This is my first car.
It's a 1981 Chrysler Imperial. Although they didn't put a single Chrysler logo on the car, It's still considered a Chrysler. The car was marketed simply, as "Imperial," as it was for a previous era for the nameplate. The above photo is how the car looked when I got it.
Mine has got a manilla cream exterior, with a cashmere Mark Cross leather interior. The exterior is in pretty good shape with a few dings and dents, but good glossy paint. The interior is in great shape with the exception of the two front seats. The drivers seat is in pretty bad shape, and torn up, while the passenger seat is now starting to tear at the seams. I'm going to have all the leather in the car reupholstered when I have the time and money, for now I'll stick with a couple of seat covers for the front seats.
I've got the original Cartier lead crystal hood ornament, as well as the crystal in the steering wheel, but the one's on the coach lamps are missing. This is very common because people like to steal them and sell them, because two tiny little crystals can sell in the range of $240 for both. I plan to buy a set when my wallet allows me to, but for now I can get a plastic set for a mere $20. I think I'll just get those and have a crystal set aside somewhere for the day that I get something else as a daily driver, and use this one as a weekend cruiser and show car.
Mechanically, the car is in fair shape. It's got about 100k miles now, givin that the odometer says about 70k, and the digital dashboard was once replaced. There's a sticker in the door jam, and I think I can make out that it says it was replaced at about 31k miles. Legally, it's only got 70k though, that's what the title says. Everything seems to operate on the car just fine, windows, seats etc, except for the power mirrors and the horn. Most likely a couple of fuses I need to replace, but I'll look into it. I've got a bit of work to do on the car before it's perfect. The carburetor is a piece of junk that was installed incorrectly, so it idles poor, stalls, sometimes doesn't start, etc. The choke doesn't work properly, so I'm going to just have a brand new Holley 2 barrel installed. The rear U-Joint also seems to be worn out because I hear rattling and you get that nice "THUD" when you put the car into gear. I also will need the transmission tuned up because it's got a bad leak at the pan, so I'll have a new deep sump pan installed. Take a look at the future plans page for more info on that.
Right now, a lot of the interior is in pieces and I'm in the process of installing a brand new stereo system and reconditioning all the leather. I hope to have it all cleaned up and put back together soon. Take a look at my other pages for my upgrades and future plans.
Page 1 - Overview
Page 2 - Installed Upgrades
Page 3 - Future Plans
Page 4 - Car is Sold
