1962 Chevrolet Impala- Deuces Blues- Lowrider Magazine

Phillip Ortega is quite an unassuming guy. His mild manner and soft-spoken voice gives a glimpse into the build on this blue '62 Chevy Impala. Phillip told us that the story behind the car was fairly straightforward, at least that's how it started. The car was originally purchased from a friend and was in need of some work, but overall it wasn't that bad, being a New Mexico car.

Phillip decided to do a frame-off "resto" and to go with powdercoating the frame, because in the end it would be cheaper as well as impervious to gas, oil and chipping that paint would certainly not be able to hold up to. Since Phillip planned on driving the car this was certainly a consideration.

A Chevy 350-c.i.d. "crate" motor was detailed with paint, steel-braided hose lines, chrome air cleaner and the like, making for a reliable motor and tranny combo. Air was installed for the ease of maintenance, and the rearend received some chroming to put a little bling into Philip's life.

For Phillip, restoring this car was a lot easier than another project that he's been building for a while, a '79 Ford Thunderbird, which he says he has had a considerably harder time finding parts for. When asked about the building of this car, Phillip originally said that it went pretty smooth but then remembered one funny story.

After the '62 was painted and not too long before it was to be finished, Phillip broke up with his now-ex. He came home soon after to find a few of the car's windows broken out with a brick and a cheese grater taken to parts of the paint job. Either Phillip has a selective memory or the incident is something that he'd really like to forget, because we found it amusing that he told us this story as an almost afterthought. Yeah, it's a 62 and it's blue, but obviously Phillip is just a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.