, maybe you can also buy a barn find.
For those of you who read my occasional contributions to Curbside Classic, you will recall that last year I found myself behind the wheel of a Ford Crown Victoria. If not, see here. Anyway, I've always wanted to have an American landyacht. It's just something that you don't see here. When people buy a big car, they go straight for the large American Puckup/SUV. The wonders of import taxes also make them hideously expensive to buy and, because Honduras has car tastes roughly in line with Pennsylvania except cheaper, take rates are low. Finding a landyacht is, therefore, rather like finding a needle in a stack of smaller, crappier needles.
For the longest time, my idea was simple, amass the $11k or so to get a disused CVPI, throw some magnaflows and remote start and be done with buying cars forever (or at least until something like an MR2 winked in my general direction). Unfortunately, that idea takes a lot of time and many things can happen in such a long time.
A couple of days ago I was having a delicious burger in a restaurant when I was told by the old man that someone was trying to sell an old landyacht. No other information was provided apart from a couple of photos.
After much poking and prodding, we find out the story. Apparently a very elderly doctor just underwent brain surgery and, since he?s very old and now very frail, he decided he was getting rid of all those things that he was going to fix ?eventually?. Among those was this 1979 impala.
The people who saw it told me it was clean with no rust and a complete interior?being how we had a bit of a Flintstone situation the last time we went around this road, that was a relief. However, I wasn?t sure, so I sent my mechanic to have a little go at it. If I got his clear, we would buy it. He would also negotiate the fuck out of every tiny thing to get the price down.
Presented next to an inferior gasket-killing GM vehicle
And so it was that we found ourselves yesterday at 1800 hours on the middle of a residential cul-de-sac turned shadetree mechanic dragging a very very very cheap car out of a tow truck. The rear-drums, you see, were frozen solid.
Now that I have it though, I can begin thinking what to make it into. As if I hadn?t thought of that already. I mentioned it on RT Automotive and I plan to stick to it. If we manage to make it run properly (and we kinda have to since we?re taking what amounts to two spaces on the cul-de-sac mechanic and that?s his livelihood I am fucking there) We?ll turn it into the car for roadtrips and to pick people from the airport/Drive to those events I have to go now that I have a job around execs. As you can see on the title, we?re not precisely going for showroom-fresh here. Not with the dash cracked as only a GM dash can, but it should be equally good during a family roadtrip, hauling the bossman to his top-floor suite or anything in between.
When that?s done however, I can go back to the 200 HP/ 20 MPG plan. The car should have enough torque from the get-go so daily driver economy gets priority. Thankfully, due to the fact that these engine?s lack of power comes from breatrhing issues. The power improvements also come with an additional MPG or two. Or is that the other way around? (power gains are a guess anyway, since we don?t exactly have access to a dyno). Of course, being how the engine was dead the first priority will be to start it up. I mean, it sat for the best part of a decade it?s not like it will just fire right?
?I?m one day in and I love this thing already. The lights, horn and A/C relay worked too before we did anything but throw a battery and some gas in.
Bonus pictures (featuring the special Feline mechanic team)
more like 137k?
Apparently the two-tone is original...or very well done.
Pioneer Whatever-BT goes here.
Roof Damage
You need an upholsterer
Interior without rips or tears.
Other interesting vehicle being inspected
For those of you who read my occasional contributions to Curbside Classic, you will recall that last year I found myself behind the wheel of a Ford Crown Victoria. If not, see here. Anyway, I've always wanted to have an American landyacht. It's just something that you don't see here. When people buy a big car, they go straight for the large American Puckup/SUV. The wonders of import taxes also make them hideously expensive to buy and, because Honduras has car tastes roughly in line with Pennsylvania except cheaper, take rates are low. Finding a landyacht is, therefore, rather like finding a needle in a stack of smaller, crappier needles.
For the longest time, my idea was simple, amass the $11k or so to get a disused CVPI, throw some magnaflows and remote start and be done with buying cars forever (or at least until something like an MR2 winked in my general direction). Unfortunately, that idea takes a lot of time and many things can happen in such a long time.
A couple of days ago I was having a delicious burger in a restaurant when I was told by the old man that someone was trying to sell an old landyacht. No other information was provided apart from a couple of photos.
After much poking and prodding, we find out the story. Apparently a very elderly doctor just underwent brain surgery and, since he?s very old and now very frail, he decided he was getting rid of all those things that he was going to fix ?eventually?. Among those was this 1979 impala.
The people who saw it told me it was clean with no rust and a complete interior?being how we had a bit of a Flintstone situation the last time we went around this road, that was a relief. However, I wasn?t sure, so I sent my mechanic to have a little go at it. If I got his clear, we would buy it. He would also negotiate the fuck out of every tiny thing to get the price down.
Presented next to an inferior gasket-killing GM vehicle
And so it was that we found ourselves yesterday at 1800 hours on the middle of a residential cul-de-sac turned shadetree mechanic dragging a very very very cheap car out of a tow truck. The rear-drums, you see, were frozen solid.
Now that I have it though, I can begin thinking what to make it into. As if I hadn?t thought of that already. I mentioned it on RT Automotive and I plan to stick to it. If we manage to make it run properly (and we kinda have to since we?re taking what amounts to two spaces on the cul-de-sac mechanic and that?s his livelihood I am fucking there) We?ll turn it into the car for roadtrips and to pick people from the airport/Drive to those events I have to go now that I have a job around execs. As you can see on the title, we?re not precisely going for showroom-fresh here. Not with the dash cracked as only a GM dash can, but it should be equally good during a family roadtrip, hauling the bossman to his top-floor suite or anything in between.
When that?s done however, I can go back to the 200 HP/ 20 MPG plan. The car should have enough torque from the get-go so daily driver economy gets priority. Thankfully, due to the fact that these engine?s lack of power comes from breatrhing issues. The power improvements also come with an additional MPG or two. Or is that the other way around? (power gains are a guess anyway, since we don?t exactly have access to a dyno). Of course, being how the engine was dead the first priority will be to start it up. I mean, it sat for the best part of a decade it?s not like it will just fire right?
Bonus pictures (featuring the special Feline mechanic team)
more like 137k?
Apparently the two-tone is original...or very well done.
Pioneer Whatever-BT goes here.
Roof Damage
You need an upholsterer
Interior without rips or tears.
Other interesting vehicle being inspected
Last edited:
). The things that pop out at me are the headliner and carpet. Definitely not stock. It also looks like the door interiors and seats were redone.
