Thinking back from the begining.

I AM LOOKING FOR OTHERS TO TELL THEIR STORY AS WELL. Here is mine

I was thinking back to the time I first got my hands on the keys of my then brand new 94 Impala SS. I had just turned 26 and the 95 SS was already on the lots. I went to look at a used dark color 93 LTZ, and this 94 ss leftover at Liberty Chevrolet in Wakefield Ma. I drove both and decided I wanted the SS. I told the salesman I would be back as soon as the remote start was installed and the financing was finished. I hated giving up my 87 Grand National, but I needed 4 doors for my then new wife and her two kids. I took delivery December 13th or so of 94, just before Christmas. In the summer of 95 I discovered that a hockey puck fit in the hole where the home plate whent by accident. I told one person who was in the community about it in 97 and it has become the norm today. I had seen a magazine artical where they tok a spray paint can cap and used electrical tape to block off home plate without removing home plate. I hated that Idea, as it seemed like it would or could fall into the air track. I went looking for a 1" thick peice of glass cut to fit in the hole, but the glass guy at Bristol glass in Attelborough Ma suggested a hockeypuck was about the same size, I walked across the street to a sporting goods stor and purchased a $1.98 hockey puck, and that is my contribution to the b-body world. I kept the car til 98 when it was repoed because I was having issues whith said wife and got fired from a great paying job because of the issues.
In september of 99 I started getting the bug and since I now worked for a cab company that used only b-bodys. I just had to have one. In October of 99 I purchased a 95 9c1 with 154k miles on it from the cab company for $2500. Seemed like the deal of the century. A four year old 9C1 for short money. This is the car that became my Blue car with the white stripe to mimick the corvette grand sport. I also started using the internet and getting introduced to web sites like "b-body world" I think it was called, and 9c1.com, and NAISSO. The few guys that I still remember from back then was Area51, Art funk, Scott Mueller, and Joey Daytona. In late 2000, I became a member of the National forum as IMPALARS9C1. This was my name for a few years. I eventually sold the 95 9c1, and purchased a yellow 92 9c1 NY city taxi, then a white 92 rmw, and a 91 caprice classic, and a 94 9c1. In 05 I purchased another 94 9c1. And for the life of me I could not log on to ISSF. I email hack only to find my screen name was lost somehow. But now I was thinking of a new name when I was driving to work one morning and met Rob "FUN9C1" at the Dover tolls. He gave me the Inegma address, and I signed on as IMPALADAKID, so I did the same for the national forum, and every other form. I sold the 9c1 to a forum member after buying a black 95 fleetwood, then I sold that to a forum member, and then I bought a roadmaster wagon, then sold it, only to buy a roady sedan that I sold just to buy my current and last b-body, another 94 SS.
Now if you were not counting, that is 10 Bs, and one D-body in 15 years. And here I end where I started, with the car that started it all. The 1994 Chevrolet Impala SS.

In the end it has been a wild trip loaded with failed OPTIs, 4L60Es, and W/Ps and one failed posi. The fleetwood was my first failed 4L60E, and my first Impala SS was my first failed Opti.(fixed under warranty)

Oh and the most important thing. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the best people there are.
And It is my pleasure to say all but a handfull of those people are here on this forum.

A big thank you goes out to all those people. And not to single anyone out, But to name a few. Anthony, Ron, Tom, Mark, Art, Jason and Bill Crovo, KL, Fisha, and Doug.
Over the years, your contribution to both the community and to me personaly is priceless.

May we all have many more years as a car club community and family.

Bill

You been drinking again Billy?

Nice story.

toomanytoyz wrote:

You been drinking again Billy?

Nice story.

Maybe.

my exact thought. and im not on either any more. pills or booze. oh the pill statement disappeared.

I am not drinking or anything, I just thought I would share my story of how I cought the b-body bug, and encuorage others to tell their story as well.

By the time I got my first everyone knew about the hockey puck mod and they were getting hard to find. I had to come up something else.



Thanks to Bill and eveyone else that has posted useful info. It has saved me lots of time and money. A long time ago I read an article ( in a science fiction mag!) about some wacko named K. Eric Drexler on how HTML was going to change the world as we know it.

boojum wrote:

By the time I got my first everyone knew about the hockey puck mod and they were getting hard to find. I had to come up something else.



Thanks to Bill and eveyone else that has posted useful info. It has saved me lots of time and money. A long time ago I read an article ( in a science fiction mag!) about some wacko named K. Eric Drexler on how HTML was going to change the world as we know it.

You do not have the throttle body bypass.

Cool plug! Must be a ACD PF-52 size. turn it upside down to filter incoming air.

You sure have alot of recall campain decals Jim. Must be a 94.

Great write up Billy.

My B-body history is much shorter. In 93 when they came out I was 10 years old, I had been a complete car nut for years already, my room from about age 7 till,well now, is covered in car stuff instead of any Brook Burk pictures or anything....

Anyway, I fell in love with the SS at 10 years old, I could not believe how cool it looked blacked out, huge, and FAST. I knew I would someday have to have one. As the years went on I got a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle for my first car, I went through a couple pickups, Hondas (not riced though, I swear), Maximas, a WRX, and a CBR. I soon got to a point where I could afford to take out a loan on a B-body. The first one I wanted bad was Bewbs white 6 speed. I was going to hop on a plain and go get it, but I could not come up with the right cash/financing to get it. This lead to a search for another car, and I found my SS in Mass with the 4.11 gears and a few bolt ons. The gears were the selling point, I had to have it. I have since spent a lot of money putting it to the condition I SHOULD have bought it in...LOL...but now that she is in great shape I am doing what I always do, selling it in favor of another project....Hopefully the story continues this winter with a Box B-body build.

I have to also mention that this is the closest club/community I have ever been part of, and I really enjoy it. Thanks to everyone.

Doug

OK, call it artistic license.
That wasn't my first b-body.
I didn't put the filter in it, I bought it like that. It now has a hockey puck.
It's a 95.
I never even really noticed the stickers.

The first Impala I saw (or at least noticed) was on the cover of a SLP catalog. I went online to see why a big fat car was on the cover of a performance parts catalog and learned about 9C1s. Many years later I picked up a '94 at the NH auction.

My story didn't start with a B body either(even though I always loved them my granfather had one back in 95 I was 5) , when I turned 16 I bought a 89 ford ranger for 100 bucks, and drove it untill it quite literarly fell in half. So with my accumulated funds and a cosigner I bought a 94 SVT Cobra mustang. I actually one best car in highschool with that it was a ton of fun but scared me too many times and I let it get me in too much trouble, so I started looking for a car more insurance friendly and found the Caprice. As luck had it my grand father was getting rid of his 94 Cappy, I thought at the time all caprices had lt1's but upon further inspection I was wrong, but even though it was just a l99 I love it all the same, the ride, the sound, the handling. of the few cars I've owned this one has been my favourite.

I truly appreciate all the support, help and great personalities. You guys are the best.

What a great thread, Bill, it's funny you got your first Impala SS at Liberty, because that is the LAST dealer I remember seeing Caprices for sale at in 1996 or so. They had a bunch of leftover brand new ones lined up diagonally on the crushed stone in view of 128. I remember I stopped and looked at them with my dad, he didn't know much about them but considered buying one because they were the last of the "big cars" or whatever he said. There were a few pewter colored ones and I forget what else. I think a couple of Impalas too, I know those went in production a little longer.

I don't know where I fit into all this. I've always had a thing for bigger cars. When I was a toddler, my mom had a 67 Pontiac Bonneville. The car was downright scary looking, it was one of those cars you didn't want to stand in front of, it had a "face". I was strangely afraid yet liked the car at the same time, I don't know how to explain it.

I remember riding in a baby seat in the back when getting dropped off at a babysitter in Melrose, MA. My dad had this new 2 door Dodge Omni 024 hatchback (when was the last time you saw one of those) and I didn't like the weird new car smell in it. I always liked riding in the Bonneville or my dad's 58 Ford truck better. For whatever reason my mom stopped driving the Pontiac around the time my dad got a new '85 Bronco XLT (I like Broncos as a result and other 2 door large SUVs, hence my K1500 Blazer) and it sat in the back corner of my yard until 1995 or so when we junked it. For most of my childhood I basically played in and on top of that thing.

I always liked the square Caprices when I was little for some reason. I remember there was a video game called Lethal Enforcers where you had to shoot at a white Caprice Brougham LS with bad guys hanging out the windows...you could rent the game and the plastic guns to shoot at your TV!

I also always liked the full size C-body Cadillac Devilles and Broughams as well. One of the last years they made those, my family went to the auto show in Boston, and I distinctly remember my dad sitting in a new all white 1991 or so Brougham D'elegance with the ridiculous button-upholstered seat cushions, white seats and headliner, red dash and carpet. My dad was like "I should have one of these.." holding the steering wheel while my little brothers and I were laughing in the back seat. I also learned to drive in a 1980 Coupe DeVille. My dad got that thing for 400 bucks for the hell of it along with a Lincoln Mark VI 4 door sedan. Caddy had no rust or dents, but had this weird 368ci engine that had a dead cylinder or something. I swear he put 30K miles on the car before it was rearended by a tractor trailer when he was pulling onto a side street, the car saved his damned life, and he got about 2200 bucks as an insurance settlement for the car. He was injured though and I don't think he got a very good payout from that. The car was supposed to go to me right before that happened, I'd taken it to the HS auto shop and we did a bunch of stuff to it. Wanh wah.

I remember another car show where my dad was strongly considering a new early 90s Roadmaster sedan (probably the TBI ones) because he knew someone with a '51 when he was a kid where they'd take trips to Maine in it.

I remember liking the Impala SS since I first saw a 2 page advertisement in a magazine for them. "Lord Vader, Your Car is Ready..." I now have a T-shirt with that ad on it. It was years before I got a driver's license, but I always thought the car looked so badass.
My physics teacher in high school had one he bought brand new and I used to talk to him about the car. One day he was telling me the CEL came on, turns out a squirrel got into the airbox snorkel and got all fried up in there...screwed up the mass air flow sensor or something?

My first REAL experience with one came a few years ago when I went with a friend to pick up a limited slip diff for his E30 BMW 3 series. We took my green Impala down to Somerville to meet up with these 2 guys, one had a BMW and was on a forum. They had showed up in a DCM 95 SS. The two BMW nuts were left to themselves while I was asking this guy about his car, I guess he had gotten it cheap with a bad trans and rebuilt it himself. I remember it had Hooker Aerochambers on it. He asked if I wanted to go for a ride in the car, and we took a quick blast on route 28 through this tunnel where he floored it. From then on I knew at some point I had to buy one of those. Since then I've ridden in a 600HP Mustang, another similarly quick Fox-body stang , 2 Subaru WRX STi's, a 42 Ford my friend had, a 57 Chevy a couple of times (this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330365562780&ss) and all kinds of other random stuff, but I STILL want my damned IMPALA SS!!!

I'll probably get a Roadmaster first for a DD whenever, but still. I should just find a new girlfriend that already has one or something.

Some good stories here! I should post up the little story I just wrote up about me for the "Longroof of the Month" that I was elected over on another forum I'm on. It gives all my "B" history anyways!

EDIT: Ok, here it is. I know it's geared towards the wagon folks, but it was a lot of writing! So, here it is!

Quote :

So how did this whole wagon thing start for me? And when? Well, I have to be honest and say I was never a fan of wagons, at ALL, until recently. I always liked coupes and hatchbacks, and never considered a 4 door or a wagon as cool. But then, about 10 years ago, I was goofing off in the parking lot after work with a few of the people from the office and I ended up blowing out the ACL in my clutch leg. At the time I was driving an 96 Z28 with a T56. I couldn't drive it anymore, nor would I be able to in the near future, so I sold it. But what could take its place?

My line of searching was simple. V8, RWD, American, Automatic. Something I could get in and out of easily with my bum leg. That's when I found the Impala SS. It strikes me now as odd that I had never remembered seeing one before I started my quest. Weird. But anyways, that's when I realized that the cop cars had the same drivetrain. So I set out to get a recently retired cop car. Now remember, this is just as the internet was starting up, and I had just purchased my first Pentium machine, so I hadn't even found the impala online communities yet. I ended up buying a two-year old ex NYSP trooper car. I paid way too much for it and got hosed on the deal by a guy in Chester, NH that made a living on selling retired cop cars. Big Blue was gorgeous. Dark Sapphire Blue (still one of my favorite B colors!) with a blue cop interior. It was JUST retired, well maintained and only had like 96K miles on her. I bought it, drove it, loved it. I swapped out the tranny when it blew. I did some routine maintance. I swapped in a RMS limited set of seats. The car was pimp. The water pump started to leak, I got sick of it and traded it in on a truck becuase of a stupid 30 dollar part. Moran. Man, I miss that car!


I didn't need that truck, after all. So as I was still missing Big Blue, I set out to find a suitable B replacement. In this time, I had found NAISSO and then the ISSF. I was a better informed shopper this time around. Though no B fit the bill. I ended up trading the truck in on this:

That car lasted a long while with me. I did A LOT to that car. I had many sets of rims and tires, interior stuff, stereos and more than my share of clutches. When I sold "Elephant Running" she had transformed into a built-motored, T56'd, dubbed, ghost-flamed street terror. And I was famous. And I would NEVER do a T56 swap again.





During my ownership of the Elephant, I decided it was too nice to drive through the winters and needed a decent beater. That's when I discovered wagons. I bought the Fat Wagon and my life was forever changed. She was ugly, but I loved her!

I got to try my hand at the wonderful, undiscovered world of spraypainting.

I loved that car, even with the anemic 305. I did the caddy intake and a 2.5" exhaust, rattlecan paint, and a set of silver and black bonnies (that are now actually in Chris P's -SWT SS- car), and a few other odds and ends.

I loved that car. It's utility, the way the L03 sounded with that exhaust. The whole deal. She just rocked. Someone even stole it once, but I got it back and rebuilt her the best I could. But in the end, the call of the LT1 was too strong. Too bad the douche I sold it to, one of my wife's good friends, decided to drive it drunk one night. At least she was able to walk away from the head on encounter with the pole at 40+...


I did it again. During my ownership of the Fatwagon, I came to my senses and unloaded that 93 Camaro that I thought would replace the Caddy. I bought a 95 DCM Impala SS.

I still have it. It got that T56 swap I would never, ever do again. Oh, and it's got a built motor and custom paint and a whole bunch of other crap.

But that's not a wagon, so I won't bore you with the details...

Which brings us to the beginning of my heater core issues in Roadmasters... The Fatwoody. The first one I bought from Fred down in Waterloo. She was a DCM woody with ruby cloth.

I fixed the paint with some more rattlecans and put pergo wood floors in the back and did a set of BMW lights. I just drove it. It was a winter car/parts hauler. A winter car that despite whatever I did, wouldn't have heat. So I sold it to a guy in Texas who didn't need heat...



Then what? I sold it for a lowly, rusted out caprice wagon. A HAUNTED caprice wagon. Named her Morticia.




I had a lot of fun with that car too. Namely I painted it AT the 2K7 Issca Nats in St Louis, in the parking lot, with rattlecans. I had the biggest POS at the show, and I think it's one of the most remembered.



That car was great. And I would still be driving it if we hadn't tried to get my wife into a B-wagon.



Which brings us to the Marshmallow. I bought it for my wife and she gave it a shot, but it just wasn't fancy enough for her. So when she wanted something else, I had to make a decision on which wagon to sell, and this one was such a nice, clean, southern car from Fred, that I just had to keep it. It's, in all honesty, too nice for what I'm going to do to it, but that's ok by me. We bought it at WF08! I went with one wagon and came back with TWO! While she was driving it, we just did a set of Cragars to set it apart.

Then I inherited it and the mods began.





But don't let me fool you, she still gets used like a wagon should be!


And I have lots of plans for her, too. I think I'm going to sell the SS and put the monster motor and wheels and tires from it on the Marshmallow. I'll put an SS rear with 4.56's and a T56 in her too... My mods have only just begun!

So it looks like you'll have to deal with me for quite a while longer. Hope you enjoyed my story and feel free to ask any questions or make snide remarks...! It's because of these cars that I've done a LOT of travelling, raced in points series and met a bunch of cool people that some of which I now call my closest friends. That's another thing about these cars, the awesome community of people who come along with them. I think that that is the best thing I ever got from owning one of these. Thanks for listening.

bill i wish you would stop posting pics of the caddy. ever time i see that i start drooling. i would have sold my house for that car.

Damn Bill, nice cars!

I have to ask, u say that u T56 ur SS, and would never do it again? Why is that?

iceman3201 wrote:

bill i wish you would stop posting pics of the
caddy. ever time i see that i start drooling. i would have sold my
house for that car.

LOL! Yeah, I wish I had it back myself. Maybe I will someday.

No Moa wrote:

Damn Bill, nice cars!

I have to ask, u say that u T56 ur SS, and would never do it again? Why is that?

Thanks Glen. I never said that about my SS, I said it about my Fleetwood! In the end, the T56 is WHY I sold that car. I went through 6 clutches in 20K miles. Some I even took out in two pieces, where the hub completely separated from the disc!

The final clutch I put in it was going to be my savior. Instead, it was an on/off switch and it was undriveable on the street. That was the hair that broke the camel's back. I sold it in a fit of rage, and vowed to NEVER, EVER do that again.

A stock Z28 clutch would have been fine in that car had I driven it normally. But I beat the phuck out of that girl. Daily. And I raced it, both autocross and drag strip, so it wouldn't work for me. The guy I sold it to is still driving it on the stock Zee clutch he had installed when he bought it.

I was one LT4 clutch away from that car being perfect. But I was out of patience. And apparently, out of my mind.

My history is no where near as cool as some of you guys. But Matt may get a kick out of the beginning of it. And Doug knows the ending of it.

Here's my story Sorry there are no pics but your not missing much

My first car was a blue on blue 4 door 1966 Pontiac Bonneville with every option available for that year. It had cruise, power everything, air ride rear suspension, a/c, you name it and it was there. I had that car for about a year and a half and never did get it running enough to be able to drive. The guy I bought it off had "restored" it and wired everything in the car backwards. Every power option had a blown motor, and the car wouldn't stay running. He even grounded the positive battery cable instead of the negative just to give you an example of how backwards everything was. After I started to rewire things the right way the car stopped running all together and only backfired out the carb. I ended up selling it before I got to really enjoy it because I was moving and it wouldn't make any drive let alone a 1600 mile one, and due to the size of the tank the cheapest quote I got to ship it was over $2,000. I sold that car for $350 with a storage unit full of spare parts

Well I was dealing with that I drove my mothers '89 Chrysler Labaron. It was an ok car. Shit kept breaking though. Broke an axle twice, timing belt wich required pulling the engine to fix, the flip open headlights never wanted to flip open so I had to pull over and open them by hand at night, both front brake hoses blew at the same time while I was practicing for my drivers test

Once I moved back up here I bought a '94 Dodge Dakota sport. It was blue on grey with a 6 cyl/auto combo. It was a great truck other than the gas mileage and the fact that being a 2 wheel drive with an extended cab made for some interesting moments in wet weather. I sold it after a year because the trans was starting to slip under load.

The next car was a '96 Cavalier z24. That car was a blast to drive other than slamming my head on the frame for the power moonroof everytime I hit a big bump. I had huge plans for that car but after it blew the pcm from driving through a deep puddle I started to get nervous about sinking money into it. Eventually on a very wet night the trans shorted out and blew up. Then I blew the motor trying to get it to run with a blown trans . I sold it for $500 to someone that wanted to fix it and sell it on his used car lot. Funny how I replaced a truck with a slipping trans with a car that eventually blew it's trans

I used the z24 money to buy an '88 K5 Blazer which was rotten beyond belief but ran like a dream. That truck ended up being a nightmare thanks to the rot. The rear seat wouldn't latch down because the floor was actually seperating into layers like an onion. I went over a bump and the fuel line split open right behing the engine. The brake lines exploded on my way to school one morning. The tailgate didn't like to be open and didn't seam to appreciate being closed either. I kept joking that someday I'd hit a bump and it would fall off. The first tuneup I did on it had a spark plug break off in the engine because the rot made up more material of the plug than metal did. Just to fully understand the picture I'm painting, the drivers seat had to be reinstalled when I first bought the truck because a fat guy sat down and the seat went through the floor . I ended up using that truck as my daily driver while I rebuilt a Caprice that I bought for $900. Once the Cappy was road worthy I scrapped the truck.

The Cappy I bought for $900 with a fualty radiator, water pump, drivers seatbelt, guages, tires, body, and a blown oil filter gasket. After a completely new cooling system (minus heater core) and rebuilding/replacing everything else (minus the body) it has been my daily driver since. So far I've put over 30k miles on it without too many hickups. It's the most miles I've ever put on a vehicle in my life. The only problem though is it's getting to be a problem for me to work on due to my health and the way the engineers laid everything out. So lately I've been looking to get another fullsize truck like the Blazer I had, but the market on these cars is crappy and I don't have any cash to sweeten the deal. I couldn't bring myself to demo derby it or to just scrap it since it was the car that I drove dad around in (chemo treatments) before he died. That's why it's looking like I'm going to end up keeping it and driving it until it dies. So basically I'm going to give up on keeping it fairly nice and just start removing things as they stop working, and if I do replace parts I'll use parts that people wouldn't normally use just to see what happens. This car is basically going to be a test bed for stupid ideas until there's nothing left and then I'll Nab the hell out of it and smoke you guys up at NED

The End

Ah ok, i read it wrong, I hope someday i can T56 something, tired of the automatics.

My first car was a 73 AMC Matador, I guess that's were I learned to appriciate a big car. As I got older I always drove beaters and refused to buy a car over a few hundred bucks. At the time there was a $5 registration transfer fee $15 inspection so I would change vehicles every other month. I've always judged vehicles by there miles, being programmed to think cars shit the bed after 100,000mi. I then picked up an 84 Isuzu Impulse, paid $700 and it had 137,000 on the clock. I beat the piss out of that car drove it to FL. and put over 74,000mi. on it and only changed the oil three times (I'm not kidding) What I learned about imports is they're made to last and if a joint fails, it's changed, no grease fittings and fuel-injection is so more reliable. So as far as what I had faith in for American cars were the Vette and fullsize Chevy/Ford trucks.

So, my ideal car would be 4-doors, V-8, RWD, and manuel trans. BMW had the M5 and Benz 420 both would be way out of the price range (but so sick) I remember the first time I saw the 94 Impala SS on tv and it wasn't long after they got one in at Jim How Chevy in Newton, NH. I just remember that there was nothing out that looked as nasty as the Impala did. When the 95's came around I fell in love with DGGM paint. It would look gray, green and the occasional purple. I turned 30 and wanted to blow some inheritance so I bought a 12yr old 96 Impala SS with 34,000mi, finally a car that I would put tremndous love and care into. With all the 9C1 upgrades and the Vette motor I new it was a winner. Thankfully I found an online community that can offer so much!

Wow. The stories are interesting and funny, but I was thinking about stories that started at the beginning of b-body ownership.

Keep em coming.

When I made up my ghetto intake i did the pvc pipe like everyone else but when I got around to getting rid of home plate the sports store near by was closed, so I browsed around and found the a glass candle top fits very nicely.