Well, I was driving back home from the grocery store this afternoon when
I happened to look up and what did I see? To my surprise I saw a Meadow Green
1968 Crown 4 dr. coming at me from the opposite direction. I was
flabbergasted! I've NEVER seen another Imperial of any kind around here
(well, maybe some 80-81's), and to see one almost the same as my own '68
was even more amazing!
So, after I got turned around (I was in my '71 and turning around a '71
takes a lot of room), I chased the guy down and nearly gave him a heart
attack by the way I came up on him and started waving him over. We
stopped and talked about our cars and it was quite interesting. His
name is James and I told him about the IML, so maybe he'll join.
The Imperial was in good shape and had been repainted once in 1978. It
originally belonged to his father, who is 80, and he was sitting in the
front seat the whole time.
The curious thing was, there were a few details on his car that were
different than mine. For one thing, the grill, though it looked the
same at first glance, appeared to be much shallower than mine and there
were vertical ribs behind it that were quite visible. By that I mean,
on most 68s I've seen, the horizontal "slats," or bars, are fairly
wide-- maybe 2" deep from the front of the grille to the back, or
radiator side. Because they're so
deep, you can't really see any reinforcing vertical ribs behind that.
The grille
just appears to be a mass of horizontal lines. (Hope that makes
sense.) but the way this car looked, it was almost an egg crate
effect-- horizontal slats broken up by vertical ribs every 4 or 5
inches. I've never seen this before, but it appeared stock.
Also, the part of the grille that wraps around the cornering lamps (in
the leading edge of the front fenders; on a '67 these would be the
translucent plastic eagles). On all the 68s I've seen the front edges
of this
piece are straight and vertical (when viewed from the side). Well, on
this guy's car, the one on the R was straight up and down, but the one
of the L had a very slight bow in it, or curve, that followed the lines
of a '67 more. Again, this is hard to describe in words . . . pictures
would be better.
Anyway, just wondering if anyone else has seen such variation in
Imperials of this year.
And it sure is good to know there are at least 2 Imperials in this town!
Mark
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