Hi, Kenyon;
Can you forward this to the list - it bounced....
Dick Benjamin
Sent: Friday, July 06, 2007 8:55 PM
Subject: Imperial in the water
I've been lurking quietly for months now, because
we've been on various
family outings and car tours, and I haven't really
had time to participate
in the IML to the extent that I did over most of the
last 11 years since it
started. I may in fact be one of the oldest (and
longest time members!)
still on the list.
ANYway, on one of our old car tours (with the
Packard club in our 56
Patrician), we took a tour of a wooden boat facility
on Lake Tahoe, CA.
Most of the boats were beautiful old Chris-Crafts or
the like, many with
Chrysler or Packard engines, but one boat in
particular caught my eye. I
asked about it, and was told the following story:
In 1957, a wealthy family on Lake Tahoe (aren't they
all?) bought a new
Imperial Convertible for their son, who was
graduating from High School, and
of course needed a reliable car to drive to college.
As 18 years olds were
the same 50 years ago as they are today, he promptly
took it out and ran it
into a tree.
The family had the car towed to a repair shop, where
it was pronounced
unrepairable. Sooo, since they were thinking about
having a new boat built
for them at that time, they decided that the remains
of the Imperial could
be used in part to build the boat. So what you see
here is a 1957 Imperial
Convertible BOAT! Power is still provided by the 392
Hemi (I saw it but
could not get a picture - it's in the engine hatch
in the "trunk"), and has
as much of the interior and dash as could be saved.
It is rumored to be the fastest boat on the lake!
The interior is the original, the top still works
(and has to be put down to
enter the boat, as the doors don't open any more),
the power windows still
work, as do all the other standard accessories for a
1957 Imperial
Convertible. This was a real knockout, and I hope
to see it on the lake
next time we get up there.
The links to the pictures follow:
Yes, I know I mis-spelled Boat as "Boad" on the rear
seat URL, and I've
reversed the Left and Right front views, (my
dyslexia creeping in again),
but those are the correct URLs as written above.
I hope you will take the time to "click on" those
URLs- you'll enjoy the
pictures, I think.
If one of the Webmonsters or whatever we call them
these days want to post
them on the IML site - I'll be happy to see them
there!
Dick Benjamin
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