1969 Imperial progress thread

[commando1]

Nice work. I have been working on the underside of my Fury for months, dreaming that it will look like this some day soon!

If you haven't done so yet, I highly urge you to spend an evening and read his entire thread. Anybody not doing so will miss 99% of the blood, sweat, and tears he has put in so far.

 

[vdk2010]

Another batch of freshly plated parts are in

After Laser paint and rust removal, all the interior trim parts are freshly zinc plated now and ready for black paint.
And with the repro fiberglass side trim panels from ABC Moparts, the bigger rear Window I bought from Wyatt and a nice set of stainless trim I bought from @Pontiac Man , I now have all the parts I need for the Vinylroof deletion!

Next to the set of freshly Revulcanized Torsion Bar Brackets I've got back from Then&Now, ...

... I now also have a good set of metal parts to maybe cast my own Poly mounts. I'm not sure yet if that's necessary...

Since it's mandatory in Germany to have parking lights separate from the turn signals, I had to use the parking light sockets build into the H4 conversion lights I'm gonna use anyway. No big deal, but I had to drill holes into the Headlight Buckets for them to pass through.
Because I didn't want to do that to my original buckets, I bought new repros from OER for that, drilled the holes and got them zinc plated again.

The new Idler Pulley I bought did not come with the mounting hardware and the special bolt were nowhere to be found, so I cut up the old idler pulley to get the original hardware from it.

These were then sandblasted and zinc plated...

The upper metal parts of the door panels were dry ice blasted to get the old glue off, then got the immersion paint and rust removal treatment and are now zinc plated and ready to get bolted back onto the new door panels I made.

 

[vdk2010]

Since my first attempt to rebuild my headlight door motor failed because it shorted out internally, I took it back apart and since I never did that before, I cleaned the parts again and now zinc and nickel plated all the metal parts. Next I will rebuild the motor again... Hopefully successful this time!

Some Metal reinforcements strips from the kick panel carpet...

One more ashtray, black zinc plated, and the retaining tabs nickel plated...

Some parts from the spring seat recliner tube thingy...

Seat back hooks, black zinc plated...

Brake and exhaust hanger parts...

And more dash clock parts from a nice, working clock off my donor Imperial which were a little bit rusty...

 

[vdk2010]

And a bunch of additional bolts, parts and doodads.

 

[vdk2010]

Oh, I almost forgot the Radio...

I'm goint to hide a modern Retro Sound Radio in the housing of the original Radio. To do so, I gutted my original Radio, took all the metal parts, sandblasted them and had them black zinc plated.
More on this project later...

 

[Ripinator]

Jacky Kebab. Finally.

View attachment 523605View attachment 523606View attachment 523607View attachment 523608View attachment 523609View attachment 523610View attachment 523611View attachment 523612View attachment 523613View attachment 523614

Great googamooga! I guess when yer done putting it all back together Julian, you'll hafta park it in yer bedroom and not drive it. I know that is what I would do. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. . .

 

[330dTA]

First class German White Oak parquet is so befitting as a background to all those parts. Astonishing work!

 

[marty mopar]

I just guessing here but you haven't taken all those billions of fasteners (nuts, bolts, washers, clips, springs, screws, etc.) and poured them
into a huge bucket. Then later you will try to find what you need by digging and swearing will you?

 

[patrick66]

Julian, I continue to admire your dedication to extreme detail and the depth of disassembly to build what may be the finest C-body restoration of all time. Indeed, one of the best Mopars, period, anywhere!

 

[vdk2010]

Great googamooga! I guess when yer done putting it all back together Julian, you'll hafta park it in yer bedroom and not drive it. I know that is what I would do. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. . .

I hear that often, but no, I will drive it as it should be driven! *hopefully* ;)

And, thanks!!

 

[vdk2010]

I just guessing here but you haven't taken all those billions of fasteners (nuts, bolts, washers, clips, springs, screws, etc.) and poured them
into a huge bucket. Then later you will try to find what you need by digging and swearing will you?

No no no, everything is well packed in individual plastic bags and labeled!

In addition to that, I have over 25k photos of everything as a dokumentary!

Nontheless, I often find details I need but have not photographed... ;)

 

[marty mopar]

hopefully you have backed up the photos in case your computer explodes due to it having so many pictures in it!


25K: that's just a good start!

 

[mallex]

If you haven't done so yet, I highly urge you to spend an evening and read his entire thread. Anybody not doing so will miss 99% of the blood, sweat, and tears he has put in so far.

Oh, I have. Twice. It is just incredible what he has accomplished and the quality of the work. This entire web sight is an incredible resource. I am so glad I found it.

 

[vdk2010]

hopefully you have backed up the photos in case your computer explodes due to it having so many pictures in it!


25K: that's just a good start!

Of course, it's all in the Cloud and in addition to that, I backup everything monthly to a harddrive stored away from home. ;)
I learned to make backups the hard way when losing all my photos from my youth, first cars etc. in a hard drive crash years ago...

Indeed, >25.000 pictures of the disassembly and assembly so far is a good start, but I will probably double that till the car is done.

 

[330dTA]

You should write a book on this rebuild process, really.

 

[vdk2010]

You should write a book on this rebuild process, really.

I don't think that would be an interesting book to "read" since it's mostly a visual thing seeing all the shiny, rebuilt parts.
But maybe I'm gonna make some kind of documentary picture book when I'm done, just for me.
I could take such book to car shows for example, for others interested in seeing some pictures of the process that led to the finished product to see.

But your post was mainly a compliment, I get that, and I thank you for that!

 

[marty mopar]

What I always find amazing is that people that live across the other side of the world can take on projects such as yours.

Just dealing with buying parts has got to be a nightmare as the transportation costs are insane! I know as I send parts
every week and have been for 40 years. A one once nameplate in a tiny box goes by air and can be 40-50 dollars. Years
ago you could send that by boat but no more.

And of course just seeing your level of detail is awesome plus your pictures are top notch! I've always loved the 1969 Imperials
and it was too bad they dropped the convertible from that line in 1968. The 1969 in convertible form would have been lovely.

 

[vdk2010]

What I always find amazing is that people that live across the other side of the world can take on projects such as yours.

Just dealing with buying parts has got to be a nightmare as the transportation costs are insane! I know as I send parts
every week and have been for 40 years. A one once nameplate in a tiny box goes by air and can be 40-50 dollars. Years
ago you could send that by boat but no more.

Prices for transportation are increasing constantly, yes, but even more are the taxes and import fees. I can easily add 45-50% to every shipment until I have it in my hands.

And of course just seeing your level of detail is awesome plus your pictures are top notch!

Thanks Marty,! I appreciate that I'm doing my best, not only to build a nice car, but also to document everything and "hopefully" make it interesting for you all to follow along the progress!

I've always loved the 1969 Imperials
and it was too bad they dropped the convertible from that line in 1968. The 1969 in convertible form would have been lovely.

That's the only thing from my bucket list that did not worked out. I always wanted a convertible more then a hardtop, but in the end I had to choose between the 69 Imperial front and rear that I love so much and to have a convertible. Obviously, the Imperial won ;)

 

[sixpkrt]

I have over 25k photos of everything as a dokumentary!

You would have to have the memory of an elephant if you didn't do that. Unbelievable detail on everything.

 

[vdk2010]

You would have to have the memory of an elephant if you didn't do that. Unbelievable detail on everything.

I definitely do NOT have that ;) So, yes, the pictures do help!