Car of the Week: 1962 Chevrolet Impala SS

30/07/2008 00:47. This mildly customized '62 Chevy SS was built with the same early '60s styling cues as last week's '62 Olds Starfire. Car Craft Magazine was the bible to young men building "sophisticated" hot rods in the day. Even though these two are GM cousins, the manufacturing year is almost all they have in common. Let's examine how cars are built today as opposed to 46 years ago.

Today's cost effective cars share platforms or frames, brakes, entire dash assemblies and even transmissions hoisted from racks for multiple applications. For example, a "corporate" motor is now installed in a number of GM cars. In 1962 any two GM cars were remarkably different. Each model had a different interior, bodywork, wheel covers and mechanicals. Can you imagine the expense back then compared to now? In the early... // Frankfort Station