1972 Imperial Revival Thread

The_Eagles’_Nest

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I will be reviving my Imperial this spring, but I am gathering parts and doing small things this winter to help me stay occupied. I am making this my progress thread if anyone wants to follow along.

For those who do not know I went to Ohio and picked up this Imperial out of an old car dealership. It was originally owned by a man in Michigan. He is the owner of a plastic manufacturing plant that makes many reproduction Mopar parts.

It was advertised as a barn find of course. These are the ad pictures.

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Unfortunately the seller was not very helpful, always making negative comments about each attempt to load it on the dolly. After a break to get two tires mounted and balanced then reinstalled and eat lunch we finally loaded up and got the driveshaft disconnected. Here she is loaded up after 8 hours of messing around.

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Always did like those green interiors. Car looks pretty good.
 
All of a sudden the front side markers came back to life. With some light bulb replacements the parking lamps started working. The bottom bulbs are stubborn and will not work. A test light shows there is 12v at the socket but the socket must be too corroded for a good connection.

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I cleaned the rocker assemblies and pushrods then cleaned out the engine. There was a lot of dirt and debris. I was missing a rocker shaft bolt and spacer. 440source was super handy and I was able to reuse everything.

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I was able to Frankenstein a carburetor together well enough out of 3 carburetors to know that I have everything I need for a correct 4160. This is the result. I will be sending it out to Scott Smith at Harm’s Auto in May of 2023.

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Murray Park has been a huge help. I got some parking lamps from him and I was able to say the front end lighting is 90% there. I still need to diagnose the headlamp doors not closing when the switch is turned off.

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I may or may not replace the valve covers, but I am working on getting the top end of the 440 back together. I want to do a compression test and a leak down test in the spring.

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She’s back together after who knows how long and turned over for the first time in almost 20 years. I will get her ready to fire up!

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Before and after…

I am waiting for the carburetor rebuild kit, NOS muffler and NOS tailpipe to show up.

Next pay day I will be getting new belts and ordering tires for the front. Then it is really just minor bits and pieces that I need to order.

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That´s cool also, just thought it looks very crispy at the edge
 
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