Weight blocks in'66 Imperial Convertible

tommya · Mar 5, 2021

3175375 said:
View attachment 443454
this? If it is, then it must have some height to it, as it doesn’t look that large...

Here's a pic I took of the suspension. I'm taking before and after pics and you can see the block in the background. It's about 5" high and extends about 5" over the headlight surround. Easily 45 pounds.

marko · Mar 5, 2021

detmatt said:
Are you sure Mark? I’m still kind of new to this generation of Imperials but I’ve never seen nor heard of their use. Now I’m going straight to my shop to look.

this is in regard to my early build 64 imp convert
look inside the front wheel well towards the front of the car
there is a bulkhead panel that covers them up in the front fender ends.
usually covered with road crud.
you have to remove this panel if you are replacing the trim on the front fender ends - and you cant get to the nuts that hold the fender end trim on unless you remove the cannister.
i seem to recall having to take the front wheel off but it was a loooong time ago that i did this

Zymurgy · Mar 6, 2021

Learn something new all the time. I presume that when the unibody/stub frame came into existence these weights were no longer used.

marty mopar · Mar 13, 2021

Here they are in all their glory....the ballast blocks. Perfect use of the word ballast for a land yacht. "Blow the ballast the captain shouted" and "run for your lives". I'll send these to anyone that needs them as long as it goes next day air and you pay the 300.00 shipping charge for the pair.
When I got these along with a crapload of other Imperial parts I asked the guy offloading them to me what it was.
And when he told me I almost freaked out. Really? Add weight to a car that is nearly 43 billion kilos? What the F?
Also can you guess what the manufacturer of these things was thinking when they got the plans for these?

These 2 relics have got to be the strangest parts I have ever acquired. I have 37,000 part numbers in stock and these take 1st prize.