Cloud Nine

Cliff Riggs of Victorville, California, has been interested in building cars ever since he was old enough to ride a bicycle. Cliff grew up to build several cars, mostly older Chevrolets and "big-body" Cadillacs. (One of his past Caddies is rumored to be in a Faith Evans music video.) Cliff was born in 1959, and he likes the body style of the '59 Chevy Impala, so he began searching for a '59 Impala that he could transform into a lowrider of the highest quality.Cliff finally found this vehicle on the Internet. In fact, he went online to check on the car several times to see if it had been sold before doling out his dough. "I felt that it was a good deal, but it seemed too good to be true," Cliff notes. "My wife said 'let's just ride out to Bakersfield to see that car,' so we did." What they found was this fine '59 with 80,000 original miles, with a straight body, all-original interior and original paint. "I bought the car from an old man and drove it home to Victorville," adds Cliff.

Once home, Cliff started working on the Impala right away. "The paint color was coral, but it looked pinkish orange," he recalls. The color just wasn't doing it for him, so he decided to have it painted black. Evans Auto Center in San Bernardino, California, handled the task. All of the chrome and brightwork was also removed and either dipped or polished. Then, Homies Hydraulics in Paramount, California, installed a basic two-pump chrome setup with one dump to simply lift and lay the car. A set of chrome 13x7 Dayton wires and 13-inch Triumph tires were also added.After several trips to CARS, Inc. in Fullerton, California; The Car Shop in Lancaster, California; and to local swapmeets, Cliff added "cruiser" skirts, door edge guards and various other parts. The OG radio didn't exactly satisfy his musical needs so he had Art of Sound in Victorville give the sound system a modern makeover.

"Once the car was completed, I took it for a Sunday cruise with my buddies Dave, Tony and Ray down Crenshaw Boulevard [in South Central L.A.]," Cliff recalls. "It really got the looks and it was smooth and comfortable too." That's how "Cloud Nine" became the name of the car. "I was talking with my homeboy George about the cruise, how we felt like we were riding on a cloud, and he came up with the name," Cliff recalls with a smile. We'd be smiling too if we were cruising the boulevard in this heavenly black beauty.