In the late 1950s hot rods and custom cars cruised New West’s Columbia Street, and the Hollywood Bowl at 759 Carnarvon St. was the swingiest dance hall north of Seattle.
Teenagers flocked to the Hollywood Bowl on weekends where the girls would sit along one wall and the stag line on the other, with couples jiving to rock ‘n’ roll music on the spring-loaded dance floor.
One night in 1958, teenagers Lonna and Myrna passed a brand new black Chevrolet Impala parked outside as they headed for the Hollywood Bowl. “I’m going to go home in that car tonight,” Lonna joked.
Teenagers flocked to the Hollywood Bowl on weekends where the girls would sit along one wall and the stag line on the other, with couples jiving to rock ‘n’ roll music on the spring-loaded dance floor.
One night in 1958, teenagers Lonna and Myrna passed a brand new black Chevrolet Impala parked outside as they headed for the Hollywood Bowl. “I’m going to go home in that car tonight,” Lonna joked.
During the evening, a 22-year-old construction administrator named Jim Pratt asked Lonna to dance. As the evening went on, he asked her how she got to the dance.
“I told him that I had walked and he asked me if I would like a ride home. He didn’t look like a bad guy so I accepted,” Lonna recalls. She almost fell over when they walked out of the dance hall and she was guided to the black Impala.
Jim Pratt had traded in his 1955 Chevrolet hardtop for the $3,200 black Impala at Collier’s Chev Olds on Vancouver’s Georgia Street. He had a full-time job at Dominion Bridge and was able to finance the difference.
He would park his new car right on the entrance to Vancouver’s Second Narrows Bridge, which at the time was under construction. He was working in the office which doubled as the first-aid shack when tragedy struck on June 17, 1958. The bridge collapsed resulting in the death of 18 workers. Jim Pratt grabbed a first aid kit and did all he could.
“I knew them all and still feel an overwhelming sadness for what happened that day,” he says.
He and Lonna drove the black Impala during their four-year courtship. Then they hid the car from their friends on their wedding day in January, 1962. But it was discovered and coated with Brylcream hair tonic. “It took hours of work to get that off the windows,” Pratt recalls.
The name Impala was first used by General Motors for a one-off GM Motorama show car in 1956. Chevrolet introduced as its top model the flamboyantly styled Impala two years later. It was offered as a convertible and a sport coupe, and had the Impala script, insignia and crossed-flag emblems on the front of the hood. It sported ribbed body sill panels, large chrome air scoops ahead of the rear wheels on the fenders and one on the rear of the roof, and a competition-style, deep two-spoke steering wheel with Impala medallion and Impala script on the dash. It also featured multi-coloured interiors and six tail lights for a distinctive look over all other Chevrolets.
By the mid-1960s, Jim and Lonna had been blessed with two of their three children, and the sporty two-door Impala had become impractical as a family car. It was traded in for a 1964 Pontiac station wagon.
The years went by as the Pratt’s raised their family with Jim spending 25 years with Dominion Bridge before the couple bought and ran three Pantry restaurants for 20 years. Over time, memories of the 1958 Impala became family lore.
In 1994, Jim spotted a photograph of a 1958 Impala at a classic car swap meet in Cloverdale. The car was in Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island and the owner’s wife had told him to either fix it or sell it. He sold it to Jim.
“I told him that I had walked and he asked me if I would like a ride home. He didn’t look like a bad guy so I accepted,” Lonna recalls. She almost fell over when they walked out of the dance hall and she was guided to the black Impala.
Jim Pratt had traded in his 1955 Chevrolet hardtop for the $3,200 black Impala at Collier’s Chev Olds on Vancouver’s Georgia Street. He had a full-time job at Dominion Bridge and was able to finance the difference.
He would park his new car right on the entrance to Vancouver’s Second Narrows Bridge, which at the time was under construction. He was working in the office which doubled as the first-aid shack when tragedy struck on June 17, 1958. The bridge collapsed resulting in the death of 18 workers. Jim Pratt grabbed a first aid kit and did all he could.
“I knew them all and still feel an overwhelming sadness for what happened that day,” he says.
He and Lonna drove the black Impala during their four-year courtship. Then they hid the car from their friends on their wedding day in January, 1962. But it was discovered and coated with Brylcream hair tonic. “It took hours of work to get that off the windows,” Pratt recalls.
By the mid-1960s, Jim and Lonna had been blessed with two of their three children, and the sporty two-door Impala had become impractical as a family car. It was traded in for a 1964 Pontiac station wagon.
The years went by as the Pratt’s raised their family with Jim spending 25 years with Dominion Bridge before the couple bought and ran three Pantry restaurants for 20 years. Over time, memories of the 1958 Impala became family lore.
In 1994, Jim spotted a photograph of a 1958 Impala at a classic car swap meet in Cloverdale. The car was in Cobble Hill on Vancouver Island and the owner’s wife had told him to either fix it or sell it. He sold it to Jim.
That started a six-year restoration where Jim Pratt was the general contractor and a restorer did the work. “I sent 183 pieces of chrome and stainless to the platers,” he recalls.
His biggest challenge was answered when a friend called him from a classic car swap meet to say the steering wheel and horn ring he had been trying to source for three years were there for sale. It cost $350 but it was the red and grey colour Pratt wanted and the fragile horn ring which was prone to breaking was in perfect condition.
The car was completely disassembled right down to the bare frame for the restoration, and the entire body was dipped to remove all paint and any corrosion.
“The body was in remarkably good condition and didn’t have any rust,” Pratt notes.
As the car was being reassembled, Pratt added some of the options he wished his original black Impala had, including fender skirts, a custom continental kit and dual antennas.
The results are spectacular, with the gleaming black paint dramatically accented by chrome and stainless and a spectacular red interior just like that of his first Impala.
“I loved growing up in the ‘50s with the cars, the music and the girls,” Pratt says of the era his car represents. He drove his youngest daughter to her wedding in the Impala and the couple’s five grandchildren love the restored car that has given 11 years of family enjoyment.
“We increasingly worry about the car when we leave it parked anywhere,” Lonna says. She drove the first Impala regularly but doesn’t drive the restored car. The couple has come to a crossroad where they are hoping a new owner will take over ownership of their beloved Impala.
Until that happens, the car is a wonderful reminder of an exciting time in their lives, and one particular night at the Hollywood Bowl that a 1958 Chevrolet Impala helped cement a loving relationship that has lasted more than half a century.
His biggest challenge was answered when a friend called him from a classic car swap meet to say the steering wheel and horn ring he had been trying to source for three years were there for sale. It cost $350 but it was the red and grey colour Pratt wanted and the fragile horn ring which was prone to breaking was in perfect condition.
The car was completely disassembled right down to the bare frame for the restoration, and the entire body was dipped to remove all paint and any corrosion.
“The body was in remarkably good condition and didn’t have any rust,” Pratt notes.
As the car was being reassembled, Pratt added some of the options he wished his original black Impala had, including fender skirts, a custom continental kit and dual antennas.
The results are spectacular, with the gleaming black paint dramatically accented by chrome and stainless and a spectacular red interior just like that of his first Impala.
“I loved growing up in the ‘50s with the cars, the music and the girls,” Pratt says of the era his car represents. He drove his youngest daughter to her wedding in the Impala and the couple’s five grandchildren love the restored car that has given 11 years of family enjoyment.
“We increasingly worry about the car when we leave it parked anywhere,” Lonna says. She drove the first Impala regularly but doesn’t drive the restored car. The couple has come to a crossroad where they are hoping a new owner will take over ownership of their beloved Impala.
Until that happens, the car is a wonderful reminder of an exciting time in their lives, and one particular night at the Hollywood Bowl that a 1958 Chevrolet Impala helped cement a loving relationship that has lasted more than half a century.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Remembering+days+rods+custom+cars+rock+roll/5438433/story.html#ixzz1Ygoz32vC
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