Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Impala Custom

When scouting the city for featureable cars, I tend to look for certain kind of cars not featured; one of the (sadly) most notable new trends in my area is to make a classic car into a donk. Yes, I realize that the term "donk" mainly applies to full-size Chevrolets on bigger wheels that may or may not required lifting the car. Some of them look great when done right; being done right means no obnoxious lift, no themed paintjobs, and not crappy wheel choices--and please for the love of god, plan your audio install before you carry on with the execution.

I know most car people completely despise donking or anything related to that nature; I am on the fence. If the car is done right, it looks decent if not good. On the other hand, most of the cars I see done up in donk treatment in real-life end up looking terrible; be it overly tacky paint and excess chrome, or just terrible wheels combined with an atrocious color--whatever the case may be, most of the cars done in this fashion near me look like crap.

I never liked the 1974-1976 Chevrolets; the styling is a tad off, if you will. I don't mind the back-end, but the front is where it all goes wrong. For starters, I never was a fan of this fascia, and the headlight placement looks awkward, especially when in conjunction with the grille; it's almost as though GM hacked this together late one Friday night and called it good.

Second, the rear quarter window looks absolutely ridiculous; it's almost as if (again), GM couldn't decide if this was going to be a two-door or a four-door. The two side windows appear to be a similar size. Not quite what I expect when I hear the term two-door coupe. Aside from the odd proportions, I think these look okay; not my favorite by any means, but definitely not ugly--well, ugly by me, but some people like them.

Since I described everything I don't like about this model year in general, let me break it down for this particular car; okay, obviously the owner of this Impala put a slight smidgen of effort into his customizing skills. However, despite trying hard to be conservative with his modifications, the overall effect is less than sweet.

The paint color is gorgeous; I love this car, and even with the pinstripes, this car could've been really nice; even the white vinyl top looks at home here. I also dig the "Impala" badge placement, and I appreciate the fact that he kept most of the stock trim. 

Now for the bad--and thankfully, it's mostly related to the car's styling, and not necessarily the modifications themselves. But there are a few low points here I'd like to point out. While I dig the pinstriping, the nomenclature airbrushed on the front encdap is a bit lame. Yes, we know it's a 1974; we can tell from the grille. If you have to put the year of your vehicle on the vehicle itself, you are not a car enthusiast. Second of all, the wheels aren't that nice. Yes, the diameter is alright, but the wheel style is just...boring. If I were going to put wheels on this, I'd do something from the Forgiato line--and those probably cost more than what was spent on this entire car. Ouch. Lastly, I don't like the stock exhaust--and that probably means nothing was done under-hood, either. Not necessarily what I'd call a "running-ass-donk" as they're often described.

While I am not really a fan of this bodystyle, and some of the modifications bring this poor car down even more, this is a good start; it just needs a bit of massaging to be a true "street king". Or he could have bought a 1971 or 1972 and had a better looking car to start with.