I have heard of similar differences for the 90's Imperials- body was a thicker metal then the other AC/AY's- in the case of interchangable body pannels (hood, fenders, etc), it appears that the parts were shaped out of the same machines/assembly line- they just sent a thicker sheet of metal through. Which makes sense- as why use the good material in the cheaper cars? That's a big thing I noticed about FWD Mopars- as the price goes up, so does the quality of the parts (not to say that the cheap stuff is bad- just not as good). My k-car was thin, rusted quickly, and was very hard to repair. A relatives Spirit was slightly better... my Dynasty even stronger.... and the Imperials I hear were even better then that. Guess that's yet an other example of how buyers got their money's worth when buying the Imperials- but interestingly, Chrysler never (?) pointed out this difference in material to consumers as a bragging/selling point. --- MNTwin1@xxxxxxx wrote: > In a message dated 5/12/2003 12:21:02 PM Pacific > Daylight Time, > mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: > > > After you have that Imperial for a while you may > loose all interest in > > Dodge Chargers. > > Aaron has a point here. A couple of weeks ago, I > made the trip to the not so > local salvage yard to retrieve a pair of swivel > seats, one from an Imperial > and the other from the same year New Yorker. Let me > tell you, they are > different! > > The seats from both are as heavy as boulders. The > Imperial seats are leather > and are in decent restorable condition. Once the > seats were out of the cars > I saw that each car had a center support bracket for > the seat track. The > support in the Chrysler is bolted to the floor pan. > The Imperial support is > welded. We had to cut both floors to get the > supports out (not a great loss > since there was a lot of rust in each car!) > > It was interesting to see the very definite > difference in the gauge of the > sheet metal. The New Yorker, which is unibody, has > a much thinner gauge > metal floor. The Imperial, body on frame > construction, was definitely > thicker. No wonder these cars weigh as much as they > do. I would have > thought the unibody car would have thicker gauge > steel. The boy at the > salvage yard was thoroughly impressed with the old > hulk of the Imperail. We > talked a lot about the car and its proper place in > history. Can't say I > converted him over, but it was a pleasure to provide > a little education to > the lad. > > So when Aaron states there is a reason an Imperial > is better.... here is one > piece of evidence! > > Happy motoring! > > Dale > 68 Crown Coupe > 60 New Yorkers (not quite Imperial, but nice!) > 71 New Yorker > 78 LeBaron T&C > 79 New Yorker > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com