Me, my '69 Imperial and its pitfalls

[vdk2010]

Hi, my name is Julian, 28 years old, living near by Frankfurt Main, Germany and I'm the proud owner of a 1969 Chrysler Imperial 2-door HT project car.
It was 32 years in storage and have surface rust on every single part, but just a few rusted throught spots on the body.

A member from forcbodiesonly.com send me over here! Hi 67Monaco

I myself am a media designer, means I'm usually a pencil pusher but would say about myself, I'm a fast lerner with fun and a lot of interest in doing everything on my car by myself. Including the bodywork! For that I am on the search for tips, tricks, help and good advices!


And finally a few pictures of my project:
(a full album can be viewed on Flickr)










Broken Swaybar mount


A few more or less small holes in the floor




Left and right lower quarter panels

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Welcome to AllMetalShaping Julian. I became interested in metal shaping because of working on my rusty Imperials. Lost interest in the cars and got hooked on shaping.

Jun16_14.JPG

If you haven't found it, the online Imperial club is a wonderful resource:

http://www.imperialclub.com/

If you go to the year by year pages and look on the 73 page, you'll find the saga of my 73 restoration. http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1973/...saga/index.htm

On the 69 pages, you'll find Elijah Scott's 69 which we painted at my shop.

The Fuselage Imperials are my favorites.

[vdk2010]

Thanks Kerry! Your car looks great!

I know the club and love to get information from there!

I know the Elijah Scott Imperial(s) from the 69-71 comparison album, but according to that, he ownes the 70 and 71, not the 69

[Jere]

Hello Julian and welcome. Quite a project you have.

Jere

[Kerry Pinkerton]

Originally Posted by vdk2010

...I know the Elijah Scott Imperial(s) from the 69-71 comparison album, but according to that, he ownes the 70 and 71, not the 69

yes, you're correct, it was the blue 70. I think there is a saga on painting it somewhere on the IML.

I sold my 73 many years ago. Great car!

[thingsthatfly2]

Looks like a fun project. those lower quarters look like they will be fun to tackle!

the car looks huge compared to that speedster on the transport truck. How many trailers did it take to get it home?

[Kerry Pinkerton]

The fuselage Imperials were among the largest American cars ever built. The 73 like I had WAS the largest production car built thanks to the 5 mph bumper boobs. 440, torqueflight tranny. Surprisingly fast. The end of an era of big, fast, high speed, luxury cruisers. No cup holders however....

The 69 was the cleanest and best looking of the bunch. Two doors are rare. Most were 4 door hardtops.

[Oldnek]

Hi Julien.

Welcome to the forum.
The Imperial looks as if it's seen more than it's fair share of salt roads.
You'll have a little bit of work to do on the old girl, I love your Ally car trailer as well.

Regards John

[vdk2010]

Thanks guys! It's indeed a rare car and because of that, it's worth to save this beauty!

The pics of the car on the trailer are from the guy who sold me the imp. It's from the rust belt state of New York and was stored 32 years in one of these half round barracks. Unfortunately, I have no information about the time before it was parked there.

According to the last registration, it belonged to the owner of a repair shop named Leavenworth Garage in in Malden Bridge, NY, Mr. Leavenworth.

It's 99% complete and in acceptable condition, compared to the other 69' coupes I saw in the 1,5 years of searching on Craigslist, its a good project start. Indeed a long, difficult and expensive one, but I'm really excited!

[crashfarmer]

That Imperial will be a nice car when you are finished with it. I like the big old cars.

My brother almost bought one like that a couple of years ago at an estate auction but he had just bought a 69 Lincoln Mark III and a Pontiac Catalina with a 455 in it and someone was talking to him when the Imperial was sold. He is still mad about it, he was telling me recently that he wanted to buy that car and he should have got it bought, it's hard to find a 2 door and that some demo derby guy bought it so it was destroyed by now.