1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham 2dr

[MjW]

Hi,
I'm new to this forum and thought I'd share some images of my recent purchase.
The car is a start point for a restoration that I'm hoping to complete within a couple of years. She needs work in several areas but starts and drives quite well.
The car is currently fitted with the moulding and pad for the St Regis roof, but the vinyl itself was shredded, and has now been mostly removed. I'm debating on whether to replace the vinyl or to remove the pad moulding and trims, and run it as a hardtop car (prepping the roof and painting body colour). As the rest of the car is almost completely original, would removing the vinyl harm future value, or make it easier to sell? I have the beauty rings for the road wheels once they've been cleaned up and fitted with different tyres (thin band whitewalls I'm thinking). The intention is to restore only the bits that need attention, and clean up/re-use as much of the original car as possible. It shows its age, but in my opinion it should do. It's not a new car, it's 46 years old, it's had a life and I want to retain some of that.
Anyway, here it is. What do you all think, replace the St Regis vinyl, or run it as a painted hardtop car?

 

[Mike Parker]

Pretty sweet. Put the roof back on

 

[Pete Kaczmarski]

I prefer the look of the padded vinyl top. It sets the car apart from others in that era.

 

[3C's & a D?]

SOLD - 1975 Imperial Lebaron Crown Coupe

Nice car! I'd have a difficult time making that decision. Here's one that has had the top removed. It may help you decide.

 

[MjW]

Thanks for all the replies. After seeing the images of the green one with the vinyl roof removed, I'm definitely going to be keeping/restoring mine. It's the rear windows that ruin the lines with the roof removed. If the bottom frame lined up with the door glass, it would be a harder choice, but that settles it for me. Thank you all. I'll post new pics when the roof (and leaky windscreen) has been sorted.

 

[Plymouth man]

I like it the way it is ,love that couch in the front that makes the car

 

[mopar preferred]

The green one was waiting for the new top material to come in, but was sold before that happened.
If you didn't replace the top, you would have to remove the window plug; I don't know what that would involve.
One thing you can do to make it yours is to hook up the rear Windows to open. The mechanism should be in there, it just was never intended to be used on the St. Regis top.

 

[MjW]

I like it the way it is ,love that couch in the front that makes the car

The interior was one of the selling points for me, it's just full-on 70s. As far as I know, there are only 2 of these in the UK, mine and an off-white one with red wheels. If anyone knows of any more in the UK, let me know, it would be great to get them all together at some point.