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kevinpreston4

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Some folks here mentioned that they would like to see my 1957 Chrysler Imperial at some time, so here it is.

1957 Chrysler Imperial Crown model

392 Hemi engine
Completely original. Bad interior, but plenty there to recreate exactly.
Every part is on this car, including trim.
Worst parts are a few rust through areas at the bottom of fenders and two doors. Will be welded for repair.
Factory air conditioning.
Push button automatic
Power seat
Power windows
Power antenna
Rear window defogger
Straight body including bumpers
All lights and lenses

This was literally pulled out of a field and it was my second collector car. It has sat in my garage for 10 years and I had it towed to move it. As insane as this sounds, I have never completely sat in the car. Only reached in to steer and store things in it.

I may play around with it next summer, if I can get my '68 Charger running and moveable.
 
Great time capsule

Hard to belive you have had it ten years and never even sat in it! That is a LOT of car, plenty of storage. I remember reading about Chrysler and rust problems with the late 50's cars, it might have been something about the several 58 Furys used for the movie Christine. Good that this one stayed in the area there and avoided that fate. Sounds like it is a loaded car, there can't be many left. Will the motor turn? Since the body is good, once you rebuild the drivetrain, and brakes, suspension, etc... it will be a great ride!
Scott
 
I have seen one 1959

parked on the side of the road. And one 1957 convertible in a "selling museum" that they wanted $20k for. That is all I have seen since I saw it.

My inspiration was when my wife and I saw a 1964 Imperial in the parking lot of Home Depot, and talked with the owner. It was a car from the family, in black, and he showed us how even, on that model, the wing windows were even powered. A few months later, we had this. My deal with the guy is that I would pay his $1500 price, but he had to get it to my house, and he did. We pushed it into the garage and there it sat. I pushed it out once to wash off the dust and dirt, then pushed it back. That is all since we moved it last year to this house.

The motor will not turn, even with a breaker bar...but I did not try actually oil soaking the cylinders so that was not conclusive. However, something may have been broken inside and that is why the car was left. Or maybe the engine is frozen for some other reason.

I may know more next summer.
 
Imperials

Kevin,

Thanks for the photo of your 1957. A wonderful year for Imperial when it was still a separate nameplate from Chrysler.

I had a 1969 LeBaron Coupe' that was one of the best cars I ever owned. True, it was a New Yorker in heavy drag but still the Imperial techies created a wonderful interior, fine tuned the 440 cu engine and created the fabulous hide-a-way headlights.

The leather used for the interior was bullet proof, the crome was triple plated and it was the ONLY year of the sequential turn signal tailights.

However, the 1957's were, "just sensational," says Virgil Exner, Jr., "The most important thing about them was the fact that they were sculptured." There were nearly 38,000 sold in the calendar year just beating out Lincoln. Never again would Imperial sell anything like this huge number of cars. Check the history books.

Thanks for the memories!

Now lets get that baby up and running.
 
Didn't Mr. Drysdale drive an Imperial

Charlie you strike me as more of a 70's Fifth Avenue type driver with that sumptuous and pillowy velour fabric, I mean the car interior not your around the home outfits
 
Pillowy Velvet

Pete,

Gosh, Pillowy Velvet sounds like a performer I used to see in Atlanta in the 1970's. Tonight we present Miss Pillowy Velvet and her talents........

I have always been a brocade and leather person. All the crushed/shirred/trimmed velvet stuff was way to fluff for me! I didn't even like it in casket interiors. Part of my family was in the funeral business and I remember those interiors well.

The fake wood, ("plastique", as we used to call it), used in the interiors of high end GM cars was just awful. And the fabric choices in the 70's were pretty scary too. Like I said, it is tasteful brocade, damask and leather for this kid!

And, yes, the Drysdales did have Imperials. Usually 4 door LeBarons with a driver. Very deluxe.
 
More fun

Did you guys ever here of the "Mobile Director Option" on these cars?

On 1967/1968 Imperial COUPES only, which was odd, there was an option that included several amazing features.

The front passenger seat could swivel around 180 degrees to make a conference area facing the back seat. The center console pulled up and rotated, then opened up as a table. From a special compartment, a gooseneck lamp was removed, and plugged in. There were walnut accents provided to make it even more like an office.

This was based on a show car from 1966 which had a scaled up version of this, complete with phone, fax machine (wow, in 1966!) and a number of goodies that did not make it to production for obvious reasons. The sensation created at the car show got Chrysler to put this option up for two years.

Here is an amazing article. I thought record players in cars were amazing!

http://www.imperialclub.com/~imperialclub/Yr/1967/MobileDirector/1967/Amodt/
 
how ironic!

I just got a Motor Trend magazine in the mail today, and they have a new Chrysler Imperial on the cover (along with a totally cool looking Challenger)! It looks a little like a Rolls Royce, even has suicide doors, but has some styling cues off of the classic, like yours there. Both of these cars are going to be built on the LX platform that's seen such exceptional success in the 300C, and the Magnum. A real hemi is returning to the car too.

Ought to be a LOT better than those Aspen-based Imperials, or even those god-awful K-car based imperials that came out in the eighties!
 
Very rare Imperial Kevin! You just do not see those around much,even at car shows. A long road ahead for a restoration,but it will be a worthwhile project. I would try removing the plugs and soaking the cylinders. Might save you a few thousand dollars,if you do not need to rebuild the engine.

Thanks for sharing!
 
Well Charlie I guess I had you pegged all wrong then, you're more of a Renaissance man than I would have thought with all that leather and brocaide finery. What on earth got me to thinking it was velour and velvet I do not know.. LOL

Oh and Kevin, nice car, but I like the Cadillac better so just make sure it's clean and full of gas when I get down to California. I don't want to find a McFry lost behind the gas pedal!!!!
 
Thanks for the links.. I see the first one also mentions the rust factor. My grandparents lived up north, way north, in the heavy salt use area. They had a 1963, 66, and 68 300 four doors.. still fast!!! First car I ever saw the speedo buried.. my grandfather liked to haul A**. They kept the 68 for many years, well over 160K miles and the 440 still ran great, but the body had rotted out everywhere and was not safe anymore.. funny story on that car, my grandmother ran into the drive in window at the bank, pulled it right out of the building and only broke the front fender corner piece of fiberglass... what a tank!
Scott
 
Goatfarmer....

I don't know if you are interested in such things, but if you do have a slight interest, grab that engine!

There are places that make all sorts of parts for the 392. Finding a 426 Hemi would cost you too much, and a new crate hemi is 12K last I checked. A 392 is NOT a 426, but it is a wonderful motor from what I have heard.

One of the things I like about this car is its rarity. I have never seen one driving (that I can remember), I don't know what it sounds like, or what it will drive like. The mystery makes this more intriguing and fun.
 
1957 was Chrysler's best year. The most coveted model was the 300C convertible, but the Imperials are very nice also. I believe your model had those "gunsight" tailamps, although in 1958 they got even more impressive with partial chrome rings sticking out on either side.

As for the motor... you'll probably need to have it completely rebuilt. It's not all that difficult... once you have the space and the equipment. I have a '50 Plymouth with a seized motor. It's been parked for 10 years (I also have a '50 runner that I rebuilt), and I recently picked up a relatively cherry '50 motor, complete, that I could pop into the non-runner. I rebuilt the first one myself, first time I've ever done more than maintenance work on a motor. It was quite an experience. Took me a month and nearly changed my life.

I like Chrysler cars - their engineering always seemed to be superior to GM and Ford, even if the manufacturing sometimes fell short.
 
Suds...

The gunsight tailight were earlier in the 50s. Mine are through the fins like you described for the '58s. If I can get back there you can see. The 58s are very similar to the '57s. Different interior cloth patterns and different grille...in fact, the guy I bought it from thought it was a 1958.

I also have the FlightSweep Decklid for the trunk, which ninnies are always calling the "toilet seat". I did not like it at first, but now I do.

I rebuilt my Charger's 383 (had to disassemble it twice due to putting a bad main bearing in the first time), and have done a number of other engines, so I am not too nervous. However, it would be great if I "got away" with what I did on my 1961 Bonneville. That thing ran but smoked like a forest fire! After doing just the heads and running various oil "potions" through, I got it running really nice with no rebuild. The transmission leaked terribly, but I got a transmission shop that replaced the seals in it without having to do a whole transmission job. The car starts and drives really well.

Might be asking too much for a similar outcome on the Imperial, but might as well hope.

On the other hand, who knows, maybe there is major damage. An old guy had it, hope he didn't run it oil dry or something. We shall see.
 
The Forward Look

IIRC, the full-on Forward Look hit in 1957 Chrysler products. The 1956 models had foreshadowing by grafting fins onto older designs, and using similar side trim elements. I'm thinking primarily of the 1955 vs. 1956 Plymouth, and the 1956 Plymouth Fury.

I remember seeing Virgil Exner's post-Chrysler company office out on Woodward Ave. in Birmingham or maybe Bloomfield Hills when I was a teenager.

As far as automatic transmission shifter placement, I believe the only year for the shifter on the dash (to the right of the steering wheel) was 1955. Pushbuttons made their appearance in 1956. I have a clear time reference for this. In 1955 I was six years old. My uncle worked for Chrysler at Dodge Main in Hamtramck, and they had this event called "Family Day" where you could walk through the idled factory and see all the stuff. I had heard about the shifter on the dash in Chrysler products and was really eager to see one. (nobody I knew had one) I was crestfallen when we looked at the cars on display, which were the new models for 1956, and there were no dashboard shifters only those bftsplk pushbuttons.

As far as the Imperial which is the subject of this thread, I am surprised to see it has quad headlights. These were introduced on Plymouth, Dodge, and De Soto in 1958. (Don't remember Chrysler, once again knew no one who had one)
 
Now that you mention it Nurdlinger

I just noticed the quad headlights; I thought the quads were
the new distinctive addition on all of the "Big Three" maunufacturers for 1958. Which of course is not to say that
kps '57 was not the leader of the pack. As I recall Chrysler/
Dodge/Plymouth was several years ahead of the game with their roll down windows on the stationwagon tailgates. Love those little ornaments in the center of the headlight/fender trim
 
Kevin,I'll have to check it out.My interest's lean toward Pontiac,but I'm always on the lookout for the unusual.
My buddy had a 31 Ford street rod he built back in the early 60's,that had a 55 DeSoto Hemi up front.Huge engine,but he told me it was only like 330CI or something similar.

kennyGF
 
a '62 Imp

my late wife had a '62 Imperial 4dr. I had no place to store it but made sure it was a collector that bought it. Mom had a 59 300 4dr with the frequently tempramental pushbutton auto. Never knew when one of those solenoids would pop! Both were definitely 'tank' material!
 

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