The seats are done!





The new seats have been in the Imperial for a few weeks. I simply haven't had time to post anything about it.

I really like the front seats. The edge of the driver's seat bottom looks a little funky but it doesn't bother me. Those head rests are molded plastic/rubber and are a bit shinier than the seat fabric. I asked the upholsterer to eliminate the stitching between the buttons. I didn't care for that and this is NOT a 100 point restoration.

The rear seats turned out well but look a bit deflated. I'm thinking about having her redo them. She told me the rear seat was built differently than the front. It only looked like a floating cushion due to the stitching. Even the buttons were different.
I really wish they had not dug out the nasty seat belts. I'll have to do something about those things. They're crusty and the metal bits are rusty.

I must say that they're incredibly nice when you're driving. I put just under 100 miles on the car in an afternoon and it really is like taking the recliner out for a spin.

i'm going out to work on my 61' Imperial LeBaron South Hampton, BLACK!! 4 dr hardtop--saved from the crusher!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/d_schaefer/6101637635/

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Any progress on the Imp?

The Imp has a new gas tank and sending unit now.

I really need to stop fiddling with it and put the hot rod back together.

My fury would be a middleweight in comparison, but it is properly pressurized

Nice project car I like the room in the back seat you can save some money on the Tour by sleepin in the back seat and those ankle harness brings a new meaning to hang on
DanH

Time for a minor update.

I've replaced a window regulator and have the motor to fix the passenger front window. That should have all 4 working properly. The passengers vent window works on occasion. The drivers vent window has a working motor but the glass doesn't move.

I put a little tune on it last weekend using a vacuum gauge. Tonight, after 172 miles of combined city and highway driving, the car averaged 13.6 mpg. That's up from the 9.9 mpg it was doing before the tune.

With luck, this beast will be making the Long Haul on the Hot Rod Power Tour.

It's time to start working on the Imperial again. The Power Tour isn't far away and there's a lot of stuff to be done.

I stuffed a set of 255/70-15 General Grabber HTS tires on it at work today. While I was under it, I checked out the suspension. The idler arm is shot as is most of the rubber but the joints are okay. I'll order a full rebuild kit from ESPO anyway.
Andrewh and I will put in some time after work on Saturday. We'll address some of the electrical issues and see what else we have time to do.

Things should start happening soon.

Hurry up and start transferring things off the Hotrod too!

The instrument panel is out of the car. The fuel gauge wasn't working. I now suspect it was a dead low fuel relay.
The cluster was nasty and needed a good cleaning anyway.
While it's out, I'll clean up the dash pad as best I can. It's been attacked with Simple Green and a scrub brush but it's still not clean.

Since the dash was out I picked up a new upper speedometer cable and new dash speakers.

Do you think there have been any advances in speaker design over the last 40 years?




This afternoon, I broke out the bumper stretcher and attacked the front bumper. The upper bar was bent down when I got the car. That pushed the center section of the grille down and made the headlight doors drag. When it came time for headlights I had to get out of the car and help them open.
After loosening the grille screws I ran straps around the bumper about a foot off center on each side. Then I hooked them on the engine hoist and gave it a mighty tug. While the bumper was higher than it should be, I beat the old bends relatively straight. When I removed the tension the bumper was right back where it should be. It's not perfect and the grille is still a bit low but everything lines up better. The headlight doors now work properly and don't drag.

Here's a quickie pic of the front bumper. You can look at the pic in my previous post for a before and after.




The last thing I did tonight was remove the rest of the vinyl roof. The old dead adhesive had a death grip on the roof but the DA running 80 grit made short work of it.
After stripping the roof there was plenty of bare metal. That just won't do in our humid climate so I broke out the Rustoleum and a 4" paint roller.

Yes, I painted the roof with a roller. What's it going to do? Make the roof look bad? There was only a a few inches of vinyl on each side of the roof and a ton of surface rust running down the middle.

A bonus was finding a new way to kill skeeters. All you have to do is roll some paint on your car at dusk and the skeeters all flock to it. Sadly, for them anyway, they get stuck in the paint. I'll be able to pick them out at my leisure tomorrow.
Chances are I'll put a second coat on the roof when I get home from work.

That's not a ton of work but it was enough for one day. The Imperial is slowly moving towards being a nice car again.

It sounds like you're having a great time building the Imp. Glad to see the progress, keep it up!

That bumper straightened out nice!

Thanks.
It doesn't look quite as nice in the daytime. The center is a bit high and there's a dip above the driver's headlight.
Still, it's not bad for a 20 minute hack job.

Did you know that a 1972 Imperial front bumper laughs at a body hammer?

There are now a bunch of little tap marks on the back edge of the bumper but it did the trick. I wasn't willing to beat it mercilessly with a BFH.

With luck I'll be able to test those tires again this weekend.
I had the instrument panel out of the car to fix the gauges. I'll try to have everything installed again this weekend.

I've had the 72 Imperial torn apart for a little while.

The last time I spoke of the car, I'd put new tires on it. The 255/70-15 look much better under the car than the 235/75-15. It's got much less of that pig on stilts look. I also put a few turns on the torsion bars to get the nose off the ground.
This thing had a problem with intermittent oil pressure and the gas gauge didn't work. Andrewh and I tore the cluster out to fix the gauge and do a little clean up work.
My clock was dead so it went to Clockworks (www.clockwks.com) for a rebuild. $62 later it was looking (and working) good.
I tore down the cluster to attack it with a toothbrush and cleaner. While it was open, I painted the gauge needles with Testors Florescent Orange paint.
The speedo cable would make noise every now and then so I stripped the cable and lubed it with some white lithium grease.
This weekend started out with Andrewh coming over so I could press in some new lower control arm bushings. Once that was done, we attacked the Imp.
The oil pressure thing was really bothering me so I pulled the pump. Sure enough, it was toast. It took most of the day to track down another pump and stuff it in there. Once in, the oil pressure problem was cured.
While I was messing with that, Andy ran an 8 gauge bypass from the alternator to the starter relay and then on to the battery while leaving the factory wiring intact.
Once those things were done, I pulled the driver's door panel to fix the outside handle and Andy ran a relay to guarantee the ballast resistor and voltage regulator saw true charging system current. The factory harness had more than 1 volt drop to the regulator and that could cause the system to over charge.
Sunday I had to fight the lawn monster and a heavy lack of motivation. Making up my mind that I would at least install the rebuilt clock, I went outside. The clock is in, the cluster is installed properly, the radio is back in, and the speedo is connected. That last bit was by far the most difficult despite having the cluster loose enough to move around.

I ordered a reman brake booster, master cylinder, all three brake hoses, and a new lower radiator hose. With luck, it will all be here for next weekend. My reman idler arm should be here as well. Once I get that stuff installed, I should be good to go mechanically and electrically.

If lady luck is smiling on me, I might be able to do something about air conditioning in May. It sure would be nice to have the life support working during a 2600 mile road trip in June.

Everything's back in the car. Now the temp gauge doesn't work and my freshly repaired clock died. I'll have to send it back.
The car runs and drives nicely. It needs shocks badly. I'm chasing the car on curves in the highway, especially when they have bumps. I have a line on a set that I plan on installing Saturday.
The valve covers were leaking. One head had a bolt hole drilled and tapped oversize and into a water passage. That was the first really hacked thing I found on the car.

The A/C system had a wee bit of pressure in it. A vacuum test showed no leaks. I'll draw out the oil and recharge the system. With a little luck it just might blow cold. The heater core leaks so it will remain bypassed for now.

I found the transmission fluid leak and hope it is now contained.

The car is coming together nicely. I'm hoping it will be 100% on the Power Tour.