Joe Machado here with a few assembly line stories from people who worked at the Evansville and St. Louis assembly plants. Imperials were not built there as this is where Dodge & Plymouths were built. The Imperial content would be the 65 LeBaron I had about 15 years ago. This being in referrence to mistakes on the assembly lines.
My wife's Uncle was some kinda big wig at the Indiana-St. Louis plants. Evansville's last cars were the 59's and the new St. Louis plant's first new model year was the sub frame 60.
They had a murder happen where a fight, small and sorta private between two employees, put the body into a body headin for the oven.
Another time, two employees were very unhappy, whether it was between each other or just mad at the company, reached for two different color paints, one to a side and commenced to paint the car down the middle, overspraying each others color and the car continued down the line as a two-tone, but the right and left being two colors as oppossed to top to bottom. Her Uncle remembers the incident, but what happened to the individuals is foggy. He is in his 90's.
Her Uncle has a son who wanted a new 69 Plymouth GTX. He wanted it black and loaded with everything he could get. The Uncle went to the local Plymouth dealer to order a stript 69 GTX. Hence the broadcast sheet, fender tag and window sticker would be zero options. The car was then scheduled a build date. The Uncle then hand picked the skin himself and walked the car thru the plant and made sure everything was as perfect as possible. He then had a list of what his son wanted on this GTX. It got the radio, tires, interior, axle, and all the options it could get, as sometimes there is a choice of, like three or four different radios, he got the AM Stereo with the 8-track tape player. Tinted glass and the list went on and on. Well, I did see this car and it was the most perfect one I ever saw. He sold it later as he wanted something else and the next owner drove it as an older car on the salt roads and whatever happened to it after is lost.
Now, for the Imperial, a 65 LeBaron. I have the fender tag and serial # plate from the door jam, but no broadcast as the car, when I got it for free, had been used in a destruction derby. I has seen the car when its previous owner, who unknowingly sent it to its grave, sold it to its end. I received it when it no longer ran, tried to save anything salvageable and then sent it to the yard in Coachella, Calif and its final resting place. With the fender tag having no options listed, but everything was on this car as I saw it about a year earlier and knew Mike Doyd at Chrysler and I called him to look up the serial for me and see if he could tell me anything about the car. First, I need to tell you that the fender tag had on it, Job number 251. This number was a sweet surprise to Mike as he said, Joe, that was a walk thru for so and so of Chrysler. Can I send a pic as he would be thrilled to see it still exists. Sorry Mike, it had this happen and it was a sad moment to tell MIke about.
Is there anyone out there with an Imperial of any year, excluding for the moment, Limos, tags that say Job # ??? These were special cars, above and beyond special order cars that had #'s on the tag with specific options. I could supply a pic if anyone would like to see it. How about the club putting it on file for all to see, might be better?
I have other stories of two different paints used on the same cars exterior, like enamel and lacquer on the body.
Joe Machado
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