Heavy Hitter

Modesto, California, residents Doug and Susie Vigil are the proud owners of this '64 Chevy Impala Super Sport convertible, "Heavy Hitter," which was built from the ground up over a three-year period (once Doug was given the green light from his wife). Doug and Susie knew going in that they were going to have to put together a Heavy Hitter that would represent New Style Car Club in fine fashion.

First on the agenda was to find a team that could produce what the Vigils wanted. The results were as follows: Doug visited his friend Manuel Ruelas, the owner of Perfect Beat in Modesto, who helped Doug design a custom hydraulics setup that's worthy of Sweepstakes honors. The setup consists of four gold and chrome Sinister Pro Series pumps, four dumps, 6-inch (front) and 8-inch (rear) cylinders, 1-ton springs, four batteries and eight switches. Doug's trunk designs also include a see-through floorboard compartment constructed with 1/2-inch clear Plexiglas. Other work done by Doug (with help from "Pee-Wee" of Tracy, California) included boxing in the frame as well as capping the A-arms and trailing arms.

When it was time for the engine work, Doug had Sammy of Tony's Service in Modesto go through the stock engine and make sure that the '64 Chevy 327-c.i.d. would purr like a kitten. Tony fine tuned the Tri-Power setup on the stock block. Once the engine was tuned, the 327 engine/350 transmission combo was pulled out of the car as Doug had plans to custom paint the vehicle. The engine would also be painted to match the exterior of the vehicle.

The exterior was done up by local Modesto painter Poly, who silver based the '64 and proceeded to paint the car in a assortment of colors that included House of Kolor teal green, Oriental blue, violet, green, blue and purple. Poly's work was later complemented by pinstriping done by Allen of Allen's Signs in Salinas, California.

The next part of the Impala buildup was the interior, which was done by an upholsterer and stereo shop working together to produce a true new age interior. The upholstery was done by John of Conway & Friends in Modesto. John stitched up the interior in two-tone tweed with graphics to match the exterior of the car. The stereo was wired up by Luis Rivas at Custom Sounds in Tracy. The stereo install required 100 hours of labor and includes an Eclipse head unit, Alpine DVD player as well as a CD changer that was bolted down under the seat. All of the sound signals are controlled by an Arc Audio seven-band parametric EQ. In the trunk, two Arc amps power the JL Audio subwoofers which were wired and fused in Lightning Audio products.

Doug then visited Ali of Sinister Wheels where 13x7 twisted spoke rims were soon acquired and mounted on Remington rubber. Other tricks done to the car include engraving by Rudy Pena of Castro Valley, California, and Dean Tollies of Hayward, California.

The best rides are always the ones that were redone from an earlier custom version. That was certainly the case with the Vigils' '64 Super Sport. The already-cherry ragtop was completely redone from the frame up and it looks better than ever. Doug and Susie were certainly successful in their desire to build a Heavy Hitter that everyone will remember.