Before the wide-spread popularity of the Internet, we car guys had to scour newspapers, periodicals, and as many swap meets and junkyards we could find, in an attempt to locate a decent project car. Such was the case for Rene Valdez and his ’65 Impala. Rene is from Carol Stream, Illinois, and he told us, “I bought the car in 1996, after I found it at a swap meet. The car was in its original condition, and although it definitely needed some help, it was drivable. Rene continued, “The ‘65 Impala SS has always been my favorite car. My uncle had one when I was growing up, and I fell in love then.”

As found in 1996.

The first thing on the agenda when Rene got the car out of the swap meet was to drive it. For almost a year after acquiring the car, Rene enjoyed driving it around town, but he eventually realized that he wanted to give it a few upgrades. The first thing on his list was to take it to a local body shop in Carol Stream, Illinois. The car originally came from California, so the rust was minimal, but the guys at the shop did need to repair the small rusted areas of the fenders, and then they slathered a smooth covering of Indigo Blue Metallic on the paint-ready sheetmetal. This was in 1997, and according to Rene, “The body shop that painted the car is no longer in business, but the car still has the same paint.”

As soon as the exterior was updated, it was readily apparent that the interior was outdated. Rene contacted Ed’s Interiors of Villa Park, Illinois, and had them refurbish the interior to the factory-original light blue. With a new interior, factory air conditioning, and aftermarket tunes, Rene is definitely riding in style.

Just like any hot rodder, Rene was not able to keep himself from upgrading the engine in his Super Sport. He told us, “I pulled the engine and had it rebuilt by R&R Engines in Lombard, Illinois, but I didn’t want to go to crazy, because it is the original numbers-matching engine.”

Luckily, the engine was in terrific shape, and did not even require an over-boring of the cylinders. Rene tells us that he did have a few Edelbrock Performance parts like a Performer intake and carburetor, and a Performer camshaft added to the engine.

At one time, a Powerglide transmission was what gave gear upshifts, but that has since been replaced by a rebuilt Turbo 350 that uses a shift-improver kit, and a 2,500 rpm torque converter.

Now that the car is – in Rene’s words – finished, we asked him what his plans are, “I drive the heck out of it when the weather is nice, and I also go to cruise nights with it as often as I can.” Rene finished by telling us, “I’ve had several cars over the years, including a ’64 Impala, and several Nova’s. But, the ’65 is the one I’ll keep.”

Do you want to read about more Home-Built Heros? 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 Home-Built Heros series, we have received more than a few candidates, but we are still in need of more. 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 [email protected].