1958 Chevrolet Bel Air Impala

In 1958 the Bel Air Series was top-of-the-line for Chevrolet with the Impala the brand new model within that series (although Bel Air doesn’t appear anywhere on the car), it was even more richly appointed. This 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air Impala Coupe shows you just how nice they are.

Chevrolets had been completely redesigned for ’58 and the body style lasted only one year before another complete revamp for 1959. They were longer, wider and lower than 1957. Gone too were the tailfins and replaced with the sculptured ‘Gull-wing‘ styling.

The Bel Air has a spear shaped molding along almost the full length of the car. There are four chevrons at the front of the front fenders, four short, vertical strips on the lower rear fender bulge, fender ornaments on the front fenders and a unique roofline with a vent above the rear window.

side view

Impalas had even more trim including Impala script and crossed-flag emblems at the front of the rear coving, chrome plated dummy air scoops in front of the rear wheelwells, ribbed body sill panels and triple taillamps. Other models had just two taillights with the station wagons only having one.

Note the triple taillights which was an Impala only feature

This car looks great in its Rio Red paint (code 923A) and goes well with the matching Gray, Black and Red textured fabric and vinyl interior (code 854).

luxury lounge interior

Impala features include the competition style two-spoke deep hub steering wheel with impala medallion, Impala script on the dashboard and the rear speaker grille found in the seatback dip in the center of the rear seats.

Rear seat showing center speaker

Power steering adds to the pleasure of driving this great car. The standard V8 was a 283 but this car is fitted with the more powerful of two 348 cubic inch V8 engines – the Turbo-Thrust with tri-power (3 x 2 barrel carburetors) – giving 280 horsepower.

1958 Chevy 348 V8 engine

This has since been paired with a 4-speed manual transmission. However, when leaving the factory with a Powerglide automatic transmission, it was a combination that would have cost an additional $408 back in the day.

SOME AVAILABLE CHEVROLET OPTIONS IN 1958

Option Price
Power steering $70
Power brakes $38
Heater and defroster $77
Air Conditioning $468
Power front seat adjuster $43
Power windows $102
E-Z-I tinted glass $38

CAN IT REALLY BE A BEL AIR AND IMPALA?

When we first posted a 1958 Impala on Facebook it caused a bit of a stir. We had comments like:

“No such thing. It’s either a Belair or Impala, not both!!!!!”

That is a Impala it can’t be both

I owned a 1958 Impala for 15 years, and NO WHERE on the car, owners manual, or bill of sale did it say Belair. It was a completely different car; tail lights, quarter panels, trunk lid, interior, and front fender and side trim.

Bel Air Impala?

So, not everyone was convinced. But that first year the Impala really was the top of the Bel Air line-up.

This is part of the original Chevrolet brochure highlighting the new Bel Air Impala cars for 1958.

Part of the Impala section in the Chevrolet brochure for 1958
Part of the Impala section in the Chevrolet brochure

And here’s an original Chevrolet promo film – have a listen at the 2 minute 46 second mark where they introduce the Bel Air luxury series that includes the Impala.

In 1959 the Impala then became its own series but that first year despite differences like 3 taillights at the rear instead of two, it still technically belonged to the Bel Air Series – it was just more luxurious.

Hopefully that original material is enough to convince you guys that it is technically correct. That’s the great thing about this hobby, there are always new things to learn.

If you were to order one when they were new, the 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air Impala Convertible would have cost you the base price of $2,586 for the six cylinder engine and $2,693 for the base V8. The convertible was $148 more expensive. Chevrolet produced 43,000 Sport Coupes and 55,989 convertibles for the 1958 model year.

This 1958 Impala is currently for sale on eBay. (follow the link for even more photos)

1 thought on “1958 Chevrolet Bel Air Impala”

  1. unlike the 1959 Ford Fairlane come Galaxie 3 months into production for the Convertable,Retractable and 2 and 4 door sedans the Fairlane becams a Galaxie buy the addition of the Thunderbird inspired roof and to cut costs the Fairlane script was left on the trunk. So it was a Fairlane Galaxie 500 if you want to read it that way. The Galaxie name did not get it’s own car till 1962 when the Fairlane name went to the Intermediate car so they had 3 Ford cars the Falcon, Fairlane and Galaxie. A car for all comer’s.

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