Restomods At The Movies: Top 10 Badass Modded Cars In TV And Film

June 26, 2018

Honorable Mentions

I want to talk about two other models from American Graffiti. I can practically hear you rolling your eyes, but there really are a huge amount of amazing cars in this film. Two others that I need to tack on here are the ’58 Chevy Impala and the ’51 Mercury.

The Impala, as it was when auctioned in 2015. [Via Super Chevy.]

The Impala, as driven by Terry The Toad, is a beautiful piece of Americana. However, when it was bought by a 17-year-old kid for $285 after the movie wrapped, the car wasn’t in amazing shape. It had a 348 four-barrel, as seen in the movie, but that lasted as long as the drive home, where it expired in a cloud of smoke. The kid and his brother replaced it with a 283 twin-barrel, and it rode again. Most of the original parts were removed, but were also tagged and bagged, so it could be fairly easily restored to American Graffiti-spec. It was auctioned in 2015, and its new owner, Ray Evernham, did just that, exhibiting the car at the 2016 SEMA show.

Now, onto the Mercury. This is a beautiful car. It was spotted at a stock car track’s spectator’s lot, bought, and taken immediately to Orlandi’s shop. Despite its beauty, the preparations were slapdash. The rear window wasn’t cut when the body was, just slid down and stuck in place. The wing windows and side quarter glass were removed. Its grille bar was made from an old bumper. Despite this somewhat hamfisted work, the car looks gorgeous. I’ll leave you with this video on an awesome replica built by Glenn Shimmin.

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