Bio: I acquired my vehicle in April of 2010 from Stockton, California. My daughter watched it on craigslist the entire winter. She kept saying we are getting this car. We had a 1962 hardtop that we were looking to sell & purchase a convertible Impala. My wife always wanted a 65 but I was never sold on the hardtop.
Winter passed & in 2010 we saw that this silver '65 convertible was still on craigslist. We decided to check it out & ended up taking it home. We rolled it to the parks and shows for the summer but wherever we took this car people would always say "you got that car on craigslist". I guess everyone else watched it that winter as well. As the summer went on we started to envision a change from the "craigslist car" that everyone had known to a custom low rod that represented us. The vehicle had a clean fiberglass speaker enclosure that we had a friend (Jesus Escobar) airbrush them & then clear coated them.
The car was clean, but I wasn't too happy with the body lines & it wasn't as straight as I would have liked it. We waited until the end of the summer, after my daughter's sweet sixteen to start to the tear down. It was stripped down & sent to the paint shop. Within the year, in October of 2010 we broke down completely & towed it back to Stockton to get the body blocked and re-sprayed.
Originally the color was to be painted silver with pearl, but after changing our minds several times, we decided to go two-tone. Our choice was House of Kolors Candy Apple Red & Orion Silver.
After that decision we had to go all the way down to the frame so it would match. The body was but on a rotisserie & Painted Orion Silver & the frame was painted 2 different times & is now Candy Apple Red.
During the breakdown we sent out several parts to be refinished at San Joaquin Chrome, in addition to the new chrome pieces for the car. During the tear down, Mike at 209 Kustoms took the interior pieced & reupholstered them in two tone gray & red. All winter we purchased chrome accessories for the engine compartment and eventually had the 350 small block rebuilt with a high performance upgrades. The engine & transmission was painted candy apple red to match the frame. The custom exhaust, engine compartment & the exterior chrome were “hands on” projects by our family. We missed having our car for the summer shows in 2011 but had our Chopper in it's place.
Each family member chose a photo and idea to incorporate into the trunk lid mural which has each family member's personal photo and about 20 other images within our name Valdez Style. After Jesus completed the trunk lid mural Robert candy and cleared them. The car was brought home from paint at the end of February 2012 & it was our mission to get the car to debut at the Socios carshow in May. In just 3 months our family busted ass to get the car reassembled, engine and tranny dropped, exhaust built from scratch by my cousin and we got it running, airbagged & aligned. The first drive was actually taken with a lawn chair! The car was towed back to Stockton one more time to get the interior installed. Memorial day weekend the stereo was installed, final trim pieces were installed, the car was buffed out and detailed. We made it to the show to take first place in the '65-69 category. As for the name, our family sat down over a few days and each picked several names. The final day everyone selected their top 4 names off the list. Out of those 4 the same one that each person selected mutually became the car's nickname-thus Addicted Desire was born. There were many hours contributed by our family whenever available. Whether it was after school, after work or on weekends, we all helped to complete this car and get it back on the road for 2012.
Vehicle Name: Addicted Desire
Owner: Robert & Keri Valdez
City/State: Sacramento CA
Car Club: Valdez Style
Year: 1965
Make: Chevrolet
Model: Impala
Body: 2 door, two toned convertible
Interior: 2 tone red & gray Done by Mike 209 Kustoms
Paint: Candy apple red house of kolors, Orion silver done by Jimmy Taildraggin' Kustoms; pinstripe and silver leafing done by Bob with Sidelines, Airbrushing/Murals by Jesus-Escobar's Airbrushing
Wheels: Foose 20rear, 18front
Suspension: Viar air bagged by Jay Crazy Hydraulics
Engine: 350 with high performance upgrades
Model: Lina Arie Photography / Story: Masburg.com