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I've been looking for an Imperial for a long long time, it's been close to 15 years or so. Problem is Imperial didn't make many of these cars 11,000 or so for 1955 in contrast Cadillac made 140k cars that year. There aren't many left, even fewer in any kind of reasonable condition. They've always been either too expensive or too rough for me too consider, hell sometimes both. Well that all changed last weekend when I finally scooped one up that was cheap enough and in good enough condition to justify dragging home. I won't make any comments as to the sensibility of getting a 70yo luxury car roadworthy again, I'll leave that to you folks. What I ended up with is this 1955 Imperial Sedan with 86,000 miles on the clock. This thing is by no means perfect but it is all there and it does run and drive, stopping however is iffy. These were taken where I bought the car. Dude had all kinds of other cool stuff too.        The taillights on this car look bizarre but I do like them. The fuel filler is also in a strange spot directly behind the passenger tail lamp. It has hidden door handles and there is a little raised section you press on the handle to pop it up so you can grab it to open the door. The grille is shared with that years Chrysler 300 and the body is basically a New Yorker shell stretched 4 inches. The frames on these are fully boxed. The wheelbase sits at 130 inches, overall length is 223 inches and this thing weighs about 4700lbs with fluids. It's a very large car.   The engine is a 331in Chrysler Hemi making 250hp and 340lbft or torque, not fast but it should keep up with traffic just fine. Power is routed to a 2 speed powerflite and a Chrysler 8.75 rear with 3.54 gears. Lastly some interior shots. Front    Rear   This car does have power windows and power seats, the only option I could tell that it was missing was AC and I don't know if I will add it. I still have to drag it home but that happens in a couple weeks. Luckily it is perfectly safe where it is right now. Future plans for this car after I get it on the road are to bump the horse power by about 100 or so, add an overdrive transmission, wheels and tires, and do something with the suspension but I don't know what yet.
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Mar 16, 2022 05:11
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I love this stupid car. Hopefully making a new dash pad (or covering the one you have) isn't going to be a nightmare, as that's the only part of the interior that really jumps out at me..
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Mar 16, 2022 05:14
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Ground floor. Glad you finally got one of these cars man, can't wait to see it in person.
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Mar 16, 2022 05:16
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that uh drivers window situation is... concerning looks like you have a pretty sweet cruiser in the making. it even runs and drives, so its basically mint, right?
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Mar 16, 2022 09:33
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Yeah I think fixing the dash pad won’t be too bad. I’ve done a head liner in 2 of my Corvettes and I feel like this should be easier than that. I’m not crazy about the what looks like gun shots in the drivers door glass but at least it is produced. I’m a little more concerned about the 70yo electrics for the seat and windows but we’ll see how that goes.
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Mar 16, 2022 12:37
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Absolutely adore the car! Looking forward to seeing what happens to it. The sheer size of that thing!
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Mar 16, 2022 13:29
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hoooly poo poo this car rules. Need some blankets for those seats ...and airbags on the suspension
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Mar 16, 2022 14:37
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So glad you found one, there needs to be more cool old cars in AI. Make it run (better), make it stop and drive that beautiful beast. Helped a friend "flock" a dash a couple years ago and it wasn't too bad. Not sure if it would fit the aesthetic of the car properly but it's an option.
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Mar 16, 2022 15:18
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Looking at the dash I think this will be much easier to fix than I initially thought.  You can see the chrome trim here that borders the dash pad, basically there are a few screws and some clips that hold those pieces on and in turn those pieces hold on the pad itself. I just have to find the correct material for it and luckily I found a company that makes reproduction 1955 interior fabrics and sells it by the yard. So I should be able to get the right stuff to fix that hole in the lower rear bench as well as the pad material. The end result might not be perfect but good enough would work for me, an amateur restoration is better than never finishing the thing.
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Mar 17, 2022 01:18
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Ground floor! These cars are awesome. Paging LobsterBoyX.
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Mar 17, 2022 01:58
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That’s a cool huge rear end car. Looking forward to this thread! MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Mar 18, 2022 |
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Mar 17, 2022 21:18
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Mr Fish posted:Looking at the dash I think this will be much easier to fix than I initially thought. Yeah, even from the original pictures, the dash pad removal didn't look like a "whole dashboard out" undertaking, like it is on some cars. Hopefully that is actually the case and you can quickly re-upholster it with car playmats.
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Mar 17, 2022 23:51
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Bought the very first parts for the car. A set of 1960 Imperial wheel covers that’ll go on the stock steelies with wide whitewalls. Not in great shape but good enough for a driver, plus 58$ for the set delivered doesn’t hurt either.  This was probably not much different price wise than if you went in the dealer and bought them in 60 Mr Fish fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Mar 18, 2022 |
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Mar 18, 2022 13:31
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Picked up this big heavy air jack that will hopefully lift my big heavy Imperial. Should make life a lot easier in the garage with the older stuff though probably be useless on the corvettes. 
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Mar 22, 2022 00:34
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These finally showed up today. The guy who sent them apparently got an F in packaging class. And after a little cleaning up they don’t look half bad.  There is a little damage here and there but so is there on the car, they should fit the general vibe nicely. The next thing is probably going to be getting to the brake stuff or perhaps the fuel tank replacement.
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Mar 26, 2022 01:07
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Those cleaned up real nice, just need to redo the black paint inside the fins and they'll really pop. ooh, maybe redo the black in red?
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Mar 27, 2022 16:57
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Red is an option. I don’t know exactly what I’ll do to them yet. They may go back to black in the inset bits, I might just leave them alone. Of course maybe some color would make them pop. Part of me wants to do the exterior in only black and chrome to keep the restrained vibe going.
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Mar 27, 2022 21:57
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Awesome car, I'm excited to see where you go with it. If you want to do an overdrive transmission, the 727 Torqueflite 3-speed automatic was eventually developed into versions with overdrive and lockup torque converters. I always wanted to get a C-body Mopar, and swap out the 3-speed for something like a 46RH (later version of the Torqueflite) out of a rwd Ram pickup. The 46RH has hydraulic control of the overdrive engagement and torque converter lockup, and you can get kits to swap a newer transmission into an older vehicle and retain the overdrive and lockup functions (for example, https://transmissioncenter.net/shop/patc-727-to-518-46rh-conversion-kit-click-here-for-727-to-46rh-swap-wiring-diagram/) I don't know much about early Hemi's, though, so I don't know how hard it'd be to get a later Torqueflite to bolt up.
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Mar 28, 2022 21:10
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boxen posted:I always wanted to get a C-body Mopar Man I love C and D body Mopars, this whole thing started as a fixation I have had for years on the fuselage styles C bodies. Somehow that morphed into “If I’m going to get a big rear end Chrysler if may as well be the the classiest big rear end Chrysler”. So an Imperial it was, which lets be honest limited good examples quite a bit. So I broadened things to 55-73 and only running examples of those (I’m just not a huge fan of the 5th gen 74 and 75 cars). And well this guy here was the lucky victim. As far as transmission options go the only thing I am dead set on is finding a way to keep the stock shifter. It’s so weird and unique and I feel like the dash would look naked without it. Now this probably limits me transmission wise to either other 2 speeds that have more aftermarket support (powerglide) or it means I’d have to use some kind of electronically controlled transmission and if I am going to go modern I am going to go really modern and cram an 8hp70 in it. If a glide then the obvious answer is to get a gm adapter which are widely available and relatively cheap and bolt it up throw on a GV od and go. This involves some fuckery like figuring out how to make park work as powerflites do not have park and instead rely on a large drum brake on the tail shaft for that. It also means using a modern axle with a parking brake provision (which I already have). Probably other thing I didn’t think of off the too of my head too. If an 8hp70 then things are a little more complex but hey 8 gears, a ratio for all occasions. I could likely use a 727 torqueflite adapter to get it mated to the early hemi with some finagling. There are ways to take care of the electronic aspects which aren’t cheap but are available. It would still necessitate an axle swap and almost definitely some cutting. Then there is rigging up a challenger or charger shifter in the dash to control it all and mating that to the stock lever. Both of those are going to be a lot of work and down time and since GV won’t make me an od that will fit the PF 2 speed I’ll just drive it stock for now. Mr Fish fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Mar 29, 2022 |
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Mar 29, 2022 14:10
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I had about the same opinion, mid 50's to early 70's, not really a fan of anything later. A few years ago I went to go look at a okay 1970 300 coupe, it had a little rust but looked decent and had a lot of options. Thought hard about it but didn't bite, still kicking myself a little for that. My current obsession is a 1965 300, that's the first year of the "standardized" C-body and you can get suspension and steering parts from them from Firmfeel, which is fairly local to me. (Fun fact: in the music video for "Love Shack" by the B-52's, the Chrysler convertible they're driving is a 1965 300) Like you said, any swap you do is going to involve some surgery. Even what I mentioned with a newer-model Torqueflite, if I put one of those into a car with a 440 (which is what I'd want in a car that size), I'd need to cut off the bellhousing and install a bolt-on one for the B/RB bellhousing pattern, the newer Torqueflite only had the small block pattern. If you're not afraid of the electronics, yeah that opens up many more late-model options. If you figure it out, it will be interesting to read about. I know some of the newer fuel injection retrofit kits (maybe Megasquirt stuff too) can control some elements of the electronic transmissions, but I don't know how much. Edit: Also, you might be aware already but there are addon-on overdrives for a variety of transmissions from companies like Gearvendors. Supposedly a reasonably simple install, although you need to shorten the driveshaft.
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Mar 29, 2022 23:05
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Mr Fish posted:As far as transmission options go the only thing I am dead set on is finding a way to keep the stock shifter. It’s so weird and unique and I feel like the dash would look naked without it. Now this probably limits me transmission wise to either other 2 speeds that have more aftermarket support (powerglide) or it means I’d have to use some kind of electronically controlled transmission and if I am going to go modern I am going to go really modern and cram an 8hp70 in it. is there no way to mount a cable onto the back of the mechanism in the dash, and run that to whatever cable-operated trans you want (such as a TF727)? sure the detent positions might not line up with the markings on the dash, but that seems like a minor inconvenience boxen posted:Also, you might be aware already but there are addon-on overdrives for a variety of transmissions from companies like Gearvendors. Supposedly a reasonably simple install, although you need to shorten the driveshaft. Mr Fish posted:If a glide then the obvious answer is to get a gm adapter which are widely available and relatively cheap and bolt it up throw on a GV od and go.
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Mar 30, 2022 08:17
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What a great project. I've had many Mopars over the years, oldest being a '65 Fury. I would keep it completely stock, fix the interior & body & drive the hell out of it.
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Apr 11, 2022 12:48
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I'm in. I want to see this thing cruise!
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Apr 18, 2022 23:00
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