Chevy built this full-sized generation from 1971 to 1976. The biggest car Chevy ever built, it spanned a very contentious time in the automotive landscape. Throughout this time span, safety and emissions mandates pulled Chevy’s attention away from style and features, while a major spike in gasoline prices permanently changed the automotive market. Finally, midway through the model run newly mandated 5 MPH bumpers further weighted down these boats. Although Chevy managed to update the front and rear look of these cars each year, few other significant changes occurred. Except for the year 1974…
Prior to 1974, the full-size Chevy came in two different coupes. This Sport Coupe provided a fast back rear window and a triangular quarter glass opening. Placing a “sporty” roof line on such a large car proved to be a bit off putting, and few folks joined the Sport Coupe ranks.
In contrast, the Custom Coupe arrived with an upright rear window, and a squared off quarter glass opening. This roof line proved to be the more popular of the two, better fitting the body lines of the Chevy and the inclinations of the buyers. I should also note that the quarter glass on both these coupes opened up to provide the rear passengers with fresh air (as God intended).
In 1974, evidently inspired by the new intermediate colonnade coupes, the Custom Coupe lost its roll down window and formal quarter glass opening, and gained a massive C-pillar with a fixed widow stuffed into its center. I’m not sure if this approach created the biggest opera window ever, or the first coupe with both a B and C pillar. The bottom edge of the new window matched up to the top of the trunk line rather than the driver’s window, adding to the overall oddness. The words I might use to describe this look include; ungainly, malformed, and half-baked. I could also go with the descriptive phrase “styled with a can opener.” That’s correct; I don’t care for the look.
Stepping back to view the total package actually helps, but only because the rest of the car exudes basic Chevy goodness. In most years, GM used mainstream styling on their highest volume nameplate, taking an inclusive approach rather than choosing polarizing looks. Those fundamentally good lines help reduce the impact of the new roof line, almost convincing us this is an attractive car. The red metallic paint also adds to the overall effect, but I’m confident this car did not leave the factory with this shade. There may have been a red color option in 1974, but I don’t see Chevy offering a metallic paint option on the Impala.
Here’s a closer look at that metallic paint. Given the rust bubbles along the edge of that fixed glass, perhaps this is the original paint. More likely, the owner failed to properly prep the body prior to laying on the new color, leading to this paint failure. This shot also shows that ungainly step up from the driver’s glass to the fixed glass, and the odd way the glass mates to the body. Unlike other window openings on the car, there’s no molding between the glass and the sheet metal. The more I look at it, the more this roof seems to belong to another car.
No real surprises in the cabin. Black seat belts, vinyl bench seat, roll up windows, and generic Chevy steering wheel. Overall the look is very similar to the LeMans Colonnade Coupe I posted last week. The tan interior also points to a different paint color from the factory. A red exterior with a tan interior is a possibility, but an unlikely one.
Ah ha- The fender inner liner shows signs of red over-spray, confirming a non-factory paint job. The fender also indicates this Impala came with the mid-grade engine, packing 400 cubic inches into eight small block cylinders “siamesed” together. Given the basic goodness of the 350, I’m not sure I would have sprung for the 400. The ’74 also offered a big block 454, but outside of towing duties, I’d avoid the fuel costs associated with 7.4 liter power.
In 1974, Chevrolet still offered a Sport Coupe, shown here. The roof line now appeared more formal than sporty, but I prefer this look to our CC Custom Coupe. As an additional benefit, the Sport Coupe eschewed the fixed glass option, offering a movable quarter glass as an alternative to our fixed glass car.
Taking a final look at our Impala, let’s thank the owner for keeping it so original. It’s always refreshing to see wheel covers rather than aftermarket wheels, and other than a repaint, I saw no signs of modification. Perhaps that funky roof line works to maintain this car’s originality, sending those who might modify it off in search of greener pastures.
That fat C pillar is good at hiding the driver, but you gotta side the seat way back. It might even deflect a bullet too, usefully features in ghetto cruisers.
Looks like he actually meant to say a wide B-pillar, not C-pillar.
Thank you. Seeing it called B-piller irked me too.
That’s what I thought, but I think he means one pillar with an inset window rather than pillar-window-pillar. Perhaps the raised bottom edge of the window validates this description – I’m going to stop expending mental energy of this tiniest of minutiae now!
These look to me from the side like they should be a giant El Camino. Or at least some kind of landaulet top. Why else would you put that stupid ugly vertical pillar?
+1,I’m not the only one who thought that!The white one looks so much better despite the battering ram bumpers
That’s the first thing I think of when I see one of these! It looks like a pickup.
The roof crush/roll over standards that were coming up and not yet finalized as to just what the requirements were. Better to go overboard during this mid cycle refresh and be good to go than have to redesign it again.
Did you mean the first hardtop with a B and C pillar? I can think of dozens of pillared coupes.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these things even in photos. If I’d run into it in person, I would have been baffled.
The wheels on the ’74 SC look like they’re from the PMD parts bin…
I noticed that too, that’s odd, those “Spirit of America” 74’s had truck sport wheels normally, believe or not.
The 4-door version looks so much better. For me this type of coupe roof is the weirdest of all.
After all these years I’m still wrapping my head around how that pillar just slap’s the car with a terminal case of ugly. The pre 74’s look so much hipper.
+1
Arrrrrrghhhh!
breathe!
To show how little attention I paid to these when new, I had completely forgotten that Chevy offered 2 coupe roofs in 1974. Like most of you, I much prefer the “regular” 2 door hardtop roof. In fairness to this design, I think we must understand that it was likely penned to look good with a vinyl roof, which this car lacks. This is one of the few cars of that era that looks bad without the vinyl, which was on maybe 97% of cars in the upper half of the price spectrum back then.
The interior shot reminds me of another of my Chevy gripes about these – the black steering wheel, steering column and instrument panel no matter what color interior you got. It seemed to me the height of cheap.
I think you are right on the color. IIRC, GM offered a regular non-metallic red and a fairly light metallic maroon (Pontiac called it Honduras Maroon, as on my mom’s 74 LeMans), but no metallic red. That was a color that showed up in another year or two, certainly by 1976 or 77.
Agree that this car was designed for the vinyl top, which may have helped the looks a bit (not much). While this repaint color does look different than the original, I do remember the rather ubiquitous Medium Red Metallic found on a lot of these. It was featured on the Caprice in the catalog shot. The catalog imagery for Chevrolet in 1974 cracks me up overall, as the retouching done on some of the images was horrific. I mean, look at that butchered schnoz on the Caprice sedan in the background. What were they thinking? Another tidbit from the catalog that I find amusing is that the interior color on this car was called “neutral.” Can’t get much more compelling than that.
Pre-Photoshop LOL. I have that catalog and couldn’t believe how pathetic that airbrush job was.
Growing up, a neighbor had a brand new ’74 Impala Custom coupe in green with the vinyl top. It definitely looked better that way.
GN they did offer “neutral” as an interior color on the last of the W-body Impalas as well.
I noticed the rear bumper seems to be missing in that retouch too… makes me wonder if they reused a previous year brochure
I agree. Better with the vinyl roof.
Vinyl roof or not, this example is also missing the chrome trim piece that frames the rear window, further lending to its awkward and unfinished look.
Yes, exactly; “there’s no molding between the glass and the sheet metal” because it was cheap plastic bead material and soon flexed and fell off the car. The fixed windows (like those on the colonnades) had these cheap plastic frames whether or not the car was ordered with a vinyl roof.
Even worse was the coupe treatment for the large Olds Delta 88, Pontiac Bonneville and Catalina, and Buick LeSabre starting in 1974 – which featured both a retracting quarter window and a fixed window. I would guess that more of the fixed-window Chevy coupes were built 1974-76 than all examples of this alternate style put together. (I’m not counting the A bodies – the 1974-76 Coupe de Ville and the 1975-76 Electra/Ninety-Eight coupes – or the 1975-76 Grand Ville/Bonneville coupes, the latter of which featured a different large-fixed-window style that was somewhat more attractive.)
Here’s a ’76 Olds Ninety-Eight with that roofline and window style you mentioned. It does look better than the Impala, and especially so with the vinyl roof.
These were very rare without the vinyl roof. In fact, I’m not sure I ever saw one without it back then.
Furthermore, I suspect this one had a vinyl roof, and it was taken off prior to the re-spray. The bubbles (rust) where the vinyl roof once was is a give-away, since moisture getting trapped there was a common problem, and this is a So Cal car.
I also Strongly Suspect a removed vinyl top, prolly when the respray was done. Also would explain the rust bubbles under this side window. Window rust was usually more common on GM’s windshield and/or rear window for this generation.
Pleased that Paul and I (once again!) agree.
I believe Chevy Impalas had an interior option upgrade that gave you color-matched steering wheel column, and seat belts. You paid extra for that stuff. I recall seeing a very clean ’78 Chrysler base model Newport that had black steering column, black steering wheel, black seat belts on an otherwise attractive vinyl and nylon cloth butterscotch interior with matching carpet.
An el-cheapo way of the manufacturer keeping the costs down for a (advertising) price point.
Chrysler in the 70s was certainly not above a little “el-cheapo” as well, especially if GM was already doing it. I think I recall seeing some Chryslers as early as 1974 with black wheel/column/IP and having the same reaction. Of course, with their QC at the time, I wondered if it was an assembly line mistake.
Billy Rockfish is right. I had a 1974 Impala Custom Coupe from 1980 to 1990 and it had the dark green METALLIC Lacquer paint with matching dark green brocade fabric and vinyl interior, with matching dark green dash and seatbelts. Whether or not you like the styling, it was a great car, ahead of it’s time in many ways. The radio antenna was built into the windshield and it had automatic set and forget “Comfortron” air conditioning. Even with the base 350, it was a great long-haul cruiser.
A minor correction: 454 cubic inches converts to 7.4 liters, not 8.2. That would be the Cadillac 500 you’re thinking of.
Or 7,443 cc, if you’re being very technical..
Have to agree with others here, this fixed window roofline is pretty bad as the window kind looks like an afterthought, and sunken in to boot, let alone be oddly sized.
However, from a distance, it’s not half bad though.
I’ve always liked this general body design, but especially the ’71’s as I liked the grill on those the best of them all, the 76’s the least.
The thought that crossed my mind is that GM was just a glass roof panel shy of creating a Scenicruiser coupe… 🙂
If you like ’71s, the Bond movie “Live and Let Die” has a freeway full of these in an early chase scene. It was so shameless, I laughed when I first saw it.
Live and Let Die is the first thing I thought of when I saw the 73 Impala coupe at the top of the article.
All the Chevrolets in Live and Let Die are 1973’s, and boy are there are TON of them. It is possibly some of the most shameless product placement in any movie. There is a scene early on in the movie where Bond gets picked up at the Pan Am Worldport at JFK in a 73 Bel Air, and then proceeds to drive down the FDR and EVERY single car on the road is a 1973 full size Chevrolet, every version too, coupes, sedans, wagons, etc, plus 2 73 Eldorados too. More 73 Chevrolets make appearances throughout the move, include Novas, pick ups, Colonnade Chevelles.
Later in the movie there is a pretty spectacular boat/car chase through Louisiana, involving possibly all or the Chevrolet Bel-Air sedans made in 1973(that’s why they are so hard to find!). I always thought Chevrolet missed an opportunity to figure out a way put Bond in a Corvette for this movie, I mean if you’re going to place your cars in a Bond movie, why promote big sedans?
John DeLorean lives on! You gotta admit, Chevy was a PR machine on his watch.
There was a Corvette!
Sorry, ’73 was when L&LD was filmed, not ’71, and of course the cars were of that model year.
’71 was “Diamonds are Forever,” featuring a red Mustang fastback. Otherwise Ford was in bed with Quinn Martin Productions, & you got Mopars (though not exclusively) in Mark VII Productions (Jack Webb’s outfit).
Ford usually had a big strong hold on Bond movies since the start of the series, the Mustang and Lincolns in Goldfinger, the Thunderbird, Mustang and Lincolns in Thunderball, Diana Riggs Cougar in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the Mustang and Ford police cars in Diamonds are Forever. 1973’s Live and Let Die’s “Chevy Fest 73” is an anomaly. 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun had AMC’s, in Thailand of all places.
HA!
I love that they call it a “Pimpmobile” in the movie, Live and Let Die is an interesting artifact from its era, its a Blacksploitation themed Bond movie.
The next movie in the Bond series had cars supplied by AMC. I do enjoy the 1971 flick “Diamonds are Forever” with Bond getting the ’71 Mach 1 up on two wheels over on Fremont Street in Vegas . . . . Refresh my memory, folks – was it Goldfinger where Bond was chased by a ’57 Fairlane Retractable hardtop? I remember Dr. No. had ’61 and ’57 Chevies in the chase and Thunderball had Bond in a ’65 Lincoln Continental ragtop . . .
Thunderball, in the beginning, when he is leaving the clinic and heading back to MI6. Dr. No does have a 61 Chevrolet Impala sedan and a 57 Chevrolet Bel-Air convertible, along with a Sunbeam Alpine roadster being chased by a 39 LaSalle hearse of all things.
For those of you who get the Encore channel, they are doing one of their periodic Bond marathons all this month, every night at 8 pm Eastern; Live And Let Die is on this Saturday the 14th.
I’ve got every one of the Bond movies on DVD, I can watch anytime. 🙂
Live and Let Die is full of cars that seem ridiculous by today’s standards like the Corvorado or the Cadillac “pimp limo” that the chief adversary is ferried around in.
Grrrrrrrrr meant as reply to Niel…
I can’t believe GM would be stupid enough to sponsor a movie featuring those two monstrosities.
Then again, I can…
Actually the Cadillacs weren’t from GM, GM only sponsored the Chevrolets. The Cadillacs were from New Jersey’s own Dunham Coach.
The ’74 SportsRoof must have been a $9,000 option, because 99.98% of the ’74 coupes on the road around me were this god awful, uglier than sin, thick B-pillar version.
Honestly. The first time I saw one I thought some Hoosier hick doofball had created a homebrew custom roof for his Impala. Then I learned that some designer at Chevrolet penned that and I about lost my lunch.
I agree. Had I been a Chevy dealer around that time, 100% of my Impala coupes would have been Sport Roofs!
I actually like the 1971-73 Sport Coupe roofline the best out of them all. The featured Impala’s roofline and window remind me of a pickup truck. And that straight vertical B-pillar? It all looks too choppy and aftermarket.
There were several cars in the later 70s that went with the really fat B pillar and a really thin C pillar – I’m thinking of the 77 T Bird and the Fairmont Futura, in addition to that 74-76 Pontiac/Olds/Buick coupe. I never cared for that look either, though the Ford versions seemed to me to come off a little better.
I actually liked the ’77-’79 T-Bird and Futura/Zephyrs…but Bill Mitchell’s little choo-choo was comin’ off the track doin’ that treatment to a full-size Chevy.
It was already stated that the plasti-chrome window trim is missing. This piece is usually missing altogether or very ugly and re-applied after either replacing the vinyl roof or repainting the car. I believe this car had the vinyl removed prior to being repainted and the bubbles visible in the paint under the window may be from whatever was used to fill the trim holes that is backing out.
This car may not have had a vinyl roof. Even without that plastic window trim GM used was junk that just didn’t stand the test of time.
Here is a 74 Impala with the trim:
http://www.productioncars.com/gallery.php?car=6334&make=Chevrolet&model=Impala
I too think this was the ugliest roof styling GM offered on this generation of Chevrolet’s. I much preferred the sport coupe roof.
Hey, that green custom coupe is a 71. I spent a couple of my teenage years riding around in a friend’s just like that, same color and everything.
I did attend at least one speedometer burial in that car, it felt like very wide car on a very narrow road over 120mph…
The ’74 Sport Coupe shown above is the extremely rare Spirit Of America edition. The wheels, pin stripes and little medallion on the C-pillar give it away.
It’s perhaps the ONLY ’71-’76 B-body I would remotely entertain owning.
From bad steel to poor space utilization, I see nothing redeeming in any ’71-’76 GM full-size vehicle. I never have, even when these were new.
Is there any quality whatsoever that wasn’t better addressed in either their ’69-’70 predecessors or ’77-up descendants?
Yes the cars handled better than the older ones not equipped with an F41 package and the correct size radial tires…but those are easy fixes for cars that were better built and in many cases better appointed. And again the ’77-up models blew the ’71-’76s away.
Only when compared to the same year Ford or MoPar full-size offering does the Chevy look good IMO.
The ’76 Caprice with its huge grille and rectangular headlamps…and that “hick doofball…homebrew custom roof” (great description, Jim!), to me, stands as the ugliest car in history to wear the Chevy bowtie. Or at least roll off a GM assembly line.
The Fords from this era were better trimmed and had better workmanship that the Chevrolets, based on what I’ve seen.
The fuselage Plymouths were distinctive, but the post-1973 models look poor copies of a 1972 Buick LeSabre.
The Brougham movement was in full flower during this era, and Ford pulled it off much better than either Chevrolet or Plymouth. I remember thinking that these Chevrolets were dull even when they were new. At least the LTD looked like a smaller Lincoln.
The early 1970s were when domestic full-size cars dropped any pretense of sportiness and became the (very boring) cars your parents drove. Things didn’t change until GM rolled out its downsized 1977 full-size cars, and brought back at least some excitement and athleticism to the segment.
Pontiac in ’73 rolled out the “Radial Tuned Suspension” option with 70 series radials and stabilizer bars (hefty sized ones) front and rear as an option on even the full sizers. I remember an ad with a Bonneville going around pylons heralding this option . . . .
In addition to Konis, I installed huge Quickor sway bars, front and rear, on my wife’s ’79 Caprice. Probably not quite a go-kart, but far better than stock, and even better than the F41. I took the Italian approach-compliant springs with well-controlled damping and great roll control. I was surprised to find all the mounting points for the rear sway bar, including threaded receptors, already in place from the factory.
Perhaps the clamshell wagons?
“Is there any quality whatsoever that wasn’t better addressed in either their ’69-’70 predecessors or ’77-up descendants?”
Sure – the convertible top design was entirely new and different, allowing a much wider rear seat because the side bows folded inward instead of front-to-rear. Every 1971-76 big GM convertible from the Impala to the Eldorado offered this. As far as I know, no 4- or 5-passenger convertible since then has adopted the design, so their rear seats have become narrow again.
Is Broughamyness a quality?
The rare car that came from the factory looking like something that had been thrown together in someone’s backyard. Whose idea was this?
I remember this generation of Chevy well, because our neighbors down the street, who had lived there since 1958 and may be there still (assuming one or both haven’t passed away), bought a new full-size Chevy sedan in midrange trim every three years or so, with Mr. G getting the new car, Mrs. G getting his previous car, and Mrs. G’s previous hand-me-down getting traded in. This went on well into the post-’77 B-body era. They had a couple of the ’71-’76’s, and I remember riding in them. Dull but solid, like the conservative civil engineer Mr. G was. But never a coupe!
Growing up we had a next door neighbor that did the same thing though he only bought a new car frequently enough so he never had two of the same generation. But it was always the mid level Chevy 4dr and he got the new one and the wife got the old one.
Interesting, as in our family it was the exact opposite – dad got the old car while mom got the newer one. My father’s cousin was married to a man who bought himself a brand-new Dodge pickup truck on a regular basis, but bought her a used Plymouth or other full-size Chrysler product…this was considered to be a major failing on his part within the family!
In our household, my wife gets the new car, I get the old one…my thinking being that I’d know what to do if my 10-year-old Subaru conks out on the freeway, and would be at less risk, than if it were to happen to her. Also, my car is more comfortable for freeway cruising or pothole-dodging.
Live and Let Die is actually full of 1973 Chevy’s….
One of the best Bond movies ever…!!
Thanks, I had the wrong year; that movie was filmed in ’73, not ’71.
Lots of fireball explosions & action for the guys + romance for the ladies = box-office success.
Wow! Even popped the wheel covers off!.
We got the sedans new but not the coupe, pretty much the end of local Chevrolet assembly.
My first car was a jade green 1975 Impala Sports Coupe, it was big and beautiful. My dad passed it to my older brother and he passed it on to me in 1983 when he finished college. For 2 years I toured around in this car, it was rust free and only had two cracks on the dasboard. What a highway cruiser, I enjoyed this body style as it was more rarer, and all the windows rolled down. Whish I had never sold it.
My all time favorite car was a 71 Custom Coupe. Beige with a brown vinyl roof and brown vinyl interior. 350 V8 and my first car with A/C. Much better car than the 79 Caprice I bought used — handled great and got 20 plus mpg.
“Crazy Jaguar Lady” in our neighborhood had one of these vintage 74 Impala coupes, almost identical to the feature car, but in burgundy with an ivory top, the other car she had was a decrepit 1958-1959 Jaguar XK150 DHC that was rotting away in her driveway for YEARS, with flat wide whites on it and rusty wire wheels, I remember ogling ever detail of that Jaguar as a kid, the cloudy cracked Lucite “Jaguar: Winner LeMans 1951,53,55,56 57” badge on the rear. You had to watch out for the wasps though….
Pic #3’s Custom Coupe reminds me too much of a 1st gen Monte Carlo (pic below), but I really like the Sport Coupe roofline in #2. I don’t understand why that one wasn’t more popular.
It seemed obvious that these Chevies beckoned the ordering buyer to spring for the landau vinyl top (which most of these coupes of this vintage had anyway). I have to look at a ’74 brochure to see if there was some kind of molding for that quarter window (there HAD TO HAVE been) . . . . Kind of a half-assed paint job . . . . The majority of these (at least in California) were the SBC 400’s. The 454 was gone in California by ’74 in this full size offering . . . . pretty much gone in all California Chevy passenger cars . .
“Is there any quality whatsoever that wasn’t better addressed in either their ’69-’70 predecessors or ’77-up descendants?”
Demo Derby drivers love 71-76 GM big cars the best. Especially clamshells!
Just that now they are harder to find. Wonder why?
Favorite bumper to use is 74 Impala’s. Demo Debry sites/forums will have classifieds asking for them.
Ugh, don’t remind me. I’ll never find a Clamshell thanks to these turkeys. This extremely straight ’74 Caprice Classic hardtop showed up at this redneck shop down the road. It was low-mileage, rust-free, nicely optioned, complete, and had nary a tear in any of the upholstery, even the driver’s side of the front seat.
I took pics of the engine, interior, etc. just to have as reference. Sure enough, the idiots yanked the drivetrain & interior & turned it into a demo-derby car. They know no other way. Such fools. Just to piss me off, that perfect front seat is sitting outside next to their shop for me to look at every time I go to the scrapyard…I suppose they were too lazy to move it so it just gets rained on.
This is the last year of my preferred 4-door hardtop body style. People can hate/knock the ’71-’76 cars but how many have driven or ridden in one? I laugh at the space-utilization bitching… really now. It’s 2013. These are old cars now and I wonder how many people would actually choose a ’77-‘8? over one of these because they can haul more golf bags, luggage, and family members on their day-to-day galavanting. Whatever.
I hope that there is a special place in hell for people that are using 71-76 GM cars in demo derbies, I can only hope that at some point they ban them after some dumb hillbilly gets his neck broken. Please, there are plenty of other worthless big cars, move on to Panthers or something.
Now, since 70’s cars are rarer, Derbies have ‘FWD V6’, ‘After 1980’, or ‘compact’ classes. Seen some on You Tube for Minivans, pick-ups, and ‘mini’ too.
Ford Contours, Tauruses, and Luminas were popular in FWD demos. One dirt track bans all Saturns because of cracking plastic panels.
Those Neanderthals around here did the same thing to a mint 76 Mark IV with the Bill Blass package. I am always being asked if my 70’s dinosaurs are for sale. Im rather rude to em simply because of that.
How is it that only Chevy got stuck with this awful design? Catalinas, Delta 88s, and LeSabres had the very small quarter windows (which I believe still opened?) ahead of the B-pillar, and the fixed windows behind it. It was still odd-looking, but not nearly as bad as this car.
Woof. These make the actual Colonnades look like masterpieces.
Well, the Colonnades ARE masterpieces of course! 🙂
God, that white coupe looks sexy with those fender skirts…
Randomly stumbled upon this post and figured I’d chime in. I’ve had two 1974 Impala Sport Coupes (the hardtop version), my last one was essentially my first car. It was original bright metallic green and turned heads everywhere it went. It had fender skirts and I put some wide stripe whitewall tires on it. Loved it, but it had serious rust issues in the floors and quarter panels, and other places.
I got my second ’74 Impala with 46K miles on it, to replace the first one because I felt so bad about it not being fixed up from a practical standpoint. This one is “Sandstone”, which is kind of the complete antithesis of the last Impala, it’s a strange 1970s harvest goldish color that would look at home on a Frigidaire. It looks like iced coffee in the shade and in the sun it’s totally different, more of a cream yellow. The car had been in storage for years and had 29K in 1999 or so according to the records I’d found, then got inherited. I’ve owned it since 2007 and it now has 71K. It has been a reliable car but I mainly use it in the nice weather, for cruise nights, shows, and it’s been used in a few movies. They are not as bad of a car as some people say they are, you have to look at the competition available at the time, I’m sure a Mercedes Benz 6.9 would be preferable but I wouldn’t say I like the Fords of the time better than these cars. I think they’re pretty sharp vehicles depending on the model. I’d like a late 60s model but they’re too expensive generally compared to these ones. Most people think my car is from the late 60s/early 70s anyway.
Owning these has made me feel like I’m the only person in the world who has a specific interest in them…there’s a lot of hate online for them, with people saying they’re only good for demo derbies. Yet anyone who sees the car in person is all over it, telling me how they had one in high school, etc. I personally don’t think these cars should be used for demo derbies anymore, my old green one wound up in one eventually I found out (I had sold it to a friend and he sold it to someone else) but I did grab all of the trim, glass, and other parts when I found them posted on craigslist.
Anyway, I ramble on. I have the same dislike for the 74-76 “glasshouse” roof as others do, and everyone I meet seems to agree. It’s too bad they didn’t execute it better. They even had to change the front door glass to work with that roofline believe it or not, the glass on a ’74 Sport Coupe would overlap the B-pillar. I could not imagine riding in the back seat of that car either, it would be like an imprisonment. The Sport Coupe to me is the best looking of the 71-76 years, I kind of like them all (I’m a B-body guy and also have a 95 Impala SS, have had other generations of GM full size passenger cars as well) but I love the 74 Impala nose the best, it is the only year where the Impala had it’s own distinct front end styling for some reason, that wasn’t a hand-me-down or altered Caprice front end. I like the fastback but formal roof and think it flows nicer with the lines of the car. It really does look like an exaggerated 1970-72 Monte or Chevelle.
The B coupes built for Buick, Olds, and Pontiac DID have roll down quarter windows from 74-76, they were pretty thin, but were there and power operated if the option was there as well. They then had that other fixed window further back. Odd, but did actually look kind of cool. Chevy should have done the same! The C bodies had a more formal fixed glass setup that was more like the Cadillac coupes with a single window.
This is my ’74. Rolling all the windows down is the next best thing to having a convertible. I just wish I had power windows in it…
In comparison to a 76 Coupe Deville, it’s a big car, but not as huge as you’d think.
I have the current pleasure of owning my Grandma’s 74 Impala Sport Coupe. Only 74,000 actual miles. She was the second owner from 1980 when the only new car she ever bought, a 1967 Impala 4dr sedan got totaled by a dump truck with her in it! She was in the car, not the truck. It is completely identical to the green one pictured in the 74 Brochure except hers did not have a vinyl roof from the factory. It did have a cheap aftermarket half vinyl roof that is long since shredded. Pretty basic option wise with AC, AM Radio, and all vinyl interior in a color they called Neutral. 350 2 barrel/Turbo 350 trans. Since it was garage kept it’s whole life, the sheet metal is free from rust. She did manage to put a shallow body length dent into the passenger side many years ago. But it still looks good, although I hate the Green paint. Even the AC works. I’ll never get rid of it. If and when it does desolve, I’ll sweep the ashes into a coffee can and put it on the mantel. And I agree the Sport Coupe looks much better than the Custom Coupe. Only true 2dr Hardtop car I own. Wish their was a equilvalent of a Marti Report for it. I would love to have more info.
Depending upon which assembly plant your car was built in, there may be a build sheet hidden in it somewhere.
I have heard of people finding them under the front seat in the springs and under the package tray on these cars.
Guy, that car your grandmother had sounds identical to the one I had, which is pretty surprising. I was told by a guy who worked at a Pontiac dealer at that time, that the “Bright Green Metallic ” paint was special order. If you open the hood and see the body plate on the passenger side of the cowl (near the wipers and hood hinge), there will be a code 46 for Bright Green Metallic. I personally love that color. There were a few other greens I didn’t like but they were a little more faded and watered down. Code 46 or whatever you want to call it really pops in the sunlight and looks nice buffed out.
My green 74 Sport Coupe was built in Janesville, WI. The yellow/beige one was built in Tarrytown, NY, and sold new at Beaulieu Chevrolet in Springfield, MA. So it didn’t have very far to go from the plant to the dealer. I did notice that while the NY made car held up better, there were little parts missing such as the plastic piece that illuminates the wiper/washer switch. I scavenged that from the green 74’s instrument cluster and installed it in this one.
Here’s the green one I had:
This is the last day I owned the green one, after I’d bought the beige one. It wasn’t in that great of condition by then.
It is code 46. And I was wrong about the mileage, it’s 69,887! I will look for the buildsheet. Still don’t like the green. Mine was built in St. Louis.
St. Louis… very interesting. I can’t speak for the ’71-’76 cars, but I’ve found the good GMAD build sheets ON TOP of the front seat foam of many 1977-1979 full-sized Chevrolets, sandwiched between the seat cover and seat foam. Many worked their way back towards the rear of the seat “crack” and sometimes small pieces of them may break off & be visible.
I’ve never seen any other plant do this. If the sheet landed directly under the driver’s tocus area, it will still be legible, but in a hundred pieces. If it landed in the middle of the seat, it’ll be very fragile but likely intact. Too bad you have to remove the front seat bottom cover to even know if the car had one.
I’d do it in a heartbeat, but that’s just me. Finding the build sheet is like finding the Holy Grail, especially in a GMAD-built car.
i had 4 of these cars love all 4 of them 71 sport coupe 72 custom coupe brand new 73 sport coupe 74 custom coupe the 71 was sort of rare it had a 3 speed maunul on the coluwm p s p b air gas milage was very good and i enjoyed shifting i loved that car nice body style too
the 71 also had 350 2 barrel
ive seen build sheets stuck in some weird places somewhhere in the front left fender strangly enough the frame under the carpet chances are and bigest part of time under the back seat i detailed cars for dealers for 35 years and i found them everywhere i think the guys that assembled the car didnt want you to find it
its a sorry note that these guys are making DONKS out of these beautiful cars 71 76 its a shame what they are doing to them there are guys out there myself included that would like put one back orignal and they wont be able to find one i would love to see one that looks like it did when it left the dealers mine were all orignal right down to the hubcaps