Last week, my wife and I were admiring some cars at a nearby car cruise, and I stopped to ogle a shiny black ‘63 Impala SS hardtop. While most Impalas have their fans, there’s something about the ‘63 that looks just right to me: the Cadillac-aping grille, the snazzy side trim, the six taillights. Add a numbers-matching 409 to the mix, as our feature car has, and you have a car that’s going to bring in a few high bids.
The 409 is on my Mount Rushmore of good-looking V8 engines (along with the Buick Nailhead and the Ford Y-Block with Thunderbird valve covers). Opinions may vary, but just like clothes make the man, valve covers make the engine, and the 409 has some of the best valve covers under the great blue sky.
Not all 409s were the dual-quad fire breathers of song and legend, but that didn’t mean the standard 409 was a stone – far from it. Car Life tested an Impala SS with the 340-horsepower 409 in their March 1963 issue, and it accelerated from 0-60 in 6.6 seconds and finished the quarter mile in 15.2 at 90 mph. Those are impressive figures for a fairly standard-specification 1963-model V8 with a Powerglide; the 409 was torquey enough that two gears weren’t a penalty. The top speed was 124 mph, but all that fun led to an average fuel mileage of 12 mpg. Might as well live it up!
This featured Impala has the same 340-horsepower 409/Powerglide combination with a console-mounted floor shifter and bucket seats. The seller says that the interior seems to be all original, and it looks to be in pretty good shape. According to the seller, everything works.
At some point in the Impala’s long history, it was repainted white from its original Autumn Gold (too bad – that would have been a pretty combination). Still, the seller says that the panels are all original and rust free. My only concern is the lack of pictures of the car’s passenger side.
The undercarriage is crusty and original-looking but rust free. All-in-all, this looks like a solid example of a 409 Impala that the new owner can drive and enjoy.
A ‘63 Impala SS Sport Coupe with a 409 is gold-chip, even if it’s no longer painted gold. This one is currently for sale on eBay with a high bid of $18,088. It’s going to take a bit of cash to take home this popular Impala with a rock-and-roll powerplant. How high will it go?
That perfectly straight crease down the body-side does it for me. The 63’s are my favorite too.
Looks like a brand new fuel tank. One less headache to worry about.
Very nice car, always loved these cars and seeing them brings back memories. One vivid memory is of my brother Dave junking a four door 63. This was around 1980 and at that time we weren’t getting along all that great, anyway he had the car rolled up on its side and I showed up about the time he started cutting the rear end out of it. Now this car had a previous owner that used another set of lower control arms welded in there to raise the rear up higher and the coils were full of twist in spacers. My brother started cutting on the lower control arm without cutting the shocks to relieve any pressure on the coil springs. He was bent over cutting up near the frame and I saw what was about to happen, I told him he didn’t want to do that and I was told that I needed to shut the F up because he knew what he was doing, I told him again that he didn’t want to do that and was told the same thing even louder and about that time he cut her loose and wham right in the jaw with the control arm, he staggered back and I caught him, got him steady then shut the torch off and took him by the hand and walked him to the house. Later after dad took him in to get stitched up Dad asked me what happened, I told dad him that I saw Dave cutting the control arm without relieving any pressure and that I told him not to do it and he refused to listen, Dad asked why I didn’t shut the bottles off to keep it from happening. I said that I would have had to turn my back to do that and there was no way I was going to miss what was about to happen. There may have been something wrong with me back then, glad I am better now. As for me and Dave we get along great today
Your story reminds me of the time I was putting new ball joints in my Rambler American and I foolishly rented a manual spring compressor and on one leg a hook was bent outward slightly. I don’t know why I didn’t tell the guy to give me the other one that was perfect but I didn’t, and I came to regret it. As I was torquing the spring and getting close to full compression so I could put it back on the car the clamp turned just enough that it was able to walk off of the spring and when it let go the force was stunning. I was holding it with my left hand and was extremely lucky it didn’t break it or take my fingers off, but fortunately it just peeled back the skin of the first three on a neat line right at the joint, so the doctor just cleaned them and laid the skin back down and a couple of weeks later they’d grown back together. Amazingly it didn’t leave any scars and to this day you can’t tell that anything happened.
Glad to hear, I’m 63 now and my older brother and I didn’t always get along as well. These days it’s much better. I’m still a car guy he’s not so much.
So is it white or very pale blue? My eyes are picking up a distinct difference in shade between the roof and the rest of the car.
Is it a vinyl roof?
Compared to the roof I’d say it was white with a light blue tint. I had a white ’63 convertible with a 283 (and a really cool red interior) and it was a much brighter white than this one is. I wish I’d been able to keep it now but as an early 20’s kid with very little income at the time the 10-12 mpg it got wasn’t sustainable even with gas at 35 cents a gallon, so I sold it and bought a VW and more than tripled my mileage.
409 with a 2-speed Powerglide (aka Powerslide) ? That would kill it for me.
A TH350 is a bolt-in.
Nicely said Aron. Just look at the room in that engine bay! My first thought was a memory of swapping motors ala teen age years. Remove hood, sit on wheel wells with ratchet(little bigger than a mouschette) and start prep topull engine, your friend working the opposing side, good conversation, companionship and times………then along came vietnam
Busy day at Barn Finds. ’63 Super Sports are right up there with my favorite cars, especially the 409s. Thís a pretty car in reasonably good condition, but the Powerglide absolutely kills it for me. While I wouldn’t “pull the trigger” on it, if one could get it for something close to the current bid, it wouldn’t be a bad purchase. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening, and that’s too bad.
Powerglide, nope.
Well, by 1963, that “409” moniker was becoming dated. With Fords R code and Chrysler hemis, the poor 409 was trailing the pack. It was more of a novelty, thanks mostly to the hit song of the time. Many 409 fans don’t want to admit, it was basically a truck motor, and ran its course. Not to say there weren’t some runnin’ 409s, but the 396 in ’65 changed all that. For those that were around when that song was popular, instantly recognize the name. This car was about as fancy as you could get. I wonder if future generations will even know who The Beach Boys even were. Sounds a bit,,you know,,
It certainly was a truck motor! I tell some of my buddies who are looking for a 409 to go to junk yard and look at old Bluebird school busses. There’s something about those valve covers that stirs my soul! Kinda like the early Hemis.
remember 348 my favorite Chevy engine and 409 look the same except for the side the dip stick is on same value covers those old school buses where 348s they were still put 348s in trucks up till mid 60s even know 1961 was last year for passenger car 348
al…. I do believe Steve Bolander’s 58 had the 348.
No six Strombergs though.
Powerglide would get it done. Mom had a new 64 Impala 4dr with 327/250 with dual exhausts and powerglide. I put a quick advance kit in the distributor, rejetted the carb, would swap a 4:11 rear end at the strip, and turned consistent 15.5s. Put the 3:08 back in it before going home. She never knew!
Won a lot of races with it in pure stock class. 409 should do much better.
As to what it’d sell for, I’d guess mid 30s to 40. It’s crazy how much money the 62-66 full size cars are bringing.
Now I’m not saying that I don’t believe you, but 15.50s in a 327/250 horse 4 door Impala Powerglide running in pure stock would be a national record holder. Maybe you meant, 17.50s, as those were fairly common times for something that would have qualified for that class. Maybe yours ran that good, and I certainly wasn’t there to see it so I can’t say that it definitely didn’t happen.
Charles i have to agree with you my sister ran a 1963 Impala convertible back in 1963 it ran g stock 327 250 hp 4 speed with 4:11s ran low 16s
maybe very high 15 if the wind was blowing in the rt direction and it was set up to race
Couple of comments in reply. First, in order to keep the class amateur, NHRA didn’t have national records for pure stock. The whole idea of the class was for the girl friends of the guys who were real racers to drive their tow cars for fun. Class allowed any size tires as long as all 4 were the same size. No internal engine changes, original carburetor. Any factory available rear end. Interior had to be stock, spare tire in place, battery in engine compartment. Almost nobody read the rule book and did what was legal…after all, it was mostly tow cars and girlfriends! I raced H/PS Automatic, I raced Mom’s car for 2 years at Lakeland dragstrip in Memphis. First year a won pure stock eliminator just about every week. Second year the gave prizes for pure stock eliminator, posted at the beginning of the season, but nobody could win more than 3 times. I won a set of CragerSS wheels, an Offenhouser intake manifold and a set of tools. I’m something of a packrat, but I couldn’t find a timing slip dating that far back.There was a Tempest with a 389 claiming to be 326 that was the worst competition. It’s owner told his driver to let off the throttle when he got ahead so as not to break out. “except for that damn black impala, then stay in it ’til the lights!” I still won. Don’t know what made it so fast…4:11 made a big difference, and the dual exhausts which were a $17 option as I recall might have been worth a few HP, Joe Lunati was a friend who jetted the carb and did the distributor work. I’m sure he helped more than a little. But 15s were a fact.
The price seems very good to me, Time Will tell. In the pictures it looks like a convertible, but I know it isn’t.
al… I do believe Steve Bolander’s 58 had a 348. Six Strombergs? Not likely.
I’m sure that it has a vinyl roof. Did they have those as factory or even dealer installed in 1963? I remember the roof creases that were supposed to imitate a convertible top. Metal no vinyl. In those days I spent a lot of time sketching cars with the fellow car nut sitting next to me in junior high instead of paying attention to the teachers. We always carefully included this feature in our sketches. The top on this Chevy looks different than what I remember on sport coupes. Maybe a more knowledgeable BF reader can help me out here.
It is hard to tell if it’s vinyl, or a different shade of white. I was only 13 when this car was new, but I’m pretty sure that vinyl tops weren’t readily available then. Plus, there doesn’t seem to be any visible seams in it. I’m pretty sure that an interested buyer would sort that all out. Still an interesting question though.
Wonder why the back half of the car underneath is all rusty and gruddy, not an issue just looks normal, but the front half underneath and one half of the floor pan is like all black and painted and complete opposite to the back half. Sort of gets you thinking and worried.
Henry Davis, I know exactly what pure stock is. (The “national record” comment was me being a smart ass) In ’67 I ran a ’65 Impala SS with a 300 horse 327, wide ratio Saginaw 4 speed, 3:56 open rear end, and dual exhaust in pure stock. I won nearly all of my races that summer and that car would run a consistent 15.70. That was my reference point for my comments. Maybe your car was freak, but I can guarantee you that there wasn’t a 250 horse Powerglide Impala in state of Oregon that I couldn’t put 3 car lengths on.
How did you keep that Saginaw together? I went through two of them in short order and then went to a T10 in my ’79 El Camino.
Maybe 4:11 posi made the difference? I don’t remember ever spinning a tire. I’m trusting to a 60yr old memory of what an 18yr old kid did here, the only opponent I can remember is that Tempest I referenced above. And I’m sure Joe Lunati’s expertise had an impact…He was really good at things other than regrinding cams. Like my wife always says, “I can’t explain it, all I can do is report it!”
they should have left it gold.