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With the Carlisle Chevrolet Nationals coming up this weekend, I thought it fitting that our Home-Built Hero for this week be a highlight from last year’s event. That’s where I met Donald Kline and learned about his ’66 Impala.
When I asked him where he found his car, his answer was a real surprise, “I found it at a flea market,” he stated. “It had a little bit of rust on the fenders and quarter-panels and definitely needed some work.”
A few upgrades adorn this stock looking cruiser. The five speed is a great addition to improve drivability.
After the bodywork was completed and the refurbished sheetmetal covered in a slathering of the original Regal Red, Don set his sights on sprucing-up the interior. “The seats and the carpet were already done when I found it, but dash pad was badly cracked. I had to replace the dash pad and headliner,” Don affirmed.
When Ron bought the car, it was all original, and even had the correct 327ci engine and four-speed transmission. Don had the small block’s cylinder bores opened up .030-inch and added new pistons. He then installed an Edelbrock top-end kit, featuring a hydraulic-roller cam and lifters, aluminum heads, an aluminum intake, and carburetor. The original four-speed was lacking an overdrive gear, so Don opted to install a Legend LGT-700 manual-shift five-speed behind the small block. Following that is a 10-bolt with Moser axles, a posi differential, and a set of Richmond gears.
Currently, Don spend as much time as possible driving his ’66 Impala and hopes to eventually upgrade the suspension with a few tubular items to improve the already decent handling.
Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heroes? All you need to do is click here. If you own a Home-Built Hero, we want to hear about it. Since we’ve started the series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we still want to see more – we can never get enough. If you want to see more cars built by you the readers, send us a few pictures of your car showing the engine, interior, and exterior, along with all of the pertinent information, and we’ll make you Internet famous. You can send your submissions to chevyhardcore@powerautomedia.com.
