Tap 3 red lines to left for navigation menu
1959 Chevy Impala
This 1959 Chevy Impala came to me with the rear cross-member and upper control arm about to break off of the frame rails. The owner had explained to me that the original owner had a hydraulic suspension and use to hop the car and that was how the rear cross-member broke. They attempted to fix it but did a lousy job. When he bought the car she had her original spring suspension back under her but just never handled right because of the cross-member had the rear axle in the wrong position and was not square with the front axle. After talking for a while the owner wanted an air ride suspension installed and a rear anti-sway bar. With the air ride suspension he could rails the car up to go over the big speed bumps, lower the car down for better handling or drop the car to the ground for the car shows.

  The first thing I did when I got the car was remove the entire rear axle and its assembly just leaving the lower control arms in place for the air ride system. The next thing I did was install the air ride system putting all four air bags under each corner. I then built a platform to go in the trunk to mount all the controllers, air compressors and air tank to. I then ran all the wiring for power, mounted the head unit under the dashboard for easy access, ran all the airlines from all four corners to the trunk along with all the wiring leaving enough wiring and arrow line to remove the platform from the trunk for easy service without unplugging everything. I then went ahead and started looking over the rear cross-member and what was originally done to repair it, when they installed the cross-member they put it too far forward and crooked they also tried to use up little pieces of metal to fill in the spaces where the frame was torn or completely ripped out, this caused the rear axle and driveshaft to not line up correctly and any speed over 45 mph would cause a vibration in the drive-train. Before I did any work I went ahead and leveled out my lift, I then checked to make sure the frame was straight and went ahead and welded the car frame to the lift. I then cut the rear cross-member out and cut out all the bad metal in the left and right frame rails. The cross-member was next, I had to weld up any cracks or tears in the metal and grind it down smooth trying to leave as much of the original width as possible. I then went ahead and repaired both frame rails, temporarily set the rear cross-member in its place, installed the rear differential and took my measurements to check for square between the front and rear axles. After mocking everything up I pulled it all back out. The next step was to weld a backing plate to the frame, weld the cross-member to be backing plate, and weld a front plate from the frame to the cross-member securely setting it in place. With all the metal work done I went ahead and painted everything. With the rear axle already out of the car we went ahead and took it apart, cleaned it all out, installed new seals and gaskets and filled it with fresh fluid. We reinstalled the rear of the car filled the bags up with their and took her for a ride. With the new air ride suspension and anti-sway bar she not only rode beautifully, handled the turns with no drama and the new front disc brakes had her stopping on dimes.

  About and hour or so after the customer picked up his 59 Impala I got a call from him letting me know how happy he is whit her. He told me that he drove her down Bear Mountain Pass, which is a very curvy road with lots of hair-pin turns and heavy breaking areas that really put the car to the test. He explained to me that she was handling the curves like a sports car and would stop in half the distance with the new disc brakes. He said that he use to dread going through the pass with her because she was all over the road and when the drum brakes would heat up she would not stop and he would have to pull over to let them cool, he now has none of those problems and he said it is fun to drive her through the pass with the new air ride suspension, rear cross-member repaired, the anti sway bar and new front disc brakes, he also said that the ride quality was still smooth as silk over the bumps and humps. WOO HOO....
Share by: