Most of today's top lowriders take up to seven years to complete from start to finish, but to get one done in seven months? John Mananian's '62 Chevy Impala SS, "Gun 'N' Roses," came to full bloom in that amount of time, and no one would call this car anything but a lowrider of the highest caliber. Since John had a goal for this car to be his last lowrider for a while, he wanted to complete it in a short time frame so that he could have a car that he could enjoy.
This car salesman from Fresno, California, coordinated the build from A to Z, bringing in people from Southern California and even Las Vegas, Nevada, to work on his Impala while other things got put together at the same time. For instance, the engine was built outside of the car and the hydraulics setup was assembled separately so that they could be dropped in after the body was put together.
With reliability being an issue, John opted to use a 2000 small-block 350-c.i.d. engine that was completely gone through and hooked up with all of today's latest accessories by Felix Automotive in Fresno. The pink candy paint was applied by Dave Lopez of Dave's Custom Body & Paint in Clovis, California. "Buggs" then came up from Los Angeles, California, and laid out the intricate and complex graphics on the roof as well as the subtle designs and patterns on the lower half of the body. This part of the project probably would've moved faster, but Buggs was doing double duty filming his how-to paint video as well as working on the deuce. We just hope that John got a discount for the inconvenience (LOL). Once Buggs was done, the car was handed off to Gary Jensen of Las Vegas, who pinstriped the car to tie in all the patterns and designs.
The rest of the build went smoothly as John sent the car over to Steve Contreras of Fresno, who was in charge of the mural of Guns 'N' Roses that was incorporated into the molded package tray. The car was ready for the music and custom interior. Wall & Eades of Fresno stitched the interior in an original design with a wild touch of color inserts that are tied in with the interior.
John had already made several contacts that had treated him right in the past on previous projects, so he made sure to use most of them again, as he did with the chrome shop. He went back to Mike and Danny of New Age Chrome Plating in Fresno, who were in charge of plating all of the trim on the Impala.
John was lucky enough to put this car together in seven months. We wish him luck on his next project, since he was bragging that this would be his last lowrider. We'll have to see how long that lasts. It seems that everyone who knows him personally is of the belief that he can't stay away from the lowriders for long. We're keeping an eye on you, John.