My husband and I have been VW people for the past decade or so. But I missed my old 62 Nova, and I wanted to have a cool daily driver / cruiser family car for this summer to hit up cruise nights and car shows, etc. And to drive the bay to play dates, drive to school, whatever. A friend of mine was selling this 58 locally, so we bought it: My daughter loves it! It needs a lot of work, and we are knocking out most of the big stuff right away so that I can daily drive it. Brakes, heater, interior, tune-up, and lots of little things. First thing, we had to rebuild the steering column shifter, because it suddenly stopped shifting one day. We were sure it needed all sorts of new parts. But my husband tore it all apart, scrubbed all the pieces, then reassembled it with fresh wheel bearing grease. And like magic, it started working perfectly! Before: After: He also gave the car a tune up, rebuilt the carburetor, installed an electronic points replacement, and adjusted the steering box. But there are no pictures of any of that work, because it's not very pretty. But he did take pictures of the dashboard that we repainted: Before: Painted: And best of all, we bought some Bel Air dash trim and then customized the it by doing a faux engine turning with a dremel. My husband just zip tied a little piece of a scotch brite pad to a dremel bit, and tried to hold it nice and steady. Not perfect, but way better than what we had before!! : While it was out of the car, we went ahead and took the instrument cluster apart, cleaned it all out, polished the plastic, and painted the needles lime green just for fun. Just the cleaning and lubing managed to get the speedometer and gas gauge working, although the temperature gauge still pegs to full Hot after 10 minutes of running. Anybody know what's up with that, or how to check it? Here's the pics: One final detail, he took a little scrap piece of stainless steel that used to be a heat shield on my Jetta's catalytic converter, and cut it out to fit into the Chevy's hood emblem bezel. After some engine turning, it turned out looking pretty sweet! So that's it. He has been driving it to work the past month or so, and he says it's slow, vague, heavy, terrible on gas, uncomfortable, and stupid. But I can tell he loves it. We plan to finish the mechanical stuff (mainly brakes), then paint the roof in flake, and finish the interior somewhat decent, but on a budget. And then it'll be my cruiser and baby shuttle.
Car will be a really cool driver for you. Be sure to use new brake parts, drums or disks. Engine turning, and the dash really good.
Got a little bit more done in the past few weeks: Made a quickie little carpet kit from a roll of carpet that i had left over from an old house project: I also started assembling the door and interior panels. I will eventually have it wrapped in vinyl when the seats are done, but for now I just used masonite that has the white film on one side, so that it'll look decent until we can shell out some money to an upholstery shop. Before: During: After: I basically just took pieces of cardboard, and kept trimming them until they fit just right. Taped them together, traced the outline onto a sheet of MDF, then cut it out and bolted it on. I used that same process on all the door panels: Before: After: Before: After: Going to knock out the passenger side tomorrow after work, hopefully.
Damn I get all warm n fuzzy when a see a 58 Biscayne. My Dad had one as his daily for years and can still smell the leather seats that were in it when I was a pup. Nice to see it used as a daily !! Rat
Thank you for your posts! You all are doing wonderful work with a modest investment. It is really really great to see the entire family in the act. Cute little girl you have, also! -jim
That is already a cool daily and it looks like it is just going to get better. I really like the engine turned dash trim. That is an idea that I may copy. I have seen it and liked it in old rods but never would have thought of doing it on a car that new.
58's have really grown on me in the last couple of years...and this one proves why! Great car. I like the stance a lot. Is it running a 235, or a bent 8?
Thanks everyone for all the positive words! They've really made my wife happy and eager to work on the car some more. She's looking forward to us cruising it out to some local car shows this season. Thank you for that, Jim! Ever since we started driving our daughter around in it a, she has started replying "VROOM VROOM" when we ask what sound a car makes. haha She loves it. Thanks! It's got a small block 283 in it. And the rear has air shocks, so it can come up an down about 4 inches. It was aired all the way out on the most recent pics. It really rides rough, and I think it might be because one or both of those rear shocks are bad. And the driveshaft does touch the top of the tunnel sometimes, because I saw a shiney spot. I'm trying to research what I can do to fix the ride quality while keeping it really low, but I havent found much. I can weld in a clearance for the tunnel, but I don't really know what to do with the suspension. If anyone has any links or suggestions of what to search for, I would be very grateful. Sorry for my ignorance, but what is a bent 8? Just a cute way of saying "V8" ? HAHA it's funny she posted that, because I think it's exactly what I told her the first time that I drove it to work. Oh yeah? That's cool. I work over by the airport, so I am in that area every day. What are you cruising, so that I can be sure and say hello?
Awesome ride! 58s are my favorite (of THAT brand) I REALLY like your approach to getting it up to driver. No Fuss, no muss, just get it done - and It looks great. Be sure to keep us updated.
Glad to see a few of my old parts being put to good use. Looking great! Like the engine turned stuff might have to steal that one!
Very nice. I miss my '58 Impala and of course I was young and stupid when I sold it. Was one of my all time fav's... maybe again in the future. Nice car, nice stance.. have fun!
Beautiful 58!! Managed to shash five of them...... Drove my '58 Biscayne from Tulsa to Helena, AR few years back, "You came from Tulsa in that?!"
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