bajajoaquin
Senior Member
Hi, all. I'm a new member here, with a new (to me, obviously) Imperial. It's a '67 Crown hardtop sedan. It's pretty original, but has some rust issues. Somehow, all you guys in rusty parts of the country have all the rust-free California cars, and I live in San Diego, but ended up with a Minnesota car. Go figure.
Anyway, I bought it as a driver, rather than a real restoration candidate. Immediate needs to address are the brakes, cold starts, the transmission shifting, muffler, and a "clunk" from the torsion bar mount.
I've purchased new rotors and pads, and have a few extra sets of pads from the previous owner. I also have three sets of Budd calipers (including the set on the car), and one has been sent off to be rebuilt. Since the driver's side caliper is leaking pretty badly, I'm not driving it (much) until the new calipers come in. I also have new shoes for the rear. Calipers should be back in another week, so I'm hoping to have the car back, safe for the road by Christmas.
Cold starts will be addressed by a good, old-fashioned tune-up. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor, points, coil and condenser will all go in, as well as the old ATF-in-the-oil trick for a noisy lifter, and new exhaust manifold gaskets. The carb is a non-stock, manual-choke model. I'll check float height when I'm in there, and generally try to get it to work as well as possible, but eventually, it's coming out for an electric choke model, probably an Edelbrock.
Once it's tuned up, or as part of that process, the kickdown linkage will get a little attention, and I'll put on a new muffler.
The previous owner said that the clunk is the attachment point of the driver's side torsion bar to the chassis. The bushing has worn, and when it's unloaded, it rattles a bit. I don't have a lift, so I haven't been able to confirm that, but we'll see. Another idea floated by the Imperial group is that a transmission mount (which needs to be replaced) could also make that noise.
At some point in the next month or so, I'll also do compression and leak-down to see where I am with the engine. It generally runs nice, but feels a bit soft. I have my fingers crossed that I've got a couple years of easy driving out of it before I need to pull it out and overhaul it.
Sorry about the length of my first post. Unfortunately, I don't have any really good-quality pictures to make up for it, just crappy cell-phone pics.
Anyway, I bought it as a driver, rather than a real restoration candidate. Immediate needs to address are the brakes, cold starts, the transmission shifting, muffler, and a "clunk" from the torsion bar mount.
I've purchased new rotors and pads, and have a few extra sets of pads from the previous owner. I also have three sets of Budd calipers (including the set on the car), and one has been sent off to be rebuilt. Since the driver's side caliper is leaking pretty badly, I'm not driving it (much) until the new calipers come in. I also have new shoes for the rear. Calipers should be back in another week, so I'm hoping to have the car back, safe for the road by Christmas.
Cold starts will be addressed by a good, old-fashioned tune-up. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor, points, coil and condenser will all go in, as well as the old ATF-in-the-oil trick for a noisy lifter, and new exhaust manifold gaskets. The carb is a non-stock, manual-choke model. I'll check float height when I'm in there, and generally try to get it to work as well as possible, but eventually, it's coming out for an electric choke model, probably an Edelbrock.
Once it's tuned up, or as part of that process, the kickdown linkage will get a little attention, and I'll put on a new muffler.
The previous owner said that the clunk is the attachment point of the driver's side torsion bar to the chassis. The bushing has worn, and when it's unloaded, it rattles a bit. I don't have a lift, so I haven't been able to confirm that, but we'll see. Another idea floated by the Imperial group is that a transmission mount (which needs to be replaced) could also make that noise.
At some point in the next month or so, I'll also do compression and leak-down to see where I am with the engine. It generally runs nice, but feels a bit soft. I have my fingers crossed that I've got a couple years of easy driving out of it before I need to pull it out and overhaul it.
Sorry about the length of my first post. Unfortunately, I don't have any really good-quality pictures to make up for it, just crappy cell-phone pics.
