I recently spent about 5 months repairing damages to my sons 2000 Chevy Impala 9C1 (police package to you non police car folks). My son and I bought this car around May/June 2008 with about 64K on it. Now has 150K. Earlier this year, my son bought himself a 2005 Scion XB, parking the Impala with intentions of dabbling in some racing and weekend activities with the Impala. He works as an Unexploded Device Technician - so is moved around the U.S. (old or current military basis mostly). Shortly after parking the car, he borrowed it to his ex girlfriend when her car broke down, so she would drive their daughter to see him working about 9 hours out of town.
On the way their on the interstate going about 70mph, a semi-flat bed went across the center line - hit the side of Impala - spun about 3 times, when off the highway and back on the highway. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The driver stopped down the highway, walked back, confirmed everyone was OK, and left.
Damage to the car: Driver door dented/scratched/semi tire rubber marks, driver rear door was dented up into the reinforcement bar along with semi tire rubber marks, rear driver quarter dented, back bumper dented in both corners, passenger front fender dented and up against the hood. CV axle boot on the drivers side ripped. One tire/wheel completely trashed, another wheel bent and another tire with a small tear.
Unfortunately, she also drove the car back the 9 hours, and later was driving with the damage. The car was then parked later in a lot under a tree - until I rescued it several months later. Here are damage pics:
Let's take 2 on the pics with photo bucket
My son was aware that I picked up and moved the car to my hobby garage. He believed that is was parked. I decided to make it roadworthy again, first intentions for Turkey Day, but it took and longer and become Christmas.
The car was parked with some garbage left inside, unfortunately, under a tree for months. You could follow the ant trail from under the hood and into the interior to the back seat. Also, a make up kit was was left in the drivers door and melted in the hot Tennessee sun.
First step was to give the car a complete dish soap bath on the outside, clean the engine/hood, and take out the interior - seats - panels - rubber flooring - trunk inserts. Scrubbed those down Castrol cleaner and a scrub brush, and let air out for a few days with some febreeze shots
The inside interior and trunk floors were hand scrubbed with a lot of Pine Sol.
The back seat - vinyl cop car special - after scrubbing was treated to Mequiars leather conditioner
Back panels were scrubbed with carpet cleaner, headliner also, and febreezed along with the dashboard vents.
The ebay special headlights were also going to go on this.
Time to pound out dents. My late brother was a body man, and many years ago worked at a dealership and also on his own with a friend. I have some of his old "heavy hitter" dent pounders. All came out, and I realigned the front passenger fender. The driver side passenger door could only be massaged to a point (pushed back out from the inside mostly) - as the side of the flat bed trailer really jacked this door up.
The interior and trunk items were all reinstalled.
The tire rubber embedded in the driver side - I started with WD40 and a scraper and grew tired rather quickly. An easy torch burned it off
Time now for mechanical issues and upgrades.
The Impala had about 70K on the upgrades and tune up. Also, we had several trashed wheels and tires (on a full size spare and donut spare). Time to replace the following with new items:
Goodyear Eagles with steel wheels from the Tire Rack -mounted balanced shipped
lug nuts
NGK Iridium Plugs
Taylor Plug Wires (we had these before and were great)
Intense Racing PCM
ZZP High Flow CAT/Downpipe (the current CAT was plugged up). This deletes the factory "U Bend"
ZZP High Flow Fuel Filter (I understand this is from a new flex fuel model)
ZZP 180 degree thermostat
The Impala currently had a "pieced" system with mostly Dynomax on the exhaust. This also had about 70K, and both mufflers were starting to rust through along with the pipe flanges. Dynomax does not make an Impala kit, but does for the Grand Prix and Monte SS. The tailpipes from that kit do not fit - but what I did was cross reference the pieces in the kit by part numbers from the Dynomax website installation guide over to Summit Racings catalog online. Ordering the front flange, exhaust pipe, and rear Y section. I added a Magnaflow glass pack as the resonator, some clamps and hangers, along with 2 replacement universal Super Turbo mufflers. The mufflers were sprayed with high temp paint.
I will admit running the car with no mufflers and just the glass pack. Sounded awesome at idle, trying to drive the car you could not hear anything but a horrible drone and all of the back windows shook.
Time for sanding. The Impala's hood and trunk were already rolled with Walmart bedliner (Rustoleum), from the year prior being vandalized with a hammer. Also, the front bumper from a small incident.
The front and back ends were all sanded down smooth, and treated to 3 coats of bedliner.
The taillight section was scrubbed down, and treated to VHT black out paint for lights
Bedlined with the proper headlights installed, from Rock Auto
I attempted to use the factory airbox - modify - and install a cone filter on the factory intake tube. The PCM is located inside the factory inbox, also acting as a restriction. Finding a place in the slammed engine space with the 3800 V6 in the Impala is much tougher than most other GM 3800 models. Also, we currently have the factory MAF descreened for added airflow. This mod works as long as you keep the MAF clean.
The high airflow into the bends/ribs of the factory airtube was causing the MAF to receive an improper signal, sometimes causing a bog or hesitation.
A K&N system replaced the factory box and tube - this system also includes a mounting box for the PCM without restriction (also being wider and flatter fits the car better)
The driver side passenger door is still a pain in my side. Too far bent up in too many spots, but I didn't want to go with a used door and disrupt the proper current police strips/faded strips. This was an old Maryville TN car - whom takes the lettering off but leaves the reflective strips on. After the past several years, the strips have faded quite a bit, but still has some reflection.
My first thoughts were to make this door "armored" by using diamond plate. I tracked down some black diamond plate. Never cutting this before, trying to make the cuts shaped like the door wasn't working out in my favor.
At this point, and a couple of days prior to Christmas, I busted out the White Rustoleum and a roller. Possibly in the future it will receive a piece of the diamond plate to cover the middle part of the door, over top the major damage.
The Impala had a custom "9C1 Police Package" Console we added shortly after buying the car back in 2008. It needed a good cleaning and repainting.
After cleaning with dish soap, the next step was wax and grease remover. This also cleaned up the white lettering.
Next, taping off the arm rest section, and giving it 3 coats of Satin Black Plastic Paint from Home Depot
and done:
The Impala had the driver's side hub replaced in addition to the damage CV boot, and a damaged tie rod on the passenger side from the accident. The brakes on the driver's side front were also damaged. I had a local shop verify the front end damage and work followed by an alignment. I replaced the front and rear brake rotors and pads with Advance Auto parts items. The 9C1 has larger front brakes than other Impalas of that year.
Delivered a couple of days later at Christmas. Granddaughters present (Purple Green Machine) was in the trunk
A couple of old WWII era built guard buildings give a nice back drop
and proper product placement of decals that add substantial HP
The HV3 from ZZP helps that N/A 3800 significantly with the tune.
My son had no idea his ride got pimped. It was fun, he was pleased, we went for a ride right after- Impala drives awesome. Exhaust has a great note for a V6. Happy with the modifications. The Tire Rack steel wheels were suppose to fit the 9C1 - but did not clear the larger brakes (just barely). a very small wheel spacer was used up on the fronts to correct the problem.
Intent is to go to the Ohio Mile, some bracket racing, and possibly a track day-test day on a road course somewhere.
In addition to the door still needing some love, we are missing the trim piece that runs along the bottom on the passenger side.
The 9C1's at least for this year do not come with a Tach. I have an aftermarket tach for the GM DIS ignition system - supposedly the white wire on the coil packs is the winner to tap - there are 2 - neither worked so we'll have to do some home work.
Before the tune up, the throttle body was cleaned up - and the engine treated to a Seafoam clean and then fresh Shell Rotella 5w40 synthetic and 93 octane fill for the new PCM
In reply to mbruneaux:
We are eyeing up the HV3 insert next, especially since ZZP gave us a $50 credit for the old cat and they paid the shipping.
HV3: http://shop.zzperformance.com/store/p/93-HV3-High-Velocity-Intake-Insert.aspx
Nice work, and a great surprise for your son!
Can you say a few words about the old eBay headlights? I know they look a bit cheesy, but I've often wondered if you could use them as a housing for serious lights from Bosch or Hella. I've never had a unit in my hand, however. What do you think? Would an upgrade work? Does the wiring look robust enough? Is the whole unit a decent piece, or poorly sealed crap?
In reply to Stealthtercel:
the housing themselves are not bad - the lights were cheap and the wiring cheaper.
the replacement headlight assemblies from Rock Auto came with bulbs, fit really well, quality was great
Exactly the info I was looking for! Thanks.
