Quality of the 1957 Imperial

[RandalPark@xxxxxxx]

Bill,

Although it is obvious that you are very well educated in all things Chrysler, 
I would like to disagree with a couple of your points.

Cardboard panels in the trunk were common to all cars for many years, and 
actually are still used today. Although they may hide rusty panels, that was 
never their purpose.

I would say that the '57 models were amoung the finest engineered cars ever, it 
was the short cuts taken during the assembly that got them the bad press. The 
concepts were cutting edge, but the assembly plants were not equipped to handle 
so much change so quickly. The workers and the methods of assembly weren't yet 
up to speed with the level of accuracy needed to insure a tight fit and prevent 
leaks and misalignment of the new style body panels. 

Finally, corrosion issues could have been avoided with better planning and 
again, more attention to detail on the assembly line. It wasn't necessarily the 
fault of the engineers.

I must say that I am impressed with your level of knowledge about these cars. I 
think the main source of our disagreement is semantics.

Paul

In a message dated 11/11/2003 1:42:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
wwatson@xxxxxxxxx writes:

> 
> 
> 
> The 1957 Imperials (and all Mopar car lines) were poorly engineered and
> tooled.  Basically a rush job to get them into production.
> 
> The people on the assembly line took in on the chin for the 1957 models, but
> the problems existed for all plants, from Lynch Road to Newark to Los
> Angeles to Windsor.  Chrysler of Canada used different suppliers for many of
> their parts, yet they had the same quality problems as the American plants.
> Which can only lead to the design, engineering and tooling sections as the
> source of the problems.
> 
> Others blame the huge demand for the poor quality - rushed production, etc.
> But, in fact, 1957 production was slightly less than 1955.  In the U.S.
> Chrysler Corporation built 1,217, 363 while the 1957 total came to
> 1,213,101.   Dodge, DeSoto and Imperial all increased production but
> Chrysler and Plymouth dropped.  And the Newark, DE plant came on line in May
> 1957, producing Plymouths.  So Chrysler had slightly more plant capacity for
> 1957 than 1955.
> 
> And in Canada production plunged.  For the 1955 model year Chrysler of
> Canada produced 77,000 cars with production hitting a record 105,567 for
> 1956 (thanks to a three month strike at GM of Canada).  1957 production,
> though, dropped to 78,208.  But their cars were just as poorly built as the
> ones in the U.S.
> 
> An aunt and uncle of mine owned a black 1957 Plymouth Plaza with the 251-cid
> flathead six and a three-speed manual transmission.  I can remember riding
> in the back seat of that car barrelling down the gravel road to their farm,
> dust swirling around the passenger compartment.  And you should have seen it
> when the windows were rolled down!  There was a perpetual layer of dust over
> everything in that car.  Plus the front bumper, front valance panel and the
> small penels between the bumper and front fenders constantly shook and
> rattled.  Surprisingly that front section never fell off in the five years
> they owned the car, although you'd swear it would the next time the car
> crossed the railway tracks.
> 
> The 1958 and 1959 models were better, but they still rusted out like the
> 1957 models.  This again points to a design or engineeering problem, not a
> lack of assembly quality.  Many 1957 to 1959 models had cardboard fittings
> in the trunk covering up the inner side of the rear fenders and wheelwells.
> Often wondered if that was to make the trunk look better or cover up the
> rust building up on the inner side of the body panels.
> 
> Bill
> Vancouver, BC
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: DONALDDICKINSOND@xxxxxx
> To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 7:34 AM
> Subject: IML: Quality of the 1957 Imperial
> 
> 
> During my college years at Florida (go Gators) we lived in Miami and my
> father owned a light blue Imperial four door hardtop.  My recollections of
> this car are of a very poor quality product, some items from memory:
> 
> 1)  Door handle mechanism fell apart, we had to take the doors apart and
> reassemble (I also remember we did some redesign as the pull handle
> mechanism was poorly designed).
> 
> 2)  The seats were very thin, not much padding, and wore out prematurely.
> 
> 3)  The side windows were curved and never lined up properly front to back
> (hand one on power window switch, hand two guiding the window).
> 
> 4)  The air conditioning condenser, I believe, was right in front of the
> radiator and over heating was a regular occurrence in South Florida's 90
> degree summers.
> 
> I also remember going back to the dealer, with my father for service and
> seeing a very irate customer complaining about the poor quality of his
> Imperial and him saying that he would never buy another one.
> 
> These memories have stuck with me over the years and I often wondered if the
> 1957 (and probably 58 & 59) quality was the downfall of Imperial as they
> never again came close to the 1957 sales volume.  I would be very interested
> in other members comments on this.  What has been the experience of current
> owners of 1957 - 59 Imperials?
> 
> 
>