Junkyard Find - Steve Schussler's cool Pro Street Impala packs a boosted punch

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T

he place where Blue Springs, Missouri resident Steve Schussler found his 1962 Impala looked more like the back lot of an appliance store.

“The car was in a dump and had a washer and dryer on the deck lid and tires on the roof!” he exclaimed. It seems the car and appliances’ next trip was most likely to the metal recycling plant, but Schussler had a different plan, for the Impala anyway.

Starting his car habits at the tender age of 14, the now retired Schussler has been building hot rods ever since. “I have three sons and we built each one their first car (S10 Blazers with V8’s lowered and painted similar) and the year of each matches their birth year. I have also built a number of cars for myself and others along the way,” Schussler explained.

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The Impala is different, and looks fast standing still! Two of Steve Schussler’s main goals in the build.

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Steamroller-fat rear meats, slick modern wing, a fabricated 9-inch and wheelie bars, all part of the modern day Pro Street recipe for success.

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At some point, however, Steve developed a love for Pro Street builds and always wanted to do one, but he wanted something different, and finding the Impala gave him that chance on all counts.

He stumbled across it a few years back in the junkyard mostly hidden by those appliances and other scrap metal. With further investigation Schussler found out that the car had been there a long time, since 1974 actually. Apparently it had been in a pretty bad crash that demolished the front end and had been sitting there ever since.

Once he got the big Chevy home, he went to work, cutting out the floors and most everything else in order to lay out the new chassis and build.

He kept buying parts as the build progressed in his garage and fabricated and installed all of the sheet metal floors, trans tunnel and wheel tubs himself.

An S&W Race Cars 12 point roll bar kit was purchased and Steve fit all the bars as close to the roof as possible. Of course, considering the front end damage, the car needed some attention to the body and most everything for the front end. He scoured

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Designed for cruising, the interior of the Impala is equipped with twin comfy Corbeau Forza cloth bucket seats, a Grant tilt steering wheel and cup holders.

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junkyards far and wide for body parts and mouldings damaged or missing. The body is mostly original steel with a fiberglass cowl hood. Body prep and paint in Dupont White was completed by McDonalds Auto Body while Steve handled fabbing up the rear wing.

Building power for the Impala was the next challenge, and one thing was for sure, it would be far from the factory 6 banger that came between the frame rails.

It had to be in line with the Pro Street genre, yet street mannered, as there were no plans to race the car. Still though, it had to look fast,

sound mean and have some decent power to back up those looks.

And having a large piece of hardware poking through the hood was most likely going to be part of the equation. “I wanted to build a car that looked fast sitting still but not be the normal pro street car,” he added.

Under the fiberglass cowl hood most everything is polished aluminum. An owner-built 468 big block Chevy started with a 60over bored iron block with Chevy Performance steel crank, rods and forged pistons. Initial compression is 8.6:1. A Howard’s hydraulic roll-

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Steve did an outstanding job bending and tucking the cage tubing to blend right in.

A cool set of Kilduff Lightning Rod shifters sit center stage inside the car

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An ownerbuilt blown 468 big block Chevy now sits between the custom ownerbuilt tube chassis.

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Steve Schussler’s Pro Street 1962 Chevrolet Impala Body & Paint:

Original steel body with fiberglass hood.

Prepped and painted by McDonalds Auto Body using Dupont products. Owner fabricated rear aluminum wing.

Chassis & Suspension:

Owner built full tube chassis with S&W 12 point roll cage kit installed by owner. Rear suspension is tubular 4 bar ladder bar setup with QA1 coilovers and front is tubular upper and lower control arms with QA1 coilover shocks and rack and pinion steering.

Engine:

Supercharger:

Mooneyham 871 blower ran at 9lbs of boost.

Transmission:

GM 4180E modified and assembled by Don Lobner Transmission.

Rearend:

Chassis Engineering Fab 9. Quick Performance 35 spline axles with 4.33 gears.

Brakes:

Front Wilwood 4 piston, rear Wilwood dual piston.

Wheels:

Owner assembled 468 big block Chevy. 60 over American Racing Wheels 17 x 7 front, Champion iron block with Chevy Performance crank rods Racing Wheels 15 x 15 with Mickey Thompson and pistons. Initial compression is 8.6:1. Howards 33 22x15 radials. hydraulic roller 635 lift camshaft. GM Oval Port Interior: heads with Howards roller lifters, COMP Completed by owner. Corbeau Forza cloth chromoly roller rockers and COMP pushrods. bucket seats, Grant steering wheel and Kilduff Heads are ARP studded in place Lightning Rod shifters.

Intake/Carburetion:

Weiand intake with twin Edelbrock 600S carburetors.

Cosworth DFV V8 1/3 Scale Working Engine Limited Production

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glenn@boulandmotorsusa.com www.boulandmotorsusa.com

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Original Impala trim graces most of the exterior.

Steve added original Impala SS emblems and air brushed cubic inch graphics as well.

er 635 lift camshaft with Howard’s roller lifters was used and reworked GM Oval Port heads were studded in place. COMP pushords actuate a set of COMP chromoly roller rockers.

The huffer is a Mooneyham 871 ran at a conservative 9 lbs of boost. And, while at a respectable tick under 800whp, the heavyweight Bowtie won’t be ripping up the dragstrip in record time, and that’s just fine with Schussler, he built the car to drive and that’s exactly what he enjoys doing most.

Steve kept factory wheel wells up front to keep things clean and painted them, along with his chassis work, gloss black.

The owner-built interior is clean and designed for cruising with twin comfy Corbeau Forza cloth bucket seats, a Grant steering wheel, a cool set of Kilduff Lightning Rod shifters and, of course, cup holders for those longer outings. Factory dash and door panels remain and Steve did an outstanding job bending and tucking the cage tubing to blend right in.

About 9 months after starting work the car was ready to drive, and Schussler says it wouldn’t have even taken that long, but he had to wait on the paint. When asked if there is anything about the build he would change, Steve said; “Not much, I kinda like it.”

So next time you’re wandering around the junkyard, remember to have a look under those old appliances, you just never know what could be hiding there.

RPM

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