Many of us have stories similar to the one Don Rogers tells. There are times where his wife will ask him “How can you work on those things all day?” Wait. All day? “Where did the time go?” Don’t hide it and don’t deny it. Most of us can say they’ve lost at least an hour or two working on our classic cars, if not an entire afternoon.

Don’s 1964 Impala convertible is almost perfect.

Don’s got a love for Classic Chevy cars. He’s got two beautiful examples of Chevy’s Impala, both 1964 models. One is a convertible while the other is a hardtop. Don sets himself apart from a number of enthusiasts by doing all his own work.

Don says of his hardtop Impala: “When I got it, it was mostly all there, but it was a rusty mess.” The car’s previous owner had fallen ill, and his family moved it to the backyard. Seems he loved it as much as Don does; he wanted to be able to see the car out his bedroom window.

The red interior in Don’s convertible has hints of a 1959 Impala.

Although Don’s convertible was a garage-kept before he got it, it hadn’t been driven for more than three decades, and was the rougher of the two cars. Don took the opportunity of a long and drawn out restoration process to make some minor improvements to the car such as air ride suspension and hop-up parts that are period correct. Parts of the interior in the convertible came out of a 1959 Impala. It’s little things like this that Don has done that, while tasteful, are almost invisible except to the most experienced and discerning eye.

Quite a few classic car collectors will hide their cars in a garage after all the work is done and trailer them to the occasional show. Not Don. After spending all of that time working on his cars, there’s no way he’s going to keep them “safe” in the garage. There’s too much pride in the work that he did for that to happen. He wants to be seen driving them, wouldn’t you?