1964 Chevrolet Bel Air

Wallpaper Description:

Flipping hamburgers at a local drive-in while in high school enabled Butch Grooms to purchase a ’64 Chevy Impala. But after several years of running it to death and rebuilding, Butch traded it off in the early ’80s. At the time, Butch had no idea how influential that Impala was; with each passing year, he missed it more and more. Then in 2005, this ’64 Bel Air showed up. It was a post car, and just begging to be redone. Not too long after this juncture, Butch’s sister, June, died, imparting a new sense of importance to the Bel Air. This Chevy was built in June of 1964—the same as the birth of his sister! After June died in November of 2006, the two-door sedan acquired the same nickname as Butch’s sis: “JuneBug.”

Butch tells us the Bel Air’s engine is a 300hp 327ci small-block that powers a three-speed automatic and a factory Positraction rearend. He credits Rick Michaels of White Pine, Tennessee, for accomplishing the frame-up resto and mile-deep Bahama Blue metallic and pearl white paint. Fullsize Chevy aficionados take note: Butch kept the Bel Air look with the double taillights and sedan roof, but added every chrome piece or accessory that could be had in 1964, thereby elevating it to the Impala look. Johnny Stines, a local icon, stitched the interior in white vinyl, recreating the sedan stitching and blue carpet to keep the plain Bel Air look. The end result is an Impala/Bel Air mix named JuneBug that Butch’s sister would be proud of.