'62 Impala #s 409/409hp

[scuncio]

Beautiful car - what's not to love here. At $92,500, doesn't seem unreasonable if the engine is truly the born-with mill. Stamps look pretty fresh appearing, but I haven't seen enough of the early 409 decks to be able to compare with any credibility.

Link to 1962 Impala 409/409 eBay auction

[67since67]

I love this car! Great color combo on a bench seat straight Impala!!

[Tidmack]

A '62 409 4-speed car is on my bucket list. This one checks all the boxes for me.

[mprice]

I am reasonably sure that this is the same car that was for sale in Arizona a couple years ago. At that time it was for sale by the man that restored it. We talked in length and I am betting the car is a truly correct car and the motor is probably original to the car. The only thing I see is the exhaust from the factory had just one clamp in the system and that was the one on the back of the front muffler, the other joints were all welded from the factory. The VIN is to straight, they originally were stamped one digit at a time and never lined up on any of the known original stamped 409s that I have seen and owned. Great car!

[1967Z28]

Engine stamp

[tom406]

With thanks to the late Verne Frantz, who educated me when I was authenticating 348 and 409 cars years back, I am confident that is a decked and restamped block. Linear broach marks that replicate small block pad surfacing, is the tell. The ‘62 409 Bel Air I was inspecting also had linear broach marks, and Verne set it straight, saying that the 74 degree deck of the W motors made them not work on the 90 degree broaching machine, so the low production W motors were decked with a rotary tool that left circular marks on the pad. I’m attaching some (I believe) untouched W motor pads for reference.

[tom406]

A couple good pics of pad surface, and an example of the one-at-a-time serial number stamping.

[mprice]

Thanks Tom, that is typical of the real stamps on 409 cars I have seen. The vin is never in perfect alignment and the last number in the suffix code in this case the B is generally slightly out of alignment sometimes much more than others. The B in the photo is better aligned than most are.

[TimG]

Here's a friends 1963 409 pad that Verne loved.

[WILMASBOYL78]

Originally Posted by tom406

With thanks to the late Verne Frantz, who educated me when I was authenticating 348 and 409 cars years back, I am confident that is a decked and restamped block. Linear broach marks that replicate small block pad surfacing, is the tell. The ‘62 409 Bel Air I was inspecting also had linear broach marks, and Verne set it straight, saying that the 74 degree deck of the W motors made them not work on the 90 degree broaching machine, so the low production W motors were decked with a rotary tool that left circular marks on the pad. I’m attaching some (I believe) untouched W motor pads for reference.

Classic example of the knowledge this site brings to the hobby...Verne was a great contributor to all of us.

-wilma