well well good things take time I guess. I joined the fcbo board back in 2015 after a local car show where I came across a 70 300. That enormous size, two doors and hidden headlights got me. I didn´t know much about those big boats but soon I learned that there´s a die hard community and I must say this board is one of the nicest, most knowledgeable and most helpful car forum I´ve ever been to. It didn´t take long to learn more about these cars and I found my favorite of the all was the 1970 Sport Fury. 2nd best the 72/73 Imperial. Way different, focussed on luxury but man what a front end that is. In fact I like it even more than the 70 Sport Fury. BUT I´m picky about colors and trim more than about engine specs. So anybody got a 70 Sport Fury in FK3 burnt orange with PH23 roofline, no vinyl top and orange/black interior for sale? Of course not and even after expanding to different colors .. nothing. Well what about 72/73 Imperials that are not brown/gold/green/white/black..? Took me 5 years to find a red 73 Imperial in great condition but the owner was not really willing to part with it. In fact he contacted me on a classified because I more or less described his car and he was curious. Over the years it´s fair to say we became friends, he collects Imperials and owns / owned almost every model from 1959 up to 73 plus 81-83 cars as well. Finally this spring he let it go ( probably tired of me constantly begging 
)
Now to the car. Many Imperial fans will know this picture since it shows quite fast in the Google picture search
yes it is THIS car (check the license plate if in doubt) these pictures in the dry field were taken 2012ish. And it´s a perfect sibling to @DocMcNeedy / @Moseman 1972 Lil Red.
So the story of this car goes as follows.
Scheduled production date on the fender tag is 8/28/1972 so quite an early car. It is nicely optioned with H53 AutoTempII, leather bucket seats, tilt telescope steering wheel and 5 speaker radio.
First documents I have are dated 6/29/1973 when the car was sold quote original retail purchaserwith already 7.100 miles on it.
Was it a dealer demonstrator? According to the broadcast sheet it was not since @69CoronetRT stated in another thread that this would have been indicated with a Y13 code.
It´ll remain a mystery, my best guess is that a dealership owner bought the car and used it 10 months before he sold it. From that point on it´s been documented. Mrs. Thompson kept the car until 1978 and then sold it to a repair shop owner north of Portland. He drove the car occasionally and finally put it in dry storage in 1985. He died around 2008ish and it took his son another 2 years to do an estate sale where the car sold to my friend south of Portland. He really did a lot to bring this gem back to former glory, new paint job, new fiberglass plug and vinyl, new rear bumper sold by @SGT FURY 10 years ago ( the Imperial world is small isn´t it?) and lots of interior work and also a good portion of work in the engine bay. But he is more a wrencher and collector than a driver so the car moved just a couple of 100 miles since 2010. Now it starts its new life after basically sitting for 38 years.
Touchdown in Germany. Now what´s on the to do list? Unfortunately freeze plugs are leaky and that is an engine out job. I knew that before I bought it and I´m willing to go that way in order to make the car perfect. Now after first inspection from underneath idler arm and pitman arm are shot, not only bushings but also the ball joints. The steering linkage is Imperial only and the idler arm is made out of unobtainium but fcbo community strikes again, thanks to @vdk2010 @Boydsdodge and @saforwardlook I´m pretty confident that there will be a solution to this issue.
I´ll share my progress on the car in this thread, finally not a wannabe c body owner any more..
)Now to the car. Many Imperial fans will know this picture since it shows quite fast in the Google picture search
yes it is THIS car (check the license plate if in doubt) these pictures in the dry field were taken 2012ish. And it´s a perfect sibling to @DocMcNeedy / @Moseman 1972 Lil Red.
So the story of this car goes as follows.
Scheduled production date on the fender tag is 8/28/1972 so quite an early car. It is nicely optioned with H53 AutoTempII, leather bucket seats, tilt telescope steering wheel and 5 speaker radio.
First documents I have are dated 6/29/1973 when the car was sold quote original retail purchaserwith already 7.100 miles on it.
Was it a dealer demonstrator? According to the broadcast sheet it was not since @69CoronetRT stated in another thread that this would have been indicated with a Y13 code.
It´ll remain a mystery, my best guess is that a dealership owner bought the car and used it 10 months before he sold it. From that point on it´s been documented. Mrs. Thompson kept the car until 1978 and then sold it to a repair shop owner north of Portland. He drove the car occasionally and finally put it in dry storage in 1985. He died around 2008ish and it took his son another 2 years to do an estate sale where the car sold to my friend south of Portland. He really did a lot to bring this gem back to former glory, new paint job, new fiberglass plug and vinyl, new rear bumper sold by @SGT FURY 10 years ago ( the Imperial world is small isn´t it?) and lots of interior work and also a good portion of work in the engine bay. But he is more a wrencher and collector than a driver so the car moved just a couple of 100 miles since 2010. Now it starts its new life after basically sitting for 38 years.
Touchdown in Germany. Now what´s on the to do list? Unfortunately freeze plugs are leaky and that is an engine out job. I knew that before I bought it and I´m willing to go that way in order to make the car perfect. Now after first inspection from underneath idler arm and pitman arm are shot, not only bushings but also the ball joints. The steering linkage is Imperial only and the idler arm is made out of unobtainium but fcbo community strikes again, thanks to @vdk2010 @Boydsdodge and @saforwardlook I´m pretty confident that there will be a solution to this issue.
I´ll share my progress on the car in this thread, finally not a wannabe c body owner any more..
