VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1961-1964 61 Impala

What is the differance between 61 Imala and 61 belair bubble to[?

All 1961 Impala and BelAir 2 door hard tops were so called bubble tops.
For 1962 the Impala at a more formal roof line and back window and the BelAir still had the 1962 bubble top.

The exterior trim is fancier on the Impala than on the Bel Air and the Impala interior is plusher. For example, the Impala has full carpet while the Bel Air has carpet only on the transmission/drive shaft tunnel. Also, the Impala has bright aluminum trim on the instrument panel, the Bel Air instrument panel lacks this trim.

If you look at the 1961 brochure on the old car brochures web site http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/, you can see excellent exterior illustrations for both models.

Wow thanks Have a 61 impala bubble top info helps.Another question,did the Impala have a molding on the exterior rocker panel. Have found photos with and without? Was it only with ss models?

The rocker mouldings were a dealer installed accessory.

You might want to check that, I am pretty sure that in 1961 there were no accessory rocker mouldings offered as an accessory, however they were standard on the Biscayne, and those were just a small thin strip. It has becomerather common for people to install the 62 Impala rocker mouldings on 61's

1961 Custom Features price schedule
Moulding, body sill, Accy. # 986356, All pasenger cars and wagons, $11.85.

Have you ever seen a set? What is the group #?

Yes, I have a set. They are in the Accessory Group.

Specific group # ?

The came packed three sets to a carton. They would be in the rocker moulding group in the 1961 parts book as well as the accessory lisings. Being an accssory they would have been dscontinued at the end of the year.
The were of the "wide" type.

Gene I have a 1961 specific parts book printed 9/60 and I can not find a listing, I must be missing something

The 1961 Custom Features Price Schedule that Gene talks about above shows the rocker mouldings in question and the price schedule is dated October 1, 1960, which would be after the 9/60 edition of the 1961 Chevrolet parts book.

The Biscayne came with a narrow moulding as standard equipment.
The accessory moulding covered almost the entire rocker panel ( top to bottom).
They were seldom seen on anything but an Impala.

Interesting that the part number would be lower then the part number for the 59 and 60 rocker panel mouldings, that number is 987985

Also I made a mistake my 1961 parts and accessories catalog was printed October 1 1960, not 9/60

I just found it the reason and found the group number 8.304 and is listed in Group 8.000 sheet metal. The part number must have been misread the number in the book is 988356, so it is higher then the 59/60 units. I guess the "8" looked like a "6"

Often GM accessory numbers would begin with 986 and go up from there. Then they would drop down to 985 and 986 and go up. They never duplicated numbers though.

That's not the case here, you just misread the part number, easy to mistake to make

Glad that you found the mouldings listed.

I have a 1961 Custom Features Catalog. It doesn't list the group numbers but it shows the part number as 988356. Here's the catalog's description for the part: "The moldings are attached to the rocker panels below the door openings and cover a most vulnerable part of a car. The stainless steel moldings are polished to a bright finish and will resist rust, corrosion and protect the paint on the rocker panel from stone chipping and abrasion. The moldings are not standard equipment on any of the 1961 models. Three part numbers are packaged to a carton."

There's a drawing of the molding, it looks like it's about two inches wide. It looks wider than the Biscayne molding.

The catalog is copyright 1960, it doesn't indicate which month they published it in.

Yes, they were much wider than the skinny Biscane moulding.
If they did all of those things you would have thought they would have came standard on an Impala at least. They did in 1962.

For fun I looked at the Impala and Bel Air illustrations in the 1961 Dealer Album and none of cars were depicted with the optional rocker panel moldings.

I don't recall ever seeing a '61 Chevy with those moldings. I owned a 1961 Impala 4-door sedan that didn't have them. My Bel Air Sport Sedan doesn't have them either.

Back in 68 I had a 61 bubble top back then I kind of remember kick panel moldings on some cars. That's why I'm asking .Just bought a set for a 62 which should fit my 61.

Yep, as has been stated before, those wide rocker moldings were an accessory only, never factory installed. Only the Biscayne and Brookwood had the slender ones factory installed.
You also see a LOT of '63s and '64s with the '62 rocker moldings installed, which is wrong of course.

Verne

Hey Verne,
For the life of me I can not recall ever seeing a 61 with those mouldings, or even a car in some of those prolific PA junk yards that even had remnants of ever having them. Did you recall seeing any? I did see a few 60's that had the remains of some rocker mouldings, but no 61's.... I went digging skimming through all the old LGC magazines, (those were the days) not even a photo of one or any for sale in the classifieds, Not common at all, to the point that I never realized that they were offered, just never seen.

NYChevyII pointed out to me (privately) that there was an 58-64 Impala poster and Floyd Garret's 61 pictured in the poster has a set on.

I personally don't think that the 61's wear the rocker mouldings well, I am sure I am not the only one, besides being the first place to kick your feet to knock the snow off your shoes before getting in the car might have not helped the popularity. They probably look to good after one winter

I really don't recall seeing any originals with them, but I've seen a few restored cars with them. But then people like to add accessories when they restore a car.
Most '62 rocker moldings are dented for the reasons you mentioned. People must have liked the look of the '62s since Soooo many '63s and '64s show up with them.

Verne

I have a '61 Impala convertible. It didn't have rocker moldings when I bought it, but I saw a pair on a car and wanted them! After searching for about 5 years, Dick Moffett in Springfield had a pair of NOS moldings still in the factory wrappers!Unfortunately, I did not have the presence of mind to record the part numbers! They were not cheap, but I bought them and love them on the car! The mounting clips
that came with them were junk, but I bought a set from
Lutty's Chevies and they did the job! I have a pic of the car with moldings installed, butI don't know how to post the picture!

Verne more like TOOOO many, you have to admit, they do a good job of covering up bad body work!

Phil, my photo comment was not meant that I needed to see a picture of them, I should have been clearer what I meant to say was that they never seen even in any of the LGC magazines from the early 80's on till their demise. Back in the early 80's we all know that NOS accessories for these cars were all over the place and were rather cheap at that all things considered. With all of the cars getting restored at that time one would think that there would be a few more'kicking' around and would have ended up on cars, or even in the classifieds for sale, so no photo needed, but looking at cars is cool also. The part number later on was changed to 3780519 and 3790520, got to go I am falling asleep at the keyboard

They are pictured in my 1961 dealer album in the accessory section on Impalas and Belairs;

Correct because the Biscayne had a rocker moulding