The 1965 model year was good for Ford and Chevrolet. Ford introduced the Mustang and sold 680,000 copies before the model year was out. And Chevy’s full-size automobiles were redesigned, and more than one million Impalas were built for the first (and only) time. The seller is the latter in Sport Coupe form, but it has a running NOM for power. The body may need work, and new paint should be in the plans for the Impala in Fort Pierre, South Dakota. It’s available here on eBay, where the opening bid of $8,000 has yet to find a taker.
Chevrolet’s Biscayne, followed by the Bel Air, and then the Impala, continued to be the format in 1965. And the Caprice was added mid-year as an upscale Impala to compete against Ford’s new LTD. The controversial “X-frame” platform was gone in favor of a perimeter frame that General Motors called the “Girder Guard” and enabled the designers to shrink the tunnel surrounding the transmission. Disposable income had to be flush in 1965, and more than one million buyers invested some of it in a brand-new Impala.
This 1965 Impala’s VIN decodes it as a Sport Coupe with a V8 engine. But which one, since a later 350 cubic inch V8 resides under the hood today? A 283 or a 327 would be an excellent guess. The transmission is an automatic, and the shift pattern leans toward it being a 2-speed Powerglide. It claims not to be a Super Sport and has a bench seat interior rather than buckets.
We’re told the car runs, drives, and stops. So, its woes aren’t mechanical; they’re cosmetic. The seller acknowledges that it’s a good fixer-upper that needs some body work. While the paint is faded, the matching interior looks surprisingly good for a vehicle that may have been outside for months or years. As long as numbers-matching isn’t a requirement, this Impala might be a cool project.
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