For all you Imperial Lovers out there

[vonVeezelsnider]

Just Saw this Clip on Jay Leno's Website about his 1967 Imperial Crown Hardtop and how he came about owning it... Figured I'd share it with you guys in case anybody hasn't seen it. I think the video really captures why I like these 1960s Imperials better than the Cadillacs and even Lincolns of their day. My dad had a Chrysler Newport Hardtop Coupe of this era and he loved it.

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/video_...html?vid=218789

[CARBIZ]

[balthazar]

Sweet car. There was a '68 convert in the junkyard near me- one of 474 units. I do like the '67-68s out of all the post-fin Imps.

Jay made a mistake tho: "...cast-iron TorqueFlite...". TorqueFlite switched to an aluminum case for '60. Imperial could've been different --they didn't go unibody until '67 IIRC vs. '60 for all the other ChryCo's-- but there's no engineering reason to use 2 different case materials.

[balthazar]

Gonna piggyback another Leno vid on here- I so love everything he did to this car except 1 thing- there's a Chevy engine underhood. Otherwise- it embodies 85% of what I'm going for with my B-59. Enjoy, and lookit that SMOKE!

[Robert Hall]

That is a sweet car... one of my favorite vintages are the '69-73 Imperials (they shared a lot of their design w/ the Chryslers)... I love the huge fuselage styling..

Edited December 17, 2008 by moltar

[Intrepidation]

I love fuselage Mopars.

That Imperial is really nice too, amazingly clean. It's amazing that he bought 2 of everything.

Edited December 17, 2008 by Dodgefan

[cletus8269]

personally i like

dont know what he is saying but a decent clip

[gmpartsgirl]

What a car!! May not be the most elegant or beautiful design but man oh man what a statement for what Chrysler was. Jay's great, maybe he can help save us all from clunker laws.

[balthazar]

Tho I twice almost bought 2 different '70 Polara coupes with the SuperLight option, I cannot really get into the 'fuselage' MoPars; too bland... no character lines. They are appealingly massive, tho.

In this era- gimme a '68:

[vonVeezelsnider]

I was never a fan of the two doors in Fuselage form, but the 4-Doors were nice... However for the Imperial I liked every year from 55-68 then the styling really kinda lost me.

[ocnblu]

Some beautiful, truly aspirational vehicles in this thread. I couldn't post last night, or I would have.

[XP715]

I was never a fan of the two doors in Fuselage form, but the 4-Doors were nice

+1. Almost bought a '71 Imperial four door hardtop down in Connecticut a few years back, but it was pretty beat and its owner was truly one of the biggest retards I have ever met; he destroyed several pieces of the car right in front of me as he was showing me the car's features. I'd still like to find one that was better cared for some day, but that's a pretty tall order up here in New England where whatever didn't rust away and get scrapped was driven in demolition derbies by the local hicks.

[XP715]

I was never a fan of the two doors in Fuselage form, but the 4-Doors were nice

+1. Almost bought a '71 Imperial four door hardtop down in Connecticut a few years back, but it was pretty beat and its owner was truly one of the biggest retards I have ever met; he destroyed several pieces of the car right in front of me as he was showing me the car's features. I'd still like to find one that was better cared for some day, but that's a pretty tall order up here in New England where whatever didn't rust away and get scrapped was driven in demolition derbies by the local hicks.

[Intrepidation]

[Robert Hall]

Ahhh..that black 300 coupe is so hot.

Over in Glendale (AZ) behind an antique store, there is a fenced in lot with a variety of older cars, incl. a '60 Imperial...white 4dr ht, windows down... it looks solid, though the interior is trashed from the AZ sun and having the windows down..been there probably 10 years at least (I've seen it there since '98 IIRC).

[CARBIZ]

I was never a fan of the two doors in Fuselage form, but the 4-Doors were nice... However for the Imperial I liked every year from 55-68 then the styling really kinda lost me.

You too? My dad had a '66 300 4 door hardtop, then a '69. I always thought the 4 doors had the better roofline in the fuselage, but not in the pre-69s. My mother had a '67 Newport 4 door and a friend's family had a '68 Newport coupe: that body style looked better in the coupe, IMO.

If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would be scouring the mags and auctions looking for a nice '69 300 convertible or loaded 4 door hardtop. It is difficult finding them with the right equipment: vinyl bucket seats with floor console, like my dad's. So many of them were sold with the column shift and the split bench.

My 2nd lottery choice would be the '68 300, either in a convertible or coupe form.

My favorite Imperials are the later fuselage ('71 -'73).

The 300s had the nicest dashboards in the late '60s, IMO. The Imperials (as with all the high end GM products of the day) suffered from the fugliest looking wood MacTac. Even the New Yorker was ruined by the appearance of the fake, glued-on wood in '68 and newer.

If we jump into our time ships and go back to '69, one has to admire Chrysler's designers for their flat black, set back dash design with toggle switches and rollers - very Star Trek and very high tech for its time. Sadly, this design got more and more watered down through '70 and '71.

I was an unabashed MoPar guy (my first 3 vehicles were Dodges), until my '91 Caprice made me turn to the Dark Side.

[Robert Hall]

On the '69-71 fuselage cars, the 2dr rooflines always looked too small for the body, esp. on the Chryslers and Imperials. Massive hoods and decklids, relatively tiny roof. The Dodge Polara/Monaco was the best looking of the big coupes, IMHO, the Plymouths looked dowdy with their low rear wheel well cutline and slab sides, IMHO.

I esp. like the '70 Monaco 2dr ht...too bad Dodge didn't have an R/T version (Plymouth did have a Sport Fury GT those years).