As Jimmie tells it, "This all started after I got my '51 Chevy and the Riviera done and I realized that I didn't have anybody to cruise around Austin with. Mike and I had been friends for years. I just talked him gradually into doing a few things to it."

"Conned, is more like it," according to Mike Young. "I had no idea what I was getting into, but I think Jimmie had a pretty definite plan all along. He just let me in on it a little at a time." Mike purchased the Chevy six or seven years ago in Denver. it was a well cared for stocker in blue paint with a good-running 348 four-barrel and a cast-iron powerglide that had "a tendency to slip a little on occasions." After owning the car about four years, Mike decided what it really needed was a new home and put it up for sale. After months of no takers Mike figured "What the hell, I'll keep it...I'll let Jimmie mess it up."

It was on this informal basis that the project began. Jimmie had worked successfully with Gary Howard on both his Chevy Fleetline and '63 Riviera. Now Mike, Jimmie, Gary and upholsterer Vernon McKean formed the nucleus of the team that would complete the Chevy.

All are Austin residents, but only McKean is a native. Jimmie moved to Austin 20 years ago or so from Dallas. Mike Young arrived about the same time from the south Texas Gulf Coast. Gary Howard has been in Texas for about 10 years having relocated from Iowa.

To fully appreciate how the car came about, you have to understand that Jimmie is without a doubt the ringleader of the group and a self-professed "guy with very strong opinions." Mike Young is like many who grew up in the '60s reading car magazines but never really being able to put together the type of car he had dreamed about until now. He tells a story of bringing home a one-hundred-dollar '32 roadster before he was of driving age and being forced to get rid of it because his father didn't see a need to clutter up the garage with "that old thing." Gary Howard is in effect a life-long customizer who, for much of his career, has done custom work exclusively.

The point is that even if it isn't Jimmie's car, he has treated it as if it was since the project began. The Impala is the embodiment of his designs and vision, and in more literal terms the Impala has become a home for some of Jimmie's parts as well. the Lucas headlights, knockoff hubcaps and other early '60s treasures came from his collection.

This is not ot imply that Gary Howard and Mike Young sit back and let Jimmie dictate every detail. What there is, is a healthy give and take that results in lengthy animated discussions over such weighty issues as the proper width of the whitewalls, whether the corners of the fins should be rounded and what color the finished car should be painted.

Once Jimmie convinced Mike to keep the Impala and to go along with his basic plan for modification, he made him this offer: "What we're all done, if you don't like the Impala, I'll trade you straight across for my Riv." Mike saw this as a no lose proposition. He was getting more excited about the project by the day, but even if he wasn't that crazy about the outcome, he could trade it straight across for the '63 Riviera, a car he had always held in very high regard.