Images: Cars In Barns

What does it take for a vehicle to be the apple of your eye? Is it a killer stance, crazy paint job or high-performance engine under the hood? Or is it the mere make and model, rust and wear aside, that does it? Well for some enthusiasts, their “eye” is a little more forgiving and they can accept cars like this vintage Chevy Impala we recently found on Cars In Barns for the true classics they are.

As you can tell from the photographs, this 1959 Impala Sport Coupe has seen better days. Ok, it’s seen better months, years and decades, but nothing can take away from its classic design. That is unless that design rusts away before anything’s done with it.

But no matter the condition, one enthusiast, referred to only as RG on the Cars In Barns website, has finally gotten his/her dream car in the form of this well-worn Chevy.

As the enthusiast relays in the story accompanying the pictures of the car, they have been after this particular vehicle since they were 14, but every time they’d stop to ask about it, the owner would yell “it’s not for sale” even before they could get out of their car. Eventually, the car disappeared when the owner passed away but was tracked down to a friend’s coworker who was willing to sell the car.

Being of a one-of-a-kind model year, this Impala features the iconic outward-pointing fins and single teardrop taillights that made it famous. It also features a two-door hardtop body as a Sport Coupe model and the shortened roofline and wrap-around rear window that came with it.

Lucky for this vintage classic, it is an original “high performance” car once equipped with a factory 348ci engine (which is long gone now) giving the car 315hp back in the day.

A real fixer-upper, this particular Impala is said to have been a Hot Rod Magazine feature car at some point in the 60s. Unfortunately, time and the elements have gotten the better of it since. Do you think it’s too far gone or worth reviving?