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Verne's
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Verne's 62
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Under the hood.Click On picture For Larger Veiw. |
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Chome Wheels
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InteriorClick On picture For Larger Veiw. |
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Verne's tag says it all.Click On picture For Larger Veiw. |
Owner Verne Frantz |
It was July 1968 I had to go shopping for a car after totaling my first car a 1956 Ford. At Reedman Chevrolet in Langhorne P.A. in their under $1000 lot was this black 1962 Impala SS, 4 speed, red interior, white top, padded dash, am radio and 2-spd wipers no other options. The 409 was recently replaced with a 61 283 which burned a little oil, but I knew I could fix it. My father didn't think it was the best car for me, since the engine was so bad. So we went home empty handed. After being home for less then an hour. I convinced dad that I wanted this car, so we drove back to Reedman's and drove it home after paying $700.00.
It got a set of chrome reverse wheel with Firestone red line tires, a Grant custom steering wheel, installed a set of S/W gauges in the original gauge holes, added a Sun Super tach on top of the dash and installed a set of custom pedal covers. The 283 lasted until I tried to drive the car to Daytona Beach for my second semester of college. My father rented a tow bar and drove his new Road Runner to VA to pick me up and drag it back home. A 396 replaced the 283 on one of my weekend's home from school. Then came the slicks on Crager Sport mags and 4" S/T's up front, a battery box in the trunk, adding a copper ½' fuel line, fuel pressure regulator and fuel gauge, traction bars, drive shaft loop and roll bar. I raced my 62 this way every weekend I was home from collage. Then finally taking it back to Daytona. I blew the 396 street racing and had Spence Chevrolet install a new 69 396-375 hp engine. The car was on Daytona Beach every day, and washed it off back at the dorm every evening.
Back home, I kept racing it at Englishtown N.J. Rebuilding the engine .030
over, with open chamber ZL-1 heads, a tunnel ram, trick cam, etc. by then the
T-10 had given out and I was running a Muncie M-20 with 4.56 gear. The engine
was way too much for the drive-line and never did get a good run. But with the
stock L-78 it ran a best of 13.15 @ 107. (traction was a problem).
My 62 sat in my father's garage for 12 years while I finished up with collage
and the Navy, and after Janet and I bought our home in 1979.
I located a 62 409 engine and rebuilt it myself, standard bore. And finally in 1983 my car was back on the road. Since then I've raced it a lot at nostalgia events and driven it to Columbus, Toronto, Virginia, North Carolina and on last years Hot Rod Power Tour though Georgia, and many other places, still with the engine I built in 1983.
I traced down the original dealer, Laffin Chevrolet in South River N.J. and learned it was ordered as a 2X4 car by a rich kid in town who went through 2 engines under warranty and another one 2 years after that. The service mechanic, who was still there since then, remembered the car very well and said the owner used to bring the car in with the shifter handle bent over at weird angles, which they had to replace a lot! The car still has a lot of its original paint and interior, and is more or less just as I had it 32 years ago. This car is totally responsible for my long involvement and interest in this hobby. Every time I drive the car I'm 17 again.
