Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

[David B.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

1963 Passenger car options listed by the Engineering Product Information Dept. do indeed list 1-P05 as a wheel option for 1963 passenger cars, it is listed as 14 X 5.00J Chrome Wheel. The actual quantity produced as previously mentioned was 893. The quantity breakdown showed it was equipped on 4 different 63 models.
A) 331 B) 16 C) 173 D 373 It was scarce but I would not call it rare. For 63 Corvette owners the real rare wheel option was P48 which was 15 X 6L wheel Equipment (Quick take off) only 13 were so equipped.

[Mark E.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

Who knew that an Impala thread would get so much attention here?

[Ciro A.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

It's interesting because so far nobody has come up with a picture of what these wheels looked like. I posted the same thread on another forum with similar results. The mystery of 1963 P05 wheels goes on!

[Peter L.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

Mark - I think that most of us had a Chevy Impala. I had a white '63 2-dr sport coupe w/red interior, 327, 3-spd, Posi, & radio. GR8 car. Pete

[Mark E.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

My first car was a white '65 Impala 2-door sport coupe with black vinyl, 283 Powerglide, PS, AM radio and not much else. Beautiful car but could barely out-run a 4 speed VW.

[Terry M.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

My first new car was a 1965 Impala. Maroon with black vinyl. 327 - 4-speed bench seat. It had over $1000 in options (no AC or PS, PW) on a base price that was less than $2500. I checked every box that had heavy duty in the name.

[Mark E.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

My first new car was a 1965 Impala. Maroon with black vinyl. 327 - 4-speed bench seat. It had over $1000 in options (no AC or PS, PW) on a base price that was less than $2500. I checked every box that had heavy duty in the name.

Too cool! Which 327? And did you select SS and gauges? IIRC, instead of the clock, you could order a vacuum gauge or tach in that spot (it was huge). I swapped my broken clock for the much cooler vac gauge I found in the Pick-Ur-Part. With the 283/Powerglide/3.08 drive-train, it hardly ever went over 10" hg. This is going back 40+ years...

[David R.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

My first car (not NEW car) was a '66 Impala 4-door sedan, bought for $200 in 1972. It was an "old man's car", 283/Powerglide, blackwall tires, and little else. Funny though, wherever my friends and I went, we always took the White Whale - it always started, always got us there, and always got us back. Plus the trunk was HUGE for drive-in movie nights. I later sold it for $400 with 150K on it, the guy I sold it to drove it to college four more years. A truly great car, as all old Impalas were.

I wasn't even aware of the 1963 P05 chrome-wheel option, and I've certainly never seen them - at least that I know of. A photo would be nice, I agree.

[Mark E.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

'66 was a nice design.

I'm afraid to ask, but why do you need a large trunk for the drive-in movies?

[Ciro A.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

image.jpg A closeup of the sales brochure picture.

[Terry M.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

Too cool! Which 327? And did you select SS and gauges? IIRC, instead of the clock, you could order a vacuum gauge or tach in that spot (it was huge). I swapped my broken clock for the much cooler vac gauge I found in the Pick-Ur-Part. With the 283/Powerglide/3.08 drive-train, it hardly ever went over 10" hg. This is going back 40+ years...

Lowest horsepower 327. I had to get a 327 in order to get the 4-speed. It was N/A with 283.
No SS, but it had gauges in the dash. No Tach or Vacuum as I remember. I had rear defogger, two radio speakers, but I drew the line at the two antennae.
I put about 150K on that car, and it was reliable as could be with 20mpg on the road. I learned to change the clutch and brakes on that car.
It had HD suspension, brakes, battery, & radiator & posi.

[Ciro A.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

image.jpg Looks like the mystery was solved by someone on another forum, I'm assuming the dogdish type hubcaps were used on these wheels. A bit of a letdown, sort of pedestrian and plain..

[David R.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

'66 was a nice design.

I'm afraid to ask, but why do you need a large trunk for the drive-in movies?

Guess I'm dating myself again. It was pretty common in that era to take as many people as possible into the drive-in movie in some position of concealment so they wouldn't have to pay. Of course, when the drive-in ran a "$5 per Carload" night it didn't matter. On regular so-much-per-head nights, I could get six in the car easily, and another four in the trunk without dragging the tail too badly. Find your parking spot, pop the trunk, spread a blanket on the ground and start battling the mosquitoes. Ahhh, memories. The best movie nights were much less populated - just me and the Harmatuk twins. I appreciated all the interior room then, too - but that's another story completely! No wonder '66 Chevys always make me smile.

[Edward B.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

1963 Passenger car options listed by the Engineering Product Information Dept. do indeed list 1-P05 as a wheel option for 1963 passenger cars, it is listed as 14 X 5.00J Chrome Wheel. The actual quantity produced as previously mentioned was 893. The quantity breakdown showed it was equipped on 4 different 63 models.
A) 331 B) 16 C) 173 D 373

David, can you give me additional information on that Engineering Product Information Department book you have? That sounds like it might be a really interesting read!

Ed

[Paul D.]

Re: Need Help from some knowledgable Chevy guys

I wonder if the wheels/caps on Shatner's car were dealer installed? Those are the same caps as were on my aunt's 64 Biscayne. Chip.