by 1958 was the year when the Impala nameplate officially saw the daylight, though at first, it was only offered as the top-of-the-line Bel Air before landing as a standalone series in 1959.
Chevrolet fitted the first Impala with a choice of three engines, starting with a 235 (3.9-liter) six-cylinder, while a 283 (4.6-liter) Turbo Fire with 230 horsepower was offered as the base V8 engine.
The top engine option was the 348 (5.7-liter) Turbo Thrust, which this time was available with two separate outputs, namely 250 horsepower and 280 horsepower—the latter coming with three 2-barrel carburetors.
And despite being offered only as part of the Bel Air lineup, the Impala was still fairly successful. Chevrolet built over 180,000 units for the 1958 model year, out of which nearly 56,000 came with a convertible body style.
As you can easily figure out yourselves, the model that we have here has been going through some pretty difficult times lately. To put it bluntly, the car is very close to becoming a complete rust bucket that can hardly be saved.
But according to eBay seller adamdfreeman78, despite the rough look of the car, there’s still so much to love on this 1958 Impala. It comes with most of the trim, and what’s more, some extra parts are also offered to jump-start a restoration process.
That said, the engine is no longer there (according to the VIN, this Impala was born with a V8 under the hood), and the transmission is gone too.
Needless to say, rust has obviously taken its toll on this once-gorgeous Impala, so you should get ready for some serious patches if you want to bring it back to factory specifications. The seller says some floor patch pans go with the car too.
So is this car worth any effort? It certainly is, and people out there still seem to love it, as the car has already received 12 bids in the few hours spent online. The top offer at the time of writing is $5,100.
