Wished For it Then - Got it Now!

By Rober Genat

Bob Shamp is a stalker. A vision of the car he lusted for as a youth is the reason. Back in the '60s, he owned two '61 Chevys - one hardtop and one sedan, both were four-doors. But it was a friend's red-on-red '61 Impala Sport Coupe that really lit Shamp's fuse. "My admiration for that car is the reason I built my Impala the way I did," Shamp confessed.

In 1990, Shamp tracked down the 1961 Impala Sport Coupe that would become the car he never had. It was green and white with a six-cylinder engine and an automatic transmission. The Impala was clean and complete, but about as basic as you could find. The only option was a push-button radio. The biggest flaw was a small amount of rust at the bottom corners of the front fenders and at the rear of the rocker panels.

The green and white paint and the six-cylinder engine didn't matter to Shamp. When he looked at it he saw a red-on-red car with a 348 cubic-inch engine.

Shamp started this project with three 348-cubic-inch engines in his garage. He installed the best of the three in his "new" sport coupe and backed it with a Turbo 350 automatic transmission. This combination ran well for two years, as work progressed on the car. He had no complaints, but when a friend was about to sell a 1959 El Camino with a professionally rebuilt high-performance 348, Shamp made a deal to swap engines. The engine he gained was machined and balanced and had high-compression heads and a Crower hydraulic cam. "The Crower cam didn't have that 'cruise night,' lopey idle I wanted," he said. So he replaced it with a NOS Chevrolet high-performance solid-lifter cam. To put some extra icing on the cake, he also added the factory-optional tri-power carb set-up.

A Muncie four-speed transmission replaced the Turbo 350. Muncie was not the factory-installed transmission in 1961, although it should've been. The car came with a Borg Warner T-10. However, theT-10 was recognized as a weak unit by the streetwise guys and Shamp saw no reason to put one in his driver. He also used a Hurst shift linkage for the same reason. His shifter is the original-style "swizzle stick" or "spaghetti stick" that was standard on factory four-speeds.

The conversion from automatic to four-speed transmission is not that difficult. Shamp found the necessary parts through a network of friends and the resources of a local wrecking yard. To begin with, the transmission cross-member is the same for both transmissions. There is a difference in the transmission tunnels. Chevrolet engineers, for 1961, added a piece of stamped sheetmetal to the floor pan and the driver's side of the transmission tunnel on all four-speed cars. This panel provides clearance for the shifter arms and an opening for the shift lever. It simplifies the installation of the four-speed, looks better than a hatchet job, will allow the shifter to function properly, and is available from Chevy parts vendors.

Another modification to be aware of is that several small tabs need to be welded to the frame in order to provide pivot points for the clutch cross-shaft. These tabs are also available from several Chevy parts vendors. The drive shaft will also need to be shortened.

A few other considerations include: adding the clutch pedal under the dash (you won't have to get rid of the brake pedal assembly unless it's a power steering set-up), the neutral safety switch under the steering column needs to be disabled, and the back-up light switch needs to be mounted on the side of the transmission. Steering column modifications included grinding off the automatic shift lever stalk and the gear-selection indicator and filling the voids.

Much of the work, like the transmission rebuild, was done on a trade-out basis. (Shamp, who owns A&A Muffler in Poway, California, would build a custom exhaust system in exchange for someone else's specialty work.)

Changing the color of the car from green and white to red required the careful repainting of all the door jambs and inner panels. The metal dash was painted to match the exterior and the red reproduction interior, but a flattener was used to reduce reflection. The factory painted them this way.

The Roman Red acrylic enamel looks hot and has held up well during the four years it has been on the Impala. "I had no idea the paint was going to turn out this nice," said Shamp. "Initially, I just wanted a red '61 Impala I could drive and have fun with." He realized in mid restoration, the high-quality bodywork and paint had inadvertently set the benchmark for the remainder of the restoration. "Pretty soon, the scope of the restoration was beyond my earlier vision," Shamp recalled.

With this revelation fresh in his mind, Shamp determined that his trim pieces needed to be upgraded. The toughest parts to find were the aluminum trim pieces that wrapped around the right front and rear of the car. "Seems like they were all damaged over the years," Shamp said. He purchased reproductions, but was not satisfied with the fit and returned them. His prolonged search for trim parts led to the purchase of another '61 Impala as a parts car.

Because event the best of the trim from his car and the parts car was dull and/or dented, Shamp decided to have all of it stripped, straightened, re-anodized and polished. He found the best price through the Late Great Chevys Club; a national organization dedicated to 1958-64 Chevys. It cost Shamp $2,000 for the 52 pieces of aluminum trim he sent them for refinishing, which included some duplicate parts.

The parts car paid another dividend when reassembling his project car. This was especially true when he reassembled the door-lock and latch mechanisms. "When I started to put it back together," Shamp said, "I realized I was missing some parts." During the restoration, thieves broke into his shop. A tool box, containing small trim pieces, door locks, and emblems that had been "cleaned and put away for safe keeping," was among the missing items. The parts car reserve stock replaced some of the stolen parts plus the seat frames, which were better than the originals.

Shamp drives the Impala 2,000 or more miles annually, and one of his concerns about a car that goes fast is whether it will stop fast as well. He upgraded the brakes by adding power discs to the front wheels.

His American mag wheels complete the cruise night look that Shamp loves and the modern radial tires provide a road-handling trip that was unavailable from anything being produced in the early 1960s.

Additional upgrades he is considering include a beefier, front sway-bar to relieve some of the wallowing during cornering and a five-speed overdrive transmission that he believes will made the car a better long-distance cruiser. Even as he continues to stalk parts and accessories to improve his driving pleasure, he is determined to maintain the essentially stock appearance of his red-on-red Impala.