Tomas Vazquez and Junior Garcia have been friends for years and have always done things together. When Junior approached Tomas about buying a '58 Impala they both immediately jumped into the project knee deep. Tomas, who is very humble about his beginnings, never imagined owning a '58 Impala, let alone a fleet of several Impalas and custom cars to boot. Today we are featuring a pair of their convertibles that together carry a one-two punch.
The first of the pair is "El Giro" the gold anniversary edition convertible. After acquiring the ragtop in Del Mar, California, from the owner of Tijuana's famed tequila bar Seor Frogs, the car was taken home and the restoration began. The car was a clean survivor car, with only a few modifications done to it, including a six-way power bench seat and a tilt column that hadn't been offered the year it was made. Once the car was brought home, the pair debated on how far to take the project. The debate included doing a full-on, frame-off restoration and selling the car for profit.
Since the car was as solid as it was when they started the project, it only received mild restoration, like a new paintjob to remove the dings in the door that it had received over the course of its lifetime. The bodywork, though minor, was prepared by Tony Pistolero. The anniversary gold, two-stage paintjob was sprayed by Gilbert Melendez of the Impala Ranch, in Chino, California.
Since the car had been stripped down, Tomas and Junior took advantage of the situation and sent out all of the trim to be polished and chrome-plated. The chrome and trim restoration was done by Chevy's Only, in El Monte, California, who made sure that the trim looked as good as it did when it came off the assembly line. The engine compartment and frame were gone through by Impala Ranch's top mechanic and technician, Frank Melendez. Frank's specialty is building matching number cars for the Chevy late great guys, who happen to be a hard crowd to please. Frank says this job was a breeze as he pulled out the stock 348 engine, making sure to leave the running engine looking like it came from the factory.
The interior was taken to Garden Grove's legendary AJ's Upholstery who fixed and repaired the factory interior. Then Jesse Valadez and his crew made sure that the interior and convertible top were up to the duo's standards.
When it came time to dress up the ride, it was loaded with as many options as they could find, like Trail Master spotlights, a Continental kit, cruising skirts, power seat, power windows, and wing windows. The car was finished with a brand-new set of cross-laced Zenith wire wheels wrapped with OG Premium Sportway 5.20s.
The first of the pair was wrapped up in a descent time frame, which left Tomas and Junior wondering what to do next. While looking for options on eBay, Junior found a car that was too good to be true. It's now called "El Colorado," and it's the other '58 Impala convertible that we're featuring.
Unfortunately things were not what they appeared to be once the car came home from Minnesota. It was a frame-off restoration, as it stated in the disclosure, but it was not as clean as it had appeared to be, so it needed to be gone through once more to correct and restore it to their expectations. The only good thing about this car was that it was a good starter project that would keep this pair of veteranos busy, since they were overseeing the build. The first thing they needed to do was tear the car down and make an inventory of the parts they needed.